Also available as a PDF here.
This thing is 13,000 words. The PDF is recommended.
Intro: What is Metatext?
Metatext is everything we fanfic authors post along with our story that is not the story itself: title, tags, summary, author’s notes, even the rating.
It is how we communicate to potential readers what they’re signing themselves up for if they choose to read our story, how we let them make informed decisions regarding which fics they want to read, how we get their interest and, frequently, how they find our story in the first place. A lot of metatext acts as a consent mechanism for readers, it’s the informed part of informed consent.
Since most of us who write fanfic also read it, we understand how important this is! But, for the most part, no one ever teaches us how to use metatext; we have to pick it up by osmosis. That makes it hard to learn how to use it well, we all suck at it when we first start out, and some of us may go years without learning particular conventions that seem obvious to others in our community. This creates frustration for everybody.
Enter this guide!
This is meant to be a sort of handbook for fic writers, particularly those of us who post on Archive of Our Own, laying out and explaining the established metatext conventions already in use in our community so we (and our readers!) are all on the same page. It will also provide some best-practices tips.
The point is to give all of us the tools to communicate with our audience as clearly and effectively as possible, so the people who want to read a story like ours can find it and recognize it as what they’re looking for, those who don’t want to read a story like ours can easily tell it’s not their cup of tea and avoid it, nobody gets hurt, and everybody has fun—including us!
Now that we know what we’re talking about, let’s get on with the guide! The following content sections appear in the order one is expected to provide each kind of metatext when posting a fic on Ao3, but first….
It’s your friendly neighbor fanfic author here. In the light of this apparent new trend of people feeding unfinished fics to AI to get an “ending,” and some people even talking about “blanket permissions,” let me just say this:
I EXPLICITLY FORBID ANYONE TO FEED MY FICS TO AI. DUDE, THAT IS ABOUT THE LEAST RESPECTFUL THING YOU CAN DO. IF YOU DO IT, SHALL YOU BE EXCOMMUNICATED FROM YOUR FANDOM AND WALK ON LEGOS BAREFOOT TILL THE END OF DAYS.
After returning Edwina to her chaperoning mother, Anthony was quickly waved over to the refreshments by his younger brother Colin. Standing beside him was a tall dark haired woman Anthony had not met before.
“Brother!” Colin grinned widely– generally a bad sign for Anthony. “Miss Sheffield and I were just speaking of you.”
Lord Bridgerton was assessing her once more only this time his gaze seared her. "Some men will take regardless of what women allow." Kate froze and he immediately held his hands up in a placating movement. "It is not a threat, only a concern. A protector for you may not extend to your sister."
The stinging of tears made Kate blink quickly. "There must be a way…" She had to protect Edwina. It was the most important promise she'd ever made to herself.
"Perhaps…" Lord Bridgerton rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "a small tweak to your scheme is in order. If your protector appeared in public to be Edwina's protector, it would go a long way toward stopping the offers."
"And you believe such a man exists." He quirked an eyebrow at her just as he had in the milliner shop but this time a fission of heat raced through her. "You? You should wish to have me as a mistress?"
He smirked and that was infinitely more dangerous than his brows. "I find your dedication to your sister quite admirable," he admitted. "And your decolletage at the theater, as well."
Kate's jaw dropped open for a moment. She saw his eyes move to her mouth and licked her lips. When his gaze darkened, she did it again.
"Careful, Miss Sharma," he said, voice slightly more strained than before. "I made assurances that I only wished to speak which you are testing."
It struck her then that this man was good– or trying to be at least. Kate believed him that he would help protect Edwina because he admired her. It made her feel brave, powerful even.
Taking a step toward him, she placed a hand on his cheek. "Surely a deal such as this should be sealed with more than words, my lord."
Groaning, he let his forehead fall to hers. "You are testing me."
"No, my lord," Kate said, palming his hardness through his breeches, "I am thanking you."
Anthony quite literally stumbled over her in the library. "Shit, sorry–" He realized who it was huddled in a ball. "Kate?"
"Bridgerton," she choked out. Her breathing was shallow and there were tears running down her face. It was obvious to Anthony that she was having a panic attack.
He crouched beside her, a hand reaching toward her before he froze. "Can I touch you?" He winced at how that sounded. "Nothing weird! Just– my sister Eloise found it comforting."
Eloise was the one with their father when he died of anaphylaxis almost five years earlier. She'd been five and nearly inconsolable for weeks. The panic attacks started a couple of months later and Anthony, dutiful older brother just trying to lessen his mom's burden, learned everything he could about how to support her.
