Lewis Secret Santa 2016 - Formatting Guidelines
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Time is nearly upon you to send in your Secret Santa assignments!
Finished works should be sent to lewismod@hotmail.co.uk by Tue the 20th. PLEASE LET US KNOW ASAP IF YOU NEED AN EXTENSION. There is some flexibility but we aim start posting on the 22nd.
***
How does Lewis Secret Santa posting work?
Fandom is full of exchanges and challenges, all with slightly different practices, so it's no wonder if people get confused. Here's how we are doing it. Santas will send their gifts to us via email. Mods will post these ON THIS COMM ONLY at a rate of 1 per day (we don't have that many this year!) until all gifts have been posted. Anonymity is part of the fun so please, do not post your fic/other fanwork anywhere else, do not answer comments, and do not otherwise reveal your identity. After all the gifts have been posted we will have a few days of fun trying to guess who made what. During this time, mods are compiling a Masterlist. This, when posted, will reveal the identities of all the creators and we will also update all the posts with the author/creator details. After the reveal you are free to post your gift wherever else you want (your own LJ/website/AO3...) and answer comments. If you want, we will at that point also update the original posts with the new links if you so wish.
***
Formatting your fic
Document formats accepted: .txt .rtf .doc .docx .otd OR you can copy-paste the fic, including all the HMTL formatting, directly into the email message.
Please include all the necessary formatting such as italics, bold, underlined, centred etc. text. as HTML coding if at all possible. This will save us from inserting it or doing the formatting in rich text (and potentially missing something!). Please see here for guidance on HTML coding for LJ posts if you are unsure.
Please test the formatting by doing a private post on your journal to see how it looks.
***
Header information for fic:
Please include the following information, the header HTML code is included in the textbox below so you can simply copy-paste it to the start of your fic and fill as appropriate.
Recipient:
Title:
Characters/Pairing:
Rating: The two systems typically used for fanfics are the MPAA and Fiction Ratings, either of those is fine.
Wordcount:
Warnings: If applicable and as per standard fandom practice, things that you must warn for include character death, rape/non-con, under-age sex, graphic violence, specific sexual kinks and anything else you think might be triggering/offensive/problematic. Note that if you prefer, you can hide a spoilery warning using the coding in the textbox below. Do not be an idiot and "warn" for slash or het as neither are things that need warning for and the 'Pairing' information should tell the reader everything they need to know about that.
Summary:
Feel free to also include e.g. Genre (e.g. AU/case fic/romance/pwp), a standard disclaimer or any additional author notes.
Header information for your convenience:
Recipient:
Title:
Characters/Pairing:
Rating:
Wordcount:
Warnings:
Summary:
How to hide a warning that is also a spoiler:
style="color:#666;background-color:#666;" title="This is a warning that
is also a spoiler. Highlight to read.">YOUR SPOILER GOES
HERE
***
My fic is very long, what to do?
The max a single LJ post will take is roughly 11,500 words. If your story is longer than that, we will need to post it in two or more posts. Please do still send the story to us in a single document, but clearly indicate where the best cut off point is. We do not have time to read them before posting to determine the best point where to cut the narrative in two and do not want to mess up the story flow.
***
I want to thank my betas but they're my besties and then everyone will guess who I am, what to do?
A familiar problem particularly in small fandoms like ours. Therefore, it might be prudent not to use betas' proper usernames at this point but to simply say something like 'thank you to x...' I'm sure our lovely betas will understand. And after the reveals and in your reposts of the fics, beta names can be proudly displayed!
***
Non-fic fanworks:
Feel free to adapt the fic header to suit your needs. Warnings, if applicable, must be included.
Please send your post as a text document, with all the necessary HTML formatting for e.g. graphics, links etc. included.
File hosting: in order of secrecy, try to host any files (such as graphics or vids) on a site/account not directly recognisable as yours (e.g. by the name in the url)
***
Questions? Ask and ye shall be answered
***
Time is nearly upon you to send in your Secret Santa assignments!
