Intro: Since my help topic is too long, I'll post the actual instructions for most of everything. The unanswered questions topic will be for *drum roll* unanswered questions. And if you need more detailed instructions. Also, this will be locked so no one reply while I make this. The thing is to keep all the commonly asked questions' answers visible. Hopefully this'll be a lot more useful than to go through a bunch of chat.

Fictionpress.com is for original stories. Plots, characters, other things that are of your own.

Extras that don't deserve their own posts:

1. You can't post stories anonymously.

2. You can't delete your account.

3. You can't delete signed reviews on your stories.

4. Make sure your characters are canon.

5. If you found that there isn't a category for your book/show/manga/anime/ect., please e-mail at:

categories at fanfiction dot com : Category and Character list suggestions.

6. If you really get spammed by an obscene message or trolled to shit by some idiot troll (do not report someone that you just don't like), e-mail at:

reportabuse at fanfiction dot com: Report spam and other abuse related incidents.

7. If the search function doesn't work, then it is being worked on.

8. Hopefully it won't happen again, but if you do not get e-mail alerts, then it's a glitch.

9. To check your PM, you need to log into the e-mail address you signed up on FFN with. Also, there is a new tab when you log in Inbox. It is next to the publish tab. Your inbox is there now, also.

Getting Started.

So you're here on Fanfiction.net and you've finally gotten past that three day wait. What do you do? I got your instructions to submit your new story. Read on.

Outline:

Getting Started.

Uploading documents:

Starting a new story

Adding a new chapter to your story.

Alternative from uploading a different document

Replacing a chapter

Putting authors notes

Guidelines

RATINGS:

Seeing your story in the category

Songfics

Story Stats:

Allowing Anonymous reviews:

What makes a story fanfiction?

How to use special characters:

Uploading an avatar:

[[Whether or not you used a document]]

How to block Users:

Polls

Abreviations:

Extras that don't deserve their own posts:

Uploading documents:

1. Go to your account page by clicking login when already logged in.

2. Go to Publish

3. [[click]]

4. Go to Upload/Manage

5. You'll see an upload form underneath the menu. The document label is for what name you want to call the soon-to-be uploaded document so that you can distinguish it from others if you have multiple documents.

6. Browse for the document in your computer. You should know how to find it within your files.

7. When you click on the documents, the address for it will be in the box. Click Submit document

8. You'll see your story in a chart and a number [[60]]. That's just how long the document will stay active till it deletes [[they do it so that it can save space or whatever]]

9. Also, you may want to rename it CH. 1or so. It's to differentiate (*sp) the chapters. It helps a lot if you upload each chapter seperately because that looks a lot neater.

Starting a new story

[[make sure that you have uploaded a document]]

1. Go to your account page

2. Go to publish

3. Go to stories

4. Go to GUIDELINES

5. "Read" them then say that you accept. From there, there's a link to start a new story.

6. [[click]]

7. Select a category

8. Then from there it should be self explanatory. If not, go to Help Topic and we'll try and solve whatever detailed issue that you have.

Adding a new chapter to your story.

[[make sure that you have uploaded a seperate document]]

1. Go to your account page

2. Go to publish

3. Go to STORIES

4. Go to My stories

5. Find your story in the list and click on " edit ".

6. Click on Content/Chapters

7. Under Add Chapter select your document from the drop down menu.

8. Name your chapter (optional)

9. Click " Add "

Alternative from uploading a different document

If you don't feel like making a whole new chapter, then export your first chapter in your posted story.

1. Login

2. Publish

3. Stories

4. Click on the story that you want to add to

5. Story edit:: Properties. Content/Chapters. Live Preview. Click on Content/Chapters.

6. There you'll see a list of chapters (or only one). There are hyperlinked options to the right. edit. del. exp. dl. Press export and then it'll say

ExportedChapter exported to Document Manager as Export: Chapter 1 Ch: 1 7. Then click the link and it'll take you to that chapter.

