Joined: 29 Nov 2004
Posts: 183
Location: Northern UK
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A field guide for the worried, wary, and sceptical. There've been one or two folks with issues about the fairness of our treatment of authors, plus issues about whether our standards are too high.
I prepared this last week, and polished it last night. I hope this will be of interest to authors and readers at SH archive alike. For those who do not know, I am a Senior Admin there, and generally am known by my author name of Azazello.
I'm bothered that folks should feel itimidated about archiving or posting. Our standards are not absurdly nitpicky - they are pretty much in line with the big all-singing and all-dancing archive, Fiction Alley.
Generally, the stated aim of all the SH family of archives is to provide a home for quality Harry Potter fanfiction in a number of categories. Having said that, it then falls to the staff at the archive to ensure that what we advertise, is what we actually have.
Sycophant Hex: A Moderated Fic Archive – How it works
First of all, this only relates to the Sycophant Hex fiction archive, and more to the point, my perception of it. This is NOT a public service announcement. I’ve not been asked to do this as PR. However, I’ve seen a number of people voicing irritations with the service over the last few days, round and about the Internet, so here is a friendly little guide to how this archive works. As opposed to my usual "STFU! Stop moaning!" rant response to irritations.
Validated Authors
On SH this means you may post freely, though it is a status that can be removed if your posting quality drops sufficiently to cause concern. That applies to each and any validated author. Generally, it happens in response to user complaints about quality, and a number of the admins will then review the ongoing quality of a validated author, and either confirm continuing validation, or make arrangements to return the author to moderated submission. Any comments made about the quality of an author will be listened to and action taken, though it should be said, that not all complaints about authors will result in validation being withdrawn. It’s all about consensus. It has to be, in order to circumvent malicious complaints.
So, on to Validation. How do you get it? You earn that title on your knees, no, actually by posting good quality, well edited work, of a consistently high standard. Essentially, that means you have a track record under moderated status of the admins nearly always validating your submissions without condition, or without having to ask you to make corrections. When small corrections have been requested, generally the suitable for validation author makes them quickly and without fuss or hissy fit. Validated author status does not come from having large numbers of reviews, or a large following. Popular in fanfic does not always denote quality.
Though I cannot give a golden mean as to when validation is considered, as a vague rule of thumb, if a whole novel length story is published by a writer, with no or minimal submissions requiring correction, the author may be validated (sometimes pressure of other site work might delay this - so please do not think, "But I finished 'Hermione and the Potions Master' and the admins never asked for changes. Don't they like me? Is that why I'm still moderated?").
Generally, you cannot ask for it, nor can you petition for it on behalf of your friends, relations or any others you may think should have it. You may certainly ask if it could be considered, but it should be understood that acclaim does not a validated author make, nor that a request will elicit validation.
It’s not cliquish, either, or as I call it “Rabbit’s friends and relations” – despite anyone’s insistence to the contrary. I was validated as an author well over a year ago, and was not well known in the fandom or to the shippers. I knew no one connected with this site before I began archiving there last February 2004. I joined the site at the suggestion of a reader of my work on ffnet.
As a senior site admin I cannot confer validated author status on someone because they give me good reviews, or because we have some entertaining chat on lj, or because I like them or their work, even. I can recommend validation, and often do so, but generally, no author validation is given without the say of several admins. Getting “in” with the admins will not hasten the process. Though with that proviso, let me say, I am always up for a bit of sycophancy. However, it will not get you validated author status.
Some authors will never be validated in all probability. During my time as an admin, I have seen some authors mature, and develop and reach validated status, though they made a lot of errors in their early days. They improved because, among other things, they took advice on board, went out and found good beta readers, learned from them, and then generally learned a good deal of practical stuff about grammar and punctuation, and it shows. That kind of growth is not universal by any means.
Other authors are not validated for a number of reasons:
Being prima donnas. Remember folks we are pretty much all amateur writers here. Yes, I am aware that we have fanfic authors archiving who write professionally in real life. That actually makes no difference to opening status. They will be validated solely on the quality of the work they archive here. They have no “edge” over those who are strictly amateur, though their experience as writers might well speed the process up for them. My all time favourite response to a submission rejection was from a self-styled “professional and published novelist” who screamed that I could not teach her a word of grammar. I found an error in roughly each line of her screaming howler of a missive. Which was better written than the fic, which had been rejected.
