Fanfiction Guidelines (updated 26/06/2012)

by **Steel** Mon Aug 08, 2011 1:33 pm

FANFICTION GUIDELINES

As mentioned previously in the Forum Rules, this section will shed some light on the allowed ratings of our board and how to properly post fanfiction. Although we accept all kinds of ratings, in order to protect the younger members on the board, everything will have to be labelled correctly with the proper warnings. Please make sure to adhere to this rule as closely as you can.

RATINGS

To avoid confusion, we suggest the use of the official MPAA ratings that follow below, which were replicated here along with a few elaborations from FictionRatings.Com.

1. G - General Audiences
Fanfiction with this rating is suitable for ages 5 and above. It is free of coarse language, violence, and adult themes.
2. PG - Parental Guidance Suggested
Fanfiction with this rating is suitable for ages 9 and above. It contains minor action violence without serious injury and may contain mild coarse language. It does not contain any adult themes.
3. PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
Fanfiction with this rating is suitable for ages 13 and above. It usually contains some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.
3. R - Restricted
Fanfiction with this rating is suitable for ages 16 and above. It contains possible strong but non-explicit adult themes, references to violence, and strong coarse language.
4. NC-17 - No One 17 and Under Admitted
Fanfiction with this rating is unsuitable for ages 17 and below. It contains content that is only suitable for mature adults, including excessive violence, explicit language, and adult themes.

Technically speaking, mature content is not allowed on the site, but as long as the proper warnings are put in place, we can let it slide. If it proves to be too troublesome in the future, a separate board invisible to under-age members will be created to house inappropriate content, or the inappropriate content will be deleted.

POSTING

1. To keep things simple, depending on the rating of your fanfic, add it to the corresponding section.

2. The title of your thread should follow this format: Title and (Status/Sequel to Title) in brackets if applicable.

Status stands for Crossover (if your fanfic crosses over with another series), Alternate Universe (if your fanfic is set in another world or setting), Fusion (if your fanfic contains elements from another series, but is not a crossover), or Crack (if your fanfc is not supposed to be taken seriously and was written just for fun).

For example: Life's Not Fair (Crack)

If your fanfic is a sequel to a previous fanfic, write (Sequel to Title) instead, so readers know that they are reading a sequel.

For example: Under His Control (Sequel to Vampire of the Opera).

3. The subtitle of your thread should follow this format: [Type: Status] and (if applicable) [Character(s): Name(s)] or [Pairing(s): Name/Name].

Types stand for Poem (if the fanfic is a poem), Drabble (if the fanfic is a maximum of 500-600 words), Oneshot (if the fanfic is a minimum of 500-600 words and will have no other chapters to it), Multi-Chaptered (if the fanfic has several chapters to it), or Collection (if your fanfic is, say, a collection of oneshots). In Status, you would put either Complete if the fanfic is finished or Incomplete if you will update it again in the future with more chapters.

For example: [Drabble: Complete] or [Collection: Oneshots / Incomplete].

For [Character(s): Name(s)] or [Pairing(s): Name/Name], simply state the most important characters and/or pairings your fanfc is about. For example, if your story's main focus is Buzz Lightyear with only subtle hints at his romance with Ozma, simply state Buzz's name. Or, if your story is primarily romantic, state the pairing it is about. Try to avoid using both Characters(s)/Pairing(s) in the subtitle, as you can detail the true extent of the involved characters/pairing in Step 4. If your fanfic contains OCs (as in, original characters), simply add OCs to the subtitle. You can detail their names in Step 4.

For example: [Characters: XR, NOS-4-A2, OCs] or [Pairing: Buzz/Ozma].

4. In the actual thread, elaborate on the fanfic with the following fields to include any other possible warnings or information:

Title: The title of your work goes here.
Author: Your name goes here (or, if you co-wrote with someone else, put both your names).
Fandom: The name of the series goes here. If a crossover, add the name of the other series too.
Character(s) / Pairing(s): Here, you either put down the names of the characters you have included, or the pairings your fanfic contains. Usually, you can use both, but some people who prefer to write exclusively about pairings can simply go with the latter.
Rating: The rating of your fic goes here.
Word Count: Microsoft Word usually does an automatic count of how long your story is at the bottom of the program. Put that here.
Warning(s): Anything regarding spoilers or questionable content that some people might like to be warned about can be added here.
Disclaimer: In fanfiction, you own nothing. The real owners go here.
Summary: A brief summary a few lines or sentences long about what your story is about to get people interested in reading it.
Copy-paste the following code to use in your threads:

Code:
[color=#227ACC][b]Title:[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Author:[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Fandom:[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Character(s) / Pairing(s):[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Rating:[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Word Count:[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Warning(s):[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Disclaimer:[/b][/color] [color=#227ACC][b]Summary:[/b][/color]
5. There are several ways you can go about posting your fanfc. You can either paste the text into the thread itself, link to the fanfic from another site, or even link to several sites you've posted your fanfic on.

If you're planning a multi-chaptered fic, use your first post as an archive post where you can place links to your corresponding chapters. If you plan on posting your fanfic directly on the forum never paste the bulk of your text in the first post. Here, you are allowed and encouraged to double post, so each post can serve as a chapter you can later on link to in your first archive post.

Here is an example of using links from another site to link to each chapter in the archive post.
Here is another example of linking to each post you make that serves as a chapter in the archive post.

Either format is fine. This will help people who are reading your fanfic not get lost amidst comments from other members reading your fanfic.

When posting a multi-chaptered fic, keep one thread for all your updates. Please don't make new threads whenever you write a new chapter.

6. For fanfiction rated R and NC-17 I would strongly suggest that you link to it off-site and never paste the text directly into a post if you can help it. You're naturally allowed to post such content, just as long as you use links, or, if you use text, by hiding it behind a spoiler tag. This will help younger members avoid reading potentially harmful content and also avoid possible complications in the future.

If you have any other suggestions on how to improve the guidelines, don't be afraid to say so! The important thing here is to always have some good, clean fun, as well as a good bit of order, right?

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30