fanfic_howto

When I first came to lj, I was very puzzled by the way fanfic worked here. I was used to the archive sites such as fanfiction.net and this was so very different. I had to stumble around and wished there was a place where I could learn the basics. So, this is my attempt to pay it forward and help out those of you who are in the same boat.



The Basics

You post your fanfics as a journal entry. There is no uploading a story/chapter feature type of thing. You just choose the link 'Post to Journal'. Typically you only post the full text of the story to your personal journal and then link back to it on any community postings, but we'll get to that later.

Subject: The subject is usually the title of the fic. A fairly standard format for that is: Fic: "Title of Your Story Here" (Name of fandom(s) Example --  Fic: "A Really Great Title" (Supernatural)

Header: The header goes right before the body of your story and is pretty much mandatory if you want anyone to actually read your stuff. Most communities have their own suggested format, but I use a standard one that has so far seemed to please the mods anywhere I post.  That format is below, feel free to copy/paste.

Title: Story title obviously (Chapter # if is multi-chapter story)
Fandom(s): List of fandoms in your story
Characters: Characters of focus go here
Pairing(s): Example -- 'Alice/Bob' or if no pairing put 'Gen'
Rating: The MPAA movie rating system is commonly used for this (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17) These are pretty subjective. Normally I err on the side of caution.  Here's a link that explains that a little further. MPAA Ratings
Summary: A few sentences to draw the reader in and give them an idea of what your story is about.
Genre: Examples -- Comedy, Angst, Adventure, Slash, Het, Romance, Alternate Universe, Smut, Hurt/Comfort ... etc.
Warnings: This is for SPOILERS or anything sensitive that may upset or trigger readers. Examples: rape/noncon/dubcon, suicide, child abuse, major character death, graphic violence, torture, kinks such as bondage or S&M, etc.
Word count: approximate wordcount

The Story Itself: As far as posting the text of your story, you have two options (Rich text & HTML). In my case, I usually have my fics already written in Word or already stored on another site. If I copy and paste my stories into the 'Rich Text' window, I generally get to keep all my pre-existing formatting (italics, bold, centered, etc.). If you copy and paste into the HTML window, you will lose that stuff and will have to use html tags or edit it in the Rich Text Window. Tags are easy to use if you're not familiar with them. I could do a tutorial, but it's probably best to just Google 'basic HTML tags'. The text of your story should always go underneath a LiveJournal Cut or LJ Cut as they're often called. That's very easy to do. 

From the HTML tab: put the beginning tag <lj-cut> at the beginning of your story text and the ending tag </lj-cut> at the end. 
From the Rich Text tab: Highlight the story and then click the LiveJournal Cut option at the top of the window (to the left of the thumbs up/ LJ Like option).  

Multi-Chapter Stories

Multi-chapter stories can be a challenge on lj if you're not used to posting here. Typically each chapter will be it's own journal entry. Next to the story title you will usually put the chapter number. Example -- Chapter 1 of 10 and so forth, or if it's a WIP and you don't know how many chapters it will be Chapter 1 of ?.

WARNING: If it's a multi-chapter story that you are posting all at once, it is best to wait a day or two between posting chapters. Otherwise you run the risk of spamming and thus irritating those on your friends list (flist).

Multi-Chapter Tips & Tricks: You want to make it as easy as possible for people to read your story. One thing that is much appreciated is a link at the bottom of each chapter that will lead the reader to the next chapter. A Masterpost for a story is also a good idea. The masterpost is one Journal Entry that contains the header info for the story and then a link to each chapter. 


Posting to a Community

Unless you have a ton of individuals as friends or you only want select people to read your stories, posting to a Community is your best bet. The best way to find Communities is to go the Master List of Fandoms  hosted by the community newbieguideWhen you click on a particular fandom you'll see a list of communities many of which are typically devoted to fanfiction. Take some time and browse through the different coms and choose a few that you think fit your story. Some large fandoms will have dozens of fanfic coms, but I wouldn't advise crossposting to all of them.  Choose 3 or so that fit best and seem active. Otherwise, you are yet again risking being labeled an annoying spammer.

How to Post to a Community: First you have to join. Most have open membership. Be sure to read the community rules, which are often located under the 'User Info' link at the top of the page.  Once you're a member, you post much the same way as you do when posting to your own journal, EXCEPT you don't normally post the actual text of the story in the com itself. You just put the Title and the Header info and then a link to the story on your livejournal page.  To get the address for the link: Click on the title of your entry and copy the address from the top (will begin with 'http://').  That is the url/address you want to copy and use to create a link in a community.

How to do a link? I usually do links in the HTML window. Here's the format:

<a href="full url of your story here">Title of Story Here</a>

or

you can do them in the Rich Text/Visual Editor by typing the title of your story, highlighting it, clicking on the url button (little planet icon) and then pasting the url there.


That should cover the basics. If you have questions, feel free to comment on this post or PM me LolaAnn at my journal  lolaann1 on't worry, I don't bite ;-)

Link to Dictionary of Fanfic Terms (will take you off lj)