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

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.
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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.