Looking for AO3 advice here…

[the_rck]

I have decided that I’m just going to end this Amber AU with the vague possibility of impending change and let everything I’ve written after that point be sequel material.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to tag this and what to mention in notes. Mandor’s in one chapter, 1300 words out of 33000. I didn’t tag for him. Should I? How do I tag for the fact that my first person narrator monologues (introspection) a lot? Right now, I just mention it in an author’s note. Do I need to warn people that Merlin has kids if they never appear in the text but are a plot point?

Right now, my tags are: Revenge, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Shapeshifting, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Ambiguous/Open Ending, POV First Person, and Captivity. I’m warning for rape/non-con. I wanted to tag for dark!Merlin, but that autofilled, and I’m 100% sure that the other stories with that tag are referring to a different character and canon. I’m not sure I want this fic lumped in with those, but I feel like that might be information a potential reader might want. Author’s note or use the tag anyway?

There’s an offscreen death of a canonical character who doesn’t actually appear in the story. Does that need a warning? I’m not sure it should go to archive warning level, but maybe another author’s note? If I use the archive warning, I think people might assume that one of the characters who appears in the story will die.

But my author’s note is really very long already. Will anybody actually read it?

I’ve got everything in a draft on AO3. Twelve chapters. I need to check the FAQ for Iddy Iddy Bang Bang to see if there’s a prohibition on posting early or when exactly I’m supposed to post.

Comments

[edenfalling]

I am 110% sure the dark!Merlin tag refers to Merlin from the eponymous BBC series that ended in 2012, and if you use the tag you may get some deeply confused readers trying to figure out how your story is somehow a crossover AU of that show. I'd go with a note instead.

Also, you could split your notes between the beginning and the end of the story and mention in your pre-story note that people should check the post-story note for more details.

[the_rck]

I looked at the tag. There are three or four stories that use it that aren't BBC Merlin-- One is Once Upon a Time, and the others are Kingsman stories. I think there are eighty or ninety stories that use the tag (well, less actually because some appeared on the list multiple times because of using several different forms of the tag).

But, yeah, when it came up as canonical, I was quite certain it was BBC Merlin.

Right now, I'm trying to do a blurb that makes it clear this this version of Merlin is, well, not so very nice.

I will think about what might go better at the end and what at the beginning, in terms of author's notes.

[sylvaine]

There's an AO3 tag for "offscreen character death", I believe.

A lot of people tag every single character in their story, but I prefer fics only tagging their main characters. It's always disappointing when I'm looking for fic for a rare character and find a bunch of fandom-OTP fics with said character having maybe one line.

You could tag it as introspective - I'm sure that's a canonical tag.

I might put dark!Merlin anyway - it's not used exclusively by one fandom, and it gives people an idea of what to expect.

If you're posting it for a challenge I'd also tag it for that (or just add it to their collection if they have one).

If you're planning on writing a sequel, I'd add this fic as the first part of that series. It tells people that there may be more coming, and gives them the chance to subscribe to the series if they want to see the sequel.

There will always be people who don't read author's notes. There will also always be people (me among them) who will read every author's note no matter how long.

[the_rck]

Someone on LJ pointed me at 'implied/referenced character death' which seems to cover that.

I've got Dark Merlin as a tag right now, but I haven't posted the draft yet (I'm not supposed to until at least the 15th), so I may change my mind again.

The challenge has a collection. I might still tag for it. I'm not sure. I do for Yuletide and Remix, but those are generally stories that don't have many tags to begin with.

I'll think about whether or not to use Introspective. I'm not sure if it will give the wrong impression or not.

I'm considering putting in a note to mention that one of the tagged characters really and truly is major in the story. It's just that he won't appear until halfway through.

[hamsterwoman]

I'm definitely not an expert on AO3 tags, but coming from the POV from someone who might browse Amber fic:

- dark!Merlin -- I agree that the canonical tag probably refers to different canon and that it doesn't make sense to have your fic use it. Could you tweak it slightly to break that link -- something like "dark Merlin" or similar -- or does that autofill to the same thing?

- offscreen death of canonical character -- canonical death? There seems to be an "Implied/Referenced Character Death" tag -- maybe you could use that for the offscreen death? (And agree that it would not rate Archive-level warning). And if canonical death, there's a tag for that as well.

- I think you're probably right in not tagging for Mandor

- I wouldn't tag for Merlin's kids since they don't appear in the text, but I'm also neither bothered nor enticed by kid!fic, so not sure my opinion means much on that one

[the_rck]

I looked, just now, to see what Dark Merlin connects to. All the variants connect to each other. There are 87 fics with the tag. One is a Once Upon a Time story, two or three are Kingman stories. The rest are all BBC Merlin stories. So I don't know. I want it for informational purposes rather than necessarily as something usefully searchable.

It's not a canonical death, so the Implied/Referenced Character Death probably applies best.

And it just occurred to me-- I left the blurb blank when I did the draft. I probably ought to come up with a blurb before I post.

[hamsterwoman]

AO3 tagging system is too smart, I guess :P Since there are already other fandoms in the tag than just BBC Merlin, I'd say not a problem with using it for Amber's Merlin as well. (I was thinking BBC Merlin people may search by it, but one more fic they have to filter out isn't a problem, since there doesn't seem to be a way to use a reasonable sounding tag and not end up doing that)