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Fic Headers - useful or not?
I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with my aiding and abetting the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crossover_news newsletter of late, but I also read a meta article about it, since my interest had been peeked. Of course, I can't find that post now, but it was specifically aimed at some author's habits of saying "unbetaed" in their headers and how that particular author found it a turn off.
This is meant to be more general.
My typical header looks like this:
Title:
Fandom:
Pairing:
Prompt:
Warnings:
Rating:
Summary:
Disclaimer:
A/N:
As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.
*************
I kind of want to look at each part and see what, if any use, it has to a reader. And what other header captions I maybe should include.
Title pretty much speaks for itself. Almost all fics put the title in the header. I also tend to put it in the subject line - FIC: Title. I have been a bit astonished, though, at the number of people who JUST put it in the subject line. It's not a big deal, although it makes collecting the fic for a newsletter much more time consuming (reformatting issues mostly).
Fandom for me, this is key. Now, I admit I read and write a lot of crossovers, but I want to know at a glance what fandom I'm reading. I'd hazard a (totally unscientific) guess that there are about 15% of people who don't use a fandom designation on their posts - including people who write crossovers. For me, this is a deal breaker. I walk away from fics without fandom headings personally, and if I can't figure out what crossover it is at a glance, I walk away from it when it comes to the newsletter, too. If it's an author that I recognize or it comes with a rec from a friend, I'll make exceptions.
Pairing is a heading I usually include, but it's not something that I really look for when I'm reading. When I'm compiling for the newsletter, it is FAR more handy to have this than not. I don't write a lot of ship fics, though, and I tend to be more fandom oriented than character oriented in a lot of what I read. Characters is heading that I see sometimes in the place of pairing and I almost think I tend to prefer that, with the recognition that X/Y indicates a pairing of certain characters. Over all, this is nice to know, but not critical for me.
Ironically, the characters heading is of more interest in certain fandoms. Death Note is a prime example. I like first half Death Note. I like fics about Light and L and not so much about characters that only appear in the last half of the manga/anime. I do read those fics, on occasion, but it's usually because it's an author I know I'll like or because the summary of a fic has caught my attention.
The other exception would be in the Supernatural fandom, because I don't like incest fics and I prefer to know well in advance if it's going to be a Dean/Sam fic, so that I don't even bother reading the summary, etc.
Prompt is a heading only when I write from a prompt, of course. But I like to include this because otherwise it feels a tiny bit like plagiarism. Credit where credit is due, and all that. Also, and especially in fic exchanges, I use the prompt heading because sometimes I end up doing something I wouldn't otherwise have done - either for personal preference reasons, or because I've never thought of it - and I figure that sort of gives me a bit of an out if it seems like it's really out of left field for my writing.
Warnings. I have never understood the division about people feeling that they shouldn't detail warnings. While I personally don't have a lot of squicks, the ones I do have are pretty big and I want to know in advance if I'm going to have to read them in a fic. Sometimes, I read the fic anyway, especially if it's an author I like or a scenario that sounds interesting.
I've heard people use the justification that as long as something is rated "Adult" (or the equivalent) then there should be no requirements for specific warnings, and I just flat out disagree. A vague warning is no ones friend, in my opinion.
Rating: is another one of those headings I use because it seems like everyone else does. I am awful at deciding ratings. How much cursing moves something from Teen to Adult? How much violence? How graphic does the sex have to be? I have no clue. Plus, there is the debate about what rating system to use. G, PG, PG13, R, NC17? Gen, Teen, Adult? And a new one that I still haven't totally figured out - FRM, FRAO, FRG? (Fan Rated Mature, Fan Rated Adult Only, Fan Rated General - which it took me ages to figure out).
Generally, I look at the warnings more than I look at the ratings, because I want to know what makes a fic adult or not, not whether one person's opinion that the "F" word makes something adult while the "S" or "B" word doesn't. That's all too confusing for me. But I include it, because it seems to be something that people look at. And it is very helpful as a newsletter editor to at least have a guideline, since I don't read every fic that I link.
Summary. There are entire meta articles on the importance of a summary paragraph. Personally, I am awful at this. I tend to use a 'teaser' instead of a summary. That, coupled with warnings, I hope gives a potential reader a sense of what they are getting into without giving away everything that I plan to do.
But a good summary will make me read something I would have otherwise walked away from. They won't usually drive me away from a fic, but they will suck me in.
These don't usually matter at all from a newsletter stand point, I don't believe. I look at an awful lot of newsletters and I don't see anyone citing summary information. Ironically, they help a great deal in a rec situation, though. There are some authors whose work I like so much that I will read nearly anything they rec, but it always helps if there is a good summary attached.
