A HELPFUL GUIDE ON HOW TO SUBMIT A FAN FICTION
STORY
ON THE SPECTRUM HEADQUARTERS WEBSITE.
After nearly ten years of fan fiction posted on this website, you
might wonder, ‘Why do we need Submission guidelines now?’.
The answer is quite easy.
The Spectrum Headquarters website has grown considerably over these long
years, and so has our fan fiction collection.
With close to 400 stories posted on our website, or linked to it,
and with more writers now submitting their own stories, we found that it has
become increasingly difficult to manage the various submissions sent to us,
even considering the many collaborators now helping to sort them out. There are too many different presentations
and/or ‘states’ in which stories are sent to this website. Time for first reading of a submission and
then beta-reading(s), increased, and it now takes many weeks, even months
before a story is posted. It’s nobody’s
fault but mine, as there never was a set ‘standard’, or guidelines for people
to follow, in order to send their submissions.
So basing myself on past
experiences of what I received in the course of these last years, I came up,
still with the help of my collaborators, with these guidelines below. They will serve to make things simpler. And I’m hoping that everyone will follow
these guidelines. This will help ease
the load, so that reading submitted stories, and beta-reading them, continues
to give us the same sense of pleasure and discovery it always has, without ever
becoming a chore to me or my collaborators who are offering their very precious
help in beta-reading and reading approval.
Just remember: it’s only a
way to make things easier for everyone, including you! It doesn’t change much of the end
result: stories will still be posted on
this website, the same as before, but perhaps a little faster than it became in
the last few months.
You can always write me to ask any questions you want about these
guidelines – or anything else for that matter.
I’ll make a point of answering and helping you, whether you are a
newcomer to this website, or a more ‘experienced’ writer. Feel free to write me a note at spectrum_hq@hotmail.com
- which also is the address you should use to
send your story.
1.
Types
of stories and content
·
The
story presented to this website has to be Fan Fiction, related to either
“Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” or “New Captain Scarlet”.
·
If
possible, depiction of the characters must be according to their generally
accepted background, although inspired creativity is allowed.
·
Crossovers
are accepted, if they are with Captain Scarlet.
A certain amount of explanation, or description, might be required to
explain the other ‘fanworld’ used in your story.
·
No
slash, explicit sex or pornography is allowed.
·
Violence,
implicit sex, a certain amount of bad language is allowed (when
justified). Take note that too much of
it might earn your story a suggested R-Rating.
·
No
songfics will be accepted.
2.
Formatting
·
Submit
your story as a normal document type (Word, WordPad, Notepad, Works, etc.) We
have programs that allow us to open most formats. If we cannot open your file, we’ll contact
you, so you can resubmit the story in an alternative program.
·
Do
not send in htm or html format. When it’s time to put
the story online, the webmaster will transfer your file to web format. Do not use pdf
format either, as that isn’t very practical to beta-read or eventually reformat
as web document.
·
Use
only black ‘ink’ on white background. It
is easier to read for submission and eventual beta-reading. Beta-readers will use a different colour of
ink for their corrections and comments.
·
Use
regular True Type fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, Courier,
Comic Sans MS, Garamond, Calibri, Trebuchet, Tahoma,
etc.). Special types of fonts might not
be installed on every computer, and in this case will not show as they should
on the screen. You would then lose whatever
effect you are looking for. Additionally, some types of fonts can be difficult
to read.
·
You
can, of course, use the basic formatting of text, such as underlined, broad
text, italics, capitals, etc. or a combination of those.
·
Indent
(preferably) or space your paragraphs.
·
Although
plain text is preferable, illustrations can be used at this point, as long as
the background to the text remains white, and they do not obscure the text. You
will have a chance to format your text later on, after you’ve received
approval. You might actually take the
time it will take for beta-reading to work on your pictures and title art!
·
DO
NOT use text boxes, or sentences created in Word Art.
A clearer text, with no distractions, is
MUCH easier to read and beta-read – that’s why we’re insisting on the points
above.
1.
Revising
·
Re-read
your text. More than once. Read it out loud. You might be surprised to
discover the amount of mistakes you will find on the second or third
re-reading. DO NOT submit the very first
draft of a story, freshly out of your head, without re-reading.
·
Do
not be afraid of making changes, editing and adding text.
·
Be
consistent, throughout your text, with the type of ‘English’ you use (UK, US,
Canada, Australia, etc.).
·
Be
careful of your punctuation.
·
Check
grammar, spelling and vocabulary.
·
Be
consistent with verb tenses.
·
Check
your text with a spellchecker. There are
a number of free spellcheckers available online if you don’t have one.
·
If
you have the opportunity, have your story read by an honest friend, before
submitting it, and take note of his/her comments.
Be advised that these points are VERY helpful to the work of the
beta-reader: the less he/she has to
worry about the points above, the more he/she can concentrate on the rest of
the text, and will therefore be able to work faster. Of course, we don’t expect ANYONE to present
a perfect text – we all make mistakes.
2.
Use of
existing characters, ideas
·
If you use
characters or ideas created by others, you must acknowledge the
creator(s). On the Spectrum HQ website,
there is a list
available that you can check. If you do
not find the information you are looking for, contact the webmaster at spectrum_hq@hotmail.com.
·
If
you want to use a character or idea created by another writer, it is good
manners to seek their permission before submitting your story. Generally, the writer can be contacted via
the webmaster. If it's not possible, at
least make sure to make the proper acknowledgement.
3.
