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sga_santaSince we're getting closer to the deadline for stories (December 10th) and stories are starting to trickle in now (yay! for people who are early ::g::), we figured it was time for a 'Formatting Your Fic, Yay!' post.
Given![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alyse's previous post about having difficulty typing at the moment, we're totally cribbing previous posts to firm up our submission guidelines.
This is nothing new but it is absolutely essential that you follow these formatting guides this year, as Alyse will not be physically capable of fixing stuff the way she has previously, and Claire will pout if she has to do it all herself.
Meta Information
For your headers, please include the following information:
Title:
Author: -- will not be posted until the reveal
Recipient: -- important
Pairing: -- please give all pairing info or, if it's gen, just say 'gen' here. If it's 'gen but if you squint it could be shippy' then put that here (with the pairing) as well and we'll list the story in the masterlist under both
Rating:
Disclaimer:
Author's Notes: -- not essential unless you want to include them. If you want to keep some information back, for example beta readers who may give away who you are before the reveal, please include that in the covering e-mail (not the story file) and we'll put it in the database so we know to post it on the reveal.
Summary:
Any other notes are optional although we're bound to have forgotten something important ::g::
And have it in an easy cut and paste text box:
Formatting
This year we need you to format your submission in such a way that we only need to copy and paste it into LJ. As we've said every single year so far ::g::, if you want to use italics, bold tags or similar in your story, please make sure that you code them up in a format suitable for livejournal. That means using html or LJ specific tags such as:
- <b>bold</b> or <strong>bold</strong>
- <i>italics</i> or <em>emphasise</em>
- <u>underline</u>
- including an image is <img src="http://www.urlofpic.com/picname"> - if you want to include an image, please either upload to somewhere anonymous like imageshack or tinypic or send us the pic, let us upload it to one of our LJ scrapbooks and we'll send you the address of the link back so you can include it where you want it
- LJ names are formatted <lj user="alyse"> or, for community names, <lj comm="sga_santa">
- lj-cuts are formatted <lj-cut text="This is the cut tag text">
So what we mean by 'formatted for LJ' is 'send us a plain text document, with any fancy schmancy formatting you want already coded up in html'. If you send us a document with the formatting just in the document, with no html coding, it gets posted as plain text and you will, unfortunately, lose any formatting you want.
Please do not use < or > to indicate telepathy or asides or thoughts or anything else unless you know how to use the html character codes for those symbols (which can be found here). That's because that's the symbol that browsers use to let them know that an instruction is coming on how to present the information, and you will lose anything between those two symbols as browsers will interpret it as a note, not something to show.
Please also be aware of the smart quotes issue in Word, which doesn't render well in html. If you're having any problems, we advise saving your file in plain text, without line breaks and allowing character substitution if necessary, or usingastolat's word macros here (thanks to lunasky for that link previously) to convert your word document to an LJ suitable format. If all of that sounds like goobledegook to you, then just send us the Word document, coded up with those markers (this is the important bit!), and we'll save as plain text before we post anyway :)
Story Length
As you all know, for this exchange your story should be at least 1,000 words long but there is no upper limit. Not even the sky ::g::
However, LJ disagrees - it has a maximum post length of a certain number of characters, which translates into around about 11,500 words, depending on how many big words you like to use.
So in terms of posting, if stories are >10,000 words we post to LJ in parts and then edit all of those posts put in all of the hyperlinks. However, once you get longer than 2 parts it gets to be a huge pain, especially if there are a lot of long stories and we have to post loads of stories a day and Alyse's brain slowly dies with the linking and the editing and the editing and the linking. (Claire's brain, however, stays young and spritely, but that's because she's on the good drugs...) So, if it's been longer than that, we've whacked it up on Alyse's webspace and linked to it from the community.
We're doing the same this year, so if you would like to make our lives tremendously easier, please check the length of your story by posting it with all of the header information to a private post in your LJ (as private posts are only seen by you) to make sure it fits into one or two parts, and then send it to us in an appropriate form.
- < 10,000 words - one file, labelled yourname - storyname - part 1 of 1
- > 10,000 words, < 20,000 words - split into two files, labelled yourname - storyname - part 1 of 2 and part 2 of 2. Each part should fit into one LJ post (and check this, please!)
- > 20,000 words - send us one file and we'll host it on Alyse's site as a webpage.aithine is working on an html template for us that will hopefully reduce the amount of C&P and fixing we need to do, and if she manages to get it done on time, we'll post this so that people can do this coding if they want. It won't be obligatory, though :)
File Types
Which brings us to the last point - what file types can we accept.