Disclaimer. Ahhh, the legal eagle in me approves of disclaimers. I use them, even as I shake my head at their utter uselessness. "I don't make money from fanfiction. I don't own the fandom. Don't sue me." I do rather enjoy the more creative disclaimers: "If I owned this, then I'd be off making X and Y have hot crazy sex and not writing this stuff for free for you lot."
But, I dutifully put them on there and hope that I never have to endure the panic of a C&D letter.
A/N. The Author's Notes section is important to me. It's where I thank my betas (if I've used one), where I credit things like titles, lyrics, quotes, or inspirations. It's where I ask my readers to look for/at certain things. It's the place where I say anything that I want my readers to know before they read that isn't otherwise covered in the headers. For example, if it's my first time writing in a specific fandom or if I'm not completely done with the source material and want to avoid spoilers in the comments. This section can be the shortest or longest section of my header, depending on what all I think readers should know.
I've seen some authors put their notes at the end of a story, and the idea intrigues me. I think that might disrupt the flow less than reading all of that before you read the fic itself. I'd be curious to know what other people thought.
Anyway, I've rambled enough now. But I spent a lot of time thinking about this as I worked my way through the latest edition of thecrossover_news newsletter. And, to totally prove how much I like disclaimers, let me just add that these are my opinions only and not at all affiliated with the newsletter or anyone else.
If anyone else has thoughts or opinions, I'd love to hear them.
crossover_news newsletter of late, but I also read a meta article about it, since my interest had been peeked. Of course, I can't find that post now, but it was specifically aimed at some author's habits of saying "unbetaed" in their headers and how that particular author found it a turn off.This is meant to be more general.
My typical header looks like this:
Title:
Fandom:
Pairing:
Prompt:
Warnings:
Rating:
Summary:
Disclaimer:
A/N:
As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.
*************
I kind of want to look at each part and see what, if any use, it has to a reader. And what other header captions I maybe should include.
Title pretty much speaks for itself. Almost all fics put the title in the header. I also tend to put it in the subject line - FIC: Title. I have been a bit astonished, though, at the number of people who JUST put it in the subject line. It's not a big deal, although it makes collecting the fic for a newsletter much more time consuming (reformatting issues mostly).
Fandom for me, this is key. Now, I admit I read and write a lot of crossovers, but I want to know at a glance what fandom I'm reading. I'd hazard a (totally unscientific) guess that there are about 15% of people who don't use a fandom designation on their posts - including people who write crossovers. For me, this is a deal breaker. I walk away from fics without fandom headings personally, and if I can't figure out what crossover it is at a glance, I walk away from it when it comes to the newsletter, too. If it's an author that I recognize or it comes with a rec from a friend, I'll make exceptions.
Pairing is a heading I usually include, but it's not something that I really look for when I'm reading. When I'm compiling for the newsletter, it is FAR more handy to have this than not. I don't write a lot of ship fics, though, and I tend to be more fandom oriented than character oriented in a lot of what I read. Characters is heading that I see sometimes in the place of pairing and I almost think I tend to prefer that, with the recognition that X/Y indicates a pairing of certain characters. Over all, this is nice to know, but not critical for me.
Ironically, the characters heading is of more interest in certain fandoms. Death Note is a prime example. I like first half Death Note. I like fics about Light and L and not so much about characters that only appear in the last half of the manga/anime. I do read those fics, on occasion, but it's usually because it's an author I know I'll like or because the summary of a fic has caught my attention.
The other exception would be in the Supernatural fandom, because I don't like incest fics and I prefer to know well in advance if it's going to be a Dean/Sam fic, so that I don't even bother reading the summary, etc.
Prompt is a heading only when I write from a prompt, of course. But I like to include this because otherwise it feels a tiny bit like plagiarism. Credit where credit is due, and all that. Also, and especially in fic exchanges, I use the prompt heading because sometimes I end up doing something I wouldn't otherwise have done - either for personal preference reasons, or because I've never thought of it - and I figure that sort of gives me a bit of an out if it seems like it's really out of left field for my writing.
Warnings. I have never understood the division about people feeling that they shouldn't detail warnings. While I personally don't have a lot of squicks, the ones I do have are pretty big and I want to know in advance if I'm going to have to read them in a fic. Sometimes, I read the fic anyway, especially if it's an author I like or a scenario that sounds interesting.
I've heard people use the justification that as long as something is rated "Adult" (or the equivalent) then there should be no requirements for specific warnings, and I just flat out disagree. A vague warning is no ones friend, in my opinion.
