Using AO3 – a tutorial

Introduction to AO3

AO3 is a repository of more than 13 million works of fanfiction across thousands of fandoms in multiple languages. This can make finding the types of fiction you want to read rather difficult. There are two types of reader at AO3, those who have committed to joining the writing community with their own AO3 account, and those who are waiting for an account / just passing through – these latter are “guest” accounts. Both types of account will allow you to read fanfics, but some authors restrict the access which Guest accounts have. You will need your own account to post your own works. Find out about creating an AO3 account here.

Reading Fan Works

Narrowing down your search selection (Applying filters)

The main filter you will want to apply is choosing your fandom. This is not as straightforward as you might expect. If you were to specify Lockwood & Co – TV series, you might miss out on works published before the TV series was created. There are more than 1,000 works written under Lockwood & Co which don’t use the Lockwood & Co – TV tag. To avoid this, choose both Lockwood & Co tags:

This will return more than 3,000 works, so you will definitely want to filter your selection further. How you prioritise your filters is up to you, but here are some you may wish to utilise:

Relationships

One of the most common categories of filter, this is where you choose the theme of the story you would like to read. Whether you’ve come to AO3 to read more about Lucy and Lockwood’s romantic relationship or whether you are interested in the dynamic between Lucy and the Skull-in-the-Jar, this is the filter for you!

It’s worth noting that fanfiction sites use a slightly different interpretation of the “/” and “&” symbols than their traditional Boolean meaning. In fanfiction, a romantic relationship is defined using “/”, e.g. Lucy/Lockwood. A familial or platonic relationship is defined using the “&” symbol, e.g a sibling relationship between Lucy and George would be represented by Lucy&George.

In the example below, you would find all works which are tagged with a romantic relationship between George and Flo Bones:

You will also notice a new symbol “|” in the options chosen above. This is the symbol for “or”. In this context, it is use to show that George is listed with two different surnames (book vs TV).

Relationship Types

Choosing from the Categories section will allow you to focus on a particular style of relationship. This is helpful if you want to read stories with an LGBTQ+ element to them.

Characters

Maybe you aren’t sure what kind of plot you want to read, but you really like a particular character. Use the Character field.