8. Edit it so you don't get the chapters confused.

9. Save your changes

Replacing a chapter

[[make sure that you have uploaded a document]]

1. Go to your account page

2. Go to Publish

3. Go to STORIES

4. Find your story in the list and click on " edit ".

5. Click on Content/Chapters

6. Under Replace Chapter select the chapter you want to replace from the drop down menu.

7. Under Replace Chapter select the document you want.

8. Click " Replace "

Putting authors notes

[[Gotta be in edit document mode and with the document uploaded. If you're trying to add this to a pre-existing posted story, then you'll have to export the document then replace the chapter.]]

1. Have the document ready. From the top [[very top]], make some room.

2. Write what you want to say to introduce the story or however you want to write it.

3. Highlight the text that you have writen [[author's note]]

4. There are fourteen [[14]] buttons on top.

[[from left to right]]

-Bold: The letter B while it's boldened

-Italic: The letter I while it's italic

-Underline: The letter U while it's underlined

-Alighn left: Alighns your text to the left, best for stories

-Center text: Lines struck in middle, best for poetry

-"Dash": A line

-Find: It'll help you find a word or words, best for long documents

-Toggle Spellchecker: The arrow will change to what language you're using, its best when cleaning up your document

-Toggle fullscreen mode: It lets you see more, I guess. I don't see the point as you'll have to turn it off to edit your text

-Paste from word: Lets you paste from word, lol

-Undo: Left facing arrow

-Redo: Right facing arrow

-Preview: a preview

-HTML: recommended for those that know what's available on this site. your options are limited

4. With the text highlighted, press the button that you want to use

5. If you like, press the line button when the incicator curser is at the bottom of the paragraph. It'll show immediately.

6. Save

Guidelines

1. Go to account page after pressing the login button even if you're logged in.

2. Go to publish

3. Go to Stories.

4. You'll see a line of links.

-Guide

-New Story

-My Stories

-Guidelines

4. Press guidelines.

-Plus, if you wanna submit a new story, automatically they make you read them.-

Here are the ratings:

RATINGS:

K

Intended for general audience 5 years and older. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, and adult themes.

K+

Suitable for more mature childen, 9 years and older, with minor action violence without serious injury. May contain mild coarse language. Should not contain any adult themes.

T

Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

M

Not suitable for children or teens below the age of 16 with possible strong but non-explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.

MA

Content is only suitable for mature adults. May contain explicit language and adult themes. [[not usually on there]]

B

Intended for preschool level and younger children between the ages of 1 and 4. Content should be free of any coarse language, violence, adult themes, and ideas very young children cannot comprehend.[[unused]]

Seeing your story in the category

[[And this only applies for the first day as I wanna say]]

--Alright, the thing is that there's several writers writing fics on the same category as you are. Sometimes that one category is popular, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer [[Wow, 31, 000 at the least... makes me feel tiny]]. At other times, the category isn't popular like Meet the Robinsons and then it's easy to see your entry. But there can be someone else that submits the story at the same time. So it may not come up where you see. And don't look for it as soon as it is submited. The thing is that the server must process it and push it through the posts.

[[Also, the listings of the category your story is in goes by updated recently.]]

One more thing, lately the Just in and Search things don't work so well. So don't freak out when you don't see your story. It'll still be there. You'll have to review others in your fandom in order to get reviewed back.

Songfics

Zippie

"...songfics (stories that include copyrighted musical lyrics) are not allowed on FFnet.

Just to set the record (no pun intended) straight:

Actions not allowed:

1. Multiple entries of the same material. There can only be one copy of any unique story on the entire site. No exceptions.

2. Rewriting names of characters/locations of one story in order to upload to multiple categories.

3. Copying from a previously published work ( including musical lyrics ) not in the public domain.

Public domain comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests within a particular legal jurisdiction. This body of information and creativity is considered to be part of a common cultural and intellectual heritage, which, in general, anyone may use or exploit, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes. About 15 percent of all books are in the public domain, including 10 percent of all books that are still in print.

This means that anything that is copyrighted is not in the public domain.

This means that song lyrics that are copyrighted are not in the public domain.

This means that songfics that include copyrighted musical lyrics are not allowed on FFnet.

If you want to use copyrighted musical lyrics in your fics, then you need to obtain the written permission of the copyright owner to do so. Failure to obtain permission opens up the author and FFnet to being sued by the owner of the copyright. Just because other people do it will be no protection against legal action if one of the copyright owners decides to sue."

what about non copyrighted lyrics, like one's own or a non copyrighted one?

