fanfic_ebooks | Fanfic organization tips?

asperityq.livejournal.com posting in

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!

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From:

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.

From:

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?

From:

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.

From:

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.

From:

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?

From:

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.