Tags and Discovery

Tags and discovery

Tags describe the themes found in individual chapters. Readers can use them to find related content across a story or across CHYOA, while a story's public tag list summarizes the tags used by its published chapters.

Add tags to a chapter

While writing or editing a content chapter, find Add a Tag:

1. enter one short tag;
2. confirm it;
3. repeat for any additional tags;
4. save the chapter.

For example, a fantasy branch set in a haunted castle might use Fantasy, Ghost, and Castle.

Link Chapters do not have chapter content or tags. Add tags to the destination content chapter instead.

Choose useful tags

A useful tag is:

• accurate for the chapter where it is added;
• specific enough to help someone choose whether to read it;
• written the same way as the tag used on similar chapters;
• short enough to scan in a list.

Do not add every possible related word. A precise group of tags is more useful than a long list that includes themes only mentioned in passing.

Tags are not a replacement for the story's category, synopsis, Writer guidelines, or the CHYOA Rules. They describe content; they do not make otherwise disallowed content acceptable.

Reuse live tags instead of a fixed directory

Tags are created and used by authors, so the available vocabulary changes with the stories on CHYOA. There is no fixed list that every author must follow.

Before creating a variation, use Search or select an existing tag to see the wording readers already encounter. Reusing a clear established tag helps related chapters appear together. Create a new tag when the existing choices do not accurately describe the chapter.

Capitalization does not create a useful separate tag. A chapter also removes repeated versions of the same tag without regard to capitalization. Use one consistent spelling so the displayed label looks deliberate.

How chapter tags become story tags

Tags on published chapters are collected automatically in the story's Tags section. Tags used by more published chapters appear first. Selecting one of these story tags opens a list of the currently visible content chapters in that story that use it.

Draft and under-review chapters do not add their tags to the public story list until they are published. If the final published chapter using a tag is changed or removed, that tag no longer belongs in the story's public tag summary.

This means authors do not maintain a second story-level tag list. Add each tag where its theme actually occurs, and CHYOA builds the story summary from those chapters.

Help readers find the right level

Use broad and narrow tags together only when both add useful information. For example:

• Fantasy describes the broad setting.
• Dragon describes an important creature in the chapter.
• Transformation describes a major event.

Avoid adding a broad tag to every branch when only one route contains that theme. Chapter-level accuracy lets a reader select a story tag and find the relevant branches inside the story.

Update tags as the chapter changes

Review the tags whenever you substantially edit a chapter:

• remove themes that no longer occur;
• add a newly central theme;
• replace duplicate or unusually worded tags with the established wording;
• keep tags on the chapter where the content appears.

After saving a published chapter, check the story's Tags section and select the changed tag to confirm that the expected chapters appear.

Before publishing

Check that:

1. every tag describes material actually present in the chapter;
2. capitalization and spacing match the established tag you intended;
3. the list is concise rather than exhaustive;
4. the story category and synopsis still describe the story as a whole;
5. sensitive or important information is clear in the prose and not communicated only by a tag.

Related Guide chapters

• Create and Publish a Story
• Write and Publish Chapters