DCL Story Archive
Have you written a piece of dragon-related fiction, and want to share it now that it’s polished to perfection? Or are you looking for a good read, and would like to review someone else’s work? Than you have come to the right place. Feel free to click on the menu bar on the right to read, or if you have questions, keep on scrolling.
Story Archives FAQ
Table of Contents
1) Distinctions Between the Den of Scribes and the Library
2) How to Navigate the Story Archives
5) Information for Readers and Reviewers
6) My question remains unanswered
What Makes This Section Different From the Den of Scribes?
Perhaps you have already noticed, but the clan has a forum for submitting writing called The Den of Scribes. There you can post stories, poetry, songs, and other writings you wish to share with the clan. It is unspokenly agreed that writings in the Den of Scribes are works in progress, and are open to criticism and editing. On the other hand, The Story Archives are for completed writing submissions. If you are satisfied with your writing, both in content and in coding, and would like to upload it somewhere permanently for all the clan to see, then you should use the Story Archives.
Help! I Don’t Know Where to Click First!
To your right you will see three different menus of links: Categories, Recent Posts, and Meta. The Categories section allows you to search writing by genre. The Recent Posts section is exactly what it sounds like. The Meta section allows you to Register and Log in to your Story Archives account.
Story Archives Account? As in, a different account from my forums account? Yes, just like the Oekaki, you have to register a separate account in order to use the Story Archive.
What are the rules about this separate account? It does not cost anything to make a Story Archives account. For sanity’s sake, please only make ONE Story Archives account, and make it the same name as your main account. (For example, my owner name is Beaky, my main account/dragon is Monte, and I own several other dragons including Dsetsu and Boko Wethrin Vie Foma IV. On the Story Archives my account name is Monte.) You are responsible for keeping track of your login information.
How Do I Get a Story Archives Account?
Click the Register button in the Meta menu to your right. In the Username section put your main account name (ex. Monte). In the E-mail section put, obviously, your e-mail. You will be e-mailed a password, so make sure you have access to whichever e-mail you type. You will be able to change your password later. You will have to wait for administrative approval before you can start posting your writing. To get approval, post here. And an admin will approve your account.
All right, got my password and admin approval, now what? Go back to the Meta toolbar, and click Login. After logging in you will be transported to the main submissions page. From this page, in the top right hand, you will see either the name of your account or the word Profile. Either of these links will allow you to change your account information, including password, layout, and contact information.
I want to post my writing. Once logged in, you will see three links on your upper left hand side. To post your writing, click the Write link. All submissions will be posted as Unpublished, which means you will have the option to edit them for a time. An administrator has the ability to change the status of your writing to Published, once you are satisfied with it, thus locking your writing.
Hang on, what’s this dodgy form thing? You will see a form which you have to fill out in order to submit your piece. The sections are described in detail below:
* Title: The first section, Title, should be self-explanatory; think of a good title for your piece.
* Post: You must copy and paste your writing into the Post section. You will have the option of two different submissions styles: Visual and HTML. Visual allows you to copy and paste colored fonts as is. HTML allows you to code directly the look of your writing. There are other functions you can play with as well, such as adding an image or sound. Play with the different options, be creative.
* Tags: Tags are keywords which pertain to your story. (ex. Monte, Juli, romance, comedy, babies, mayhem). When readers search for stories they can search by tags. (ex. looking up all the stories about Monte or about mayhem). If you want fans of your writing to be able to find more stories like your story, or related to your story, then make sure to include tags.
* Categories: In this section you have the ability to choose the genre and rating of your story. Genre, as used in this form, does not mean the tone of the piece (ex. romance, fantasy, mystery), but the structure (ex. poem, chapter, song). If you want to denote the tone please use the Tags. The ratings are fairly obvious: Everyone means everyone can read your piece, Mature means there might be language or precarious situations not meant for readers under 13, Restricted means only certain people can read your piece (you will have the ability to password protect your writing further on), and X means your piece contains smut, violence, or other adult situations (and has nothing to do with the owner of Ezetah).
* Excerpt: Give potential readers a taste of your writing by including a slight preview, say no more than a paragraph or ten lines of dialogue.
* Trackbacks: Like tags, but are links to other sites and web pages.
* Custom Fields Are more used for Blogs and can be ignored for the majority of submissions.
* Comments and Pings Here you can toggle whether you want people to review your piece or not.
* Password Protection Use this option if your piece is rated Restricted.
How Do I Find Something to Read?
Is your piece Published and you want to see the final product? Or are you looking for a way to spend some free time? Notice that after you log in, at the top left hand corner, you have three links: Write, Manage and Comments. Click the second one, Manage, to sift through all of the uploaded writing.
I’m Still Confused; What Do I Do?
If you have further questions, just PM Beaky.