Who can I contact?

(For all of the following links, scroll to the bottom of the page to find the Contact text-box)

Basic Questions about site rules and content, contact Lindsey.

Contest, Challenge, and Competition information can be found on our forums SF3>Competitions and Challenges or contact Aldebaran or QueenMindi.

Error of the Month questions (including rules, punishments, and how to fix your story) can be found on our forums SF3>Writing Workshop or contact Mickinell.

Featured Fiction information can be found on our forums SF3>Featured Fiction or contact LadyWater.

Forums (SF3: Shur'tugal Fan Fiction Forums) questions and information can be directed to SeithrArget or Lenya.

Preferred and Ultimate Betas- to become or find a PB or UB, visit our forums SF3>Beta Readers or contact Mickinell.

Recommended Fictions are not open to nominations/voting, but if you have any questions, contact Proudragon.

Regular Beta Readers- to advertise to be a regular (non-certified) beta, or to find a non-certified beta, visit our forums SF3>Beta Readers or contact Anda Faith.

Serious Issues, questions that no one else can answer (i.e. a complaint about a specific moderator), suggestions for site features/policy, or inquiries from other Shur'tugal staff members or outside parties should be directed to Lindsey.

Technical Problems (i.e. issues uploading your story to the site, e-mail/password problems), contact DragonFire0729.

If you know the name of the moderator you wish to contact, you may select their name off this list to be directed to their profile.

Aldebaran
Anda Faith
DragonFire0729
Durza
LadyWater
Lenya
Lindsey
Mickinell
Murtagh Strikes Back
Proudragon
QueenMindi
SeithrArget
Selanie

How do I become a member?

In order to post any content on Shur'tugal Fan Fiction, you must be a registered user. Click here to register for an account.

Once you have registered, you can log in by clicking the "Log In" link at the top of the page.

When you are finished using Shur'tugal Fan Fiction, we strongly suggest you log out to prevent anyone from tampering with your account. To log out, click the "Logout" link at the top of the page.


Help! I’m having problems with my password!

When you first register for the site, a randomly-generated password will be sent to the e-mail address you provide. If you do not receive a password within 48 hours of registering, please contact Lindsey at shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com from the e-mail address you registered with. Be sure to include the pen name you registered for.

If you have simply forgotten your password, click the "Lost Password" link at the bottom of the log in page. A new, randomly-generated password will be sent to your e-mail address.


How do I change my password, e-mail address, or author’s bio?

You can edit your password, e-mail address, or author’s bio by going into “Your Account” and clicking on “Edit Personal Information.” When editing this information, please keep the following in mind:

Your password should be something easy for you to remember, but not something that other people could easily guess.

You must provide a valid e-mail address. This e-mail address is private and is not displayed on the site. The fan fiction staff uses e-mail to alert members to any strikes they may receive, the status of stories they submit to the queue, and important site announcements.

Your bio is accessible to the public, including people who are not site members. For your own safety, do not disclose personal information like your full name, address, e-mail, or screen name in your bio. Bios should also not contain any offensive content or harsh language, and is subject to moderation by the fan fiction staff.


What is the Three Strikes Policy?

Use of flame reviews, profanity, or other breaches of site policy will result in the user getting a "strike."

With the first strike, the content will be removed and the user will receive an e-mail from a moderator explaining site policy.

On the second strike, the content will be removed and the user will receive another e-mail, and the user will not be able to submit new stories/chapters to the site for one week. Validated authors will lose their privileges and their stories will have to go through the queue.

On the third strike, the user's account will be terminated permanently, and any story posted on shurtugal.com by the user will be deleted.


How do I contact the fan fiction staff?

Questions? Comments? Concerns? We want your feedback!

If you have a question about a story you submitted to the site, please contact the moderator who evaluated that particular story.

For questions regarding Original Fiction or Poetry contact Arthryn (Head Moderator) at tserenteria (at) aol (dot) com.

For questions about Inheritance Fiction (Before the Trilogy, Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, and After the Trilogy), contact Durza (Head Moderator) at prongsiscool (at) yahoo (dot) com.

