How Do You Find Fic?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I'm notoriously bad both at remembering titles and noting author names.

Story I'm trying to locate has a Steve Rogers broken out after one or another group very interested in what makes him tick. He's having trouble getting past the torture, because he's in once piece and looks fine, but he's still seeing what happened.

Markers are involved.

(I've attempted search on AO3 and in a search engine.--didn't find.)

EDIT I managed to get it to drop. Url will be below in the comments. I used the search cartouche while I was in my History. I don't know how the archive really works, because the search works didn't work. Note, when I did it this time, Bruce Banner & Steve Rogers was used. Fic might not have the character field filled, just the relationship?

Comments

[doranwen]

I, uh, ended up creating a database because I was frustrated not being able to find fics. I've got a notes section where I put in the aspects of fics that stick out to me - I usually have a good idea of what I'm going to remember that will lead me to want to find a fic later ("that one where this happens" type of thing). The trouble with this is I have to actually enter all the data on the fics first, but I'd be farther along if the Yahoo Groups project hadn't derailed my life for months, lol. I got nearly 1000 fics in it in just a few months, and I'm looking forward to being able to get back to it and get a few more fandoms entered.

I also save all the fics I like to my hard drive and I've done searches within the fics for strings of words I can remember, or if there's a really unusual word that the fic had in it. (I even have created epubs of fics that are on sites that don't have download options or programs that can grab the fics, such as posts on old LJs or personal websites.)

I'm afraid neither of those things really helps you find your fic, lol, but that's what I do.

[cuddyclothes]

i put out feelers. But I'm also obsessive so I will practically kill myself looking for fics across the internet.

[seekingferret]

Have you tried looking in your own AO3 history?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

There's no search. I'd been in there forever. (This actually has cut down on the amount I read, since everything goes into the history. Also, I did dump my history at least once.)

[beatrice_otter]

I sometimes do that, but it really only works when you've read the fic relatively recently. (Or, at least, it only works for ME when I've read the fic relatively recently, given how much fic I read and the fact that your history isn't filterable in any way.)

Mostly, I just make sure I bookmark every fic I like and think I might want to reread. It doesn't always work--sometimes I don't anticipate future!me's taste very well--but it is a lot easier to go through a lot of bookmarks than my entire AO3 history.

[annathecrow]

I save all fic I like as epubs and store them in a Calibre database. It's the only way to have at least a passing chance to ever find anything again. And yet, I still lose fic all the time...

Case in point: I remember reading a fic similar to yours but I can't find it. (The one I remember had Bruce Banner, and Steve drawing fake scars on his arms to process the experience of being hurt repeatedly with nothing to "prove" the pain.)

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

That is the story, almost assuredly. But I have tried searching AO3 and can't make it drop.

It's probably tagged very minimally.

The Healing Properties of Felt-Tip Pens

I'm old school enough that I only save fic I have to email away for. It's not like I'd be able to find anything if I saved too much and I do wear machines out from time to time.

[pauraque]

LJ used to have fic-finding comms for major fandoms, but I don't know if that's a tradition that quite carried over to DW. I know there's kink_finders but that's for finding fic with a certain kink rather than specific stories.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

When I searched for ficfinders, most everything was lj, except as you mention, and then tumblr's clint_coulson.

[yourlibrarian]

If I'm not mistaken the new rec_the_thing is open to fanwork searches. But I know what you mean. I am also hopeless at remembering titles or authors, even of a fic I just finished 5 minutes ago. And since I download and then go back later to find the works in order to leave feedback I have often found AO3's search results inexplicable since very often the title and author are correct but the fic only comes up if I enter the URL.

Although since people seem to delete their stuff with distressing frequently I am never too sure that this wasn't the reason until the URL 404s.

[megpie71]

My solution involves bookmarks in Firefox, lots of folders and subfolders to sort them into, and a certain reluctance to cull things. Oh, and a somewhat retentive memory for random nonsense.