Part 1; The Disclaimer/Author’s note/you name it.
So, you want to write a story for submission to the fanfiction site or your own website. What should you put on paper or computer screen first? There's an easy answer to that - a disclaimer!
Many authors just post a disclaimer followed by exactly what they have written, with no editing or precursor, and regardless of etiquette. While this is all you truly need, it does not help readers at all and may even keep them away from reading your story.
Really, the first thing you should put up is an author’s note that deals with the story's content and theme. When people, mainly the newbies, (that’s what we, older, established authors call the new writers) do not do that it forces a reader to either read into a story to find out what is in it, or to skip the story entirely.
The new author may assume all they need to put up is the story title, author’s name and one line disclaimer that states 'I don't own it etc,' or even just a small author's note asking people to enjoy the story.
This is partially right.
You need much more than just that, my dear authors. You need to state everything up front for the reader. An author should list the MAIN canon characters that are included and are the focus of the story. There are some fiction stories that have upwards to twenty characters or more in them. A complete list of characters does not help as much as a list of who the main characters are going to be. Also, if the main characters are Original Characters rather than Canon Characters; this mere fact unto itself has a remarkable tendency to scare readers away regardless of the quality of the fiction. If you entice them with a great synopsis, they'll be more likely to read your story than one with no summary.
Sometimes, new authors won’t even do that. They think if you, the reader had read this on the story page before you reach the actual story itself - -
The new life begins? By Solaris
Rating: PG
Genres: Action/Adventure
Words: 3525
Warnings: none
Published: 07/21/03
Summary: What would the students and teachers be saying about Lockhart, if they knew he was really a fraud?
That is all you need to know about the story itself. That is where the author is wrong. I have read many stories where the author didn’t give a rat’s behind about giving us a statement dealing with his or her story but would insert an Author’s Note ( i.e. this is not going to be an incest story thanks! Or how cute is that? Or some line that she or he thinks is cute after like one of the characters had spoken or a scene happened.). I was immediately turned off from reading any more of that person's story. In fact, I reviewed the story and stated that the reason that I got 'turned off' was because an Author's Note was placed in the actual text of the story, where it did not belong.
Some of the new authors will state that Author’s Notes has a place in the actual text of the story. That mere fact that their story had an Author’s note in the story itself will distract the reader from the story itself! It really has no place in the story beyond the beginning of the story or at the end of the story.
Now you are probably wondering I don’t need that on my story. It states it all right on the page you were at previously. I find that to be lazy of the author and some authors’ is just that but after awhile they realize that they do need to put more up.
Some authors will just put one line as an Author’s note and leave it at that. The authors had not stated anything about what their stories are about before starting it off. The mere fact that the sentences in some of the Author’s notes that you find on any submission sites have mistakes in them usually will be enough to put many readers off. Most young authors will be informed about it by their reviewers and hopefully they will correct their story that was filled with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors and the story plot itself was not good. That is a list of most errors some authors have made.
Usually, most authors will leave the Author’s notes for the end of the story, but some will use the below format to talk about their story and let the readers know what they are in for within the story itself, instead of being surprised by the mere fact of the scene itself.
Title: the title of the story.
Author: Who wrote this story?
Summary: A one line summary of the story itself.
Rating: What is the rating of this story?
Pairing(s): Who are being paired romantically in this story?
Feedback: desired. * This is all you really need to say here! *
Characters: Characters that are seen in this story from the book/cartoon or movie. Add any new characters name here. Also sometimes, people write about real people, so they will put the people’s names here.
Betas: The names of the people who helped you make the story better – they can be your friends, people you met via an e-mail group or even your mother if she likes to help you improve your writing.
Author’s notes: This is where you put any author notes about where the story idea came from or if the characters are going to be out of character in this story. And this is where you usually will put some of your thoughts about the story, like I really like this story or that this is my first fanfiction story in this fandom. There should be no Author’s note in the story itself if it is placed here. It is very distracting to the readers.
