How to publish a story on fanfiction.net using voiceover on iPad

This guide assumes that you have previously created a fanfiction.net account and have waited the amount of time before you are allowed to create a new story. i recommend you use a hardware keyboard of some sort, otherwise this will be quite difficult, maybe even impossible.

Getting Started

The first thing you’ll need to do is go to your page. yOu do this by selecting the link labeled as your chosen user name. ONce there, you will be taken to your account preferences page, with a bunch of links on the left. These links, when selected, will expand and collapse submenus with more links inside them. iN this case, you’ll need to select the publish link. You won’t be able to submit a story until you’ve read and accepted the rules and guidelines, so do so by using the rules and guidelines link. The accept button will be on the bottom of the page.

I know the rules, now what?

This is where things get a bit tricky. You see, fanfiction.net uses a submission method not seen on other platforms besides its sister site fictionpress. Before you can publish a story, you must add a document to use as the content/first chapter of the story.

Okay, so how do I add a document?

Select the link in the publish submenu that is labeled doc manager. It will take you, surprisingly, to the document manager. Here, you can view the documents that are already in the system (though you probably have none at the moment) and add more. Be sure you read the info displayed after the add documents menu, it gives you important info about document storage and types that are supported for import.

Adding a document

First, give your document a title. This isn’t the title that your chapter will have, it’s merely a label for your own reference.

Next, select how you’d like to add a document. you can either upload a file from your device, or type/paste your story directly. Note that the radio buttons for this are a bit strange, the unlabeled one is file upload while the second one is copy and paste. This is how all the radio buttons on the site are laid out, so keep that in mind further along in this tutorial. Leave the format as a story file, that’s the format used for publishing stories.

note: If you choose to write your story directly within the document manager, be aware that the editor does not auto save. You will need to save frequently to insure all changes are saved. Use the save button below the document text field to do this. Also, keep in mind that some formatting options won’t be available until after the first save.

Publishing Your Document

Now that you’ve written and edited the content/first chapter of your story, it’s time to begin the publishing process. Assuming you’ve read and accepted the rules recently, select the new story link in the publish menu.

Type And Category

The first thing you’ll be prompted to do when creating a new story is select the type (regular or crossover) of your story. Regular stories have only one category, while crossovers have, at this time, two categories.

Once you have selected the appropriate type, it’s time to select the category for your story. The type is the particular media or fandom your story was written for. On fanfiction.net, categories are split into a few types: anime/manga, books, comics, cartoons, movies, plays, TV shows, and misc. you’ll need to select one of these categories before selecting the fandom for your story. For example, if your story is for Harry Potter, you would use the first popup button labeled new line, and select books from the menu that appears. Next you would use the second identical popup button and select harry Potter. The list of subcategories is in alphabetical order so this can be tedious, but once you’ve written and published at least one story it’s category will appear in the (most likely currently empty) saved categories popup menu. Once you’ve selected the appropriate category(s) double tap the click to continue button and you’ll now be presented with a bunch of fields in which you must enter some important details about your story. It might seem quite daunting at first, but some of the fields are optional and the others are quite easy to fill once you know what they are. I will briefly go over each field below.and describe how to fill them.

Other Story Fields

Note: The fields might be in a different order on the site than in this list.

Cover

An image to represent your story. This is optional.

Title

The title of your fic. Don’t write it in all caps, that’s against the rules. iNstead write it with the first letters of words capitalized like this: My Amazing Story

Summary

A brief description of your story to hook your readers in and let them know what to expect, like the short blurb on the back of a book. If you’re unsure of how to write this, don’t be afraid to look at other people’s stories to better understand how a summary should be written.

Rating

What audience your story is suitable for. If you’ve read the rules you should be familiar with the system, so simply select the appropriate rating from the popup menu. note: Your story could be removed if it is rated inappropriately.

Language

The language your story is written in, selected by a popup button.

Genre

The genre(s) your story best falls under. you can select up to two using the popup buttons. By default they are both set on general and you can leave them that way if you’d like, but I’d recommend you change them to make your story more easily filterable. If you feel that your story falls under only one genre, set both popup buttons to the same one. Unlike most fields the genres aren’t in alphabetical order, and I’m admittedly not sure why.

Status

Another duo of radio buttons. If you’re posting the first chapter of a story and plan to add more at a later date, leave it set to in progress. If not and your story is a single chapter fic or a one shot, set it to complete.

Characters

The most confusing field to learn with voiceover, but relatively simple once you get the hang of it. Select the first character you’d like to add with the currently selected characters popup button, then double tap the add button. It should appear above the popup button if done correctly. Keep repeating this process until you’ve added all the characters you want (you can add up to four, so as a rule of thumb add the main characters that the story most focuses on. It’s not against the rules for more than the selected characters to appear in the story, so don’t worry.) If you selected a character you don’t want, you can remove them by pressing the x button that appears when swiping left from their name in the list.

Pairing

note: This is a relatively new feature and I’m not quite sure how it works yet, so the info provided may not be one hundred percent accurate.

Some stories focus on characters in a sexual/romantic relationship. If your story is one of those you can indicate this by double tapping the unlabeled button after the name of one of your characters, than choosing to pair them with another character by selecting A B, C, or D, which corresponds to their position in the list.

Document

One if not the most important fields, this popup button allows you to select which document you’d like to use as the content/first chapter of your story. They are displayed in the same order as in the manager, with the number they are in the list, followed by the label you previously assigned to them followed by a word count.

note: you can’t change the chapter’s name for some reason until you have published it. Once you have, you can use the manage stories link in the publish menu to edit it, and any other of your story’s properties.

Captcha

A simple test to insure that you aren’t a robot. You won’t have to do it every time if you’re a frequent poster, and only if you add a new story, you won’t need to do it if you’re updating an existing story. If you are able to see the code type it in, otherwise you can play an audio version.

Note: you may want to enter the captcha code before selecting your characters, as this can sometimes cause the audio code not to play for some reason. I think it might have something to do with the popup menus.

ONce you have filled out all of the fields, simply press the publish story button, and there you go! You’ve just published/started your first story on fanfiction.net! Congrats! If you have any questions about this guide, the site, or fanfiction in general leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability.