Fic Headers - useful or not?

[ficwize]

I'm pretty sure this has a lot to do with my aiding and abetting the 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.

Comments

[loqia.livejournal.com]

With trademarks, there's that whole thing about nominative fair use that allows for trademarked names to be used by the general public when referring to the thing that, well, they're referring to. The issue is usually around whether a "moron in a hurry" would have difficulty distinguishing your use of a trademark from an authorised use. And, okay, a disclaimer might clarify it but I'd be tempted to say that in general there's enough extenuating circumstances that, really, no-one is going to mistake (say) my Authority fanfic for an official release by DC. It's the same as if I wrote a blog post about Coke or Iron Man or Verizon, or whatever.

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.