The How-to-Post Post: "Slow games make eternity seem so much longer."
[This is the revised edition of this post, with the exciting new timeline!]
We've already got one story in queue. Hip, hip, hooray! We've also already had one writer drop out. Heavy sigh. So it's clearly time to discuss how to post and how to pinch-hit, with answers to a few questions that have arisen since the original rules post.
Hint. If you've never played in a ficathon like this before, take a peek at past Oldschoolfic and Femme-fic events! That's about how our stories will look.
Improved Timeline. One of our great players pointed out how to adjust the timeline to better fit this "river"-model fest, in which stories will release over time. Any needed pinch-hit stories can be written while the fest is in progress. This gains us a week and a day to write, while keeping our reading appointments precisely on track! So, with all deadlines at 11:59 PM Pacific Time, here's the new schedule:
Pinch-hitting. As soon as someone defaults, we will go to our list of volunteers to find someone who has already submitted a story and who seems compatible with the defaulted prompts. We'll email this writer and eagerly await a reply accepting or declining the assignment. If the writer declines, we'll ask someone else, so please answer as soon as practical to help the final writer get as much writing time as possible. Pinch-hit stories must be at least 1,000 words long, like all the other stories.
Tagging. The mods will create tags by author, type, genre, main character(s) and pairing(s); once created, these will be available to any writer to attach to his/her own story. The moderators will tag by author-name for you when your story is released, but it will be up to you to choose whether to add other tags, and which other tags to add. (Please be accurate and reasonable. Only major elements need tags.)
If you need a tag in one of the predetermined categories and do not see it, please ask. If for some reason you find that you can't add tags yourself, please ask us to add them for you (please be specific). If a tag is brought to our attention as inaccurate on a specific story, we will notify the author and delete it from that story if needed.
If you've never tagged before, please notice that there is a field for tags with the other meta-data at the bottom of the posting fields, and that if you begin typing an existing tag, the first alphabetical match will appear by default. If you type a non-existent tag, it will not be accepted on the community as it would on your personal LJ; the community is limited to the tags created by the mods.
Rating. This community defaults to LJ's "Adult Concepts" filter for ages 14-and-up. (That's FK's canonical rating on TV and DVD in Region 1.) When posting, please select the correct LJ "Adult Content" filter for your story instead of relying on the default, in case we change the default or LJ changes its system. If you are posting an R or NC-17 story (that is, "adult content" of sex, violence or vulgarity) please be sure to select LJ's "Explicit Adult Content" filter from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the posting fields. As a general standard, consider how your story would be rated by the conventional agencies if it were filmed; then tweak that as needed to match FK traditions and your own convictions.
Posting. This part mainly just re-runs what is already in the original rules post, including the header template and examples. However, we also have new answers to some recent questions.
So! What's new?
Okay! On to the re-run:
The community is currently set to moderated posting. When you finish your story, please post it to the community. (This ficathon is not anonymous, like some. Posting as yourself lets you retain editing control of your own story post, in case of last-minute typos or future concerns that we can't imagine today.)
Stories will be released from the moderation queue at a rate of two per day (under 10,000 words each) or one per day (if over 10,000 words each). Many ficathons release all stories at once in a great waterfall of fiction, but since we're all-FK here, we're going to try a steady stream of stories and hope everyone finds time to read and comment on many entries.
LJ has a character-count limit for posts. If your story is too big for one post, you may submit two posts. (This is a paid account, so we can have multiple posts from a member in queue.)
We prefer to have your story actually on the community, rather than only a link to it elsewhere, in case of future events like the Great Geocities Goodbye. If you'd like to add a link in your story post to your story in an archive elsewhere after the ficathon, that's just fine.
Steps:
Title:
Author:
Beta-Reader:
Recipient:
Prompt:
Length:
Rating:
Warnings: Highlight to view: * InsertWarningHere *
If your story does not meet these three basic criteria, we will ask you to re-post it.
