FAQ Alt.StarTrek.Creative, Advice for Authors
Version 2.18
September 1, 2001
This FAQ was designed to advise authors, new
and old, of some things that may help them
in posting to alt.startrek.creative
These are only suggestions, but most of us
would like you to follow them.
This FAQ is located at :
http://www.crosswinds.net/~stephenratliff/FAQs/Advice4Authors.txt
Table Of Contents
=================
I) General Suggestions
A) Starting Suggestions
B) Some Warnings
II) Formating
A) Text dos and don'ts
B) Subject lines
C) Story Header
D) Synopsis/Summaries
E) Writing Summaries
F) Editor's List
II) Getting Your Story Out There
A) In the Archive
B) To ASCEM
C) To ASCA
IV) Posting Hits
V) Credits
I) General Suggestions
======================
A) Some Starting Suggestions
----------------------------
Name your story ... there are only so many ways to list an
untitled story and we have had plenty. We'd also like you to try
to find a unique name. We have several titles which have been
over used and we now request that you find another:
The Return
Aftermath
First Contact (TNG only)
Generations2 (TNG only)
When you write an episode addition (an ASC Tradition) give it a
subtitle so we can easily archive it. (i.e. the Basics: part
1.5)
Use end of section and story labels. However, don't just put end
at the end of each part. There is a certain story from '96 that
went back and forth between the complete and incomplete listings
because of such labels.
When reposting your story, wait a bit. Sometimes it takes up to
a week for all of the parts of your story to reach a person's
ISP, and posting a story again and again day after day may not be
well received.
If you want feedback, ask for it. Oh and please tell us what
type of feedback (grammar, spelling, plot, characterization,
etc). Include how in depth you want us to get (Comments,
Complaints, Critics, Flames ...)
Helpful information of dealing with and giving criticism can be
found in the Mannerly Art of Critique FAQ. (See Appendix)
B) Some Warnings
----------------
The 'net is changing the way people think about intellectual
property and people who have been around a long time are setting
precedents for everyone else. Just because a story is available
free, doesn't mean it's still not the property of the writer.
Fanfic writers who post on the net get paid in one way--feedback.
That's all you get for a story you put your heart into. Anyone
archiving a story should ask for permission and make it clear how
to get back to the writer.
Authors: Once we post it, it's out of our control. We don't even
have the recourse that an author of non fanfic would have,
because we're writing in a legal gray area. Anyone can go into
the archive and grab a story and do anything with it. Anyone
can grab that same story when it's posted and do anything with
it, so requesting that it not be archived won't stop the problem.
If you think you want to make money off something you write (i.e.
changing the mileau to something non-Trek, or possibly getting
published by Pocket) *don't* post it on the net. The former
ASCEM FAQ Maintainer found one of her stories posted on a non
Trek newsgroup without her permission (although the guy did
leave her header intact) and The former ASCEM FAQ Maintainer has
run across her stuff archived on www sites also without
permission. The irritating thing is that as a writer, as
Authors we love the exposure, but we would like a little
courtesy as well.
II) Formating
=============
A) Text dos and don'ts
----------------------
From Constable Katie, Post Collecter/Formater.
*DON'T* use smart-quotes -- those little quotation marks that
curve and look like typographical quotation marks. Smart-quotes
screw up a lot of people's newsreaders, and many folks trash such
stories unread as soon as they see the tell-tale subscripts and
superscripts and/or little black rectangles and/or just plain
garbled up screens. There have been several posts recently about
how to turn off smart-quotes in your word processor -- follow
those instructions!
*DON'T* post your stories in HTML code. The vast majority of
newsreaders can't translate the codes properly, and many people
don't want to bother saving the file and firing up a web browser
so they can read it. And it's annoying as heck to read a story
full of
<&sp> and so on and so on...plus
scientific evidence has proven that trying to read raw HTML code
causes amblyopia.
*DON'T* post stories as attachments or in Word, Wordperfect or
other word-processing file formats. Such hijinks result in your
stories being UUencoded, and not everyone has the time and
inclination to run such posts through WinCode or WinZip or
whatever to convert encoded files back into text. Also, trying
to read encoded text leads to iron deficiency anemia. (You may,
however, *email* ASCII text attachments to me at
submissions@webamused.com.)