For questions about site-wide policy (including the Three Strikes Policy and the Submission Guidelines), contact Lindsey (Fan Fiction Administrator) at shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com.


Submitting Fan Fiction to Shurtugal.com

When you submit a fan fiction to Shurtugal.com, it must be evaluated by a moderator before it is made viewable to the public. This is to ensure that all stories posted on our site meet the submission guidelines outlined below.

The moderating process can take anywhere from two minutes to two days. If your story has been neither accepted nor rejected in 48-hours, please check to make sure you have provided us with a valid e-mail address.

Please note that moderators are not beta readers. While some mods may choose to correct a few minor spelling mistakes here and there, they are not responsible for editing a story. If your story is not accepted, the moderator will list the reasons why not so that you can fix these problems yourself or with a beta.

Once you correct the errors in your story, you may resubmit it to be evaluated again. Do not resubmit a story without making the necessary changes or it will be automatically deleted from the queue and you will receive a strike.

Please submit only one chapter at a time of a particular fiction--wait until one chapter is approved before sending us the next one. If you send us more than one chapter at a time, we will delete all of them and you will receive a strike.

Validated authors are those authors whose stories do not have to go through the moderating process in order to be posted to the site. Authors will be validated at the discretion of the mods, and tend to be authors that consistently meet the submission guidelines the first time they submit a new chapter and have had no disciplinary action taken against them.


Submitting a new story

1. Log In (if you haven't already done so) and go to “Your Account”

2. Select "Add New Story"

3. Read the submission guidelines. By posting a story to shurtugal.com, you agree to follow these guidelines; any violation in these guidelines will result in your story being removed from the site. If you agree to the submission guidelines, select from the drop-down box the category that best fits your story.

4. Enter the "Title" and "Chapter Title" in the appropriate boxes.

5. Enter a short summary in the "Summary" box. Moderators will not accept stories that do not have a summary.

6. Select the appropriate rating, warning(s), character(s), and genre(s). To add more than one warning, character, or genre, hold down the control ("ctrl") key.

7. Enter the first chapter of your story in the "Story Text" box. We do not recommend uploading a story from file. We recommend that you type your story in a word processing program (like Microsoft Word) and then copy-and-paste it into the text box. Please note that html codes must be manually reentered.

8. Click "Preview".

9. On the preview page, make sure your story looks the way it should. Make any edits, and preview the story again. Repeat this step as needed.

10. When your story is ready to be posted, click "Add Story".


Adding a chapter to a story

Once you have submitted the first chapter of your story, you may add additional chapters. To add chapters:

1. Log In (if you haven't already done so) and go to “Your Account”

2. Select "Add New Chapter".

3. From the list, select the story that you would like to add a chapter to.

4. Add your new chapter in the same way you submitted the first chapter.


Editing an existing chapter

If you need to edit a chapter you have already posted on Shur'tugal, do the following:

1. Log In (if you haven't already done so) and go to “Your Account”

] 2 Select "Edit/Delete Stories".

3 Find the appropriate story and chapter from the list and click "Edit".

4 Make any necessary edits and click "Preview", then "Add Story".


Marking a story as "Complete"

When you have finished your story, you can mark it as complete by doing the following:

1. Log In (if you haven't already done so) and go to “Your Account”

2. Select "Edit/Delete Stories".

3. Find the appropriate story on the list.

4. Under the story title, where it says "Completed" click "no".

5. The display should now say "Completed: yes".

Three months after a story has been completed, it will be moved by a moderator into the “Completed Stories” category. .


Removing a story from Shur'tugal Fan Fiction.

If for any reason you decide to remove a story from Shur'tugal, here is how to delete your story: .

1. Log In (if you haven't already done so) and go to “Your Account”

2. Select "Edit/Delete Stories".

3. Find the appropriate story on the list.

4. To delete the entire story, click the "delete" link next to the first chapter.

5. Click "yes" on the next page to delete your story. Remember, we do not save backups.

(If you only want to delete a particular chapter, choose the "delete" link next to that chapter. With the exception of the first chapter, as shown above, only that particular chapter will be removed.)


