Once, long ago, the elf Maerzadí had a premonition that he would accidentally kill his son in battle. Rather than live to see it happen, he committed suicide, saving his son, and at the same time proving that the future isn’t set. Short of killing...
Submission Requirements
- Submitting a Story to Shur'tugal
- Types of stories we do NOT accept
- The Categories
- Subcategories
- Ratings and Warnings
- What is Plagiarism?
Submitting a Story to Shur'tugal Fan Fiction
Every story that is submitted to Shur'tugal Fan Fiction must be approved by a moderator before it is made available to the public. Each of the main categories (General Fictions, Validated Author Fictions, Recommended Fictions, Moderator Fictions, and Contest Entries) have different submission requirements, which are listed below.
Please also remember the following rules about submitting chapters:
1. You must have a valid e-mail address tied to your account. If your story is rejected, a moderator will send you an e-mail telling you what problems you need to fix before you resubmit the chapter.
2. If you chapter is rejected from the queue, you must fix the errors the moderator tells you about before you resubmit. If you continue to resubmit the same, unedited story, you will receive a strike (see here about strikes).
3. Only submit one chapter from each story you are writing to the queue at a time. Submit one chapter, wait until it is approved, then submit the next. This is both so you don't clog up the queue and because you may experience problems with your account if stories are validated out of order. If you do this more than once, you will receive a strike.
How long does it take to get approved?
The amount of time your fiction will be in the queue depends somewhat on the time you submit it (most moderators are on evenings and weekends EST-PST). We ask that you respect the fact that many of our moderators are also in school; wait times may be longer during the school year (particularly end of term). Regardless, if you experience a wait of more than 48 hours, please contact a moderator directly.
Important: be sure your e-mail account allows you to receive messages from Shur'tugal--you may have received an e-mail from a moderator.
My story was rejected. What now?
We're sorry your fiction was rejected, and we'd like to see it improve enough to be included. First, read the submission guidelines carefully to be sure you haven't violated any site rules. Then, visit SF3's Beta Reader forums--there you can find a volunteer who will help you revise your writing. Remember, our goal is not to be mean, but to help you improve as a writer.
Newly submitted fictions- it is likely your fiction was rejected from the queue. Please check your e-mail for a message from the moderating staff explaining the reason(s) for the rejection, correct your fiction, and resubmit it.
Older fictions - Fictions that go unupdated/uncompleted for one calendar year are automatically removed from our archive. You will receive a warning notice before this occurs.
If you do not believe either of these is the case, please contact a moderator for assistance.
We do not accept the following:
Stories based on other "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)
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.
Songfics-Fictions that use song lyrics, even though it's credited to the band, are considered plagiarized.
The Categories
General Fictions
If you are NOT a validated author, you MUST submit your story to this category (see here about validated authors). All stories on Shur'tugal Fan Fiction must meet at least these basic requirements.
All stories must be written in English. "Text talk" (expression such as "lol" and "g2g") is not considered English and should only be used sparingly.
Minimum Lengths:
Prose- 500 words per chapter
Prologues and epilogues must be at least 300 words per chapter
Scripts- 300 words per chapter
Poems- 50 words per chapter.
There must be some division of paragraphs- large blocks of text will not be accepted. In between paragraphs, please double-space (press the "Enter" key twice between the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the next); do not indent.
Capitalization, punctuation, spelling,and grammar do not have to be perfect, but it does have to be easily readable. You should run your story through a spell-check before submitting it to SFF to clean up the most basic errors.
To submit to this category, you must be a validated author. Every couple of months, the moderating staff will make a news post on fanfiction.shurtugal.com/index.php and fanfiction.shurtugal.com/forums stating we are accepting applications for new validated authors and instructions on how to apply. Once you apply, the moderating staff will review all stories you currently have posted on the site to see whether you should be validated. If you are rejected, we will notify you to tell you why you were not accepted at this time.
We especially require the following (click on each link to be brought on a moderator-written article specifying exactly what we are looking for):
Grammar
Punctuation
Dialogue
- Poetry writing
This category highlights the best stories currently on Shur'tugal.com. It includes all stories voted Featured Fiction by authors on the site and stories chosen by the moderating staff based creativity, originality, and style.
Moderator Fictions
These are all the stories written by current members of the moderating staff.
Contest Entries
These are stories entered into official SFF contests (see the Contests page for more information). Entries must meet all the requirements of the contest. You cannot submit a story to a Contest category after the contest ends.
The General and Validated categories are further divided into sub-categories. These subcategories, rather than having to do with the submission requirements, are based on what the story is about. The definitions for these subcategories are below:
Inheritance Fiction: For all PROSE based on the Inheritance Cycle.
Original Fiction: For all PROSE that is NOT based on the Inheritance Cycle. Remember, we do not accept stories based on other fandoms, so these fictions are completely products of the author's own imagination.
Scripts and Poetry: For ALL scripts or poems submitted to the site. This includes both Inheritance-based scripts and poems as well as original scripts and poems. Again, we do not accept scripts and poems based on other fandoms.
Choosing the correct rating/warnings
Use the chart below to figure out the level of profanity, violence, sexual content, and mature themes your story contains. Your rating (B, I, or V) should correspond to the HIGHEST rating on this chart. So if your story falls into the B category for profanity and mature themes, is an I for violence, and a V for sexual content, you must rate your story as a V.
If your story is rated I or V, you must label your story with the warnings from this table that are above the B level (in the above example, you must label your story with both a sexual content warning and a violence warning, even though your story is a V level and the violence is only an I level).
Because these definitions are difficult to define, the moderating staff reserves the right to edit warnings to make them comply with site policy and to reject/delete stories at will.
What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is when you borrow someone else's work and call it your own. Examples are copy-and-pasting another person's fan fiction and replacing the names, copying lines from Eragon and mixing them into your own story, or borrowing an original character from another person's story and using him in your own.
To protect all authors and creative artists against plagiarism, Shur'tugal Fan Fiction has created the following rules that all authors must follow or their story will be removed from the site and the author may be subject to the three-strikes policy:
Quoting the Inheritance Cycle:
You may quote up to ONE paragraph from Inheritance in each chapter.
The quoted paragraph must be in italics.
You must state exactly where you got the quote from (book and page number)
You must acknowledge in your author's note that you borrowed the quote from Christopher Paolini and did not write it yourself.
Borrowing another fan's work
You may NOT post stories you did not write- this means you can also not post for a friend
If you want to borrow elements of another person's story (like a character or some aspect of their plot), you must ask that person in advance of posting the story and get their permission
Song lyrics
You may NOT post ANY song lyrics that you personally did not write on the site at all. No exceptions.