Those are fine. If you've written them, they belong to you so you can include them. They wouldn't be any different from any other part of the story that was your own work. You will have trouble finding non-copyrighted musical lyrics to include in your fics though. Everything that is released today will be copyrighted. In most of the world the default length of copyright for many works is generally the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years, so if you are hoping to use other people's lyrics in your fics they will probably have to be from before the second world war... sorry.

Jinxed:

OK, so I'm thinking that any mention of their song, lyrics or w.e, even credited, is still against whatever law this is. Because you're gunna need a WRITTEN consent from the actual person that you can do this sort of thing. And FF's are OK because they're BASED off of the real story and not COMPLETELY taking from the original context and rearranging it.

Story Stats:

This is so easy

-Login

-Stats

There is a chart of the list of stories, words, chapters, reviews, hits, C2s, favs, and alerts.

Stories:

Arranges all your stories by alphabetically

Words:

How many words are in your story

Chapters:

Total number of chapters

Reviews:

Takes you to review page

Hits:

How many hits there are. For multichapter stories, it'll take you to the break down of hits per chapter

C2s:

How many ppl added it to their C2

Favs:

Who favorited it

Alerts:

Who alerted the story

Allowing Anonymous reviews:

Login

Account

In the box, the last item will toggle anonymous reviews on and off

What makes a story fanfiction?

If it includes CCs or a canon backdrop in any way, it is Fanfiction

How to use special characters:

(Note: Not all of these characters may work on ff.net.)

1. Click on the Windows Start menu, then select Programs Accessories System Tools Character Map to open the Windows character map. Or click Start Run, and type charmap.

2. Select the font that you want to use from the pulldown menu. You'll see a grid with all the characters available in that font.

3. Click on a character to see an enlarged view. To copy the character to your clipboard, click Select, and then click Copy. Or just double-click on the character. (See also the keyboard shortcut for the selected character in the lower right corner of the window.)

4. To paste the character, return to your program. Click where you want the character to appear. Then go to Edit Paste, or just right-click and choose Paste. That's all!

Uploading an avatar:

[[Must have a pic ready and it's stored in your computer]]

1. Have a pic ready in your computer

--It's best if it's small and square

2. Go to your account page [[by pressing log in button when you're logged in]] and then you'll see a link labeled Avatar

3. You'll see an upload form.

4. Press browse and then look for it on your computer

5. Click the save button.

[[Changes will take up to an hour.]]

So be patient.^^

[[Whether or not you used a document]]

--OK, someone's said that the document's still there after you have uploaded to FF's database of stories. It just means that you still have the document saved in your account. it's a copy just in case if you're gunna want to need it.

-Also, there's a number next to the documents within your list. That is the lifespan. The life span is just the number of days it will be in your account for your use. So if you dont need it, it will be deleted. It's their way to save room in their databanks.

-And, the documents have no effect on your existing, posted story. So if you deleted it, the posted chapter wont be deleted.

How to block Users:

1.Login

2. Account

3. Block Users

3. There is a toolbar where you can put a user by [[User ID, user name, email, & Profile URL]] *It's already sorted by User ID

4. Put the user you want to block by their User ID [the user ID # in the profile], or any of the other ways.

5. click Block User

* There is a remove button on the left next to the names listed(after they're added), if you want to remove users from the block list

Polls

1. Login

2. Polls

3. My polls

4. Poll question: Insert what you want to ask

5. Poll choices: You put in each choice. Each choice gets its own line.

6. You can customize it by reading the choices.

7. Create poll.

8. It's listed under a grid called My Polls. You can then see if you want to put it on your profile or a forum that you moderate.

9. To put it on a forum that you moderate, you have to create a new topic then you see a new drop down menu containing your poll.

Abreviations:

[[If you have anymore suggestions, PM me so I can edit this, or you can reply to here.^^ We're compiling a list for you guys.]]

