General Question, How to organize Fanfiction stories.

[is-mise-free.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone! I am OCD and am going crazy trying to find a way to organize the stories I read. I was coming to see if anyone here has any good suggestions. I am willing to write everything down by hand and file everything so if that is one as well. I want to be able to help with linking to stories and even though I know of an author or a title I can't remember where I have read it and I think this will help with that.

I hope the question sounded right. I hope I didn't make it sound so complicated and I really hope that this general question was okay.

(Example: Justin Allergies/Sick
                Credence by GaleandRandy)

EDIT: I had some great suggestions and they were all so simple. Thank you all again!

Comments

[marilla-pm67.livejournal.com]

Hey, I don't know if you are reading only QAF fictions, or other fictions in other fandom, but I can only recommand you Calibre, it's a great tool to organize your library.

You can create categories, and you can work with the tags...

Anyway, if you need help just holler, and we can try to work some skype cession out to help you out in live

Sam.

[galeandrandy.livejournal.com]

Do you have these stories as text files and are needing to organize them on your computer? Or, are you organizing them in your bookmarks online?

A suggestion for either way, really would be to take a cue from this site's tags because if you're ever searching for a story, or if you're ever reading a story, the tags here are generally what authors will use when posting their stories. (Not always and may not be word for word of what these tags are but it is most common I think.)

So I will tell you how I organize my links to stories online and also on my reading devices and in folders on my computer. I use firefox so I'm able to put a description as well when linking to the fic.

I create a main folder: BJFIC
In that folder are four main sub folders.
In Character (IC)
Out of Character (OOC)
Bleach (Bleach my eyes and pray I forget I read that hellish crap fic)
Unread

In almost every main folder are these subfolders.
AU (Alternate Universe)
Canon-AU (General Alternate Meeting or Universe the story is either based inside or deals with a canon arc differently)
Drabbles
Gapfillers
One-Shots
PWP (Plot what plot)

Now we head into each one of these subfolders. If a fic is based on something in or 'could be' canon, it is easiest to find them with these labels first. Even in the OOC / AU folder you may find fics that fit with these labels, *tags* even though they may not be anywhere in character.
Pre-series
Season 1
Post Season 1
Season 2
Post Season 2
Season 3
Post Season 3
Season 4
Post Season 4
Season 5
Post Series

Then inside these, I make folders for the main arcs of the series or commonly used plot devices that are exploited (lol).
Examples:
OOC/ AU: /Season 1/ Hustler!Justin-fiction name
Season 2/ Abusive!Ethan-fiction name
Post-Season 3/ Stockwell Wins-fiction name

IC/ One-shot/ Pre-series/ Brian meets Mikey: -fiction name
/ Brian meet Lindsay: -fiction name

IC/ Gapfiller/ Season 1/ 103-104:-fiction name-

IC/ AU/ Season 5/ Bombing:-After The Smoke Clears
IC/ Canon/ Stockwell Arc:-fiction name-
IC/ Superhero:-fiction name-
IC/ Post-Season 4: LA
IC/ AU/ Vampire
IC/ AU/ Magical Being
OOC/ AU/ M-preg
OOC/ AU/ Holiday Theme/ Christmas
/ New Years
/ Halloween


Have I explained this in a way that would be helpful? I hope so. Really, the tags here are a wonderful basis for sorting your stories, whether you put them in folders on your computer or are just linking to them.

I see that Marilla has suggested Calibre, I highly recommend this too! But I'd start with organizing folders on your own computer like above first. That way, when you import, you can immediately know that you're tagging all docs you just imported in one go, with the appropriate tags in bulk.

[bodleian.livejournal.com]

What sort of programs do you have on your computer. I have FileMaker Pro which allows me to make up great lists for me e-books. I have made up my own headings and can search for my books by author, co-author, title, series, at 4 different genre headings. I' m a retired high-school librarian who also has OCD and this works brilliantly for me. Under genre I can look up by main subject - e.g thriller, mystery, murder, sci-fi etc - but I can also look up by occupation of the main character, or county's which the book is set etc. Genre is totally up to you.
Because I can't carry my computer around with me I made up lists which I keep on my ereader. These have headings like murder, cops, private cops, books featuring children etc. it works for me.

[wouldbedorothy.livejournal.com]

Question is OK... pretty sure others have asked it here... but if you could say something more specific in your subject line, like "Question about how to organize fic," that would be awesome :)