Friendly reminder to all "Reader-Insert" writers
It is no longer a Reader-Insert if there is an established appearance/name for the "reader" character.
It does not matter if you leave the appearance open for the readers to decide if you give the character a name. I don't know about you all but my name is not Katherine or Heather or Yumi or Betha-rina-belle. And vice versa, it does not matter if you leave the name up to the readers if you give the character a set appearance. Again, I don't know about you all but I don't have platinum blonde hair or sea foam green eyes and golden tan skin, nor am I 5'7.
If it is a commission for a specific reader, say that and don't call it a general Reader-insert because it's not. It is for one specific person and does not apply to the rest of us.
If the Reader Character needs a specific aspect for plot reasons, put that in the warnings so it's not a jump scare when it appears. Don't expect readers to just be cool with it to randomly be assigned a description/name. If the reader is meant to specifically be a canon character's sibling, tag what that entails if it's just a shared surname or if that comes with a set appearance as well. I cannot count the number of times (on both hands and feet) I have been reading and got surprised by a specific description or name for the Reader Character and immediately left the fic because I don't fw that.
If it is for a specific demographic of reader (ie, Black, Indian, Trans, Male, Female, or even Martian) state that where it can be seen and, if needed, filtered out. Put it in the tags, in the warnings, somewhere it can be seen and not in fine print. Do not presume that people have looked at your page's about me before reading one of your fics that they may have just found in the tags. They will not know that all of the fics you write are for a certain demographic, so you need to properly tag your posts and properly list the warnings.
Last but most certainly not least, please do not over-tag and incorrectly tag your fics. I understand that you want your fic to reach a wider audience but you'll be more likely to just annoy readers that way. If it is specifically cisfem reader, don't tag it as gn or male. If it is any specific gendered reader do not tag gn. If it is decidedly a set character with a set name and/or appearance do not tag it as X Reader.
Yes, I will be tagging this with X Reader tags solely so that the people who need to learn this will see it. Whether that is because you are intentionally mistagging or because you genuinely don't know this. I have seen many different posts from many different people speak about this and say when they encounter this issues they immediately bail on the fic and some even block the creator because they are misusing the tagging system.
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
dededos
areudirty
