Submitting a New Story
Before You Start
What Are Story Attributes?
Titles, Summaries and Completion
Categories
Ratings Explained
Warnings Explained Too
Boarding the Right Ship
Choosing the Right Time
Leading Lords and Ladies
Tag! You're It!
The Rest Of It
Adding a Chapter
It Exploded After All... Possible Problems And Solutions
Rogue Chapters
Chapter-Less Stories
Out of Order
Part I - New Story
Before you submit a story, make sure you've done the following:
- saved it somewhere on your computer. If your story gets rejected, it will be deleted, not sent back to you. Also, while the submission process is largely glitch-free, we accept no responsibility for anything disappearing for technical reasons (including your browser hanging up, your laptop running out of power, neighbourhood suffering a power cut, etc.). In short – save early, save often.
- spell-checked and proofread it a few times. We won't reject your story based on a few typos, but it's amazing how far the term 'a few' seems to be stretched sometimes. Attention to your works is the best policy for quick validation.
- got a beta reader. True, you may be impeccably attentive and catch every single comma out of place. We won't come after you with wands drawn if you work without a beta. However, letting someone at least look over your story before submitting it is always a good idea. You never know what another person's eye may catch. Plus, you may get a wealth of useful ideas that way.
- formatted the story with HTML tags, if you want to include any special formatting. Line and paragraph breaks are inserted automatically. However, text formatting – such as bolding, underlining, italics, aligning, strikethrough or horizontal rules – requires respective HTML tags. If you're fuzzy on those – check out our Tag Magic guide. Remember that it's much easier to insert all the tags in the word processor you use than to read through the story text in the submission window and hunt down all the places you want formatting.
With that out of the way, off to the story submission page we go.
The first thing you will see there will be an annoying reminder to read the submission rules. It must really be getting on your nerves by now, but you'll be surprised how many rejections could've been avoided if only the author devoted a moment to the manual. Face it – spending five minutes reading an instruction is better than waiting a week and getting rejected for improper format (and then having to go read the manual anyway).
Now, a word about story and chapter attributes. When you add a new story, you need to put in a lot of information that will be described just below, plus the title and text of the first chapter. When you add extra chapters, you only need to include chapter title and text. The story information will be referred to as 'story attributes'.
Story Attributes
Story Title
The title of your story should be no more than 255 characters long. This should not pose a problem, however. Just for reference, a story title that is 255 characters long looks like this:
The Very Humorous And Slightly Romantic Story That Took Place On The Day When Harry Potter And Ginny Weasley Went to Hogsmeade To Shop At Scrivenshaft's And Met Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger Who Were Out On A Date And Having Coffee At Madam Puddifoot's
You have to agree that limiting yourself to this length shouldn't create too many pains of editing.
Story Status and Completeness
You have to indicate whether your story is a one-shot (has only one chapter) or chaptered. All one-shots are marked 'complete' by default. If, however, you publish a one-shot and later wish to add chapters to it, you can change this at any later time.
Summary
The summary of your story should give the reader a little insight on what your fic is about. You don't need to retell the whole story here – tell just enough to interest the reader. Stories with summaries like 'Gah, I'll just type something here since this field is required' will be rejected.
Example of a bad summary:
"Harry and Voldemort fight, and Harry wins."
Example of a passable summary:
"Harry Potter has to face his greatest enemy. Will he be able to save the wizarding world?"
You can use quotes from your story in the summary if you wish to. Remember that the summary will be the second thing the readers will see (the first one being the title), so try to catch their attention and interest.
Author's Notes and Chapter Notes
The Author's Notes field is entirely optional. As is the Chapter Notes field later on.
Now that you've introduced your story, time to classify and describe it in more technical terms to make it easy to find for anyone interested.
Category
The categories currently present in our library are:
General,
Historical,
Dark/Angsty,
Alternate Universe,
Poetry,
Romance, and
Humour.
General A good choice if you think your story doesn't strictly belong in any other category.
Historical This category is normally used for all fics that take place before the time period described in the Harry Potter books. Common examples of such stories are Founders fics.