Rating: is another one of those headings I use because it seems like everyone else does. I am awful at deciding ratings. How much cursing moves something from Teen to Adult? How much violence? How graphic does the sex have to be? I have no clue. Plus, there is the debate about what rating system to use. G, PG, PG13, R, NC17? Gen, Teen, Adult? And a new one that I still haven't totally figured out - FRM, FRAO, FRG? (Fan Rated Mature, Fan Rated Adult Only, Fan Rated General - which it took me ages to figure out).
Generally, I look at the warnings more than I look at the ratings, because I want to know what makes a fic adult or not, not whether one person's opinion that the "F" word makes something adult while the "S" or "B" word doesn't. That's all too confusing for me. But I include it, because it seems to be something that people look at. And it is very helpful as a newsletter editor to at least have a guideline, since I don't read every fic that I link.
Summary. There are entire meta articles on the importance of a summary paragraph. Personally, I am awful at this. I tend to use a 'teaser' instead of a summary. That, coupled with warnings, I hope gives a potential reader a sense of what they are getting into without giving away everything that I plan to do.
But a good summary will make me read something I would have otherwise walked away from. They won't usually drive me away from a fic, but they will suck me in.
These don't usually matter at all from a newsletter stand point, I don't believe. I look at an awful lot of newsletters and I don't see anyone citing summary information. Ironically, they help a great deal in a rec situation, though. There are some authors whose work I like so much that I will read nearly anything they rec, but it always helps if there is a good summary attached.
Disclaimer. Ahhh, the legal eagle in me approves of disclaimers. I use them, even as I shake my head at their utter uselessness. "I don't make money from fanfiction. I don't own the fandom. Don't sue me." I do rather enjoy the more creative disclaimers: "If I owned this, then I'd be off making X and Y have hot crazy sex and not writing this stuff for free for you lot."
But, I dutifully put them on there and hope that I never have to endure the panic of a C&D letter.
A/N. The Author's Notes section is important to me. It's where I thank my betas (if I've used one), where I credit things like titles, lyrics, quotes, or inspirations. It's where I ask my readers to look for/at certain things. It's the place where I say anything that I want my readers to know before they read that isn't otherwise covered in the headers. For example, if it's my first time writing in a specific fandom or if I'm not completely done with the source material and want to avoid spoilers in the comments. This section can be the shortest or longest section of my header, depending on what all I think readers should know.
I've seen some authors put their notes at the end of a story, and the idea intrigues me. I think that might disrupt the flow less than reading all of that before you read the fic itself. I'd be curious to know what other people thought.
Anyway, I've rambled enough now. But I spent a lot of time thinking about this as I worked my way through the latest edition of the
crossover_news newsletter. And, to totally prove how much I like disclaimers, let me just add that these are my opinions only and not at all affiliated with the newsletter or anyone else. If anyone else has thoughts or opinions, I'd love to hear them.
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I thought I had at least included a fandom header for the Sam Carter/Olivia Benson stories, but I guess not.
When I write in a brand-new fandom, like Corner Gas, though. Then I definitely include a fandom header (mainly because otherwise people would have no way of finding out who the hell the characters were... Corner Gas, not exactly well-known ;-D)
ETA: Sidenote, I get to see Burn Notice next week! :D :D :D The commercials they've been showing for season 2 - particularly the one that uses "Everybody Wants You" - have got me itching for the show! :D
no subject
There are friends on my flist whose fics tend to be primarily one fandom or the other, and then there are people like me who have fandom ADD. @-@. I can't even remember what half my own stuff is without the fandom!
As for Burn Notice, I can't wait to hear what you think! I love that show SO HARD and I am beyond giddy for Season 2 to start. *grabby hands* *lol*
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I don't really! Which may be why I don't bother to clarify "Stargate SG-1" in my headers ;-D And yeah, I'm pretty positive that's where we met, too, over at Fic-a-day :D
As for Burn Notice, I can't wait to hear what you think! I love that show SO HARD and I am beyond giddy for Season 2 to start. *grabby hands* *lol*
*very excited* I have been watching bits and pieces of Season 1 late at night. Not enough to be spoiled, but enough to whet my appetite. Mmmm, Fi. (I always pronounced her name "F-eye" when I saw it online. But Fee is prettier ;-D)
Also, since I'm thinking about it, you write a LOT of original fiction - more than anyone else on my flist at least. I still tend to put headers on my original stuff, but that my be more out of habit than out of any real desire to 'label' it correctly.