Kate nodded shakily and Anthony dropped down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and rubbing her arm in a comforting pattern. She leaned into him heavily, breathing ragged. After a moment, she spoke again, "Can you talk to me? Please?" Her voice was hesitant and so small– not right for her at all.
"I never wanted to date your sister," Anthony blurted out. In his defense, it was the first thing that came to mind. He dropped his head back against the bookshelves hard but kept talking. "You were acting so unaffected and ignoring me and I wanted–" What? Her attention? His neck and ears heated with embarrassment. "I don't know, to get a response, I guess, but I took it too far and I'm sorry.
There was a long moment between them where the only sound was her breathing. "I'm sorry too," Kate admitted, voice still quiet but stronger. "I know I overreacted. You're not even Eddy's type."
"Please, I'm everyone's type."
"Trust me, you're not." She snuggled a little closer. "Tell me about your family."
"Well, I have seven younger siblings. My mom has an event planning business we all help with on weekends."
"What about your dad?"
"He died when I was thirteen. It was really sudden."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Mine died a couple years ago too. Cancer."
"Sucks."
"Yeah." The grief was palpable. Suffocating. Thankfully Kate broke it, "What was your dad like?"
"He was the best. He loved us all so much. He worked hard but also made time for each of us individually. I didn't mention but there's two sets of twins in the family and he would always make sure each got their own time and attention." Anthony closed his eyes. "I hate that Hyacinth, she's the youngest, never got to meet him. It's so unfair."
"It is," Kate agreed, "but at least she has the rest of you. When you never knew a parent… you don't miss them like we miss our dads. It's more like being told a story you can never truly understand. If they loved horses, you wonder if you would've done equestrian or if you might've vacationed at a dude ranch instead of the beach." It was as if she could sense the silent question Anthony didn't dare ask. "My mum died when I was three. Car accident during a storm– I was in the backseat. Mary, Eddy's mum, is my guardian now."
"I, uh… I didn't know that."
Kate shrugged a little self-consciously. "Why would you? Mary's the best, though. She's basically my mom."
Her breathing seemed to be back to normal, so Anthony untangled himself from her. "Here, let me just–" He went to the librarian desk and grabbed several tissues.
He handed them to Kate when he returned and she wiped her face. "How do I look?"
Her eyes were still red and her eyeliner was smeared but the only word that came to mind was striking and Anthony knew better than to say that. "Maybe wash your face before next period," he suggested with a lopsided smile. He offered her a hand to help her off the floor.
Kate accepted his help with a small thanks. He tried to shrug it off but she shook her head. "No, seriously– thank you. You didn't have to be so nice."
And all he could think was that it'd never occurred to him to do anything else.
Kate was struck, not for the first time, by just how beautiful her sister had become. At fifteen she was already blossoming into womanhood. (Unlike Kate who had been cursed with spots and unruly curls.) It was becoming more evident by the day that Edwina had real potential to marry well and finally have the life she deserved.
The problem was Kate. She hadn't been able to save nearly enough for a season, even a smaller one in Bath was well out of reach. She'd pinched every farthing but the numbers always came out the same. She could barely keep them fed, clothed and housed.
As Edwina danced around happily, Kate watched with an aching heart. They had their tea and biscuits, Kate ensuring Edwina received the lion's share, but she couldn't shake her malaise.
When Edwina was clearing their dishes, Kate cleared her throat. "I've been thinking of writing to the Sheffields."
Edwina froze. "Kate, no." Her voice was an anxious plea.
"I don't like it any more than you, Edwina," she said with forced evenness, "but the estrangement would only be temporary and they have the means to–"
"I don't care." Edwina all but threw herself into Kate's arms, nestling her head against Kate's bosom. "You're my sister and I won't deny that."
Kate swallowed, trying to keep the emotion from her voice as she rubbed soothing circles on Edwina's back. "I know you love me. That won't change because you're not here."
"I won't go," she insisted, voice hitching as her skinny arms squeezed Kate tighter. "I won't go and you can't make me."
Kate could make her, technically speaking, but she knew she never would. "Okay, Winnie," she agreed, fighting her own tears at the injustice, at her own ineptitude, at Edwina's mulishness. "We'll find another way."
Edwina pulled away suddenly. "I don't need a season. I don't, Kate. I can work too and we'll be okay because we have each other."
Kate wanted to cry all over again as she brushed away Edwina's tears. "We'll see," she said in her gentlest tone. The non-agreement was Mary's preferred way of ending arguments with Kate during her teen years. Using it now with Edwina broke her heart all over again.