*DO* post your stories in plain old ASCII text. In your
wordprocessor this may also be known as MS-DOS text, or Simple
Text or Generic Text or such.
*DO* double-space between paragraphs. Simply indenting the
paragraphs often isn't enough, and trying to read stories where
the paragraphs run together make the head explode. (Results of
scientific experiments proving this have not yet been published.
Take my word for it.)
*DO* split your story into digestible chunks -- approximately 25K
per part seems to be good -- to accommodate newsreaders that
can't handle larger articles without choking or cutting off the
end of the article. I don't have experience with this myself,
since my ISP and Free Agent seem to be able to take any length --
but I know there are many who do have problems. AOL, I believe,
is one. (And, yes, I know I violated this myself when I posted
"Torrid" -- it won't happen again, believe me!) Please note that
the 25K limit is a requirement for posts to ASCEM, also for
technical reasons -- if you don't break up your story for ASCEM,
the moderators will have to do it for you.
*DO* use a line-length of 70-75 characters. I have friends who
trash stories unread if the lines scroll right off the screen.
Not everyone's newsreader will do an auto-word-wrap. This
doesn't even address the dreaded long-short-long-short problem.
Speaking as the collector/formatter member of the new archive
team, I can and will do some of this fixing as part of my duties,
but again, stories that need to be fixed go last. I have a
limited amount of time to do this stuff -- the less I have to do
to a story to prepare it for the archive, the faster it will get
uploaded and made available for the ravening hordes.
B) Subject lines
----------------
The Subject Line should consist of a Post name, a short title,
the Part Number, rating, the series, type and codes
(A full listing of codes may be found in the Codes Used FAQ)
The Post name is a three letter field consisting of one of the
following:
NEW For new stories
REP For Reposts
REV For Revised versions of stories
COR For corrected versions of stories
DRA For Drafts
Next is the series. It's one of the following:
TOS The Original Series
TNG The Next Generation
DS9 Deep Space Nine
VOY Voyager
ENT Enterprise
OCC Original Characters or Crew
AMA Amagosa Universe
MIS None of the above.
The Title should be no longer than 20 characters. This does not
mean one has to keep the title short, but a shortened version
should be in the subject line. The full title can be listed in
story header (see below).
The part number should be in the part number/last part format.
If the last part is not known or you are not posting all of the
story in the next week, a ? mark should fill the last part field.
Roman numerals are reserved for stories in series that can stand
alone.
The next field is the rating. We enclose the rating in [] so
that parents can set a kill file for stories rated [R]. The
ratings are explained in the codes section.
The last field is the codes and types. This should be enclosed
in () so that it may be easily pulled out. The first item in the
() should be if it's a parody, x-over, or poem. Next should come
the romance codes as listed later in the FAQ. A sub-series may
be list afterwards.
Some examples:
NEW TNG All the King's 5/? [PG-13] (Marrissa Stories #3)
REV TNG Battle For Bajor 4/8 [PG] (Marrissa Stories #2)
REP TNG Captain & Doctor 1/1 [G] (P/C, Marrissa Stories)
COR TOS Galaxy's End 1/53 [R] (x-over, Star Wars)
DRA VOY Harry's Mad [NC-17] (parody)
C) Story Header
---------------
The Story Header offers an opportunity to correct and expand on
what is given in the Standard USENET Header. This is very
important to our Archivists and Awards Staff. Stories missing, or
with incomplete data will be delayed during the archiving process
until such data is found.
The following is a blank Story Header, copy it and put it at the
head of each post. We use data contained in it as well as the Date,
From, and Subject lines, which are part of the default nntp header.
Title:
Author:
Contact:
Series:
Part:
Rating:
Codes:
Summary:
Here is how to fill out each line.
Title:
This is your full title. Simple, easy.
Author:
The author's name or pseudonym.
Contact:
Where to contact the author. Referred to as Contact to foil
automatic e-mail address collectors. Sometimes combined with
the Author line.
