This is an excellent post by rood on How To Archive Your Fics On LJ/IJ/DW/JF.
Her four main points were (1) Use consistent and transparent tags, (2) Link between posts, (3) Put links to all of your fics in one place, (4) Update the link list regularly.
I've been thinking about the post and I think that most people do some of these things well but few manage to do all of them. The best system to use often depends on the type of fic you are writing.
1.Tagging
I adore livejournals which are clearly tagged, I get hugely excited when I find a journal with lots of tags because it makes it incredibly easy to navigate. If you are mostly writing one-shots, tags are often the best option. I like to see tags for fic and fandom at the very least and ideally including pairing or character. Other useful tags, particularly when there are a large number of fics, can include het/slash/gen, ratings, length. One thing that I have never seen before for tv shows fic, is a tag for season as suggested by
mskatej. This would be awesome for spoiler avoiding people. ( More on taggingCollapse )
2. Links between posts
Ideally a multi-chaptered story should have links to all parts or to a masterpost at the top of each page. ( More on linksCollapse )
3. Memories and lists of links to fic
Memories are also good, particularly when they act as summaries. Personally I've never really got my head around them, as some people seem to use them for other people's entries and others for their own. I'm guessing that tags are a relatively new thing? ( More on lists of links to ficCollapse )
I realise that most of this requires a lot of work and often retroactive tagging or coding links. But it would make me read more of your stories. Despite all this I am a very patient reader and I will make a lot of effort to read stories but I would enjoy reading them more if they were better organised.
Her four main points were (1) Use consistent and transparent tags, (2) Link between posts, (3) Put links to all of your fics in one place, (4) Update the link list regularly.
I've been thinking about the post and I think that most people do some of these things well but few manage to do all of them. The best system to use often depends on the type of fic you are writing.
1.Tagging
I adore livejournals which are clearly tagged, I get hugely excited when I find a journal with lots of tags because it makes it incredibly easy to navigate. If you are mostly writing one-shots, tags are often the best option. I like to see tags for fic and fandom at the very least and ideally including pairing or character. Other useful tags, particularly when there are a large number of fics, can include het/slash/gen, ratings, length. One thing that I have never seen before for tv shows fic, is a tag for season as suggested by
mskatej. This would be awesome for spoiler avoiding people. ( More on taggingCollapse ) 2. Links between posts
Ideally a multi-chaptered story should have links to all parts or to a masterpost at the top of each page. ( More on linksCollapse )
3. Memories and lists of links to fic
Memories are also good, particularly when they act as summaries. Personally I've never really got my head around them, as some people seem to use them for other people's entries and others for their own. I'm guessing that tags are a relatively new thing? ( More on lists of links to ficCollapse )
I realise that most of this requires a lot of work and often retroactive tagging or coding links. But it would make me read more of your stories. Despite all this I am a very patient reader and I will make a lot of effort to read stories but I would enjoy reading them more if they were better organised.
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