Fic Categorizing Update

[rusty_halo]

More about All About Spike fanfic categorizing by theme (which is explained here and here).

First of all, a million, billion, zillion thanks to everyone who replied with a list of categories for their stories. And extra super special thanks to wiseacress and soundingsea, who went way above and beyond the call of duty and actually helped categorize fic by other people.

I've entered into my database all the category information that has been sent to me.

A couple additional bits of info:

- You can review your category information at this page. Go, look, so see if there are any errors or if you'd like anything changed or added. (This page was created solely for categorization purposes; it won't actually show up on the public site.)

- Each story can be in up to five categories. If you had limited your category suggestions and would like to put a story in additional categories, please let me know.

- The following categories were added after my original post:
      Romance
      Character Study
      False Memories
      Time/Universe Displacement
      Missing Scene
      Drabble
      Friendship
      Episode Coda
      Action/Adventure
      Quest NEW!
If any of your stories fit into these categories, please let me know and I'll add that to their already existing category information.

- The up-to-date list of all possible categories is here, with explanations for anything that may be unclear.

- The category information page includes many of the stories that authors have given me permission to archive, but that I haven't actually archived yet. If you know you've got stories pending, please take a look and see if you'd like to offer categorization information for them. (I haven't got all the pending stories listed there, but many are.) Don't worry if the other detail information is incorrect or incomplete; I'll fix it when I actually archive the story.

- If you want to help categorize, you can do so very easily by taking a look at that page again. If a story isn't categorized, it'll say in big purple letters "Not Categorized." If you'd like to send me category information for any uncategorized story, please do. I will appreciate it so much.

- Some stories are only partially categorized. For example, I went through and categorized all the 100-word stories as drabbles, but I haven't checked yet to see if they also belong in other categories. The same with some other themes, like Post-Soul Insanity.

- You can see the public "Fiction by Theme" page now at:
http://www.allaboutspike.com/theme.html

Comments

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

*smiles*

Ok, I see you've got Post-Soul Insanity as a category on a couple of stories, but you don't have it in the master theme list. Might want to add it?

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Oopsie. I'm dumb. Thank you for pointing that out. It's updated now.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Technically Clean Hands is Missing Scene, but I don't know if it gives away too much of the ending to say so.

Mer

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I set it as Missing Scene, because the categories aren't going to be listed along with the other detail info. People won't know that it's in that category unless they specifically look under the "Missing Scene" category.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Perfect, thanks!

[knotted-rose.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that "State of States" could be categorized under "Character Study," and possibly under "Drabble." I couldn't figure out a category before this, though I did try. Thanks so much for all your hard work!

[rahirah]

All of mine fit in Action/Adventure, I think.

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Unspoken is "character study"

NPOE is also action/adventure.

You rock, Laura :)

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

Ok..."Revelations" could probably go in angst and romance,
"In the Moment", friendship, romance
"Punishment", "Wet", "Dangerous", "Forgiveness", needs Episode Coda added

"Forgiveness" needs "missing scene"

"Here I Go" needs Episode Coda

"Glimpses" could go with angst, I guess. I suppose.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Excellent. Thank you. :)

[jonesiexxx.livejournal.com]

Hey Laura:

Seeing the complete categories list, a couple of additions,please.

Out on a Limb is now Humour, should also be Missing-Scene (blinvisible sex scene in Gone is embedded in a flashback - though only part of OOAL)

The Dance is now Romance, should also be Missing-Scene (Spuffy's last night in Chosen)

I really admire your professionalism and passion for the site.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[mrmonkeybottoms.livejournal.com]

Hi Laura, sorry to hear about all the extra troubles you've been having with the site hosts. All of your extra effort into AAS is muchly appreciated!

The Wacky Adventures of Spike and Buffybot can be Humor, Parody, and/or Fluff. Thanks a million billion trillion. And one.

[onetwomany.livejournal.com]

Ooh, more categories...
Offerings - Episode Coda
Gentle - Missing Scene
Um...I'd like to think all my stories are character studies, but I'm not entirely sure what that means in this context - but I'll go with that if it fits as well.

[darcydodo]

OK, "Shades of Madness" can probably be called a missing scene, in that it's what's happening in the basement just prior to Spike's appearance in "Lessons"; "Next Weird Thing" also could be seen as fitting into canon (and hence being a missing scene) between "Doomed" and "A New Man." Neither of them is actually mid-episode, though, so it's conceivable that neither fits into that category.

"Reaching for Memories" is definitely a drabble. 100 words on the nose. ;)

"Shades of Madness" is also a character study, IMO.

[darcydodo]

Oh, and "Shades of Madness" obviously fits into the post-soul-madness category. Yeah. :)

[cindergal.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about all your site problems. As far as categorizing, I think that "Deserving" could be missing scene as well, and "Repercussions" could fit in angst as well as romance.

For those of mine not categorized, I think "Reunion" probably fits best as character study. "The Waiting Room" is humor. If you have other thoughts, just let me know.

Again, thanks for all your hard work.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. :)

[zyrya]

I'm confused ... do you want categorising suggestions from only the authors? Or from the great unwashed as well?

And is it too late to register a protest against lumping humour, parody and fluff all in the same category? If it's not too late I'll make an argument for three separate categories, but if it is too late I'll just grin and bear it.

Thanks for all your hard work, as always!

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

I'm confused ... do you want categorising suggestions from only the authors? Or from the great unwashed as well?

Anyone and everyone. Authors obviously have first say in categorizing their own work. But many aren't around anymore or don't read my LJ or don't have time to categorize. So I'm going through and categorizing everything that the authors haven't already categorized for me. That's quite a few stories.

I basically have to skim each fic to refresh my memory and figure out what categories it goes into, which takes a looong time considering how many stories there are. So anyone who wants to help out by checking the list and categorizing some of the uncategorized or partially-categorized is welcome to do so. I'll double-check the info, of course, but it'll make my job much quicker.

And is it too late to register a protest against lumping humour, parody and fluff all in the same category? If it's not too late I'll make an argument for three separate categories, but if it is too late I'll just grin and bear it.

Can you explain why?

I had them in separate categories originally, but almost everything overlaps in those three categories, so I just combined them to make it easier. Everything in parody fits into humor, and almost everything in fluff fits into humor. (I generally don't archive fluff unless there's something funny or amusing in it). There'll all so close, and there are so few exceptions, that I didn't see much reason to separate them out.

[zyrya]

Having thought about it a bit more, I'd plead for two categories: Humour, and Parody.

Parody is a specific genre. The humour in a parody is external to the story - it's sending up the conventions and characters and situations of whatever is being parodied. Whereas Humour (or Comedy) is internal to the story and is built around the characters and situations rather than on top of them.

And from a more practical standpoint, if I were looking for parody fics I wouldn't want to have to trawl through all the Humour/Parody/Fluff search results to find the parodies. It's possible to straddle the humour/parody fence, but BtVS/AtS fics are fairly clear-cut. All parodies fit into Humour, but all funny fics definitely don't fit into Parody.

Since you don't archive fluff in and of itself, what about leaving out the Fluff designation altogether? It isn't necessary to label something as fluff when the other categories indicate light-heartedness (or lack thereof), and having a fluff category or sub-category may give the impression that you do archive fluff. It's a bit like having a PWP category, to flag sex scenes, when you don't archive PWPs.

I'd also combine the End-of-year-holidays, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentine's Day sorts of categories into one ... a Seasonal Fic category. But this is all just me thinking out loud, though ... I certainly don't expect you to change anything.