Plagiarism
·
If
the use of characters or ideas created by other writers is permitted, with
proper acknowledgements, you must however avoid plagiarism of any kind. That is not allowed on this website. Full lines and text taken from another source
will not be accepted. When they are
discovered, you WILL be told about it, and will be expected to make suitable
alterations or do a complete rewrite. At
the very least, you will be expected to acknowledge the source of the material
used. Failure to do so could result in
the complete removal of the story, depending of the amount of text used.
·
You
can use dialogue from the episodes, as long as you do not simply rewrite the
whole episode. As the dialogue is
copyright material, this MUST be acknowledged with episode title and the name
of the writer(s).
4.
Mary Sue
·
A
Mary Sue is a type of original character created by a writer. Normally a female (although there are many cases
of male Mary Sues, often called ‘Marty Stew’), she is the best at everything
(best pilot, best agent, the most beautiful, the most intelligent, etc.), even
better than the hero, to whom she’s either related or in a relationship with. A main character of the series might get
killed to allow the Mary Sue to ‘take her place’. The Mary Sue then takes centre stage in the
story, instead of the hero. There are many variants, and we suggest you read
this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue)
to have a better understanding of this type of
character. Mary Sues are to be avoided
as much as possible; although there are some cases of very interesting Mary
Sues, these are few and far between.
·
In
any case, when you write a story, canon characters must be prominently
featured, and must not be eclipsed by an original character of your own
creation, even if the latter has a certain importance.
5.
Submission
When you submit a story, you
must generally include the following with your text:
·
The
name under which you want the story to be published. Your real name or a pen name will do, it’s up
to you.
·
The
title of the story, acknowledgements, if any, and whether you want a
beta-reader or not. Beta-reading is not
a requirement, but is HIGHLY recommended, even if you have had your story read
by someone else before sending it to us.
·
If
you do not require or desire a beta-reading, your story will be subjected to a
first reading for approval. If we see
blatant mistakes in it, we might suggest a few corrections, but the final
decision will always be yours. We
reserve the right to reject a story if the said story does not meet with our
minimum requirements. In these cases, we
will suggest revisions and/or beta-reading.
·
When
a story gets approved for posting, and the writer didn’t require the service of
a beta-reader, aside from the minor corrections and suggestions on the point
above, the story will be published ‘as received’.
·
Note
that you are always allowed to change your mind about your pen name or title, at any point before the
story is posted. Just contact the
webmaster as soon as you make up your mind!
Send your story to spectrum_hq@hotmail.com, with a nice
introduction of yourself!
6.
Beta-reading
- request and follow-up
·
If
you request a beta-reading service, your story will be given to a member of our
beta-reading team.
·
The
beta-reader will take the time to check your story, analyse it, make
corrections, suggestions and comments, using a coloured ‘ink’ to do so.
·
More
than one beta-reader might work on your story, as each of our beta-readers has
his or her strength (punctuation, vocabulary, wording, plot holes, dialogue,
etc.), and consultation with another member of the beta-reading team might be
required to make a better check on your story.
In those cases, each beta-reader will use a different colour of
‘ink’. The story is then returned to you
for revision. It is rare, when a story is beta-read, that it receives approval
on the first run, although it might happen.
·
Please
note that you are in no way obligated to follow any of the beta-reader’s advice
or suggestions, but we highly recommend that you do so. You might not agree with all the comments,
but they might help you correct that little something that your story lacks to
be just a little bit better. Respect the
judgment of your beta-reader, who performs a FREE service, by giving you
valuable comments and suggestions that are meant to be constructive and helpful
for your writing.
·
Please
make sure you make any alterations on the corrected copy returned by the
beta-reader. Use a colour other than
black, or the colour used by the beta-reader, so the beta-reader can see the corrections
you have made, and pay a little more attention to these sections.
·
Please
don’t make significant revisions to your story while the beta-reader is working
on an earlier version, without telling the beta-reader that you’re doing
so. You can contact the beta-reader via
the webmaster, who will always know who is working on the story at the moment.
·
The
story might be returned to you for further revision (if needed) or will receive
approval at this point.
·
The
maximum number of beta-readings done on a single story is three. After this point, the story is either
accepted as it was received the last time, or if it still doesn’t meet the
minimum standard required, we reserve the right to refuse it.
·
It
is considered polite to acknowledge the beta-reader for his/her work, when the
story is posted.
7.
Approval
and posting
When a story is approved for posting, the
webmaster will require the following from the writer:
·
Pen
name and title (if not already done at this point, or if he has a change of
mind).
·
Final
acknowledgements text should also be included. If not, the webmaster will add
the basic required acknowledgements.
·
Preference
for ‘ink’ and background colour.
·
A
summary that will be used on the website listing page (otherwise the webmaster
will devise one).
·
Pictures,
title art, background and any other kind of graphics needed for the story can
be added by the author at this point. You can create your own pictures, if you
like. You can create your title art using any font you want, even if it’s not
True Type, but you have to present the title as a picture (jpg,
gif, png).
·
If
there are no special requirements requested by the author, the story will
either be posted as black text on a white page, or receive the special
treatment reserved for ‘challenge’ stories (like Christmas and Halloween), as
provided by the webmaster.
Although the story is posted on the
Spectrum Headquarters website, it remains the property of its author, so the
latter can make further revision of it if he or she wishes in later years. It is not really recommended, but you have
every right to do so!
SPECTRUM
HEADQUARTERS HOMEPAGE
You have questions? Contact us at spectrum_hq@hotmail.com