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beccaelizabethI have been thinking about 'rules' for presenting fic online, conventions for labelling, headers and that.
When I started reading and posting fic, it was to mailing lists. Fics were posted in parts. On the lists I was on I think it was specified that no part be more than 25k (something small and manageable on ye ancient dialup). And every single story had to have a part 0.
Part 0 was where you put the template. This had to include Author, Title, Rating, Pairing, Summary, Disclaimer, and Warnings. After that every part had to have Title, Rating, Pairing and Part number in the subject line, but could do without the wordy bits.
Parts were numbered in whole numbers only, no letters or .5 or whatever, because the purpose of part numbering was to find out if you had in fact received all the parts, which was by no means inevitable on ye ancient email systems.
Since I started out on one list where this was the clear Rule, and moved to another where it was also the clear Rule, I had some vague feeling this was the Universal Rule, and How Things Work.
The second list I was on actually functioned as three lists in one, because you could filter it so they didn't send you anything with ADULT or SLASH in the subject line, and those warnings were obligatory. So you could get either gen, or het, or slash, or some combination of all three.
Warnings were, are, and always will be fuzzier. Some things will hit people in the fannish hurt place - character death being prime on that list. Those I consider optional. Others will hit people in the real life hurt places - like rape, incest, child abuse. Those feel rather less optional. I'll happily hurt fictional characters, but I don't want to hurt my readers.
Of course people will react in idiosyncratic fashion to anything. Personally I'd like a 'presence of alcohol' warning on fic, because if characters ever start drinking I get pushed into a nasty little thought loop and quite depart from an author's intentions. But I realise I live in a culture that thinks alcohol is A OK, so I'm not going to get that one.
On mailing lists that I was on, typically a story was posted in numbered parts for length, *not* for being a WIP. That meant that, ideally, part 0 arrived in the mailbox with all the other parts. You could decide if the subject line contained enough information to make a story looked readable, or if you wanted to check out the summary and warnings. That was why it was in a seperate part 0. Because warnings act as spoilers, and some people would rather risk it than be spoiled.
So, we come to LJ. Whole different posting culture. Not everyone uses templates, or provides the information usually contained there. A lot of people will post something with just a subject line (typically 'Story chapter 30000), no ratings, no summary, no links to memories or other way of getting previous parts, no single hint of a clue of what the story actually is if 'Story' or 'MY Story' isn't enough of a reminder. Just 'MY Story' and a LJ-cut. And the LJ-cut isn't even universal, just generally recommended, for length.
I think part of it is that here things are usually posted in our own personal journals, which our 'friends' read. There is some assumption that since our 'friends' hang around reading about our cats, laundry, RPG group, musical tastes and general moods they probably know what we are on about fic wise.
I might lose a bunch of 'friends' for saying this, but, mostly? I don't remember all that other stuff. I mean I'll probably read it, unless I'm on skip a billion and trying to catch up, but I don't much remember it. Y'all are, on the whole, on my reading list for fannish product, not personal life.
Which sounds like it should mean that I'd remember what kind of fic you write, or what you WIPs are at the moment. And again, well, maybe. Probably. Some of the time.
Life has a lot of data in it. I keep most of that data on my computer in one form or another. I do not keep it in my head.
So 'MY Story' is never going to be enough for me to remember all the details, or even, in some cases, if I've read the previous parts or not. I mean there are whole authors I get mixed up when I've paid actual money for actual paper books. LJ authors, with just a little name up the side for identity... are on my 'friends' list so it feels rude to say it, but I'm forever getting mixed up of who wrote what even of my very favourite fics.
I'd like for my friends list to be my friends. But half of them don't even friend me back, let alone talk to me, so really, not so much. Just stuff I read. And I don't have it all memorised.
Which is where headers come in handy.
I might not remember 'MY Story' but I am more likely to remember once I have title, author, pairing, rating, summary (little one line summary even). Parts are posted days/weeks/months/years apart. Just because they are right next to each other on a journal doesn't mean they are right next to each other when presented to potential readers on a friends page.
And part 0, the seperate warnings, becomes really rather useless for that reason.
But, still, not everyone wants to read the warnings and be spoiled.
