Fanfic organization tips?

[asperityq.livejournal.com]

Who's got some good tips on keeping track of all that fic? I'm putting most of it in Calibre what with using that for converting it and making my ebook reader do my bidding, but it's too much trouble for shorter fic.

And then there's the problem of wanting to keep track of fic I didn't like all that much. :/ I don't have any great need to save it, but the rating feature in Calibre's reasonably convenient once I've already gone to the trouble of adding it.

Anyway, I'm sure y'all have some ideas! Do you use Delicious, maybe? And if so, what's the most hassle-free way to do it? Thanks for the help!

Comments

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

I love Calibre, but yeah...it IS a lot of work, and I mostly use it to archive my "keeper" stuff. (I'm WAY behind though)

My original system was just to save txt files in folders on my computer and burn them to disc occasionally - which is pretty easy and fairly foolproof. But completely lacking in bells and whistles.

My current system only works if you have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or I'm assuming iPad. ALTHOUGH - Anyone using Firefox could probably make some use of it if they really wanted.

It's based on a app called "Read it Later", which is an on-line archive, and which has a very excellent add-on for Firefox.

At it's heart, it's an on-line bookmark site in the nature of Delicious, BUT it archives the pages you add to it so they can be READ OFF LINE. This is major for me, and has made it a SNAP to add fic to my iPod and read it anywhere, anytime (accept for adult protected LJ's - those I need an internet connection to read).

In Firefox, I just have to click the little icon to add a page to my read it later list. In other browsers (including Safari on the iPod) there's a thing you put in your favorites list to click on and it saves it. Firefox also has a nice dropdown feature for your Read it Later list, so you really could use this right out of Firefox without any need for an iThing.

Read it Later does have a tagging system which is nice, though a little work. And you CAN just leave stuff right on there.

What I do with the things I'd especially like to save and archive (in Calibre) is this:

Read it Later's paid version has a function that allows you to email links to people so you can share articles and stories, etc. I set up a dedicated Hotmail account, and anything I want to save, I email there. Then I know everything there is a keeper and when I get time, I pull those stories down and archive them in Calibre.

Sorry to spam you with edits, but I thought I could be decent enough to add a link......*headdesk*

http://readitlaterlist.com/


*g*

Seconding!

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

Read It Later has been a revelation for me - for fic, for episode reviews so I don't get spoiled. I couldn't recommend it enough.

I wish there was a work around for the adult protection problem.

Re: Seconding!

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

It is AMAZING for the fanfic reader!! I love it so much - no formatting, no messing around, no hassle - just remember to sync it before you leave your internet connection. And I don't feel like I wasted my time if I got a dud story - just check it off and bye-bye!

I used to have an eBookMan years ago and I'd have to copy and paste every story into a text file and save it to a folder and then load them all to the reader. And I'd get SO MAD when I had a string of horrible stories.

I think I'm going to write to the guy about the adult protect and see if there IS a work around, and if not ask if there's anything he can do to make one. Possibly not, but you never know.

[asperityq.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm definitely going to give Read it Later a try.

[anesthezea.livejournal.com]

Read it Later's paid version has a function that allows you to email links to people so you can share articles and stories, etc. I set up a dedicated Hotmail account, and anything I want to save, I email there. Then I know everything there is a keeper and when I get time, I pull those stories down and archive them in Calibre.

How do you pull the stories down to archive them in Calibre? Are you saving them as HTML files or something similar?

Thanks for the tips on RIL. I'm checking it out now...

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

When I have a little time (in theory), I go to the Hotmail account and open up all the links for the stories I want to save, then I copy and paste all the text, pics, icons, comments, whatever, into Word and save it as an RTF file. That way I get graphics if there are any, and nearly always a pairing icon the story was posted with, or whatever other special formatting that might be used on other archives. Most of the time it works really nicely.

I just upload the RTF's into Calibre and don't need to convert them at all because I'm really just using it as a fanfic management tool.

[anesthezea.livejournal.com]

Since you like saving the graphics and comments, why not try Scrapbook Plus? It's a Firefox Addon. It saves webpages. I usually save things in folders (ex. Fandom/Pairing/Author/Story Title by Author). You can import/export, backup, etc.

