labels

[pensnest]

I love metafandom, but sometimes my meanderings along its byways leave me bewildered. All this fuss about labelling a story... So many people demanding 'warnings' for such things as background pairings and mpreg. Such delicate souls. Why, I have achieved squick by means of teddybear abuse and unexpected Kevin, not to mention lava lamps, but my friends do not, I think, desert me. However, it does seem to be a topic that arouses unexpected passions in the mildest fannish breast, so I wonder.

My personal habit is to post fics in my own LJ pretty much randomly. If I've written a story, you'll usually get a sentence indicating that it was written for such-and-such a reason. If you are wise in the ways of LiveJournal, you may notice that an occasional story is tagged 'wtf', and you will approach with caution (or glee). I don't in general announce the pairing (anyway, sometimes the pairing is a surprise, and the surprise is part of the story) or the rating. I write with the expectation that if you've friended me, you will have figured out that I perpetrate popslash, including Lampfic, and will treat any LJ-cut entries with appropriate caution.

I don't think the lack of a label on popslash has ever deterred me from at leat *opening* the story. Would you, personally, be *more* inclined to read if I went the whole labelling route, and headed up stories with appropriate categorisation? Do you do that yourself? Do you care, either way?

Incidentally, I run a double index on my website, with pairings and degree-of-sex announcements on the Alternative Index, for those who are looking for something specific and don't care to be startled by, say, Kevin. I'm contemplating revising this to present the stories by pairing, given the startling *quantity* of the things. How do you like stories to be presented, if you're reading on a website? Any advice would be welcome.

Comments

[firefly-124.livejournal.com]

What I've done for my current WIP in my LJ is post minimal headers with a link to more extensive spoilery headers for those who really want them. Why? Because among other things it's a crossover, but it takes several chapters before I reveal *what* it's crossed with, and I think it's much more fun not to know ... but some people just don't want that much ambiguity going in, so they can go read the more spoilery headers if they really must.

As a reader, I like to know the rock bottom basics. You know, the stuff I could find when looking for a video: main characters/actors, basic genre, and rating. That way I can choose what I'm in the mood for. But if they're not there, well, then if I decide I don't like it, I'll stop reading, that's all. And unlike the video rental, I haven't actually paid money for it. Like the Angel/Xander mpreg I stumbled across last week. ::shudders:: I just surfed on to something else once I realized what I'd gotten myself into.

I actually hate when authors tell me too much up front. Don't warn me for character death, especially! You don't get that in the bookstore or the video store, because generally it spoils the whole thing. If I know *someone* is going to die, I'll spend half the time trying to figure out who instead of just enjoying the ride, and I hate that.

On the other hand, since we use NC-17 for absolutely everything that involves any kind of explicit sex, even the most vanilla, and there are no ratings (other than X or XXX which nobody seems to use) for super-kinky or likely-squicky stuff, I do appreciate basic warnings for that. For more specific warnings, though, I'd kind of prefer it if authors made a general "could be squicky" warning which I could, if I chose, click to find out more if I really needed to, or could just choose not to be spoiled and take my chances.

[pensnest]

Unusual not to require a warning for deathfic, but I do take your point - if it's a logical outcome to the story, I don't have a problem with it myself. It's not as though the characters cannot be alive again for the next story. And the kind of story which *is* the tragic lingering death of the main character is usually pretty obvious from early on. It's kinda nice not to know which pairing is coming up, too, occasionally...

I hate having to put ratings for sex... don't do it on my website, where I just have a general 'there may be SEX here' type warning; n or here, but I have to try to figure out ratings for fanfic100, which is difficult.

I'm someone who stays firmly within popslash when I'm producing stories, so I'm fairly confident my readers will be happy with, well, whatever turns up, and not worry about labels for kink. Not that I produce kink, except (perhaps) the lava lamp stuff. Ahem. In fact, I suspect that the need for labels is far greater for people who are more mobile across fandoms - I know what gives in my little corner of fandom, but if I were surfing farther, maybe I'd want more information before starting on a story.