[[Name]]X[[Name]]: Sexy Relationship

[[Name]]+[[Name]]: Cuddly Relationship

[[Name]]/[[Name]]: Relationship With Possible Sex

oc: other character

OC: Original Character

OOC: Out Of Character

OCxOC:other characters love

OTP: One True Pairing

OT3: One True Threesome

OT4: One True Foursome

an or A/N or just AN: authors note

AU: Alternate Universe [[acronym/initialism for Alternative Universe. Sometimes writers want to make some changes to the original story for the sake of their own story. For example, changing a canon character's family history, adding cities, adding magic or supernatural aspects that aren't originally supported by that fandom, etc. The writer can slap an AU disclaimer on the fic, to let readers know that the OOCness was intentional, etc.]]

PWP: "Plot, what plot?" aka Sex

Mpreg: Male pregnancy

Character Terms:

[[There's a ton, leave suggestions if wanted.^^]]

Mary Sue: Female Self Insertion (EVIL!) [[Poorly developed characters (sometimes self inserts) and are often OCs. Usually, they have excessive powers, beauty, strength, etc. are often a sign of a weak author.]]

Gary Stu: Male Self Insertion (EVIL!) [[Same as Mary Sues, except in a male incarnation. Gary Stues often have more powers, and usually a big sword. ((making up for something in the author, perhaps?xD)) ]]

-- Marysue/Garystu: [usually] self-insert that overshadows CCs

Self-insert - A character (usually the main character or one of the main characters) is modeled after the writer. Usually the character is lacking development and is a blatant attempt at wish fulfillment. The character is often made to be how the writer wishes he/she was. And, the self-insert can act as an author surrogate, where the character acts as a podium from which the writer can broadcast his/her opinions, morals, etc. Self-inserts exist in original fictional as well, and aren't always a bad thing either. (('self inserts' doesn't do the evil of the Mary Sue enough justice, sadly))

Story Terms:

[[Anyone with non-sex related terms?^^]]

Beta reader: Also known as Beta or Betareader. It's the term used for people who help writers edit chapters before posting them. The Beta reader tries to help make sure there are any mechanics errors and so on. Trolls: Users that blatantly abuse their right to post and often are extremely abusive in regards of spam, racist comments, and/or general public harm. Note that trolls may be flamers, but not all flamers are trolls.

Canon: (refering to characters or plot) The original content or character of which the series is comprised of. Thus the term "canon-rape" means, generally, abusing orignal storyline and/or set character traits/characteristics.

Canon nazi: a pejorative term for people who complain about canon inconsistencies, errors, OOC-ness (Out Of Character-ness), etc.

Citrus: Erotica

Drabble: 100 word story

Provided by Vash:

"A drabble is an extremely short work of fiction exactly one hundred words in length, although the term is often misused to indicate a short story of less than 1000 words."

~Wikipedia

(http :// en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Drabble)

"A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words."

~When Size Matters: Story Terminology as Determined by Word Count

(http :// www. trickster. org/ symposium/ symp162. html)

"There is also a specific form of Flash called Drabble, which is of the 100 words or under variety. There are a few publishers and authors who stretch this definition to include stories of up to 250 words, but 100 is considered the standard for most Drabble."

~What is Flash Fiction?

(http :// www. quazen. com/ Arts/ Online- Writing/ What- is- Flash- Fiction. 55172)

Echi: Hentai

Ficlet: A short fanfic that isn't more than 1000 words.

Flame: Negative review that [usually] insults author personally and has little to nothing about the actual story

Flamer: A person that posts a negative, bashing or non-constructive criticism review. Their motive may be anger directed at the writer, protest at the poor quality of writing, doing it for the "lulz" (with trolls), or just general boredom. Bear in mind that F/R is a flamer, and not a troll.

Fluff: Sappy story [[silly, lighthearted, and tamed smut. Easy-going (and often short) romance fics that are sweet and deal with little to no friction, not villains, no real struggle, etc.]]

Grammar nazi: another unfavorable term for people who complain, nitpick, and/or point out spelling and grammar errors.

Hentai: Pervert or Perverted

Het: Straight People Sex/Romance

Lemon: Graphic Sex [[fanfics that's main focus is that there is a graphic sex scene or two in it. It's not appropriate for minors. Again, this probably shouldn't exist on the site. R/Mature rated stories probably aren't lemon fics.]]