Example Headers
If Natalie were playing in this ficathon, her story post's subject line and header might look like this:If Janette were playing in this ficathon, her story post's subject line and header might look like this:"Cause of Life" by Natlamb (PG, Gen)
Title: "Cause of Life"
Author: Natlamb
Beta-Reader: Raven2U
Recipient: Plantsrtheanswr
Prompt: Nick & Natalie. "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive" -- Springsteen, "Badlands"
Length: 1,235 words
Rating: PG
Summary: The case of a murdered baseball player gives Nick hope, Natalie an idea, and Schanke indigestion.
"A High-Walled Garden" by Raven2U (NC-17, M/F)
Title: "A High-Walled Garden"
Author: Raven2U
Beta-Reader: Littlebear
Recipient: DarkButton
Prompt: Tracy/Vachon. Tracy's interest in past lives surprises Vachon.
Characters: Tracy, Vachon, Nick, Urs, Reese, Natalie, Others
Length: ~3,500 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Highlight to view: * explicit sex, explicit violence, character death *
Beta-reading. Please remember to check out the beta-reading post!
We've already got one story in queue. Hip, hip, hooray! We've also already had one writer drop out. Heavy sigh. So it's clearly time to discuss how to post and how to pinch-hit, with answers to a few questions that have arisen since the original rules post.
Hint. If you've never played in a ficathon like this before, take a peek at past Oldschoolfic and Femme-fic events! That's about how our stories will look.
Improved Timeline. One of our great players pointed out how to adjust the timeline to better fit this "river"-model fest, in which stories will release over time. Any needed pinch-hit stories can be written while the fest is in progress. This gains us a week and a day to write, while keeping our reading appointments precisely on track! So, with all deadlines at 11:59 PM Pacific Time, here's the new schedule:
- 02/18/2010: Sign-ups open.
- 03/18/2010: Sign-ups close.
- 03/21/2010: Prompt assignments sent.
- 04/18/2010: Deadline to default in good grace.
- 05/16/2010: Stories due.
- 05/17/2010: Pinch-hitter assignments sent.
- 05/18/2010: Stories begin releasing, two per day (over 10K words long, one per day).
- 05/24/2010: Pinch-hitter stories due. (This date may shift depending on the number of pinch-hits needed.)
Pinch-hitting. As soon as someone defaults, we will go to our list of volunteers to find someone who has already submitted a story and who seems compatible with the defaulted prompts. We'll email this writer and eagerly await a reply accepting or declining the assignment. If the writer declines, we'll ask someone else, so please answer as soon as practical to help the final writer get as much writing time as possible. Pinch-hit stories must be at least 1,000 words long, like all the other stories.
Tagging. The mods will create tags by author, type, genre, main character(s) and pairing(s); once created, these will be available to any writer to attach to his/her own story. The moderators will tag by author-name for you when your story is released, but it will be up to you to choose whether to add other tags, and which other tags to add. (Please be accurate and reasonable. Only major elements need tags.)
If you need a tag in one of the predetermined categories and do not see it, please ask. If for some reason you find that you can't add tags yourself, please ask us to add them for you (please be specific). If a tag is brought to our attention as inaccurate on a specific story, we will notify the author and delete it from that story if needed.
If you've never tagged before, please notice that there is a field for tags with the other meta-data at the bottom of the posting fields, and that if you begin typing an existing tag, the first alphabetical match will appear by default. If you type a non-existent tag, it will not be accepted on the community as it would on your personal LJ; the community is limited to the tags created by the mods.
Rating. This community defaults to LJ's "Adult Concepts" filter for ages 14-and-up. (That's FK's canonical rating on TV and DVD in Region 1.) When posting, please select the correct LJ "Adult Content" filter for your story instead of relying on the default, in case we change the default or LJ changes its system. If you are posting an R or NC-17 story (that is, "adult content" of sex, violence or vulgarity) please be sure to select LJ's "Explicit Adult Content" filter from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the posting fields. As a general standard, consider how your story would be rated by the conventional agencies if it were filmed; then tweak that as needed to match FK traditions and your own convictions.
Posting. This part mainly just re-runs what is already in the original rules post, including the header template and examples. However, we also have new answers to some recent questions.
So! What's new?