Disclaimer: This is where you state that you do not own or making any money off of this story. Stuff like that.
* Your story goes here. *
One suggestion, please don’t hold your story hostage for reviews from your readers, if the story is good enough, they will leave you reviews. If they do not, don’t worry about it. Someone will review your story one day. Just state a simple thank you note to them for reading your story, “I’ll try to update this story as soon as possible or just a simple thank you for reading this story.”, will do for most authors.
That’s it. The reader will hopefully review the story. Those people who hold off posting or will not post anymore of their story to the site and demand a certain amount of reviews to get the next chapter posted are called REVIEW WHORES, yes, REVIEW WHORES, people who hold their stories hostage if they do not get this amount of reviews from their readers. That is not very wise and people will naturally not review your story because you ‘DEMANDED’ them to review your story.
A properly disclaimed story intro, I’m using one of my stories and Smooster’s disclaimer as two examples, on two ways of how an intro should look like:
Title: Harry Potter and The Bungling Teacher.
Author: Beth Brownell
Summary: What would the students and teachers be saying about Lockhart, if they knew he was really a fraud?
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): None at all.
Feedback: desired especially if it is to agree with my thoughts on that idiot teacher Lockhart.
Characters: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Fudge, Dumbledore, Snape, Lockhart, and various other students and staff members of Hogwarts.
Notes: I have been wondering what would happen if the Dursleys had to reveal Harry to the Masons. Everyone will be out of character in this story as it had started as a ‘What if scenario’ of the first part of COS and it ended up getting a life of its own now. I am also bringing in two characters that would be normally seen in book three and yes, he is free as things will be explained. The idea about Lockhart came from my friend Devona.
Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the characters that JKR created for a short time and I'm not receiving any money for this story. JKR is a Goddess for blessing us with them.
Author's notes.
1. Many of you may have read this story before. I would like to invite you to read it again, as major changes to the story have been made.
2. This is not a happy story. If you do not like that, DON'T read it.
3. This story contains some foul language, lots of violence, gore and death, and some other more mature concepts and problems. If you do not like this, why are you reading DBZ fanfics? DON'T read it!
4. This will be a LONG fic. Please give it a chance...The first several Chapters set up the story and are therefore some-what dry.
5. Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball. I did not create Dragon Ball (c)2001, Bird Studio/Shueisha, Toei Animation. Licensed by FUNimation Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved, or as otherwise directed by FUNimation. This fan-fiction is not meant to infringe on any copyrights, it is simply here to show my appreciation of and for Dragonball.
This story and any characters, moves or other information not created by those named above are (c)2001-2003 by the Smooster. If you enjoy or enjoyed reading this fiction you have my permission to use any Character, move or other in one of your own, BUT PLEASE give me some credit as I worked quite long to present you with this story.
Names: some of the names are in Japanese and are translated here.
Ichigo = Strawberry, Kinomi = Berry
Kudamono = Fruit, Nashi = Pear
Momo = Peach, Ume = Plum
Ringo = Apple, Sakura = Cherry
Meron = Melon, Aoikinomi = Blueberry
The Return.
Preface
This story takes place about four hundred years after the end of GT (which the author has never seen being an American who does not know Japanese). Goku is still alive, as the Kaioshin has removed him from the dragon balls to serve as their champion if anything like Buu ever put the universe in danger again. As such, he lives with the Kaioshins on their planet and cannot interfere with the normal progression of the Universe.
Chapter One School's Out!
Writing stories is a two way street between you and your readers/reviewers. If they like the story, they’ll recommend it to their friends, and it’s the same with the bad stories they will recommend people not to read the bad ones. Also, it is widely known that you will get better with every story you write with the help of your reviewers and your beta readers if you have any.
A story should be given 150% of your effort not 40% and say it's done! That's a disgrace to everyone who had or has tried to read the story.
My next column will be dealing with the rating system. What story should get what type of rating?