A Newbie’s Guide to Fanfiction and AO3
Welcome!
Welcome to A Newbie’s Guide to Fanfiction and AO3 (Archive Of Our Own)! In this guide, I’ll cover some fanfiction basics and introduce you to my favorite fanfiction site, Archive Of Our Own. Fandom has provided me endless inspiration and shaped my life for the better and I’m thrilled to introduce you to the wild world of fanfiction on AO3.
Some Context
What is Archive of our Own (AO3)?
Archive of our Own, or AO3, is a site dedicated to protecting and encouraging fan writing and fanworks. Archive of our Own is operated by The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting fan works from commercial and legal exploitation. In their own words:
“The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate (OTW, 2023).”
What is Fandom?
Oxford Languages defines “fandom” as “the fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture (Oxford Languages, 2023)”.
I define fandom as a passionate community exploding with creativity, inspiration, and love for a specific media property. Any media property can accrue a fandom. Webcomics? Novels? Video games? Movies? I guarantee you that there are at least a handful of fans out there creating their own content about that property.
What differentiates fans from fandom?
If you go by the dictionary definition above, there’s not much of a difference, but I would argue that fandoms are more centered around creativity and community than a standard group of fans. Fandom communities generate art, writing, music, cosplay, and headcanons* while, generally speaking, individual non-fandom fans will enjoy the source media and not create works based on it. It’s common for fans in a fandom to talk regularly within fandom spaces and create friendships that can spill over to personal spaces.
Fandoms and shame.
In my experience, at least, there’s an odd friction at the edges of fandom spaces where fans interact with the greater community. Fandom spaces generally safe spaces to be enthusiastic without fear of being shamed or considered “weird”. While it’s not always the case, sometimes members of the greater public can react to fan created content with disgust or hostility — reactions like this contribute to an in group/out group dynamic and bleed into the general community consciousness in a way that reinforces the fandom space as a support structure.
*Headcanons are fan speculations about what a character does or would like based on their canon personality. Canon is anything explicitly stated in the media property.
What are fanfics?
A fanfiction, or fanfic, is a written work containing characters, locations, or worldbuilding established in a media property. Fanfiction can contain any combinations of canon characters, original characters (OCs) created by the author, and self-insert characters*. These works can be anywhere from a few sentences to over tens of thousands of words and can be formatted as prose, poetry, chat/text logs, or audio**.
There are any number of reasons why an author would decide to write a fanfic. Some authors love worldbuilding and want to flesh out the universe established in the media canon. Some authors find it useful to process personal trauma through characters they enjoy or to live out personal fantasies. Some writers want to see their favorite characters happy, and others leverage fanfiction as a low-pressure way to practice writing skills.
*Self-insert fanfics can be written either in second or third person point of view. Second person POV works can refer to the reader as “you” or “Y/N” (short for “your name). Third person POV self-insert fics usually feature an intentionally generic character as the main character. I have strong opinions about writing that uses “Y/N” but every reader (and writer) holds their own unique, valid opinions.
**Audio-based fanfictions, recorded like podcasts, are aptly called podfics.
The Foundations of Search
Tagging System
Archive of Our Own features an in-depth tagging and search system for works posted on the site. Tags are added by authors and come in several categories, all of which can be filtered using the site’s unparalleled search function. The tag categories for works on AO3 are as follows:
Rating: Works can be marked General, Teen and Up, Mature, Explicit, or Not Rated.
Archive Warnings: These tags warn readers of heavy topics like major character death, violence, sexual assault, or underage characters.
Fandom: The media property that the fanfiction is inspired by.
Relationship Category: If there is a romantic relationship in the fanfic, authors can mark the genders of the characters involved.
Relationships: If there is a close friendship or a romantic relationship highlighted in the work, this section is where authors will tag the characters involved. A backslash separating character names (Character A/Character B) indicates a romantic relationship while an ampersand (Character C&Character D) indicates platonic friendship.
Characters: The names of characters mentioned in the work belong in this category.
Additional Tags: This section is for descriptive tags describing featured tropes, kinks, situations, author commentary, and anything else the author wants readers to know about their work. Check the Glossary for some common tags found in this section!
As tags are added by the author, accuracy and detail can vary but best practice is to add as many relevant tags as possible.
Yellow Flag Tags
In context of this article, I’ll use the term “yellow flag tag” to refer to a tag that could be a dealbreaker for some readers. As you get to know your reading preferences, you’ll build your own list of yellow flag tags. I’ve listed a few example yellow flag tags below.
