If you have ever read fanfiction then you know how important tags are for knowing what to expect when you click a link to start reading. I am going to assume that if you are looking for information on creating tags then you are familiar with the bare basics of taggings. On the off chance you are complete tag virgin, I'll give a brief summary of basic tagging.
You want to give the fandom and category along with any ratings or warnings before going into the universe and character tags. The fandom is the cannon name of the show/book/movie/etc. that you are writing about (Doctor Who, Sherlock, Supernatural, Chronicles of Narnia, etc). If there are multiple sources of your cannon then use the one that best reflects what you've written. So, if you are writing a Sherlock story based on the BBC show characterization of Sherlock then you'll use "Sherlock (BBC)" in the tags. The more specific you can get, the better.
The category will indicate how your characters relate to each other within the story. Gen is short for General and it means that there is no specific romantic relationship at the center of the story. M/M or F/F and F/M stand for Male/Male (homosexual), Female/Female (homosexual) and F/M (heterosexual) relationships. These are not nuanced tags so non-binary, transgender and transexual relationships are often shoe-horned into one of these tags though you are free to create unique tags.
Ratings and warnings are closely linked. There is a standard rating for stories across the majority of archive sites. These include E - Everyone or K - Kids or GA - Genearl Audiences, T - Teens, A - Adult or M - Mature and MA - Mature Adult. Warnings are usually for major character death or traumatic content such as rape or torture.
Now, on to the universe and character tagging. This is the meat and bones of the tagging system.
When you post up your fanfiction stories online it is important to not only have tags, but the proper tags. Most popular public archives have similar tags available or an option to write unique tags. Before you can know what tags to use, it is important to know what they mean. While it might feel like a waste of time to put detailed tags on your story it will endear you to readers because they will know within moments whether or not your story is what they are looking for or not.
You want to give the fandom and category along with any ratings or warnings before going into the universe and character tags. The fandom is the cannon name of the show/book/movie/etc. that you are writing about (Doctor Who, Sherlock, Supernatural, Chronicles of Narnia, etc). If there are multiple sources of your cannon then use the one that best reflects what you've written. So, if you are writing a Sherlock story based on the BBC show characterization of Sherlock then you'll use "Sherlock (BBC)" in the tags. The more specific you can get, the better.
The category will indicate how your characters relate to each other within the story. Gen is short for General and it means that there is no specific romantic relationship at the center of the story. M/M or F/F and F/M stand for Male/Male (homosexual), Female/Female (homosexual) and F/M (heterosexual) relationships. These are not nuanced tags so non-binary, transgender and transexual relationships are often shoe-horned into one of these tags though you are free to create unique tags.
Ratings and warnings are closely linked. There is a standard rating for stories across the majority of archive sites. These include E - Everyone or K - Kids or GA - Genearl Audiences, T - Teens, A - Adult or M - Mature and MA - Mature Adult. Warnings are usually for major character death or traumatic content such as rape or torture.
Now, on to the universe and character tagging. This is the meat and bones of the tagging system.
When you post up your fanfiction stories online it is important to not only have tags, but the proper tags. Most popular public archives have similar tags available or an option to write unique tags. Before you can know what tags to use, it is important to know what they mean. While it might feel like a waste of time to put detailed tags on your story it will endear you to readers because they will know within moments whether or not your story is what they are looking for or not.
Here is a link to Moonbeam's Derelictions comprehensive list of tags and what they are used to describe. http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/moonbeam/terms.html
There are hundreds of tags already available for you to use on most fanfiction archives. A lot of readers will have favorite tags and they will search for those specfically so making sure you show up in their search is important and dependent on whether or not you have comprehensive tagging on your story. A few of the most common are AU, angst, hurt/comfort, shipping related, fluff, and PWP.
Alternate Universe (A.U. or AU) which denotes that the story takes place in a universe outside of the cannon. This can be due to large or small universal changes to the story. Often the AU tag is accompanied with another descriptive word to indicate what type of new universe you've placed the characters into. Several of the most common are the "Coffee Shop AU" in which the characters interact with each other in or around a coffee shop like setting and the "High School AU" in which the characters are high school aged and often classmates in the same high school. There is no end to the combinations of possible AU tropes that can be used to write fanfiction, but making sure to accurately tag the universe will be sure to alert the readers who are searching for your story and just don't know it.
Angst is a pretty self-explanatory tag and it can relate to either physical or emotional pain and suffering. Closely related to angst is whump though the whump tag is most often used when a character experiences in inordinate amount of physical pain in extreme circumstances - kidnapping, torture, etc. They can be posted simultaneously though most writers choose one or the other.