Submission Guidelines

Here is a list of everything we look for in a fan fiction story.

Stories must be readable. This includes:

Spelling. Please run your story through a spell-check program before submitting it to the site. Also, be sure to double-check the spellings of character names, words in the Ancient Language, and other Inheritance-derived vocabulary that your spell-checker will not be able to help you with. Please note that chatspeak (i.e. "u" instead of "you" or abreviations like "lol") is also not accepted--proper English only.

Grammar. A grammar-checking program will help, but if you’re having problems with grammar it is usually best to either read your story aloud to yourself so you can hear if there are mistakes, or ask someone else (a beta reader, parent, teacher, or friend) to read it for you. Grammar mistakes are the most common errors in fan fiction, but they’re also the easiest to fix.

Punctuation. Again, some punctuation problems will be picked up with a grammar-checking program, but for best results you should have someone else read your story over for you. Pay special attention to quotations—this is where most punctuation errors occur. We now have workshops geared specifically towards punctuation and grammar on our forums, which can be found at: http://www.fanfiction.shurtugal.com/forums

HTML codes. This especially applies to the use of italics—all thoughts, dreams, and mind-speak should be italicized. Note: Our site now allows you to copy and paste directly from a word processor, though you may still enter the italics/bold/underline codes manually:

To use italics, use < i > to begin and < / i > to end, without any spaces. Italics should be used for dreams, flashbacks, and mind speaking. To write in bold face, use < b > and < / b >, and underline is < u > and < / u >.

Paragraphs and spacing. A huge block of text is very difficult to read. Break your story up into paragraphs. Remember, only one person should speak per paragraph, and you should begin a new paragraph when you start discussing a new topic. You should double space (hit the enter key twice) between the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next.


The length requirements:

Fiction
Single-chapter stories must be at least 1000 words in length.

Chapters in multiple chaptered works must be at least 500 words each.

Prologues (the first chapter of the story) and epilogues (the last chapter of the story) may be 300 words.

Poetry
Stand-alone poems must be at least 100 words in length

Poems that are part of a collection (listed in a single “fiction”) must be at least 50 words in length each.

Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. What is plagiarism?
Simply, plagiarism is when you use someone else’s work and call it your own. The most extreme form of this is when you copy something word for word, but it is also plagiarism if you only make minor changes and the original story is still easily recognizable.

Some examples of plagiarism:

A simple retelling of Eragon or Eldest. We encourage authors to rewrite the stories from another character’s perspective or to explore “What if?” scenario (i.e. “What if Brom didn’t die?”), but simply summarizing the events of the novels or making only minor changes (i.e. translating the dialogue into surfer slang) is not enough.

Copy-and-pasting portions of Eldest or Eragon directly into your story. Its okay to use small portions (less than one page in the book) if you are doing a flashback or retelling, but these portions must be italicized and cited with a page number in an author’s note at the beginning or end of the chapter.

Movie Script Guidelines:

In addition to the Submission Guidelines above, scripts must contain the following:

· Each chapter must be one complete scene, and must be at least 300 words in length. (Prologues/Epilogues may be 100 words in length)

· Each scene must include a description of the setting (at least one paragraph in length).

· In addition to dialogue, there must be some stage direction (description of what the characters are doing.

We do not accept stories with the following types of content:

Stories based on “fandoms”—novels, movies, television shows, etc.—other than the Inheritance Trilogy.

Crossovers: Inheritance fan fiction that also includes elements (characters, places, things, concepts) that are original to another fandom or the “real world”. Examples of crossover fics:

Frodo and Sam arrive in Surda. (Frodo and Sam are characters from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy)

Jessica, a girl from Canada, discovers a mystical portal that brings her into the world of Eragon. (Canada is not a part of Alagaesia. Also note that Inheritance chracters cannot visit the real world.)

