Rainbow Tags

So, one topic that I’ve seen come up a few times is the ‘rainbow tags,’ which basically means you’ve got five or six tags of various colours, basically making it a muddled rainbow. Generally, this isn’t a good thing. Why? Thead copy at Pitfalls.

Well, let’s think about it like this. Every tag is a genre, or in the case of Human/EQG/Crossover, elements from other worlds/franchises. Now, think about some of your favorite stories, the ones that you found were an excellent read, with cohesive narrative and focus. How many tags would say that those stories have?

For examples, I’ll use some stories that everyone can agree are at the very least classics. So, Lord of the Rings and Count of Monte Cristo. While results may vary, I think everyone can agree that LOTR’s tags would be adventure, and depending on who you ask, sad or tragedy. For Count of Monte Cristo, you’ve got (maybe) Romance, Adventure and Drama.

I bet that, for any good story you can think of, the tags you would list would be two or three, maybe four, tops. That’s because these stories all have one or two main storylines they follow. They stick to the story they’re telling without straying from they main narrative, at least not that far, leading to a cohesive narrative that doesn't feel disjointed or separated. This is probably why five or six tags doesn’t end all that well under most circumstances. The more tags you have, the less cohesive your story is going to be, due to all the different genres it’s trying to be at once.

So, that wraps up my thoughts on this. If you have anything you’d like to add, anything you’d like to yell at me for because I’m wrong, please let me know. I’d love the feedback.