A/B/O: Short for Alpha/Beta/Omega, this trope involves animalistic mating behaviors that originated in werewolf fiction.
Angst: This tag lets readers know that a character goes through mental or physical anguish.
Dead Dove: Do Not Eat: A tag that originated from the show Community, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat (or just “Dead Dove”) is shorthand for “read at your own risk”. It’s often used to emphasize that readers should carefully read the other tags on the work.
Dubcon: This indicates “dubious consent” and refers to situations where explicit consent is not given between characters in intimate situations.
Implied/Referenced Addiction: Variations of this tag can be more specific to substances or situations that readers may want to avoid.
Pregnancy: This indicates that a character is pregnant or becomes pregnant.
RPF (Real Person Fanfiction/Fandom)*: Generally speaking, “RPF” is included in the Fandom tag and denotes a fandom or work based on a real, not fictional, person.
*I have strong opinions about RPF content but as I mentioned earlier, every reader (and writer) holds their own unique, valid opinions.
Red Flag Tags (Archive Warnings)
Red flag tags refer to content that may cause readers distress. Most readers will find these in the Archive Warning section of a work’s tags. The following red flag tags are included in the Archive Warnings section: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, and Underage.
Using the Archive
Finding a Media Property
Where there are fans, there is fan-made content. If you have a specific media property in mind that you’d like to look for fanfiction for, you can search the name in the site header’s search bar.
If you want to browse and see what’s available, check out the Fandoms menu in the site header. The Fandoms menu helpfully splits up the available media properties into categories. The All Fandoms option in this menu will bring you to an alphabetically sorted list of every fandom tagged on the site.
Search and Filter
Archive of Our Own’s search function is unparalleled in both its ease of use and specificity. There are a few search interfaces on the site: the Search menu and the Sort and Filter sidebar. Personally, I prefer to select a fandom first (see previous section) and then use the Sort and Filter sidebar to filter results.
Search Menu
You can find the Search menu on the header of the website. The Search Menu options are best for searching across multiple fandoms at once. Each option (Works, Bookmarks, Tags, and People) opens a custom search form with fields for helpful or related tags.
Personally, I don’t use these search forms at all and much prefer to use a combination of the Search field in the site header and my Favorited tags* to find works in one fandom at at time.
*More on Favorites in the Bookmarks and Favorited Tags section.
Sort and Filter Sidebar
Here we are, dear reader — the feature that makes AO3 stand out in a sea of fan content sites. The Sort and Filter sidebar shows alongside your search results allows you to apply an unbelievable amount of filters to narrow down your search results. The sidebar has three main sections alongside a few additional fields — let’s go through the entire sidebar from top to bottom.
The first filter in the sidebar determines how you would like to sort your search results. By default, this is set to Date Updated.
The Include and Exclude sections contain identical subsections. Filters you include in the Include/Exclude sections will both be applied to your search result — this works like the boolean search term AND. For example, choosing a General Audiences rating in the Include section and the tag “angst” in the Exclude section will only show you works that are tagged General Audiences and do not include the Angst tag.
The first three sections of the Include/Exclude sections are always the same regardless of your original search — Ratings, Warnings, and Categories. You can only choose one Rating but you can select multiple Archive Warnings and Categories.
For the following screenshots, I am sorting works including the “Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen” fandom tag. You’ll notice that some screenshots show numbers next to the filter options. These show how many works in the original search include the listed tag!
From this point, the filters get more specific to your original search. The Fandoms subsection shows a list of fandom tags that are commonly used alongside your original search term or media properties that may be related. The Characters subsection shows the most commonly tagged characters in your original search results.
The Relationship and Additional Tags subsections are generated in the same way as the Characters and Fandoms sections — the most common options from your search results are displayed in order.
Both the Include and Exclude sections contain a text box where you can enter specific tags that you’re looking to include or exclude from your search results. When you begin typing, the site will generate a dropdown list of matching tags. You can either select from that list or type your own tag. If you’re typing multiple tags and not using the dropdown list, separate your tags with commas.
The next section of the Sort and Filter sidebar is the More Options section. The first option, Crossovers, is where you can indicate whether you’d like your search results to show works that have multiple fandom tags. Completion status refers to whether or not a work is marked as finished — authors have the ability to indicate whether or not a fanfiction is complete*. Both the Word Count and Date Updated sections have fields to enter the upper and lower ends of the range you’d like to see in your results.