*nods* I have considered putting headers on my original stuff, but it feels weird to do it. It gives my original and my fic a visual difference when people just glance over the list. "Oh, a fic" and "Oh, an original." :D
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I personally like to know what fandoms and characters might be included - But if the summary is interesting then I might read fandoms that are not my usual thing. I love doing the crossover newsletter because - I' like wow interesting cross let me look.
I definitely want to know if it's incest or other squicky material.
I use author notes quite a bit both at the beginning and end. For example - i didn't put the note on the fact that i was writing a sequel at the beginning of my mag7 story because that would give away the ending. But I do note if things are sequels up front.
I'm of the school the more info the better. But I notice that lots of people are not.
MY pet peeve - no tags. There are a few communities I post to that don't use them - how can i find stuff if i can't sort out all the SPN fic and see what available.
My other pet peeve - Mutlichapter fics with no links to past and future chapters - doesn't the author want me to read more - why make it so hard.
ooops sorry i think i started to rant.
no subject
I'm one of those people that doesn't really 'get' fic headers, which is probably me showing my original fic roots. When I posts WiPs in my own journal I also never include headers; instead I usually have a kind of extended author's note at the top detailing what's going on. I very occasionally put pairing information in the title, but more commonly I rely on people reading the post tags.
More formally at my fic site (http://badfic.void-star.net/fanfic) I do word count, chapters, date started/finished, pairing and some vague warnings. Oh, and fics are ordered by fandom, so hopefully that's evident enough. I don't do ratings -- I'm not my readers' moral guardian, not to mention the more common US-style ratings don't make sense to me anyway (being Australian and all) -- and I tend to squash author's notes and summaries together.
The one thing I don't "get" are disclaimers. I can't see that they have a legal point, really (no-one's gonna hold off on the DMCA notice because you've put on in), and it's fairly self-evident to anyone in the community that, yeah, you're not the author. /shrugs
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I don't know how useful they really are in cases of copyright infringement lawsuits, but a disclaimer might help get you off the hook for charges of trademark dilution. But that's a guess on my part, and probably not a very useful one, since I'm very far from being a lawyer.
I tend to think of them as giving credit where credit was due, rather than a legal protection; it's why I put a disclaimer on the fic I write for public domain sources like The Three Musketeers as well as the copyright-protected ones.
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Of course, this is one of those things there's no specific case law on (that I'm aware of!), so no-one can really say one way or the other. /shrugs
I can see about the credit thing, though; that makes sense, in that it's more a social obligation than a legal one.
no subject
I never bother with either "fandom" or "disclaimer", the first because I've only ever written for one fandom, and everybody on my flist knows that. If I branched out, I certainly would, though probably in the subject line, rather than the header itself. Disclaimer, I can't be arsed. Torchwood itself seems to be pretty (a) aware of fic and (b) unlikely to go after anyone for it, and I can't see that a disclaimer would help if it did.
As for A/N and the beginning vs. the end, I use both. If it's something I want readers to know off the bat - betas, for example - it goes at the top. If it's a question about their thoughts that might give stuff away, I put it at the bottom, and same with general chat about writing the chapter, since I don't want to hand out preconceptions before they dive in.
I use everything else, though if, for example, I'm posting to a specific pairing's comm, I won't put in the main pairing. I don't write things that require warnings, so I don't tend to need that, but I like it on other people's fics, not because I'm easily squicked but because I want to know if a fic has a kink of mine in it, because I'm more likely to click on it.
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WORD COUNT.
I want word counts in the headers. Or rough approximations of word counts, like "ficlet" or "novelette" or "Part 1 of 5-post story." I really, really want to know: by clicking this cut-tag, am I expecting to commit to ten minutes or three hours of reading time?
I don't much need "fandom" prompts, but I tend to read in fandom-specific communities. For stuff outside of that, I prefer they're labeled by fandom.
I don't like warnings. I'm happy for those who want them to have them; I'm ecstatic that many people have figured out the white-on-white textblock so that I don't have to read
spoilerskey plot points before I open the story. I have damn near no squicks; the only reason I consider reading warnings is to look for "hardcore" fic (stuff that squicks lots of people), but then decided that there's just as much badly written fic that hits my kink buttons as badly-written tame vanilla fluff, so I couldn't use "contains noncon chan" as a signifier of "probably has the kind of writing I like."I rant about ratings. I hate using movie ratings for text. I also hate rating the age of the reader, rather than the story content. I've taken to rating things "explicit" or "worksafe concepts" or "complex themes" or "crackfic." (Okay, mostly I rate things explicit or crackfic or both, 'cos mostly that's what I write. But you get the idea.)