Dark/Angsty A category for stories that feature a lot of emotional turmoil or potentially sensitive material. A fic that features a prisoner going insane in Azkaban, Harry falling into deep depression after Sirius' death or a Muggle suffering at the hands of Death Eaters would go here. This is also the right place for horror stories.
Note: while this category is often home to excellent fics, writing a dark story can sometimes be a challenge, especially when dealing with sensitive subjects. Your story may feature things like torture, rape, self-harm, abuse of alcohol or drugs – but none of these themes should be glorified or abused. If you're not sure how to handle a sensitive subject, seek help from a beta reader.
Alternate Universe Not all deviations from canon require to be sorted into this category, only when the deviation is the central or important premise of the story. For example, if you write a Next Generation story about Ron and Hermione and mention that Sirius Black died in Azkaban instead of the way he died in canon, the story can be categorised as General, and an Alternate Universe warning will suffice. If, however, you write a story about Harry's third year at Hogwarts and wish Sirius to be dead rather than on the run, it will become an Alternate Universe story because his death will impact the story majorly.
Poetry This category is pretty self-explanatory. It is also the only category where length restrictions don't apply.
Romance If a romantic story is the focal point of your fic, this is where it belongs. Stories of unrequited love can also go here.
Humour If humour is an important element of your story, it probably belongs here. Do, however, remember that even humorous stories have to make sense. We don't accept crack!fics.
Rating
Our ratings, from lowest to highest, are
Wingardium Leviosa,
Expecto Patronum and
Sectumsempra.
If you're familiar with the Motion Picture Association rating, Wingardium Leviosa would be G bordering on PG, Expecto Patronum – PG to PG-13, and Sectumsempra equivalent to R. Fics that would be rated NC-17 would be rated like that because of explicit imagery, and since we don't accept explicit imagery, the need for this rating does not arise.
If you want a more hands-on example, we would rate the first and second canon Harry Potter books as WL, third between WL and EP, and from fourth and onward – EP.
So, how should you go about choosing your rating? On one hand, you don't want to give your story a too low rating to catch readers off-guard, on the other – you don't want to scare the readers away by slapping Sectumsempra all over everything you write. A general piece of advice is that if you ticked any warnings, chances are your story is above Wingardium Leviosa (unless it has some really mild violence, like Hermione slapping Ron, for instance, or perhaps off-screen character death).
Another side to assigning a rating is the idea that while your story may feature no questionable content, the thoughts and feelings of your characters may be outside the normal scope of understanding of readers under 13 or 14. This is also something you need to consider.
While moderating your story, we will normally let you know if we feel your rating has been assigned erroneously. Normally, if there are no other problems with your story, we will validate it while advising you to change the rating. If the rating is drastically mis-assigned in our opinion (for example, a WL when SS is called for), we may adjust it ourselves. If, however, we think your rating is too high, we may tell you about it, but we will never forcibly adjust the rating downwards.
Warnings
At the moment, the Dungeon Library allows the following warnings to be ascribed to a story (you may select as many as you like):
Character Death,
Mental Disorder,
Profanity,
Sexual Situations,
Suicide,
Violence,
Self-Harm,
Alternate Universe,
Substance Abuse,
Slash. If no warnings were selected, the 'None' box gets checked automatically. If you select 'None' and another warnings, any other warning will be discounted, and the story will be considered to have no warnings.
A brief explanation of the warnings:
Character Death This one is straightforward enough. Normally only required if character death happens 'on-screen'. For example, the chapter featuring Cedric Diggory's death would require such a warning. The chapter where Hagrid tells Harry his parents were killed could get away without one.
Mental Disorder Some readers may find scenes of mentally unhealthy characters disturbing, hence this warning. It may apply to visiting Neville's parents in St. Mungo's ward, or to Lockhart losing his memory. No one requires you to diagnose your characters – but if you feel they are acting in a fashion that would not be considered conventionally sane (while not being under the influence of any substance), this warning may apply. As all warnings – handle with care.
Profanity Remember that gratuitous swearing may be a reason for rejection of your story, especially if it serves no purpose and/or is OOC. Occasional use of 'hell' or 'damn' does not necessitate this warning. S- and f-words require it. Anywhere between these benchmarks – use your judgement.