The Language option opens a colossal dropdown menu that allows you to select works written in a specific language.
Finally, the Search Within Results subsection allows you to add even more specific rules to your search. Clicking the question mark icon next to Search Within Results will open the following breakdown of available search options for the field.
When it comes to filtering results with this Sort and FIlter sidebar, I would recommend starting off with fewer filters and refining as you determine what you enjoy reading. Try using the Exclude section to filter out some of your personal red flag tags!
*Authors can write chaptered stories with either a predetermined number of chapters or leave the number of chapters in the work open. Some authors pre-plan fics and some add to their stories as inspiration strikes.
My History and Save for Later
Reading history and Save for Later are only available for users with accounts on the site. Both your reading history and your Save For Later list are included on the History page. Logged in users can find the History page by clicking on their username.
Your reading history is a chronological list of works that you’ve clicked into or opened while logged in to your account. The Marked for Later list is like a wishlist that you’d see on a shopping site — you can add fics to this list to read at a later time. The option to open your Marked for Later list is at the top of your History page.
If you are logged in to your account and find a fic to add to your Marked for Later list, click the title of the work to open the fic. You’ll see a variety of options including Mark for Later.
Bookmarks and Favorited Tags
Bookmarks and Favorited tags are also only available for users with accounts on the site. Bookmarking a work adds to your account’s Bookmarks page. The Bookmark option is shown at both the beginning and the end of a work.
When you search a tag using the Search menu options or the site header’s Search field, you’ll see an option labeled Favorite Tag.
When you favorite a tag, it will show on the AO3 homepage of your logged in account. Here’s what the homepage of a logged in account looks like!
Kudos and Comments
So you read a great fanfic and you want to let the author know how much you loved it? This is where Kudos and comments come in. Only logged in users can leave comments but anyone can leave Kudos! Kudos is AO3’s answer to a like/heart button and both options are shown at the end of a work.
Site Skins
You may notice that there are two vastly different looking screenshots in this article. Archive of Our Own allows users with accounts to add a skin to their view of the site! You can choose from premade skins, user-made skins, or you can make your own custom skin. I chose this outrageous blue because I primarily read at night and it hurts my eyes less than the standard white.
Thanks for reading!
While this is by no means an exhaustive guide to Archive of Our Own, I hope it gives enough of an understanding to get you out there and reading. Fanfiction, and fan works in general, are a stellar way to ease into your more imaginative side and add depth to your favorite media properties.
Index
Glossary and Common Tags
A/B/O — Short for Alpha/Beta/Omega, this trope involves animalistic mating behaviors that originated in werewolf fiction.
Angst — This tag lets readers know that a character goes through mental or physical anguish.
AO3 — Shorthand for Archive of Our Own.
AU/Alternate Universe — An AU features canon characters in a situation or location that is different from canon. Generally, the character’s personality stays close to canon but the details of a character’s career, age, physical appearance, or backstory can vary.
Beta reader — A reader selected by an author to proofread and critique a fanfic before it gets posted publicly.
Canon — The media property a fandom is based on. All official information and details released by the media property are considered canon.
Canon compliant — A canon compliant fanwork follows details established in the original media property. Canon compliant works can follow the events of the media property or use dialogue straight from canon.
Dead Dove: Do Not Eat — A tag that originated from the show Community, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat (or just “Dead Dove”) is shorthand for “read at your own risk”. It’s often used to emphasize that readers should carefully read the other tags on the work.
Fandom — The fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture (Oxford Languages, 2023)
Fanfiction — Written works inspired directly by a media property. Can be shortened to “fic” or “fics”.
Fluff — A tag used for soft, gentle character interactions. Generally, fluff is not explicit and avoids heavy topics.
Kudos — The like/heart system of Archive of Our Own. Kudos can be left by users without an account.
OTW — Organization for Transformative Works. A nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting fan works from commercial and legal exploitation.
PWP — Shorthand for “Porn Without Plot” or “Plot? What Plot?”. Used for fics that are explicit and do not have important plot points to follow.
RPF — Shorthand for Real Person Fandom. An RPF is based on a real person, not a fictional character, and treats that person as a character. Most commonly seen for internet personalities, celebrities, and band members.
Slow burn — This tag refers to a plot-heavy work that has a focus on developing relationships or romantic tension.
Tag — A search term added by the author to works on Archive of Our Own. Tags inform readers of what they can expect from a work.
Trope — A common situation or theme seen in media.