Between the two of us, we can handle the following formats:
- plain text (*.txt) - this is by far and away our preferred option as long as it is without line breaks
- Word docs (*.doc)
- open office format (*.odt)
- by giving us access to your file on googledocs
Please do not send us *.docx files. That's a Word 2007 and above proprietary format.
Don't:
- use Word's save as a webpage option. It's bad, wrong and while it doesn't fund terrorism, it does lurk in dark alleyways preparing to leap out and mug innocent browsers
- code your submission for use with LJ's rich text posting interface rather than the normal html one - this is Word's slightly less evil but still creepy younger brother
- use < or > to code anything but html
- use Word's fancy formatting for paragraphs rather than leaving a blank line between paragraphs - this formatting is lost when posted to LJ, and all of your text ends up squished close together
like this
in a way that makes it very difficult
to read large blocks of text
on a computer screen.
Even when it's a completely new paragraph.
"For example," said Teyla, "when someone new speaks."
"That right?" asked Ronon, although his tone was disinterested.
Rodney just rolled his eyes and stole John's donut.
Also this is an example
of what saving as a text file
with line breaks looks like.
Evil, no?
Those of you that have already sent stories in, you're fine and don't worry about it. You're already on the mod LJ and good to go when posting starts.
Any questions?
* Please note, you can also do this by sending us chocolate (Claire), alcohol (Alyse), Jared Padalecki trussed up and tied with a bow (Claire), Andrew Lee Potts - again, trussed up and tied with a bow (Alyse) or porn (both of us)...
Given
alyse's previous post about having difficulty typing at the moment, we're totally cribbing previous posts to firm up our submission guidelines.This is nothing new but it is absolutely essential that you follow these formatting guides this year, as Alyse will not be physically capable of fixing stuff the way she has previously, and Claire will pout if she has to do it all herself.
Meta Information
For your headers, please include the following information:
Title:
Author: -- will not be posted until the reveal
Recipient: -- important
Pairing: -- please give all pairing info or, if it's gen, just say 'gen' here. If it's 'gen but if you squint it could be shippy' then put that here (with the pairing) as well and we'll list the story in the masterlist under both
Rating:
Disclaimer:
Author's Notes: -- not essential unless you want to include them. If you want to keep some information back, for example beta readers who may give away who you are before the reveal, please include that in the covering e-mail (not the story file) and we'll put it in the database so we know to post it on the reveal.
Summary:
Any other notes are optional although we're bound to have forgotten something important ::g::
And have it in an easy cut and paste text box:
Formatting
This year we need you to format your submission in such a way that we only need to copy and paste it into LJ. As we've said every single year so far ::g::, if you want to use italics, bold tags or similar in your story, please make sure that you code them up in a format suitable for livejournal. That means using html or LJ specific tags such as:
- <b>bold</b> or <strong>bold</strong>
- <i>italics</i> or <em>emphasise</em>
- <u>underline</u>
- including an image is <img src="http://www.urlofpic.com/picname"> - if you want to include an image, please either upload to somewhere anonymous like imageshack or tinypic or send us the pic, let us upload it to one of our LJ scrapbooks and we'll send you the address of the link back so you can include it where you want it
- LJ names are formatted <lj user="alyse"> or, for community names, <lj comm="sga_santa">
- lj-cuts are formatted <lj-cut text="This is the cut tag text">
So what we mean by 'formatted for LJ' is 'send us a plain text document, with any fancy schmancy formatting you want already coded up in html'. If you send us a document with the formatting just in the document, with no html coding, it gets posted as plain text and you will, unfortunately, lose any formatting you want.
Please do not use < or > to indicate telepathy or asides or thoughts or anything else unless you know how to use the html character codes for those symbols (which can be found here). That's because that's the symbol that browsers use to let them know that an instruction is coming on how to present the information, and you will lose anything between those two symbols as browsers will interpret it as a note, not something to show.
Please also be aware of the smart quotes issue in Word, which doesn't render well in html. If you're having any problems, we advise saving your file in plain text, without line breaks and allowing character substitution if necessary, or using
astolat's word macros here (thanks to lunasky for that link previously) to convert your word document to an LJ suitable format. If all of that sounds like goobledegook to you, then just send us the Word document, coded up with those markers (this is the important bit!), and we'll save as plain text before we post anyway :)Story Length
As you all know, for this exchange your story should be at least 1,000 words long but there is no upper limit. Not even the sky ::g::
However, LJ disagrees - it has a maximum post length of a certain number of characters, which translates into around about 11,500 words, depending on how many big words you like to use.