Sexual Situations Normally applies to anything that goes beyond kissing. If this warning is required, keep in mind that explicit sex scenes are not accepted. If description of bodyparts becomes necessary to carry the meaning across, there is a chance you're going too far. Also, remember that it is normally descriptions, not content, that make your story explicit. For example, compare a phrase like 'his hands were roaming her body' with a phrase like 'she stuck her tongue into his mouth'. The latter endeavours to describe a kiss, with possibly nothing more forward following – but it sounds more explicit than the former (not to mention rather tasteless).
Suicide If a character in your story kills themselves or seriously contemplates suicide, this warning applies. Unsuccessful suicides may come under the 'Self-Harm' warnings, but it is up to you decide.
Violence This warning applies for physical or magical violence.
Self-Harm Normally, the self-preservation instincts of a human being resent any form of self-harm – which is why many readers may find the idea of characters harming themselves disturbing. This warning may apply for unsuccessful suicides or harming of the self with no suicidal purpose.
Alternate Universe If you selected the AU category for your story, this warning is a must. Otherwise, it applies if you deviate from canon in small ways or ways that don't influence the main premise of your story (for example, sorting both Patil twins into Gryffindor).
Substance Abuse If you find your characters partaking in excessive drinking or smoking, using illegal drugs or abusing legal medication or potions, this warning applies. Bear in mind that it's often the motivation and manner rather than the substance itself that necessitates the warning. A character having a few glasses (that's glasses, not bottles) of Firewhisky with a friend is probably not substance abuse – unless, for example, an intention to get drunk in an attempt to cure depression was announced. A character downing a whole cauldron of a headache cure potion because he found it gives them a high
is substance abuse.
Slash
Homosexual pairing (female/female pairing, often referred to as 'femmeslash', also comes under this heading). If your story is centred around a homosexual relationship or romantic feelings between two people of the same gender (whether requited or not), this warning is a must. If your story mentions a homosexual relationship (in a context other than a joke or insult), this warning is recommended.
Ships
A 'ship' is a nickname for 'relationship', and heavily used in fanfiction to describe relationships and/or couples. Select the one ship that features the most prominently in your story, from the drop-down list. If your ship is not listed there, select 'Other'. If your story is not centred around any relationship, select 'None'.
Era
Here at DungeonLight we separate the Potterverse timeline into roughly five time periods, or eras.
Founders Era Anything in the times of, soon before or soon after, the Four Hogwarts Founders (the story does not have to feature the Founders themselves to be classified in this era, as long as it's taking the place in the age of the Founders).
Early History Anything before the first rise of Voldemort. This may include stories about Dumbledore's youth, or Tom Riddle's childhood.
Note: according to canon, Hogwarts was founded 'over a thousand years ago'. Since this is said in Harry's school days, which fall in the 1990's, we can assume that Hogwarts was founded somewhere in the tenth century. The 'Early History' era is normally viewed as starting in late nineteenth century. However, it would feel strange to classify your fic as 'Founders Era' if it is set in seventeenth century. Therefore, if your story falls before the times of Dumbledore's youth, yet after the time period when the Founders could conceivably be imaged as still alive (even if we remember that a wizard can live for about two hundred years), classify it as Early History.
First Dark War (MWPP era) MWPP stands for Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, and 'MWPP era' or 'Marauder era' normally refers to the time between 1960 (the common birth year of the Harry's parents' generation) and 1981 (first fall of Voldemort). However, stories taking place shortly before 1960, such as those taking place during the beginning of Voldemort's first rise to power, as well as stories shortly after 1981 (for example, the search of the few loyal Death Eaters for the Dark Lord) also belong here.
Second Dark War (Trio era) The Trio means Harry, Ron and Hermione. Stories of this time period take place anywhere between the first and second falls of Voldemort. Again, events happening a few years after the end of the second Dark War can also belong here.
Next Generation Traditionally, stories about the children of Harry's generation. This era can also span anything happening more than a few years after the second fall of Voldemort. Stories centred around Teddy Lupin also belong here.