The only downside I've found with Scrapbook Plus are that it doesn't have any sort of tag functionality. I've written the developer before, but never received any reply. :(

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8186/

I've just started to export a few of my scrapbook folders into temp. folders so I can see how Calibre treats them on import. So far, I'm finding the more organized I was in Scrapbook, the better the odds are that Calibre will give me a title/author combo in some way. Hunting those things up really takes a lot of time. Ugh.

Ok, I'll stop rambling now... :)

[sassyinkpen.livejournal.com]

When I started this system I was still a diehard Maxthon user. I have since switched to Firefox and use the Scrapbook addon - not as fully as I probably should. I need to brush up on that.

The lack of tags would be an issue for me - one of the biggest plusses to Calibre is that I can tag things and then when I'm in the mood for say...drunk fics, I find all of them easily. *g*

Scrapbook is an EXCELLENT idea though, for people with different needs, AND it might make a good addition to my fic management arsenal

[anesthezea.livejournal.com]

Scrapbook has been the only thing I've used for years, so there's lots and lots of fic in there (an not all of it sorted, eek!), but until I found this community, it was the only option I was familiar with. If only it was taggable! :(

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I have fic everywhere. I have fic in LJ memories (not organized in any way), on Delicious (organized with tags and tag bundles), on my hard drive (organized by fandom, with the story filename consisting of the author's name followed by the title), and now in Calibre for my e-book reader. I'm trying to consolidate it all now.

Delicious is fantastic for the ability to combine tags to narrow a search. I can't tell you how many times I was able to track something down for a storyfinders comm using nothing but tag combinations. If you want to see my tagging system, my Delicious account is here (http://delicious.com/the_other_sandy). The bad thing about Delicious is that it's just a bookmarking system; it doesn't archive the fic. If someone moves or deletes their fic, you're left with a dead link and no fic. That's why I'm currently working on saving fic I want to keep onto my hard drive and fic I want to read onto my e-book reader. I suspect that eventually every story I want to keep will be saved in both places. I never save fic I don't like.

I use pretty much the same tags in Calibre as I do on Delicious, both to organize the fics in Calibre and because my Sony Reader retains those tags as "collections" when I load the stories, so I can still search by tags (only one at a time though; you can't combine them like you can on Delicious). The only difference is that I use prefixes on my tags in Calibre so that they group together like my tag bundles on Delicious. Genres get a G prefix (G: AU, G: hurt/comfort, etc.), pairings get a P (P: McShep, P: Jack/Ianto, etc.), series get an S, and word count gets WC (I use the same word count groupings from Delicious, which I shamelessly stole from someone else while trolling for fic one day).

Don't know how much of this is helpful, but maybe it'll give you an idea for your own system.

[asperityq.livejournal.com]

I love your prefixing idea for tags -- that should make them much easier to use. I haven't tagged for pairings for that reason -- just too much clutter when they're mixed in with all the other tags.

The thing about saving fic I don't like isn't that I really want access to it again later, it's that I want to remember what I didn't like much so I don't forget and go after more. ;) I'm reluctant to use Delicious for that because who'd want to see a fic you'd written tagged with "this sucked"?

I dunno. The whole thing'll be easier if I can get a system going and stick with it, so I'm collecting things as they come up rather than trying to read fifteen years worth of stories in a given fandom at once.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I'm reluctant to use Delicious for that because who'd want to see a fic you'd written tagged with "this sucked"?

Delicious has a little ticky box in each entry that says "mark as private." If you check the box, only you can see those bookmarks. It's kind of like flocking a post on LJ--the entry shows up with a little padlock next to it and no one else can see it unless you give them permission.

[st-aurafina.livejournal.com]

I use Read It Later - mostly for the convenience of reading off line and having fic handy on my iphone when I want it. I'm also using Delicious as an archiving system for links I don't want to lose - I like the community feel of it, like the way it suggests tags for a popular link, and how I can see how many other people have tagged a link then check out other things they might have tagged for a similar theme.