Eragon goes on a television dating show. (There are no televisions in Alagaesia)

“Randomness”—all stories must have some sort of point. There should be a clear plot that continues to move from chapter to chapter. Well-developed stories tend to have several sub-plots to supplement the main story line.

Exceptions: Character studies ( when an author explores a particular character or characters in depth to uncover their inner thoughts or motivations) and Poetry.

Examples of random stories:

Galbatorix hosts the first ever Alagaesia Idol. (Not only does this violate the crossover rules, as well as plagiarism if song lyrics are used in the story, but the story doesn’t go anywhere)

Eragon does a bunch of crazy things with the gang. (Why not incorporate these “crazy things” into a fully developed story?)


Lists, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. Again, all stories must have a plot.

“Fictions” without content. This includes, but is not limited to:

“Teasers” or “previews” of stories the author plans to write in the future.

Chapters that contain no story content, just an author’s note.

Finally, we recommend that all authors save a copy of their story before submitting it to the site. Shurtugal.com is not responsible for saving backups. If there is a problem submitting your story or it is removed from the site for any reason, we cannot provide you with a copy.


Submitting Reviews

When you read a story, please review it to tell the author what you thought. To submit a review:

1. Log In (if you haven't already done so)

2. At the top of the chapter you are reading, click "Reviews"

3. At the bottom of the reviews page, click "Would you like to submit a review?"

4. In the "Review" box, type a short, helpful review of the chapter.

5. Under "Rating", rate the chapter on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best- these ratings are displayed next to the story title on the category pages as small, yellow stars).

6. Click "Submit".


Responding to reviews

Instead of taking up space in your story text, authors can respond to reviews directly. To respond to your reviews: 1. Log In (if you haven't already done so)

2. Go to "Your Account"

3. Select "Manage Reviews".

4. Next to each review, click the "Reply" link.

5. Enter a reply, then click "Reply".


List of Review Dos and Don’ts

Authors

DO

…pose questions to your reader of things you would like them to give you feedback on. (i.e. “Did I keep Eragon in character this chapter?”)

…reply to each of your reviewers, even if it’s just to thank them for reviewing.


DON’T

…tell your readers that you won’t post the next chapter of your fic until you get a certain amount of reviews. Contrary to what you may believe, this tends to drive readers away from your story. Remember, fan fiction isn’t just about getting popularity points, and often the staff will recommend stories to be featured if we feel they are not getting the attention they deserve.

…flame your readers, even if they flame you first. If a reader says something to offend you, report them by sending an e-mail to shurtugalfanfiction (at) gmail (dot) com.


Readers

DO

…review every story you read. The authors work very hard on their stories and deserve to get some feedback.

…offer constructive criticism that will help an author improve their writing (i.e. “There was too much description in this chapter and not enough dialogue”)


DON’T

…flame the author. What is a flame?

Insulting an author or another site user.

Insulting a story. There is a difference between offering criticism and attacking a story. When in doubt, consider how you would feel if you had worked really hard on a story and got that type of review.

…submit a review just to lower an author’s star rating. You don’t have to like every story your read, but doing things like reviewing every chapter of a ten-chapter fic and giving it a one, or giving low ratings to authors you have personal issues with is inappropriate. If you don’t like something, don’t read it.

...spam an author. Examples:

Reviewing a story in order to ask the author to read your own fiction. A review isn't supposed to be an advertisement, its meant to help the author.

Begging an author for an update. Its not going to make an author write any faster and, again, does not help the author improve their writing.


Also, authors and reviews should both remember that reviews are not a place for holding personal conversations. You can talk about the story, and readers can respond to author's notes, but people should not be having conversations (let alone "flame wars") in the reviews. All conversations will be deleted from the site.

Archived Fics

Incomplete stories that are left inactive for three months will be moved into our Archives. We will delete any archived fic that does not meet our submission guidelines. This includes pre-queue stories that were not subjected to the guidelines at the time they were written, stories written by validated authors, and stories that were erroneously accepted by a moderator. Again, please save a back-up of your stories because we cannot provide you with a copy once a story has been deleted.

