ds_ssdiscussion | How to Post: Writers

Okay, it's almost the end of October which means it's getting to be that time already, so here we go: these are the new instructions for posting your finished work for due South Seekrit Santa. I'm splitting this into two separate posts because the instructions for artists and vidders are slightly different. Stay tuned, vidders and artists! Your post is coming right up.

If you aren't sure about any of these steps, or you notice anything is missing or mistaken, please let me know in the comments!

Instructions for writers

1. Send us an email at dsss.admin at gmail dot com with the news that you're ready to post.

2. We'll respond with your (Top Secret!!) username and password and the link to our brand new Moveable Type-driven interface.

3. You'll login to the archive at the link provided:

...and click "Write Entry" (or "Write your first post") on the first page:

4. That takes you to the posting interface, which should look somewhat familiar to anybody who's posted on LJ. There will be a basic template already in place on this page:

You'll just need to fill it in:

...and then delete all the tags that do not apply to your contribution from the "Tag" field at the bottom of this screen. If you accidentally erase a bunch of tags, don't worry -- you can also guess at what you think the right tags might be and start typing. You should see a drop-down menu of suggestions:

Please note: the only thing in the "Title" field should be your Top Secret Username! This is really important. Also note that unlike LJ, the posting page has a "Body" tab and an "Extended" tab. The "Body" tab is the piece that'll appear above the cut-tag, so it's for notes ONLY; your actual work goes in the "Extended" tab:

5. Okay, so now you're ready to post your actual story. To do this, open your story in Word (or whatever program you used to create it), select the entire thing, copy it and paste it into the large text box in the "Extended" tab:

If there are characters that don't come through the way they're supposed to, you can switch to the html version of the editor and fiddle with the markup yourself:

There's a Preview button at the bottom of the page, which you can use to make sure your posted work will look the way it should:

If it does, click "Save this entry" at the top of that preview screen and the entry will be added to the queue. It won't go live until I publish all the entries on December 24; other participants will be able to see the title of the post, which is why that has to remain unspoilery, but nobody can actually see the content of anybody else's post until it's published -- something only admin types have the ability to do.

Leading up to the 24th, feel free to make as many changes as you'd like to your post. Just login with the same username and password, then click "Manage" at the top of the first screen and choose "Entries" from that menu. Yours will be the only one that's clickable.