As it stands now, though, I can't use delicious on my phone, because I use a yahoo login, and the app currently has a bug with yahoo logins.

[asperityq.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I really have to get better at remembering to use Delicious.

Organizing and tracking

[geyer-fb.livejournal.com]

My system's a bit different, but I thought I'd describe it in case anyone else likes the idea. I keep most stories I've read or want to read on my hard drive in doc format and use Windows Explorer for searching. Within my fanfiction folder is a folder for each author, with cross-references for authors who use more than one name. Total so far, around 6,000 stories, mostly older ones I've already read, so I don't plan to add them to Calibre.

I add NR (not read) to the titles of unread stories and WIP for unfinished stories, plus series name and order. After I read the story, I remove the NR from the title and add tags at the end of the story itself, so I can search for various keywords or genres, such as Action/Adventure or Romance or Meridian fix. (The last is Stargate SG-1 specific.)

I used to read on a PDA. I've had my Sony Reader for six months, but Calibre for only two, so I'm still exploring. I see Calibre mainly as a tool for getting new fic to my Reader, and that tends to be longer stories and ones that are complete. As Asperity said above, it's too much trouble for shorter fic. I still save first as a Word doc, then in HTML for Calibre. I've got fewer than 200 stories converted so far, so I'm still working on my Calibre tags. I use UNREAD as a tag and remove it when I've read the story, plus tags for each fandom and genre.

For tracking stories I've already read and want to remember, I use a spreadsheet. One sheet is for themes or plot elements that I think I'll want to look for in the future or that people ask for on the story search sites, e.g., "Daniel leaves the SGC" or "Atlantis declares independence" or "Cats and cat-like animals." Under each heading, I list author and title and either a sentence description or key words. Another sheet indexes crossovers by which shows, movies, or books are crossed. A third is for "real family" relationships. I don't track every story I read, just ones with themes or plot elements I'm interested in.

Re: Organizing and tracking

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

A bit late, but things have been crazy in RL and I just came across this comm and this post. Would you be willing to share your spreadsheet? I'm also looking for something that will help me when I want to re-read stories I liked/look for similar ones, and your system sounds just about right. It's easier for me to apply something if I can see it.

Or if not upload the entire spreadsheet, perhaps share a screencap or two?

Re: Organizing and tracking

[geyer-fb.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to be so late in responding. Rather than try to clean out the personal notes I'd put in my spreadsheet, here's a description. If I were starting from scratch, I'd probably do some things differently, but this grew in ways I didn't expect. Examples are mainly from Stargate.

SHEET ONE--CHARACTERS.

Column one is for characters and what significant thing happened to them in the story. For major characters with lots of stories, they will be grouped. For Daniel Jackson, groupings include, "Daniel and guns," "Daniel and Marines," "Daniel descends in a non-canon location," "Daniel is a ninja," "Daniel is undermined or harassed," "Daniel leaves SG-1," "Daniel leaves the SGC," "Daniel leaves Earth," and so forth. For minor characters, like Cassie Frasier, each entry might be unique, e.g. "Cassie is a Slayer; Xander and Faith come to find her," "adult Cassie receives death threats," "AU Cassie was married to Charlie O'Neill and died during evacuation from Earth," "Cassie is out of town when aliens attack and has to make her way back to Colorado Springs."

Column two is the author of the story. Within the subject groupings mentioned, e.g. "Daniel leaves Earth," I alphabetize by author name.

Column three is the title of the story and whether it's a WIP.

Column four contains notes to help me remember which story this was. The "Daniel leaves" categories have notes such as "To go to Chicago, where he's been offered a job by Stephen Rayner," "Forced to leave by Maybourne," and "To study the Asgard for a year." Under the category "Kinsey is eventually killed," column four tells who and/or how. I also put critical notes here, something I should probably separate so I could just hide the column if need be. "Do not rec," "Poorly written," "Unreadable."

Below the main entries, I have sections about the characters' families, e.g. Daniel's children, Daniel's parents, Daniel's other biological family, Daniel's foster families. I also have separate sections for "real family," since I read a lot of crossovers that use that as a plot element. For example, I've got headings for Jack is Blair's father, Jack is Buffy's father, Jack is John Sheppard's father, etc.