Lime: Almost Sex But Not Quite, like lacking depth

MST: initialism/acronym for Mystery Science Theater. [[Mystery Science Theater was a TV series where a guy and two robot characters would watch old, crummy movies and make fun of it. They'd add in lines, so on and so forth. It's a great show and most of you guys know of it or have seen it before.]] ...MST-ing is the act of mocking a fanfic in Mystery Science Theater style.

One-shot: It's a one chapter long or short story. There is no hinting towards a continuation of the story presented in the chapter, so it's just a stand-alone story. In Japanese, it's called a yomikiri. Japanese comics will sometimes have little side stories that are one-shots within volumes of an ongoing series.

Plot bunny: A term in fanfiction for one of several ideas (you know, the cliche is that rabbits reproduce often and fast) a writer may come up with off the top of his/her head. It's not very well thought out or developed.

Plot bunny adoption: Sometimes someone may think that he/she has thought up an interesting plot, but has no desire to write the story. They offer their plot bunny to be taken and used.

Shipping: Relationship With Possible Sex

Shoujo Ai: "Girl's Love" Gay Girl Stuff With Possible Sex or No Sex

Shounen Ai: "Boy's Love" Gay Boy Stuff With Possible Sex or No Sex

Slash: Gay People Sex (yay!)

Smut: Sex, non-romantic [[obscene or pornographic material. Raunchy and badly done sex scenes in fanfiction can be referred to as smutt, but it can be used on any sexually graphic material (in a fanfic) that takes the spotlight. According to ff.net rules, it shouldn't exist on the site. However, there are other fanfic sites that host adult/NC-17 fanfiction.]]

Sporking: It's similar to MSTing, if not the same thing. A person can spork a fanfic, by adding in his/her own little witty, snarky, bitchy, mean, silly, or whatever comments to make the poke fun at or parody the story.

Squick: Will Gross You Out

Yaoi: Gay Man Sex (i like)

YAOI is an acronym for YAmanashi (no climax), Ochinashi (No punchline), Iminashi (no meaning). It's for homosexual pairings and was a genre originally made for bored housewives. It's main audience is women. ...The English equivalent would be slash.

Yuri: Gay Women Sex

Yuri (meaning "lilly") is for lesbian pairings. In Japanese, "Girles love" (garuzu ra-bu). The term came from a gay magazine, labeling a group of females fans that would write in fan mail and etc yurizoku (Lilly tribe). Most of the female fans were lesbian (it was a gay magazine after all). ...Then fan-made comics started to use the name "Yuri" or "Yuriko" (both common Japanese names) and it took off from there. Most yuri is aimed toward men. I know, totally not shocked, right. ...I think the English equivalent for yuri is femslash.

However, slash and femslash may only be terms reserved specifically for fanfiction. While, Yuri and YAOI are just types of pairing for comics, anime, fanfiction, doujin, etc.

Credits to Vash, Cranberry Window, Cruelly-Unusual, KosmicKinsei, Saber Apricot, and Darkwinter999.^^ They're all in the Help Topic.^^

Note that the definitions change from person-to-person.

Extras that don't deserve their own posts:

1. You can't post stories anonymously.

2. You can't delete your profile

3. You can't delete signed reviews on your story.

4. Make sure your characters are canon.

5. If you found that there isn't a category for your book/show/manga/anime/ect., please e-mail at:

categories at fanfiction dot com : Category and Character list suggestions.

6. If you really get spammed by an obscene message or trolled to shit by some idiot troll (do not report someone that you just don't like), e-mail at:

reportabuse at fanfiction dot com: Report spam and other abuse related incidents.

7. If the search function doesn't work, then it is being worked on.

8. Hopefully it won't happen again, but if you do not get e-mail alerts, then it's a glitch.

9. To check your PM, you need to log into the e-mail address you signed up on FFN with. Also, there is a new tab when you log in Inbox. It is next to the publish tab. Your inbox is there now, also.

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions including language and content must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
2. Fanatic (on site for more than 2 years)
3. Fan (on site for more than a year)
4. Regular (on site for more than 6 months)
5. Camper (on site for more than a month)
6. Apprentice (on site for more than a week)
7. Newbie (on site for less than a week)