Finished works should be sent to lewismod@hotmail.co.uk by Tue the 20th. PLEASE LET US KNOW ASAP IF YOU NEED AN EXTENSION. There is some flexibility but we aim start posting on the 22nd.
***
How does Lewis Secret Santa posting work?
Fandom is full of exchanges and challenges, all with slightly different practices, so it's no wonder if people get confused. Here's how we are doing it. Santas will send their gifts to us via email. Mods will post these ON THIS COMM ONLY at a rate of 1 per day (we don't have that many this year!) until all gifts have been posted. Anonymity is part of the fun so please, do not post your fic/other fanwork anywhere else, do not answer comments, and do not otherwise reveal your identity. After all the gifts have been posted we will have a few days of fun trying to guess who made what. During this time, mods are compiling a Masterlist. This, when posted, will reveal the identities of all the creators and we will also update all the posts with the author/creator details. After the reveal you are free to post your gift wherever else you want (your own LJ/website/AO3...) and answer comments. If you want, we will at that point also update the original posts with the new links if you so wish.
***
Formatting your fic
Document formats accepted: .txt .rtf .doc .docx .otd OR you can copy-paste the fic, including all the HMTL formatting, directly into the email message.
Please include all the necessary formatting such as italics, bold, underlined, centred etc. text. as HTML coding if at all possible. This will save us from inserting it or doing the formatting in rich text (and potentially missing something!). Please see here for guidance on HTML coding for LJ posts if you are unsure.
Please test the formatting by doing a private post on your journal to see how it looks.
***
Header information for fic:
Please include the following information, the header HTML code is included in the textbox below so you can simply copy-paste it to the start of your fic and fill as appropriate.
Recipient:
Title:
Characters/Pairing:
Rating: The two systems typically used for fanfics are the MPAA and Fiction Ratings, either of those is fine.
Wordcount:
Warnings: If applicable and as per standard fandom practice, things that you must warn for include character death, rape/non-con, under-age sex, graphic violence, specific sexual kinks and anything else you think might be triggering/offensive/problematic. Note that if you prefer, you can hide a spoilery warning using the coding in the textbox below. Do not be an idiot and "warn" for slash or het as neither are things that need warning for and the 'Pairing' information should tell the reader everything they need to know about that.
Summary:
Feel free to also include e.g. Genre (e.g. AU/case fic/romance/pwp), a standard disclaimer or any additional author notes.
Header information for your convenience:
Recipient:
Title:
Characters/Pairing:
Rating:
Wordcount:
Warnings:
Summary:
How to hide a warning that is also a spoiler:
style="color:#666;background-color:#666;" title="This is a warning that
is also a spoiler. Highlight to read.">YOUR SPOILER GOES
HERE
***
My fic is very long, what to do?
The max a single LJ post will take is roughly 11,500 words. If your story is longer than that, we will need to post it in two or more posts. Please do still send the story to us in a single document, but clearly indicate where the best cut off point is. We do not have time to read them before posting to determine the best point where to cut the narrative in two and do not want to mess up the story flow.
***
I want to thank my betas but they're my besties and then everyone will guess who I am, what to do?
A familiar problem particularly in small fandoms like ours. Therefore, it might be prudent not to use betas' proper usernames at this point but to simply say something like 'thank you to x...' I'm sure our lovely betas will understand. And after the reveals and in your reposts of the fics, beta names can be proudly displayed!
***
Non-fic fanworks:
Feel free to adapt the fic header to suit your needs. Warnings, if applicable, must be included.
Please send your post as a text document, with all the necessary HTML formatting for e.g. graphics, links etc. included.
File hosting: in order of secrecy, try to host any files (such as graphics or vids) on a site/account not directly recognisable as yours (e.g. by the name in the url)
***
Questions? Ask and ye shall be answered
***