Re: a question I saw about tagging

As an author with a lot of ongoing works, two of my absolute favorite tags are “other additional tags to be added” and “additional warnings in author’s note”! It’s less overwhelming to go chapter by chapter and update tags as needed, and this way readers still have an explicit warning that not everything may be covered in the tags. I also generally ask for feedback, but I think like the anon mentioned a lot of readers might feel shy because other requests weren’t responded to, because I don’t usually hear back about it.
Also, something that might overwhelm newer writers (at least on Ao3) is that sometimes you have a tag, and then a ‘mild’ version of the tag and a ‘graphic’ version of the tag. Of course there’s no hard and fast rule, but I think of it this way: if it’s one or two sentences or gives a vague description, it’s probably mild! If the description is straightforward but still polite, and takes up around a paragraph, it’s fine to just tag the item as is with no ‘clarifying’ bit. But if it goes into detail in any way, especially for multiple paragraphs, you’ll definitely want the ‘graphic’ version of the tag.
Let me see if I can come up with a non-triggering example, I’m an angst writer so gotta be careful lol. Hm.
Maybe this:
“It was hot” = ‘mild heat/mentions of heat’
“Character groaned, hissing as their hand brushed the hot leather seats. The heat wave was going on two weeks now, with no signs of cooling down.” = heat
“Waves of hot air rose from the pavement as character wandered down the street. Their sneaker soles had already begun to melt. The sun beat down on their skin, seeping through the layers of would-be sun protection to cook them like their own personal oven. A heat wave, their leaders called it— it felt more like death.” = graphic heat
Not my best work lol but hopefully it helps paint a picture! The divide between a tag and a graphic tag can be tricky to navigate, but most readers know what they can handle, and just putting the tag in there should be enough of a heads-up if you’re not sure; I’ve definitely read fics that were more explicit than I was ready for, and usually the item was tagged skdfjldk I just underestimated the author’s talent for description. Most readers know to back out!
I have more advice re: basic tagging but this is getting long so I’ll write a separate ask. I hope this is helpful! Tagging definitely seems like a big huge stressful thing but over the years I’ve found ways to make it easier on myself while giving readers fair warning about content so I’ll try to pass on what I can, and hopefully something sticks for someone! ;w;