r/AO3•
FierySoul135

Tagging NSFW Scenes in a Longfic that's also mainly a Genfic

NSFWQuestions/Help?

It's exactly as it's sounds. There are some sex scenes that happen in the middle of my longfic and I was curious about how potential readers would prefer for them to be tagged.

For context: the fic has been split into 2 parts, this is in Part 2, and by this point there would be a minimum of +300k words worth of context leading up to this. Part 1 is finished and posted (195k), so we're looking at this happening approx. 100k words into Part 2.

Yes, the fic is rated E, and, yes, the tags already state that there are/will be explicit scenes and smut. However, for now, I was going to leave a freeform tag stating something along the lines of "Smut tagged in Author's Note of relevant chapters."

Buuuuut tags advertise to the right people and turn away others that wouldn't be interested. I'm going to tag the scenes in the author's note of the chapters regardless, as I think that's a fair and warranted warning to give (I like to post chapter by chapter). This is more about me tagging the sex stuff in the main fic tags where readers can already see and search for them.

Tagging longfics is already kinda challenging, but...y'know it hits different when you've got "identity crisis with denial" and "secretive out of necessity," and then casually have "rough foreplay," "porn with plot," and "surprise third party" somewhere nearby XD

Also, since I like to post chapter by chapter (usually have several written in advance) readers would be looking at these tags for probably months before the scenes finally get posted.

So, readers/anyone with a genuine preference or advice, what are your ideas? Should I put the sex tags with the other tags or just keep them in the chapters? Or maybe do something else entirely? I open to suggestions! :)

Posted Jun 4, 2026, 1:04 AM UTC

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