- Do post your story to the community itself, not as a comment on another post. If you've never done this, please notice that there's a drop-down "Post To" menu on the posting page that defaults to your own LJ, but also shows any communities of which you're a member. Check this menu and see that fkficfest is there. If it's not, you may not be subscribed as a "member;" that's easy for you to change! When posting to this community, just select us from that menu and then post as usual.
- Understand that the community is set to moderated posting, such that your story post will go into the queue, and will stay there, invisible and unreachable, until released by the mods. The mods can also delete posts from the queue when needed.
- Be sure to have a visual identifier of paragraphs. Most commonly, that's a blank line between paragraphs, as in this post. You're also welcome to do the coding to insert tabs at the beginning of each paragraph, if you prefer. But please check that your paragraphs don't run together; that might make it difficult for your audience. (If you're having issues, please look at the "auto-formatting" checkbox on the top right of the posting fields for the most likely culprit.)
- Yes, including word counts is pretty standard on LJ (though it's nearly unknown on fkfic-l). It is a friendly gesture to include your word count in your header to give your audience an idea of how much time they'll be investing in your story -- for example, will it fit in their lunch break, or should they save it for after supper, or perhaps the weekend? (On the email list, file size gives that clue.) Most word-processing programs will give you the word count automatically; in MS Word, select your story text and choose "Word Count" from the "Tools" menu.
- Finally, if your personal LJ default is to post friends-locked, please manually set your story for public viewing when you post. Otherwise, only community members will be able to see and comment on your story.
Okay! On to the re-run:
The community is currently set to moderated posting. When you finish your story, please post it to the community. (This ficathon is not anonymous, like some. Posting as yourself lets you retain editing control of your own story post, in case of last-minute typos or future concerns that we can't imagine today.)
Stories will be released from the moderation queue at a rate of two per day (under 10,000 words each) or one per day (if over 10,000 words each). Many ficathons release all stories at once in a great waterfall of fiction, but since we're all-FK here, we're going to try a steady stream of stories and hope everyone finds time to read and comment on many entries.
LJ has a character-count limit for posts. If your story is too big for one post, you may submit two posts. (This is a paid account, so we can have multiple posts from a member in queue.)
We prefer to have your story actually on the community, rather than only a link to it elsewhere, in case of future events like the Great Geocities Goodbye. If you'd like to add a link in your story post to your story in an archive elsewhere after the ficathon, that's just fine.
Steps:
- Enter a subject line with at least the title, rating and type (gen or pairing). It's also customary to include your name as author.
- Put everything except your header behind a cut-tag. If you don't know how to do an LJ-CUT tag, please ask.
- Your header must include, at a minimum, the title, author, recipient, beta-reader, prompt, rating, and any warnings. (Anything more -- such as length/word count -- is up to you.) The template is below, so you can copy-and-paste, and fill it in. Please note that we use the "white on white" warnings format, so that people can choose to avoid spoilers.
Title:
Author:
Beta-Reader:
Recipient:
Prompt:
Length:
Rating:
Warnings: Highlight to view: * InsertWarningHere *
If your story does not meet these three basic criteria, we will ask you to re-post it.
Example Headers
If Natalie were playing in this ficathon, her story post's subject line and header might look like this:If Janette were playing in this ficathon, her story post's subject line and header might look like this:"Cause of Life" by Natlamb (PG, Gen)
Title: "Cause of Life"
Author: Natlamb
Beta-Reader: Raven2U
Recipient: Plantsrtheanswr
Prompt: Nick & Natalie. "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive" -- Springsteen, "Badlands"
Length: 1,235 words
Rating: PG
Summary: The case of a murdered baseball player gives Nick hope, Natalie an idea, and Schanke indigestion.
"A High-Walled Garden" by Raven2U (NC-17, M/F)
Title: "A High-Walled Garden"
Author: Raven2U
Beta-Reader: Littlebear
Recipient: DarkButton
Prompt: Tracy/Vachon. Tracy's interest in past lives surprises Vachon.
Characters: Tracy, Vachon, Nick, Urs, Reese, Natalie, Others
Length: ~3,500 words
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Highlight to view: * explicit sex, explicit violence, character death *
Beta-reading. Please remember to check out the beta-reading post!