Louis Tomlinson Recommendations

ao3 explained part 2

DISCLAIMER: this is how I'm able to do it on my chromebook. There's a possibility that it will look and work different depending on what device you're using and what brand it is.

Filters
For first time users, the filters can be a little overwhelming. You'll see that once you've used it a few times it's as easy as writing your name. You don't have to use all filters, you can choose to just do a few or when you're feeling like reading a very specific fanfic, you can use them all.

Any field: searches all the fields associated with a work in the database, including summary, notes and tags, but not the full work text.
Title: I think this one speaks for itself.
Author/artist: if you found an authors name and want to see their works, this is one way to find it.
Date: create a range of times. If no range is given, then one will be calculated based on the time period specified.
Completion status: you can choose between all works (completed and uncompleted), complete works only and works in progress only. 'All works' basically just means all works, when you don't really care whether the work is finished or not, you can choose this one. 'Complete works only' means that you will only get works that are completed/finished. 'Works in progress only' means that you will only get works that are uncompleted/unfinished.
Crossovers: you can choose between include crossovers, exclude crossovers and only crossovers. 'Include crossovers' means that you will get both crossovers and non-crossovers. 'Exclude crossovers' means that you will only get works that aren't crossovers. 'Only crossovers' means that you will only get works with crossovers. A crossover is a work with more than one fandom.
Single chapter: if you check the box of, you will only get works that have 1 single chapter.
Word count: use this when you want a specific length of fanfic. A single number (10) will find words with that exact amount. A number with a comparison mark (<100) will find works with less than that amount or (>100) will find works with more than that amount. Two numbers with an underscore in between (100-1000) will find works in the range of those two numbers.
Language: selecting a language from this drop-down will search for works in that language. Note that this is a list that ao3 supports, it doesn't mean that there will be a work with that language.

Fandoms: here you can type the fandom you want your fanfic to be in.
Rating: there are a few different ratings. You can choose between not rated, general audiences, teen and up audiences, mature and explicit. 'Not rated' means that the author chose to not add a rating. 'General audiences' means that it's appropriate for all ages. 'Teen and up audiences' means that it isn't appropriate for all ages. Since the age someone is a teen is defined as 13, this basically means that it's appropriate for people starting at 13 years old. 'Mature' means that it's (definition from some site) not appropriate for people under the age of 17. Obviously this is something you decide, if you think you're ready to read it, but you're not 17 yet, just do it. 'Explicit' means that it's straight up. This is mostly straight up smut.
Warnings: here you can also choose between some options. You can choose between creator chose not to use archive warning, graphic depictions of violence, major character death, no archive warnings apply, rape/non-con and underage. 'Creator chose not to use archive warnings' means that the author chose to not use any of the archive warnings. When you see this in the information about a fanfic, make sure to check the tags for things that may be triggering for you. 'Graphic depictions of violence' means that the work contains especially vivid, brutal and realistic acts of violence. 'Major character death' means that one of the main characters will die at one point. I do not recommend this one if you get easily attached to the characters in a fanfic, because it will feel like your heart literally breaks in half. 'No archive warnings apply' means that none of the archive warnings apply to the work. 'Rape/non-con' means that there is someone getting raped, someone raping someone or detailed mentions of rape in the work. Non-con or non-consensual is basically just a "nice" way to say rape. Be really careful with reading works that contain this warning! I think this is the most triggering subject on ao3 and even if you think you can handle it, please be careful and stop reading when you feel like it's getting too much. 'Underage' means that one of the characters is underage and the other one is an adult. Most of the works rated with this are incest, parent-kid relationship or for example 16-year-old student and 23-year-old teacher. You can check more than one box of.
Categories: here you can choose between some options as well. You can choose between F/F, F/M, gen, M/M, multi and other. 'F/F' means that there is a relationship between two female characters. 'F/M' means that there is a relationship between a male character and a female character. 'Gen' means that there are no romantic or sexual relationships or that there are relationships which are not the main focus of the work. 'M/M' means that there is a relationship between two male characters. 'Multi' means that there is more than one kind of relationship (for example F/F and F/M) or that there is a relationship with multiple partners. I don't really know what 'Other' means and couldn't find it on Google either.
Characters: here you can add the characters you want the work to contain.