Main Characters
You need to select at least one main character of your story from the drop-down list. If your character is not featured there, select 'Other' (and feel free to include your character in the Tags field). You can select up to three main characters. The order of the characters does not matter – it's okay for your only main character to be selected in the Main Character 3 field, for example (why anyone would do that escapes us, though).
Story Tags
If you ever read or wrote a blog, you must've dealt with tags before. For those who haven't, tags are keywords that describe your story. For example, if you write a fic about Damocles Belby inventing the Wolfsbane Potion, you may include tags like 'Damocles', 'Belby', 'Wolfsbane', 'potion', 'invention', 'werewolf'. The readers will find your story if they search for ANY of these tags.
Please separate your tags by SPACES as you type them into the respective field. That's
spaces, the symbol that looks like this: " ". Not a comma, semicolon or anything else. If you think we're explaining too much, you haven't seen our tag list.
You can add new tags and delete existing ones at any later date if you feel the need to. In fact, you can edit ANY story attributes at any time, with the help of the Manage Stories page of your Author Page.
This is where the story attributes section ends. What follows is the actual body of your story, or the first chapter.
Chapter Title
Same as the story title, its length should not exceed 255 characters.
Chapter Notes
As mentioned before, entirely optional. If included, chapter notes will show up before the title and text of your chapter on the viewing page.
Story/Chapter Text
Finally, your actual story! Remember the HTML-formatted version you prepared all that time ago? It's time to go to your favourite text editor, copy the text and paste it in this field. Please remember that your chapter should be at least 1000 words long (over 500 words for a prologue or epilogue) and no more than 10,000 words. This does not apply to poetry.
Now that you've filled all the fields, hit the Preview button. If you got anything wrong, messages at the top of the page will tell you what to fix. If everything is alright, you will see a preview of your story. This is what it will look like when posted. If you spot anything you'd like to fix, feel free to make all the necessary changes. If everything is to your liking, hit the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
Congratulations, your story has been submitted to the queue. Now all you need is a little patience.
Part II - Adding Chapters to an Existing Story
Once your first chapter has been validated, you can add extra chapters to it (if it's a chaptered fic) by going to your Manage Stories page, selecting the right story and clicking Add Chapter (this option is also available from the Table of Contents page). Adding a new chapter is considerably easier than submitting a new story, as all it requires is the chapter title and text. You do, however, need to wait until it is validated.
Lost Chapters and Lonely Stories – What to Do and How to Avoid
A number of unforeseen situations may happen if you don't follow the guidelines.
Case One: Rogue Chapter
How this happened:
You decided not to wait until your first chapter is validated and submitted the second one after it.
What happened next:
Unlike some more ruthless websites, we will not reject your story automatically because of this. However, trouble may ensue nevertheless.
Let's say that the opinions of two moderators differed, and one of them rejected your first chapter just as the other one approved your second. This case is highly unlikely, as moderators are likely to confer in such cases, and normally, one would get alerted seeing the second chapter of a story without a first one – but to err is human, and things can happen.
What this resulted in:
Your page now features a story with a second chapter and without the first one.
What to do:
Be honest! Don't just submit the first chapter hoping to slip in under the radar. Contact the moderator who approved your story, explain the situation and tell them who originally rejected your first chapter. We won't subject you to the Cruciatus curse. Our moderators are friendly, and will work with you to restore order on your page.
How to avoid this:
You can submit more than one chapter at a time, but try not to let such chapters be numbers one and two in your story.
Case Two: Chapter-less Story
How this happened:
The first chapter of your story was approved. As you tried to submit the next one, you accidentally deleted the first one instead.
What this resulted in:
Your shelf now has a story that has all the story attributes, but no chapter texts.
What to do:
Resubmit the chapter you accidentally deleted. This will be faster than deleting the chapter-less story and starting from scratch. This will be even faster if you include a note in your summary explaining that the story was deleted by mistake, and include the original validation date and name of the moderator who did it.
Case Three: Table of Discontents
How this happened:
Due to all those accidents, the chapters of your story are in the wrong order.
What to do:
That's the easiest case to solve. Simply rearrange the chapters of your story in the Table of Contents page by clicking 'up' or 'down' next to the chapter(s) you wish to move up and down in the chapter order, respectively.