Hurt/Comfort involves characters sharing a close relationship. Generally, one character is experiencing the "hurt" while the other is providing the "comfort" though this is not always the case. The "hurt" can come from the relationship status or from outside influences. Combining angst and hurt/comfort tags is very common.
Shipping is one of the most common fanfiction subjects. This is not surprising since most writing in general takes place within the relationships of characters. Ship is short for relationship and it means that the characters who are being shipped are in a relationship. Almost exclusively this means a romantic or bromantic relationship. Tagging ships is relatively easy. Generally you put a character name then the forward slash followed by the other character(s). Example: Kirk/Spock. To tag for relationships that are more bromantic than romantic you can put a '&' between the names. This usually implies a platonic ship. Example: Credence Barebone & Newt Scamander.
Fluff is the tooth-rotting content that makes you grin uncontrollably and get the warm-fuzzies. A majority of fluff is a part of the domestic-bliss trope where characters share their version of a white picket fence life. Fluff is exclusevely for feel-good stories and should not be used if there is a heavier, darker atmosphere to the story (unless that counts for light-hearted in your fandom).
Plot What Plot can accompany fluff though it is mostly used for porn (pr0n) where the point of the story is not related in any way to the overall universe or cannon plot. These can get out of hand as far as length goes but generally they are quite short, often one-shots.
Alternate Universe (A.U. or AU) which denotes that the story takes place in a universe outside of the cannon. This can be due to large or small universal changes to the story. Often the AU tag is accompanied with another descriptive word to indicate what type of new universe you've placed the characters into. Several of the most common are the "Coffee Shop AU" in which the characters interact with each other in or around a coffee shop like setting and the "High School AU" in which the characters are high school aged and often classmates in the same high school. There is no end to the combinations of possible AU tropes that can be used to write fanfiction, but making sure to accurately tag the universe will be sure to alert the readers who are searching for your story and just don't know it.
Angst is a pretty self-explanatory tag and it can relate to either physical or emotional pain and suffering. Closely related to angst is whump though the whump tag is most often used when a character experiences in inordinate amount of physical pain in extreme circumstances - kidnapping, torture, etc. They can be posted simultaneously though most writers choose one or the other.
Hurt/Comfort involves characters sharing a close relationship. Generally, one character is experiencing the "hurt" while the other is providing the "comfort" though this is not always the case. The "hurt" can come from the relationship status or from outside influences. Combining angst and hurt/comfort tags is very common.
Shipping is one of the most common fanfiction subjects. This is not surprising since most writing in general takes place within the relationships of characters. Ship is short for relationship and it means that the characters who are being shipped are in a relationship. Almost exclusively this means a romantic or bromantic relationship. Tagging ships is relatively easy. Generally you put a character name then the forward slash followed by the other character(s). Example: Kirk/Spock. To tag for relationships that are more bromantic than romantic you can put a '&' between the names. This usually implies a platonic ship. Example: Credence Barebone & Newt Scamander.
Fluff is the tooth-rotting content that makes you grin uncontrollably and get the warm-fuzzies. A majority of fluff is a part of the domestic-bliss trope where characters share their version of a white picket fence life. Fluff is exclusevely for feel-good stories and should not be used if there is a heavier, darker atmosphere to the story (unless that counts for light-hearted in your fandom).
Plot What Plot can accompany fluff though it is mostly used for porn (pr0n) where the point of the story is not related in any way to the overall universe or cannon plot. These can get out of hand as far as length goes but generally they are quite short, often one-shots.
Whenever you make changes to the cannon character representation then you should tag it. Deaged characters, gender swap, adding or subtracting a physical/mental disability and out of character interactions or mannerisms are examples of several things that you should tag. Your readers are intimately familiar with the main characters of your story so if you are going to write them in a way that does not reflect the cannon characterizations then tag it so that readers will know what to expect.
Outside of the characterization and universal changes there are also tags that should be used for the plot of your story. Often writers don't want to "give away the story" with tags, but it is better to have some spoilers in the tags than to surprise a reader with a main character death half-way through the story. Tagging things that might be triggering for people with PTSD and other mental health illnesses is not strictly necessary but it is the polite thing to do. It has nothing to do with being politically correct and everything to do with respecting your readers enough to care whether or not your writing causes them unwanted pain. Trigger warnings are usually a seperate set of tags outside the story tags. Common trigger warnings include: rape, incest, murder and character death.
Here is an example of tags for a one-shot by author Blankie on the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3).
Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Here is an example of tags for a one-shot by author Blankie on the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own (AO3).
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