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Welcome => Rules and News => FAQs => Topic started by: julilly on October 08, 2007, 02:13:26 PM

Title: Rating your fics.
Post by: julilly on October 08, 2007, 02:13:26 PM
TV ratings, approval ratings, credit ratings, every day we hear about all kinds of ratings but today we're going to talk about fic ratings. :) It has come to my attention that a lot of people are unclear about what exactly each rating means, and whether or not it applies to their story over another.

So, when you're posting something new on Absolute Chaos and are uncertain as to what rating it falls under, keep things things in mind:

Rated G: Appropriate for all ages. There is no content that would be objectionable to most parents. Very mild language may exist, including words such as "heck", "dumb", or "stupid".

Rated PG: Some material may not be suitable for children. May contain some mild language, crude humor, sexual themes and/or violence. No drug content is present. The "F" word is never used.

Rated PG-13: Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. May contain moderate sexuality, language, humor, and/or violence. Bloodshed is rarely present, and this is the minimum rating for mild drug use. Normally a PG-13 would not allow any more than 3 uses of the "F" word or use any f-bombs sexually. PG-13 contains more profane language than PG permits.

Rated R: Rated R may contain strong profanity, graphic sexuality or nudity, strong violence, and/or gore, and drug use. Profanity often is more severe or frequent than the PG-13 rating would permit. Sexually related profanity, sexual content and mature themes fall under this rating.  

Rated NC-17: 18 and older ONLY. NC-17 rated stories may contain excessive graphic violence, sex, aberrational behavior, drug abuse, strong language, or any other elements which, when present, most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children and teens. These may contain grisly bloody violence and torture, explicit sex acts, and adult content. The next rating up from this would be the X rating for pornography. 


These ratings are based on a number of sources including the MPAA, the documentary "This Film is Not Yet Rated", and the internet. :)

I hope this helps clear up any of the concerns people have over what rating their fanfics are, so that everyone will be able to enjoy your work.
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: RokofAges75 on October 08, 2007, 03:47:09 PM
Thanks Julilly! :)
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: nicksgal on October 09, 2007, 12:01:57 AM
Very thorough. I especially like the color change for the different ratings. :)
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: Rose on October 09, 2007, 12:30:26 AM
That's great :) thankies.

See it's a fine line, like with Just Another Day...(and it's sequel) it's a tame story, but Nick's POV parts have frequent cursing, not extreme, but constant. But that's the only thing so it's rated PG-13...makes me wonder if the cursing should have upped the rating lol.
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: honey on October 09, 2007, 01:14:43 AM
I don't think so Rose, I would say that JAD is only PG-13. I kind of have the same dilemma with Searching For Mercy, and after debating over it for a while, I went with PG-13 as well because there's no sex or violence. Though, I think I may have used the F word more than three times (not sure), so maybe I'm wrong and we both need to change our ratings. *shrugs* I haven't had any complaints yet.
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: Rose on October 09, 2007, 01:26:59 AM
Yeah thats why I went PG-13, cause the cursing was the only problem. Cause Nick does a lot lol, especially with the F-bomb, but not in a way that hinders the fic, more so in the sense that you get that's just how he talks.

No complaints here either though.

I'm so putting off writing my next G&G chapter lol, shame on me.
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: julilly on October 09, 2007, 04:55:17 AM
That's great :) thankies.

See it's a fine line, like with Just Another Day...(and it's sequel) it's a tame story, but Nick's POV parts have frequent cursing, not extreme, but constant. But that's the only thing so it's rated PG-13...makes me wonder if the cursing should have upped the rating lol.

It's really only a guideline, so in that case I don't think you would go up in rating just because of profane language unless it was used sexually. There is a big difference in ratings between saying "F--k you." and "I want to f--k you."
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: Alexsgirl_ritz on August 26, 2009, 02:07:20 AM
Thank you for this info... I should have read this before posting my pic. It should have been PG 13 I guess... I'll go change it now. Thanks again....
Title: Re: Rating your fics.
Post by: julilly on October 31, 2013, 04:38:36 PM
Review time! Be sure that the new stories you are posting are properly rated by comparing the content to this list. :)