Hi Squash! Reccing noob here. Are there some tropes which are easier to start with for a complete noob?
YAY! More Reccers!!!! <3
I mean no bad way to start honestly! Some options for you...
Go look at your bookmarks or history. Which trope did you read a lot? Go for that one. This way you don't have to read a ton of new fic before making your list.
Maybe pick a trope that's really popular in your fandom. This way you get a lot of AO3 fic to work with.
Pick a trope which you want to see more fics for... recs can motivate sometimes but ofc don't make lists with that expectation ;) Maybe use a fanlore list like this to look at a variety of tropes.
Your rec lists are creative and always good! Thanks for making them! 6 and 8 :)
Thanks for the ask, nonnie <3
Context - doing a mini ask game for hitting 500 fic recs
6. How do you find new fic to rec?
Most of my ficrecs come direclty from AO3 searches. During the pandemic lockdowns I made pretty detailed notes for hundreds of fics. That's where the majority of my fic recs are from.
For fics written after April/May 2021, again from AO3 but generally I get a head start by looking at word of mouth recs on Reddit/Tumblr or author bookmarks or checking what's new from the authors I am subscribed to.
8. How do you make a rec list?
This process has changed a lot for me. How I made my first list is totally different from how I make lists now. I am going to describe the process I use now. Trust me it's loads better than what I was doing in the beginning!
I make themed rec lists generally. Sometimes I make one off detailed recs but that's rare. Everything I am going to be talking about are going to be about themed rec lists.
1. Starting - Read fics from authors you are subscribed to/tags you follow on AO3. Depending on how much time you have for fandom you probably want to adapt this. When I am short on time, I just read subscribed authors. When I have more time, I read the SS/HP tag. If I have tons more time like during the pandemic lockdowns, I read the Snape character tags instead of just pairing tags.
2. Finding the theme - I generally get a vibe about what's unique about a fic/a stand out trope when reading. This is the hardest part honestly. Because sometimes you can read tons of fic w/o really feeling you identified a theme. But once you get the theme, you are golden!
3. Searching - Now you can start looking for other fic matching that theme. If you are good at searching on old sites like LJ or if you can use Wayback archives you are going to come up with unique older fics. But that's like an advanced option. You can make awesome rec lists just with AO3 fics w/o using other archives.
But you need a search strategy. Sorry to sound corporate. But it is true. Search strategy comes from your list goals! Sorry to sound even more corporate. But it is also true.
List goals can be like "I want to rec 10 infidelity fics with most kudos... I want to rec 10 OTP fics written from 2001-2003... I want to rec 10 timetravel fics which are WIPs..." Once you are really clear about your list goals you can use that to control your AO3 searches and life's going to be good.
4. Filtering - In a large fandom you are still going to end up with 100s of fics for your search strategy. Are you going to read everything? Depends on how much time you have for this/what quality you want the list to be. I generally like getting lists out because that way they are helping somebody instead of waiting to do it perfectly right. But you do you! Personally I filter pretty hard at the summaries. You can do that with the tags if the list is about a trope. I don't look at tags/stats personally because I feel that misses out on a lot of really good untagged fics or imported fics from other archives. One of my goals with reccing is to give some spotlight to fics which will go unnoticed otherwise.
5. Final selection - Once you read your fics you need to make a hard call about picking which fics to rec out of the fics you read. This was something I had a lot of angst over in my early lists. But it doesn't really matter. Don't stress about it. I don't stress about it now! If a fic doesn't make it to this list it's going on your next lists. That's it. If you don't ever make another list that's cool too! Because you got one list out and that's more than most people do! Fandom is for fun. Just don't put pressure on yourself for these things. Give reccing a chance. If you don't like it, NBD! <3
