[lissaselves]

OK, so this is probably something that has been explained a gazillion times before - I just couldn't find it:

How do you define the various types of fics?

I put my first and only ficlet in type 'General' and category 'Tolkien-Lord of the Rings', but am not at all sure that either were suitable (especially not the latter).

It deals with death, and a wood-elf's rejection of the call to Mandos' Halls.

How would you classify it?

(I probably should have asked before posting, but at least I hope to be prepared for the next time.)

[Alassante]

I think you're fine. Lord of the Rings is bookverse - which to me is anything that's not movie verse even if its not actually based on events in the book, ie gapfillers. And General can be anything. Yours could also be angst, tragedy or drama too. I always think of stories like that as angst but I'm sure 50 different people would define angst 30 different ways. General are more the 'anything that doesn't fit anywhere else' or the catch-all stories.

[Viv]

Don't worry about it too much: categorization in fanfiction is all over the map. Things categorized as "romance" often have little similarity to the literary genre (archaic or modern interpretation); similarly, I've seen things categorized as "humour" just because they're kind of fluffy and sweet, not necessarily meant to be funny.

I think the main thing to keep in mind is the audience you're writing for. If you want readers to look at your story because it has an interesting pairing or take on a relationship, even if that relatinship isn't the primary focus of the story, you can categorize it as romance.

"Gen" is a good catch-all, but if your story has any elements of horror or romance, you probably want to categorize it as one of those, because some Gen readers can become annoyed if those elements appear in fics labelled "gen."

Ugh. I can't get my thoughts to do the succint thing this morning. Sorry for the long post.

[Viv]

And Lissa, as far as your specific story, Passing, is concerned, I think you categorized it appropriately. I suppose you *could* exchange LoTR for Silm, but it doesn't matter very much. Those long-lived elves sort of floated through several Ages and stories, didn't they?

[lissaselves]

Oh good, glad to hear my choice was not totally wrong!

Yes, those long-lived elves are difficult to fit in ...

The next one I plan to post deals with events described in UT, but I'll put that one in the LOTR category, too.