"Kate," Edwina's spine straightened, mouth set stubbornly, "I mean it."
"I know you do," she replied in that same tone.
Edwina huffed. "I am going to go clean my face, and then I will prepare supper and then you are going to listen to me read Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion."
"Not Hume," she pleaded but Edwina ignored her. Apparently moral philosophy would be her punishment.
Kate trudged up to her room and flopped on the bed, knowing her day dress would get wrinkled and fully unable to bring herself to care. She wasn't willing to give up on Edwina's future.
"You left. You. I wanted to talk! I wanted to work it out. You left, and you didn't seem to want to come back, so I let you go. Why are you being such a jackass? I gave you what you wanted!"
"You think this is what I wanted? I asked you for time but no. Impatient Kate always has to have it her way–"
"Over. The. Line." She took a long deep breath through her nose. "Anthony. I was not about to wait around for a guy who didn't love me to maybe come home."
He recoiled visibly. "What?"
"We were literally a lusty cliche, getting married while shitfaced in Vegas. I get that you didn't want the annulment scandal, and, honestly, I thought I'd be okay with your whole deal, but I'm not like you. I can't compartmentalize and act like I love someone and not have it mean anything. All the flowers and kindness and the press eating it up one day, then cold silence and mocking looks the next. It was suffocating. And then you left when you promised you would be there. 'It can't be love but I'll always take care of you.' Remember? I felt so fucking stupid. How could I stay?"
"I came back," he argued weakly. "I came back to tell you…" He looked at her standing tall, eyebrows high on her forehead. Then he saw her lip wobble ever so slightly– a chink in her armor.
On instinct he stepped toward her, wrapping one hand around the back of her neck. His other hand rested on her waist, holding her gently. When their lips were a hair's breadth away, she stilled. "I need to hear you say it, Anthony. Please."
"I–" The words caught in his throat.
The silence stretched between them and Kate tensed. She stepped back. Her eyes were shining as she looked at him. "Good-bye, Anthony."
At least this time she said it to his face. Maybe that would be enough.
Mary Sharma was not in the habit of eavesdropping on her daughters. In fact, if asked about the possibility of doing so only one day earlier, she would have laughed at the absurdity.
And yet, when she walked past Edwina's door, conveniently cracked open, and heard Kate exclaim, "He humiliated me, bon! Do you not care at all?" she stopped in her tracks.
Surely, she had misheard. When Edwina and Kate returned from the Royal Ascot, they said nothing of any issues arising and claimed it was a lovely afternoon. Edwina even gushed over Kate's pick winning the main event.
Although… had Kate smiled when Edwina mentioned that? Mary was embarrassed to admit that her focus was much more on her younger daughter, so effervescent as she described their afternoon. Kate had not spoken at all until she suggested, in a manner that was less suggestion and more instruction, that they retire upstairs for some rest. That was not an unusual occurrence, so Mary had not given the directive a second thought.
Perhaps, she reflected as she heard Edwina huff petulantly, she should have. "And what alternatives did you leave him, akka?" Edwina countered, sounding surprisingly sulky. "You practically barred him from entry–"
"His lateness barred him from entry." Kate's defensiveness was evident in her tone. She softened her voice as she continued, clearly trying to reason with her sister, "He is wholly unsuitable for you. Surely you must see that."
Edwina's tone held firm. "I do not see that. He assured me that he only wished to spend time with me, something you have tried to prevent. I think that most romantic."
"Romantic?" Kate's cry was filled with incredulity.
Enough. Mary was their mother and this argument did not appear to be resolving itself. She pushed her way into the room to find her daughters facing one another with matching stubborn expressions– not an unusual sight for Kate but for Edwina a bit less in character.
Almost in unison, they turned to face Mary and adopted innocent expressions. It was a little unsettling, truth be told. Kate spoke first, as she always did, "Mama, were you seeking an audience with Edwina? I can–"
"Stay, Kate," Mary said, firm but not unkind. "I believe there is more to today's outing than you shared with me earlier, and I should like to hear about it."
Kate remained in her spot but inclined her head toward Edwina, deferring the spotlight to her younger sister… as she always did. (Had she truly not noticed this?) And Edwina did not question it as her right or privilege; she simply opened her mouth to speak.
Mary was quicker. "No. I should like to hear about it from Kate."
Her elder daughter's jaw clenched and she averted her eyes. "It is of no consequence."
"I shall be the judge of that," Mary insisted firmly. "Tell me what occurred, please."
