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Writing Questions / Re: What is the best way to sort fanfics? How do you sort & keep track of your fanfics to organise them?
« Last post by doranwen on January 03, 2024, 12:50:46 pm »I feel like I replied to this post on Reddit, but I'll give a short summary of what I'm sure I said:
I don't think there is a "best" way. Everyone's different in terms of how we think, what organization makes the most sense to us, etc. so the best way for one person will be different from the best way for another person.
The way that works the best for me is:
1) I download everything I read and don't dislike, lol. The fics are saved in hierarchical directory structures, by fandom, then author, then title. There's a few minor details such as how to handle crossovers, multi-authored, etc. but that's idiosyncratic - someone else would likely handle that differently and that's fine, as long as I'm consistent with myself it works.
2) As I have time, I add the fics to a custom-built database where I tag for fandoms, authors, major vs. minor characters, major vs. minor ships, themes (tropes and person/tense and much more), plus a few minor things like rating, ship category, add in wordcount, etc. If there's something particularly notable that I know I'm going to want to come back later with "what was that fic where X happened", I'll make a note of the event in a special notes box that I can search to locate it, making sure to put relevant keywords that I would search for. (All of this requires knowing oneself, what is going to appeal or be stuck in one's head later, and how one thinks in terms of finding said plot point/event later.)
Naturally, step 2 lags WAY behind step 1, but I don't think that means it's worth abandoning the efforts to do step 2. Having the database means I can very easily create a custom recs list based on a person's particular likes and dislikes (e.g. "all of the fics with these tropes but without any of those tropes").
Other people may feel that a database is way overkill, lol. But I tried even spreadsheets and those drove me nuts because they couldn't handle many-to-many relationships (like that between fics and characters). I needed an offline method that would WORK, and this does. Plus learning databases has come in useful in other projects later.
EDIT: AFTER I post this essay I realize you probably meant my *personal* fanfics, the ones I've written. Which is a lot simpler, lol - I have a "Stories" folder and subfolders per fandom. Beneath that I just create txt files per fic (yes, I write in txt files!) and name them typically by the general plot idea, unless I'm starting with a title out of the gate.
I don't think there is a "best" way. Everyone's different in terms of how we think, what organization makes the most sense to us, etc. so the best way for one person will be different from the best way for another person.
The way that works the best for me is:
1) I download everything I read and don't dislike, lol. The fics are saved in hierarchical directory structures, by fandom, then author, then title. There's a few minor details such as how to handle crossovers, multi-authored, etc. but that's idiosyncratic - someone else would likely handle that differently and that's fine, as long as I'm consistent with myself it works.
2) As I have time, I add the fics to a custom-built database where I tag for fandoms, authors, major vs. minor characters, major vs. minor ships, themes (tropes and person/tense and much more), plus a few minor things like rating, ship category, add in wordcount, etc. If there's something particularly notable that I know I'm going to want to come back later with "what was that fic where X happened", I'll make a note of the event in a special notes box that I can search to locate it, making sure to put relevant keywords that I would search for. (All of this requires knowing oneself, what is going to appeal or be stuck in one's head later, and how one thinks in terms of finding said plot point/event later.)
Naturally, step 2 lags WAY behind step 1, but I don't think that means it's worth abandoning the efforts to do step 2. Having the database means I can very easily create a custom recs list based on a person's particular likes and dislikes (e.g. "all of the fics with these tropes but without any of those tropes").
Other people may feel that a database is way overkill, lol. But I tried even spreadsheets and those drove me nuts because they couldn't handle many-to-many relationships (like that between fics and characters). I needed an offline method that would WORK, and this does. Plus learning databases has come in useful in other projects later.
EDIT: AFTER I post this essay I realize you probably meant my *personal* fanfics, the ones I've written. Which is a lot simpler, lol - I have a "Stories" folder and subfolders per fandom. Beneath that I just create txt files per fic (yes, I write in txt files!) and name them typically by the general plot idea, unless I'm starting with a title out of the gate.