Series:
First the series (from Codes FAQ) then any personal series it may
contain (like Marrissa Stories, Alliance, Happy Faced
Generation, etc)
Part:
First a Postname (from Codes FAQ) then this part in the form 1/4,
then any additional tag to identify post if necessary (for
instance, I date each of my reposts because I often end up
splitting them differently)
Posts with DRA or REP may or may not be picked up by the
archivists.
Rating:
The rating is using the American MPAA system. It's always enclosed
in [] because in the Subject line, where a parent can configure
software to block posts, a block of R doesn't work very well, but
a block of [R] does. A reason may follow the rating.
Ratings
[G] Nothing objectionable.
[PG] Somethings that may cause some parents concern
[PG-13] Those under 13 definitely shouldn't read without
Parental Guidance.
[R] Restricted to mature adults (usually for violence)
[NC-17] Absolutely no children (usually for sex)
Codes:
Codes begin with the Types (see Codes FAQ) then any character codes and
pairings that may apply. All Codes are listed in the Codes FAQ
Summary:
3-5 lines of what your story is about. A FAQ on summary writing is
available.
There are also some optional lines:
Archive:
Place which archives you wish or do not wish to archive your work
here. The ASC* official archive is referred to as ASC* here.
Disclaimer:
Basically, Oh holy Paramount owns Star Trek, this humble person
wrote this story
D) Synopsis
-----------
The Trekiverse Index requires a short summary. Our
Index Maintainer would like all authors to provide one for their
new stories. Stephen would like a 3-4 line non-spoiling summary
for each newly posted story.
Some people in order to prevent spoilage place this header in a
separate post labeled SYNOPSIS, SUMMARY or the like. Some include
it as part 0/? The Volunteer Staff encourage such behavior. If
you do not post such a SYNOPSIS, please make sure all the
information from the story header is in the first part.
Please have all of this in the first 40(20 preferred) lines it
makes Constable Katie, and my jobs easier.
Summaries should be 2-5 lines long (80 characters wide). They
should summarized the plot without giving the ending away. Some
stories may sparse because of this but every effort to provide a
concise summary should be made.
The author's summary will be used if given. The author has a
right to object to a summary and provide a replacement. If a
replacement is provided, we will use it. If we think the summary
does not work, we may write another and ask the author if it
would be ok.
E) Advice on Writing Summaries
------------------------------
From Carol Thomas, former Adult Summary Writer
Stephen Ratliff asked me to scribble a couple of paragraphs on
writing Star Trek summaries for new summarizers, and this file is
the result...
. But it occurred to me that everything I "know" about
writing these little suckers I learned through trial and error
and writing hundreds of them myself. (I've been summarizing the
adult stories since November 1995, so I probably should have
learned something by now.) So, I pass on this information so
that you won't have to go through the trial and error period
yourselves.
First, the format. My standard uses four lines: (1) the FTP
path within the /pub/startrek directory, (2) the title and
author, (3) the date posted and (4) the summary. This format
makes it easy for Stephen to incorporate the summaries into the
ASC Web page and gives any readers who see the summary outside
the Web page the location of the story in the FTP archive.
(See above section)
If you use a different format, make sure to check with Stephen
that it's easy for him to use.
Second, the content. The most important thing to remember when
writing a story summary is: give the reader enough information
to determine whether this is "their kind of story" but not enough
to spoil the ending. If you can do that, everything else is
gravy. The rule of thumb I use is to summarize the first third
of the story. By the time you're a third of the way in, you know
the set-up and which characters are involved, but not how the
main complication in the story will be resolved.
Note, however, that you do have to read the whole story before
you can summarize it: it's always possible that something you
thought was a minor point will turn out to be an important one.
You want your summary to accurately reflect what the story is
really about.
My personal approach is to end many summaries with a question or
an ellipsis, to give the reader the idea that there is more to
the story than is being told in the summary. That's just a
matter of personal style, however; your own summaries will
quickly come to reflect your own style.
few miscellaneous tips:
1. If the story is a sequel to another story available on the
archive, make sure you've read the previous story first.
Sometimes this makes quite a difference to how the story is meant
to be read. Similarly, if you're summarizing two or more stories
that form a series, try to write the summaries in the same order
as the stories are supposed to be read. This creates a more
accurate impression of the story for the reader.