Where she expected anger or frustration, Mary instead found hurt in Kate's expression, in her glistening gaze. "A Mister Dorset requested an introduction. He pretended at an interest in me but it was a trick. Lord Bridgerton wished to distract me from my duties as chaperone." She looked at the ground. "I was humiliated."
"He had no choice, Mama!" Edwina objected, eyes wide and pleading. "Kate has–"
Kate's gaze remained on the floor but there was a new tension in her. Mary could not recall the last time she saw her eldest so distraught. "Edwina," she scolded, not hiding her disappointment, "there is always a choice where the feelings of others are concerned." Her younger daughter pouted and Mary frowned deeply. Had they protected Edwina so much she could truly not see how upset her sister was?
Kate cleared her throat. "It need not be of any consequence," she repeated, trying to sound unbothered. Trying but not succeeding for Mary could hear the undercurrent of pain she could not mask.
Edwina looked hopeful but Mary shook her head decisively. "I disagree. An underhanded act such as this does not speak well of Lord Bridgerton's character." She looked at her younger daughter. "You would throw over the feelings of your most beloved sister for a man you have met but twice?"
For the first time, Edwina looked less certain. "I– she has said–"
"I heard what your sister said," Mary interrupted, "but look at her. Do you not see how these thoughtless actions have hurt her?"
After a moment's hesitation, Edwina nodded. She looked appropriately chastised, so Mary returned her attention to her elder daughter. "Kate," she drew closer and put her hands on her daughter's shoulders to ensure she held her full attention, "I am sorry that Lord Bridgerton behaved as such. It is unconscionable."
It took several swallows before Kate nodded and said, "Thank you, Mama."
Welcome new followers who do not quite look like porn bots.
A word of advice: If you only hit the Like heart, your blog appears to be empty and your tumblr experience will not be good. Because people will block you.
I will block you.
Get reblogging, fill your blog. This is how it's done here.
If for whatever reason you don't feel comfortable reblogging yet, literally just make one single text post saying something like "hey I'm new to tumblr and still figuring out the culture! Not a bot, pls don't block me." An empty blog is an instant report spam.
Day 1: "You have no idea who I am, do you?" (Enemies to Lovers)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
When famous actor Anthony Bridgerton makes a terrible impression on human rights lawyer Kate Sharma at a party celebrating her model sister it shouldn't matter. It doesn't matter. Until he expresses an interest in her barely legal model sister, that is.
or
Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma definitely aren't George and Amal Clooney.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
"Because fate has a funny way of mending things back together. I mean you are here and I am here, and we’ll find each other again, that is, if that’s the way it’s supposed to be." - R.M Drake
or
What if Anthony didn't return after he was spooked by Kate? A TVWLM second chances modern AU.
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
I knew about half of this when I started writing. It’s amazing the stuff they don’t teach you in school that you have to work out on your own. And look, all beautifully laid out for you.
Kate Sharma x Lucy Granville (because self-realized women are awesome)
"Do you need assistance with your clothes, Miss Sharma?"
Kate shook her head, cheeks warming. She had needed help not so long ago. Her clothes had been slightly outdated but well made; now they were hardly better than rags.
She took the clothes from Lucy but the other woman did not move away. Instead she brushed Kate's curls back from her face. "You have remarkable features. It's why I suggested you model in the first place."
"Th-thank you?"
"I speak only the truth."
Still she did not move away. "Lady Granville, I have to change…"
"Please, call me Lucy." Kate nodded. "And I may call you Kate?" She nodded again. "Kate… do you know what happens here in the late hours?"
Kate shook her head, eyes wide.
"We are bohemians, Mr. Granville and I. We take pleasure as we wish– but only as it is offered freely. Do you understand?"
Kate shook her head again.
"I like you, Kate. You are beautiful and different, and I should like to kiss you," Kate inhaled sharply, "but only if you should also wish it. Should you not, we need never speak of this again. Your invitation here is secure regardless of your choices tonight– or, indeed, any night." A sensual smile formed in her lips. "The goal is pleasure for all involved."
"But will I not be… fallen?" Kate hated the timidity in her voice but her virtue was all that remained of her former life.
"Perhaps in the eyes of some but it is not for them to know what we do here. And the act men of God speak of– the one that results in children– requires at least one man be present." Lucy placed a hand on her cheek. "The kiss, dear Kate, would be just for us."
"Okay."
Lucy smiled and it warmed her whole face. She placed Kate's clothes on a nearby chair and then moved close again. Tucking another stubborn strand behind Kate's ear, she leaned close and brought their lips together.