Previous Tips of the Day

Beta Readers

What:

Beta readers (or simply "Betas") are story editors. Betas are people who read through a story before it is submitted to the queue. Depending on the quality/specialties of the Beta, they can look for everything from simple grammar/spelling mistakes, to plot consistency, to aiding with character development. If you are serious about writing professionally one day, working with a beta reader will help get you acquainted with editing your work, which--as all authors know--is an essential part of the writing process.

How:

On SFF, users can volunteer to beta read for another author on the site by going into Account Info>Edit Personal Information> and clicking on the box next to "I would like to volunteer to be a beta-reader for others." Also, it may be helpful to write a note in your profile about the type of stories you like to read (especially mention whether you prefer Inheritance or Original) and what your specialties are (spelling, plot, etc) so you don't get beta requests from authors you don't have any interest in helping. Once an author has contacted you to be their beta reader, or you no longer wish to beta, please be sure to uncheck this box so authors know you are no longer available.

Authors can search for available beta readers by going into Authors and selecting "Beta-readers" from the drop box at the top of the page. This will display a list, arranged alphabetically, of all people on the site who have volunteered to beta read. Unfortunately, there is no way to sort through these authors, but here are a few tips: start by looking for your favorite authors, people who have left helpful reviews on your own stories, or members that have left helpful reviews on other stories you enjoy. If you're new to the site and don't know anyone, browse through the authors listed as betas and read through their profiles until you find someone you like.

In general, look for authors who either read or write stories like yours--for example, if you write original fiction, don't request someone who only reads Inheritance fan fiction to beta for you; likewise, if you're writing a Murtagh/Arya romance fic, don't request a die-hard Arya/Eragon shipper (or, for that matter, someone who hates romance and only writes action/adventure).

Once you find a beta reader you like, go to their author bio and click on the contact link to send the beta an e-mail. In the text of the e-mail, be sure to include your pen name, the name of your story (and a link, if you have already begun posting it to the site), a brief summary of your fic, and the kind of beta help you are looking for. Allow the author one week to reply to you; if they don't respond by then, try someone else.

One additional note--the SFF Staff has absolutely no role in the beta reader program. We do not screen prospective beta readers in any way, and authors use this program at their own risk. Using a beta reader will not definitively ensure that your story will make it through the queue, and we again remind all users not to give away any personal information to strangers over the internet. Be smart, and if something seems wrong with your beta, stop using them. If the beta reader program doesn't seem like it would work for you, you can also ask a parent, friend, or teacher to help you edit your stories.

Series:

What:

Very basically, a Series groups together related fan fictions. You can find a list of all current Series here (we are working on adding a link to the left column menu). There are two different ways to use this function:

Single-Author Series (or “Closed” Series)—this type of series will be used by an author who write several stories that somehow all go together (a trilogy, alternative points of view of the same plot, etc). An example of this type of series is QueenMindi’s Du Gata abr Wyrda series, which lists all of her related fictions and puts them in the order in which they should be read.

Multiple-Author Series (or “Open” Series)—this is a series with stories from more than one author. For example, maybe you wrote a story and your friend wrote a sequel to it. Another way to use this function is to group together all Arya/Eragon fictions or all fictions about Brom on the site.

How:

Do NOT create a Series unless you have two or more stories to add to it. Any zero- and one-story Series will be deleted by a moderator. We will also remove Series such as “Book 1” or “Before the Trilogy”—our categories are already arranged this way, it is unnecessary to have a Series for them as well.

To create a Series, go to Account Info> Add New Series. On this page, enter all the relevant information (make sure you write a good summary so people know what your series is about!). For the dropbox marked “Open?” select “No” if you want a Single-Author Series, and “Yes” if you want a Multiple-Author Series. Once this page is filled out, click Submit.

This will bring you to a page that lists all of your stories. Check the ones you want to add to your Series and click “Submit.” Then, use the arrows to put the stories in the order they should be read in (if the order does not matter, ignore this step). Then click the “Add to Series” link at the bottom of the page.