2. Make sure sequels are marked as such so that readers won't
download stories then realize in frustration that they have to go
back and download another story before they can read this one.
As examples:
Taste for Vengeance, A
Karen Colohan
Gul Dukat comes to DS9 with insidious plans to destroy the
relationship between Garak and Julian Bashir. A sequel to
"Getting Away From It All."
Postscript
Colleen
Tom finally confesses his feelings to Harry, but will Harry
ever reciprocate them? A sequel to "Ghost in the Machine" by
Killashdra.
3. If the story is a romance, make sure it's clear to the reader
who is involved in the romantic relationship. This is important
to many readers.
4. If the story involves a character invented by the author,
provide the character's full name and a little information about
him/her so that the reader doesn't think s/he is missing
something. For the same reason, if the story involves a minor
character from one of the TV shows or movies, identify where that
character came from. As an example:
Academic Sabbatical
JoAnne Soper-Cook
Starfleet Cadet Anna Mithrais gets more than she bargained for
when she becomes an assistant to Dr. Tolian Soran
("Generations").
5. If the story's author keeps something a secret throughout
part of or most of the story, make sure that you don't give away
that secret in your summary. That sounds obvious, but it's easy
to slip up here. (If there's a sequel to a story like this, try
not to give away the secret in your summary of the sequel,
either.) As an example, the identities of the main characters in
the following story were kept a secret until the last paragraph,
so I gave a sense of what the story was about without giving that
away:
Beauty and the Beast
Nancy Brown
Fleeing through dark caves, a human and a Klingon find
unexpected comfort in each other's arms.
6. Try to keep your summaries down to four screen lines or
fewer. If the story events are very complex, as is often the
case, ask yourself what the main theme or conflict of the story
is, then try to pare down your summary to reflect that. Not
every detail is needed; give the reader just enough to get an
idea of what kind of story this is.
7. Don't let your biases show up in your summaries. I've
summarized a few stories that I just *loathed* (for one reason or
another) but I know there are people out there who will
appreciate them, so I try to keep the summaries as neutral and
accurate as possible.
8. Proofread, proofread, proofread! It's horribly embarrassing
(I know -- it's happened to me) to have a writer e-mail you to
tell you that you've misspelled her name. Even worse is
realizing after a summary makes it to the Web site that a word is
missing and therefore one of the sentences doesn't make sense.
That's it! Or at least, that's everything I could think of.
Happy summarizing, and if any of you come up with other tips for
writing story summaries, please pass them along.
III) Getting Your Story Out There
================================
A) In the Archive
-----------------
Any thing posted to ASC that reaches Constable Katie will be
archived. She also archives works from ASCEM and ASCA as well.
submissions may also be e-mailed to submissions@webmused.com
Make sure your name is on the first page of the story (if you're
using a pseudonym, then make sure your pseudonym is there.)
B) To ASCEM
-----------
Send Submissions with the standard ASC subject line to:
ascem@earthlink.com
C) To ASCA
----------
Send Submissions with the standard ASC subject line to:
ascatrekfic@crosswinds.net
IV) Posting Hits
===============
The easiest way to post a story, is to cut and paste. First pull
up your news reader. Then pull up your story in text format.
Copy the story from the word processing program. Then past it
into your news program.
V) Credits
===========
Section I B:
A modification of Ruth Gifford (former ASCEM FAQ Maintainer)'s
response to a post titled Warning to Authors
Section V A:
Post from Alara Rogers dated 9/3/95
Other assistance was provided by:
Susan M Stiefel, FAQ Maintainer alt.tv.x-files.creative
Ruth Gifford former FAQ Maintainer ASCEM (1995-9)
Alara Rogers, ASC Archivist (1995-8)
Macedon, Winner of Alara Rogers Award for Best Author 1998.
Melissa Koehn, Backup ASC FAQ Maintainer (1997)
Dina Lerret, Archivist (1998-present)
Katherine "Constable Katie" Fritz, Post Collecter/Formatter
Carol Thomas, Adult Story Summarizer (1995-98).
J Winter, Backup FAQ Maintainer (1998-2000)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Once again, these are only suggestions, but most of us would
like you to follow them.
Stephen Ratliff
another insufficiently reluctant staff
member of ASC.
*************************************************************