So in terms of posting, if stories are >10,000 words we post to LJ in parts and then edit all of those posts put in all of the hyperlinks. However, once you get longer than 2 parts it gets to be a huge pain, especially if there are a lot of long stories and we have to post loads of stories a day and Alyse's brain slowly dies with the linking and the editing and the editing and the linking. (Claire's brain, however, stays young and spritely, but that's because she's on the good drugs...) So, if it's been longer than that, we've whacked it up on Alyse's webspace and linked to it from the community.
We're doing the same this year, so if you would like to make our lives tremendously easier, please check the length of your story by posting it with all of the header information to a private post in your LJ (as private posts are only seen by you) to make sure it fits into one or two parts, and then send it to us in an appropriate form.
- < 10,000 words - one file, labelled yourname - storyname - part 1 of 1
- > 10,000 words, < 20,000 words - split into two files, labelled yourname - storyname - part 1 of 2 and part 2 of 2. Each part should fit into one LJ post (and check this, please!)
- > 20,000 words - send us one file and we'll host it on Alyse's site as a webpage.
aithine is working on an html template for us that will hopefully reduce the amount of C&P and fixing we need to do, and if she manages to get it done on time, we'll post this so that people can do this coding if they want. It won't be obligatory, though :)File Types
Which brings us to the last point - what file types can we accept.
Between the two of us, we can handle the following formats:
- plain text (*.txt) - this is by far and away our preferred option as long as it is without line breaks
- Word docs (*.doc)
- open office format (*.odt)
- by giving us access to your file on googledocs
Please do not send us *.docx files. That's a Word 2007 and above proprietary format.
Don't:
- use Word's save as a webpage option. It's bad, wrong and while it doesn't fund terrorism, it does lurk in dark alleyways preparing to leap out and mug innocent browsers
- code your submission for use with LJ's rich text posting interface rather than the normal html one - this is Word's slightly less evil but still creepy younger brother
- use < or > to code anything but html
- use Word's fancy formatting for paragraphs rather than leaving a blank line between paragraphs - this formatting is lost when posted to LJ, and all of your text ends up squished close together
like this
in a way that makes it very difficult
to read large blocks of text
on a computer screen.
Even when it's a completely new paragraph.
"For example," said Teyla, "when someone new speaks."
"That right?" asked Ronon, although his tone was disinterested.
Rodney just rolled his eyes and stole John's donut.
Also this is an example
of what saving as a text file
with line breaks looks like.
Evil, no?
Those of you that have already sent stories in, you're fine and don't worry about it. You're already on the mod LJ and good to go when posting starts.
Any questions?
* Please note, you can also do this by sending us chocolate (Claire), alcohol (Alyse), Jared Padalecki trussed up and tied with a bow (Claire), Andrew Lee Potts - again, trussed up and tied with a bow (Alyse) or porn (both of us)...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 02:11 am (UTC)I have a question, if you please: if you take out the code that turns the picture into a URL link for the hosting site, can you still use photobucket? I've tried this and as far as I can tell, all that happens is that you get a picture that doesn't show any information, but I'm assuming you'd know better than I would. I'm just trying to save you guys a bit of work by hosting the pic myself. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 02:18 am (UTC)For all images, we'd rather host on one of our LJs / webspaces while the exchange is still anonymous and change the link to an author-chosen one once the reveal is done.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 02:43 am (UTC)I certainly don't mind having you host the image--I'm just sorry to give you the extra work. :)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 03:04 am (UTC)Sorry. So, so sorry.
And I didn't check the word count. Damn I suck.
Would you like me to correct, re-save and re-send?
Squeaky
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 03:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 10:27 pm (UTC)And your icon totally cracks me up. TOTALLY!!! (and you know why)
Squeaky
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 10:26 pm (UTC)Yeah Secret Santa!
Squeaky
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 08:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 09:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 11:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 12:10 pm (UTC)If mine was brief it's omg!pain
no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-03 02:20 pm (UTC)I need an beta.
Date: 2010-12-04 07:36 am (UTC)I will have it done by the 10th but not sure about getting it beta'd. Does everything go out on the 10th or can I get an extenstion?
Sorry about this.
Re: I need an beta.
Date: 2010-12-04 09:08 pm (UTC)If you need an extension after that, please contact Claire and I via e-mail - our addresses are both on the mail you were sent, or it's alyse at livejournal.com and claire at livejournal.com
no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-06 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-07 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-25 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 01:55 am (UTC)Thank you for modding this!!!!! I can't even imagine the work. Actually, I can. It gives me nightmares.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-05 02:23 am (UTC)