If you are doing an Open Series, you can also add stories written by another author. On the Add to Series page, at the top of the page will be a link labeled “Choose Another Author.” Click on this link and find the author whose stories you wish to add to your Series. Click on their user name, check the stories you wish to add, and then click Submit.

If you wish to add to another author’s Open Series, go to the Series page and select “Add to Series” from the “Options” drop-box. Select the stories you wish to add (as outlined above), and then click Submit. The creator of a Series can remove stories added to their Series by going to Account Info> Manage Series.

Also, one story can be added to an infinite number of Series. The more
Open Series your story is a part of, the wider an audience you will be able to reach.

The “Challenges” option that you see listed on the Series page has been disabled for our site. We will never be turning it on, so please don’t send us e-mails about this option.

Readers can leave a review for an entire series by selecting “Submit a Review” from the “Options” drop-box. This will not affect the star rating on any of the stories within the Series. Readers can add a Series to their favorites list by selecting “Add Series to Favorites” from the “Options” drop-box.

Advanced Search:

What:

Advanced Search narrows down your search results so you can find exactly what you're looking for.

How:

When you go to the regular Search page, there is a link labeled "Advanced Search ." Click it.

The Advanced Search page gives you a number of additional options to narrow down your search. Authors will be familiar with how each of them works, but here's a review for those of you who don't know:

Category- Find the category you want to search for in the drop-box and click "Select." This will add that category to the list below the box. If you pick a category like "Poetry" that contains subcategories, you must pick the appropriate subcategory in order to search. If you make a mistake, hit "Clear" to start over

Characters- If you want stories that have a particular character, select them in this box. To select more than one item, hold down the "Ctrl" key and click on each one. Note- Authors choose which characters are listed for their story, so a character search will not give you every single fic that has that particular person in it. Only stories where the author has listed that character (which usually means they are central to the story) will come up.

Ratings- These tell you how mature the content of the story is. The ratings are: B (Benign- acceptable for all readers), I (Intermediate- some violence, cursing, sexual content, or mature themes), and V (Viewer Discretion Advised- may contain graphic violence, a lot of cursing, more racy sexual content, and mature themes).

Genres to Include- If you are only looking for stories that are in a particular genre, choose them here. Again, remember that authors choose which genres to label their stories as.

Genres to Exclude- If you don't want stories that are of a certain genre, choose them here. Remember- some stories are listed as more than one genre, so be very careful about which genres you exclude.

Warnings to Include- any story rated I or V includes a warning as to what merited the higher rating. If you are looking for fictions that have a lot of battle scenes, you may want to hit the Violence warning.

Warnings to Exclude- if you don't want a story with a particular type of content, select it here.

Completed Only- If you only want to search for stories marked complete, check this box. Leaving it unchecked will search through in-progress fictions.

Work Count- if you are looking for fictions that are a particular length, narrow down your search here.

Search Term- if you know part of the title of the fiction you are looking for, type it in this box.

Sort- determines how your search results will be listed. Alphabetically will list them in alphabetical order by title. Most Recent will list the stories by how recently they have been updated (not started).

Submit- Start your search!

Featured Fiction:

What:

There are a lot of great stories on our site, but some fictions stand above the rest. Each week, we highlight one of these above-average stories by making it our Featured Fiction.

How:

Each week, the moderating staff comes up with a list of about five recently-updated stories that we think deserve particular attention. They are listed on the Featured Fiction forum on SF3 and all registered members are able to vote for which one should be featured the next week.

(We also accept suggestions from users--check the How To Use This Forum thread for information on how to suggest a fic.)

We will alternate between Inheritance Stories and Original Stories each week. Poetry will also be eligible to be featured, but stories submitted for contests will not. All authors--including new authors, validated authors, and moderators--are eligible to be nominated, however we will not feature the same story twice in a row.

You can see what story is voted as the featured fic each week by looking at the "Featured Story" box on the main fan fiction page.