This is where lj-cut comes in very handy. Warnings can be cut seperately from the body of the story.
On my Ripper stories, it is quite possible I went overboard. I wanted them to be visually distinctive from my usual meanderings. Clear, with a summary and links, easy to access. And also memorable.
I could play with the style and presentation as much as I wanted, because LJ has no one Rule.
It also has no one fannish FAQ. No handy text file will drop in the inbox of new subscribers telling them the way things are done around here, because there is no one way. And even on mailing lists that send out rules, I don't think I've seen one that explains the why of those rules.
Disclaimers look pretty silly without the knowledge of the fannish history where people really do get letters from lawyers, just for instance.
And I've seen people use part numbering in the style 'Chapter 1 part a', which might work on a paper book where you can easily see if pages fall out, but doesn't work on a computer. If part A and C turn up that implies the loss of part B, but remains mute as to the presence or absence out there of parts D through Z. Without knowing the why being part numbering, knowing it isn't actually about chapters in books or acts in plays, the 1/10 system isn't obvious in its usefulness.
(Incidentally, am I right in thinking book chapters happened because they were originally published in parts? Again, whole numbers, know if you missed one.)
This, here, is probably not a useful FAQ. Or Rule book. There might even be better ones around. But today I am thinking about rules, and their whys and wherefores, so I write all this down in a row and try to see where the gaps are.
ETA: 'Fandom' needs to be a header tag too. On mailing lists usually we are all there for the one fandom, so it turns up marked HLFIC already. On LJ, not so much likely. Often it can be worked out from pairings or characters listed, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of Jacks and Daniels and Andrews in the world, so the first one I think of might not be the one that story is about. Fandom would narrow it down.
Hmmm. Didn't have a 'Fandom:' bit in my Ripper header, but did say 'Like Buffy and Angel' and mention Joss in the Disclaimer (Disclaimers are also theoretically good for working out fandom, if I can remember the names of all the writers and production companies).
When I started reading and posting fic, it was to mailing lists. Fics were posted in parts. On the lists I was on I think it was specified that no part be more than 25k (something small and manageable on ye ancient dialup). And every single story had to have a part 0.
Part 0 was where you put the template. This had to include Author, Title, Rating, Pairing, Summary, Disclaimer, and Warnings. After that every part had to have Title, Rating, Pairing and Part number in the subject line, but could do without the wordy bits.
Parts were numbered in whole numbers only, no letters or .5 or whatever, because the purpose of part numbering was to find out if you had in fact received all the parts, which was by no means inevitable on ye ancient email systems.
Since I started out on one list where this was the clear Rule, and moved to another where it was also the clear Rule, I had some vague feeling this was the Universal Rule, and How Things Work.
The second list I was on actually functioned as three lists in one, because you could filter it so they didn't send you anything with ADULT or SLASH in the subject line, and those warnings were obligatory. So you could get either gen, or het, or slash, or some combination of all three.
Warnings were, are, and always will be fuzzier. Some things will hit people in the fannish hurt place - character death being prime on that list. Those I consider optional. Others will hit people in the real life hurt places - like rape, incest, child abuse. Those feel rather less optional. I'll happily hurt fictional characters, but I don't want to hurt my readers.
Of course people will react in idiosyncratic fashion to anything. Personally I'd like a 'presence of alcohol' warning on fic, because if characters ever start drinking I get pushed into a nasty little thought loop and quite depart from an author's intentions. But I realise I live in a culture that thinks alcohol is A OK, so I'm not going to get that one.
On mailing lists that I was on, typically a story was posted in numbered parts for length, *not* for being a WIP. That meant that, ideally, part 0 arrived in the mailbox with all the other parts. You could decide if the subject line contained enough information to make a story looked readable, or if you wanted to check out the summary and warnings. That was why it was in a seperate part 0. Because warnings act as spoilers, and some people would rather risk it than be spoiled.
So, we come to LJ. Whole different posting culture. Not everyone uses templates, or provides the information usually contained there. A lot of people will post something with just a subject line (typically 'Story chapter 30000), no ratings, no summary, no links to memories or other way of getting previous parts, no single hint of a clue of what the story actually is if 'Story' or 'MY Story' isn't enough of a reminder. Just 'MY Story' and a LJ-cut. And the LJ-cut isn't even universal, just generally recommended, for length.