SHEET TWO--OTHER ELEMENTS AND THEMES

Column one is for other story elements or themes that I might want to find again later. These can be places (Abydos, Atlantis), things (Alien devices, Quantum mirror), events (Atlantis declares independence, Christmas, Earth is attacked), or themes (DADT, disabilities, stranded on another planet, telepathy, time travel, training exercises and war games, and recognition given (awards, medals, having Cheyenne Mtn renamed in someone's honor...).

As with sheet one, column two is for the author, column three is for the title, column four is for notes that identify it for me.
.

SHEET THREE--CROSSOVERS

Column one is the crossover, e.g. Stargate/BtVS, Stargate/Sentinel, Stargate/Torchwood. Non-Stargate crossovers, e.g. Buffy/NCIS, come after the Stargate crossovers, in alphabetical order under the fandoms I read most heavily.

As with the other two sheets, column two is for the author, column three is for the title.

Column four is for which Stargate show the cross is with--SG-1, Atlantis, or both.

Column five is for my notes. In some cases, this is the person or element that I tracked back on sheets one and two, e.g., Daniel knew Blair in the past; Evan Lorne is Jack Harness' son; Dean Winchester goes to Atlantis.

Column six identifies whether it's a three-way cross (or more) with another fandom.

I hope this helps.

Re: Organizing and tracking

[geyer-fb.livejournal.com]

I meant to say in my previous post that if you'd like a list of more of my column one groupings, which would probably be of interest only if you read a lot of Stargate fanfic with an emphasis on Jack and Daniel, I could probably pull one out fairly easily. I tend to add categories as they catch my interest or when someone posts a fic search that I realize I can answer and might want to keep track of in the future. That's where all the "Daniel leaves" headings came from.

Re: Organizing and tracking

[dj-aida.livejournal.com]

All of this is fantastic, thank you so much! I'm actually creating my spreadsheet right now, as I'm typing this. I will most likely have to add another column to the crossover sheet - AUs. My fandom has hundreds of them, in various genres, both open and closed. So, I'll have column one for AUs - whether it's the original OW universe, ATF, Trek etc, and column two for crossovers (say, ATF AU, crossover with e.g. White Collar).

I just wanted to clarify what you meant by saying "Below the main entries". Does this mean that this goes below the table? If not, where would this section be placed?

Re: Organizing and tracking

[geyer-fb.livejournal.com]

I tweak the layout pretty often. When I first posted, I had all the family stuff on the third sheet. Since then, I've decided it makes more sense to have the family headings on sheet one, with the characters. Currently, the main entries for each character I track are all entered in alphabetical order on sheet one, with all their individual headings. To use Daniel Jackson as an example, under his name I have all the headings I described above, e.g. "Daniel leaves Earth," and at the end of Daniel's section is "Daniel's family", where I have all entries pertaining to Daniel's parents, Daniel's children, Daniel's foster families, etc. Then on to the next character alphabetically.

After all the characters, on the same sheet, which is what I meant by "below the main entries," I now have all the "real family" headings, grouped by biological relationship--real father, real mother, etc. These tend to be crossovers, and it made sense to just put those in alphabetical order by the name of the real father or whatever. So "Chris Larabee is Xander's father" is separated from "Ezra Standish is Xander's father" by all the entries for Daniel Jackson, Eliot Stabler, and Evan Lorne being someone's real father. On sheet three, currently the crossover page, where the BtVS/Mag7 ATF crossovers are listed together, the family relationship is mentioned in the notes for a particular story. Since I've read only a handful of ATF stories, I'm not tracking those characters individually on sheet one, except in the "real family" section when they pop up in crossovers.

This does mean some duplication, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "Daniel is Blair's father" entries can be found both under the "Daniel's children" heading and under the "real father" heading.

I started my spreadsheet after my interest moved from BtVS to Stargate, but I've found myself adding in other fandoms due to crossovers. That's partly why I gave up my original Word document of story summaries for a spreadsheet--I can just start new sheets if I start reading heavily in another fandom.