I think part of it is that here things are usually posted in our own personal journals, which our 'friends' read. There is some assumption that since our 'friends' hang around reading about our cats, laundry, RPG group, musical tastes and general moods they probably know what we are on about fic wise.
I might lose a bunch of 'friends' for saying this, but, mostly? I don't remember all that other stuff. I mean I'll probably read it, unless I'm on skip a billion and trying to catch up, but I don't much remember it. Y'all are, on the whole, on my reading list for fannish product, not personal life.
Which sounds like it should mean that I'd remember what kind of fic you write, or what you WIPs are at the moment. And again, well, maybe. Probably. Some of the time.
Life has a lot of data in it. I keep most of that data on my computer in one form or another. I do not keep it in my head.
So 'MY Story' is never going to be enough for me to remember all the details, or even, in some cases, if I've read the previous parts or not. I mean there are whole authors I get mixed up when I've paid actual money for actual paper books. LJ authors, with just a little name up the side for identity... are on my 'friends' list so it feels rude to say it, but I'm forever getting mixed up of who wrote what even of my very favourite fics.
I'd like for my friends list to be my friends. But half of them don't even friend me back, let alone talk to me, so really, not so much. Just stuff I read. And I don't have it all memorised.
Which is where headers come in handy.
I might not remember 'MY Story' but I am more likely to remember once I have title, author, pairing, rating, summary (little one line summary even). Parts are posted days/weeks/months/years apart. Just because they are right next to each other on a journal doesn't mean they are right next to each other when presented to potential readers on a friends page.
And part 0, the seperate warnings, becomes really rather useless for that reason.
But, still, not everyone wants to read the warnings and be spoiled.
This is where lj-cut comes in very handy. Warnings can be cut seperately from the body of the story.
On my Ripper stories, it is quite possible I went overboard. I wanted them to be visually distinctive from my usual meanderings. Clear, with a summary and links, easy to access. And also memorable.
I could play with the style and presentation as much as I wanted, because LJ has no one Rule.
It also has no one fannish FAQ. No handy text file will drop in the inbox of new subscribers telling them the way things are done around here, because there is no one way. And even on mailing lists that send out rules, I don't think I've seen one that explains the why of those rules.
Disclaimers look pretty silly without the knowledge of the fannish history where people really do get letters from lawyers, just for instance.
And I've seen people use part numbering in the style 'Chapter 1 part a', which might work on a paper book where you can easily see if pages fall out, but doesn't work on a computer. If part A and C turn up that implies the loss of part B, but remains mute as to the presence or absence out there of parts D through Z. Without knowing the why being part numbering, knowing it isn't actually about chapters in books or acts in plays, the 1/10 system isn't obvious in its usefulness.
(Incidentally, am I right in thinking book chapters happened because they were originally published in parts? Again, whole numbers, know if you missed one.)
This, here, is probably not a useful FAQ. Or Rule book. There might even be better ones around. But today I am thinking about rules, and their whys and wherefores, so I write all this down in a row and try to see where the gaps are.
ETA: 'Fandom' needs to be a header tag too. On mailing lists usually we are all there for the one fandom, so it turns up marked HLFIC already. On LJ, not so much likely. Often it can be worked out from pairings or characters listed, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of Jacks and Daniels and Andrews in the world, so the first one I think of might not be the one that story is about. Fandom would narrow it down.
Hmmm. Didn't have a 'Fandom:' bit in my Ripper header, but did say 'Like Buffy and Angel' and mention Joss in the Disclaimer (Disclaimers are also theoretically good for working out fandom, if I can remember the names of all the writers and production companies).
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 07:49 pm (UTC)I'd never considered that distinction before.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 08:47 pm (UTC)Chapters should definitely be whole numbers in most cases (I'm webifying
someall ofGina
no subject
Date: 2005-08-15 10:21 pm (UTC)Then again, I write tiny drabbles more often than normal fics, I rarely post unfinished bits, and I am very
obsessedfocused recently.