Telling the site admin who asks you to make changes that she is an idiot with no conception of the rules of English Grammar, is largely going to be counter productive. It says a number of things about the writer who does it. One: that she is an egomaniac incapable of learning to improve, or of accepting the universal truth, which is that we all make mistakes. Two, that she is just one rude cow (I’m saying “her” here because the majority of our writers are women). I’m not advocating fawning sycophancy (though I’m always up for it as I said earlier…) but my own view throughout my fanfic writing career has always been that being nice to archive mods can never harm, can it? In fact, politeness costs nothing. I’m pretty confident that we admins are very polite to our writers.
I shall interject as a writer here and state that I hate being told by a reader that I made a mistake. That’s because I always feel that I should have picked the error up. So my anger is with myself. The correct way to deal is to fix and thank, which I do, while cursing myself for an idiot. Writers should therefore be pleased with the site admin who avoids the embarrassment of an email or review pointing out whatever bog-up they’ve let slip. So, it is wise to keep the anger at failure to pick up error with oneself, and not lay it on some unfortunate admin, who, when all is said and done, is not being paid to act as a fic editor, and is actually doing the submitter a big favour.
We’ve also had authors of tremendous standing in the fanfic world, who have written much loved fics before, who have decided to archive at SH. They’ve started at the bottom on SH like anyone else. Their attitude could be summed up as, “Clearly fame isn’t everything.” Generally when they have submitted work, they’ve been very nice and did not immediately demand that we bowed before them or immediately offered validated status. Needless to say, we did not usually have to delay approving their polished and cared-for work
Polish is important, and I cannot stress that too much. It’s in the hand of fic writers to speed up the process whereby their fic gets approved. There’s a lot you can do.
1. Gen up on the grammar and punctuation rules. There are site guidelines about grammar at SH, as there are also at other good fiction sites – Fiction Alley has a wonderful guide to the basic rules of good prose, for instance. I downloaded it when I started out writing fics, and still use it. Invest in a good set of guidebooks – Strunk and White, and others are there to help. You can download “The Elements of Style” free of charge from Bartleby.com. This is not just about fanfiction; it is about becoming a better writer. This will pass on and even help in work or school matters. You are improving your written communication skills. These days, for instance, if there is any PR, writing stuff at work, I always get asked to do it. That's not a bad thing to have on my CV.
2. Never ever submit a first draft. Ideally sit on your first draft for 48 hours (at least) and then edit. Read carefully for error. Read aloud, and dramatically as if acting the story, and I confidently suggest you will be able to hear the punctuation and where it goes. Write with the appropriate spellchecker enabled, and also teach your spellchecker the canon words and spellings.
3. GET. A. BETA. READER. There are lots of forums where you can find one. Get a beta reader, work with her/him, and learn. No writer will pick up all their own errors – that’s why professional published authors have editors (well with the exception of Anne Rice, but let’s not go there), but this will help. Using a beta reader means you make your mistakes – and trust me, you will make them – before a friendly audience. Better your beta see your ellipsis abuse (that’s one of my besetting sins) than your readership.
Essentially, following the above standard advice automatically lessens the chances of rejection, and increases your chance of validation. Submitting polished, cared for work will impress site admins, too, and show that you take this seriously, and therefore respect the site’s wish for quality. Think of submission as a sort of job application – and first impressions are very important. Generally, on SH we validate authors who impress us, by the quality of their work, by the fact that they obviously care about their stuff, and the site.
Some writers will not achieve validated status, because though their work is acceptable after correction for archiving, it is not felt they are up to being trusted to post freely. That’s not saying “Bad author” just an acceptance that they do not post polished work, and that they are prone to error. It’s nothing personal and does not preclude readers hugely enjoying their work.
No one should feel to intimidated about the submission of their work. We like to think we have provided encouragement for new writers who are now gaining a reputation. No rejection is forever, either. See below.
The Life Cycle of a Submitted Fic
When you upload a chapter, or one shot and are not a validated author, it goes into the queue. Admins have more links on their screen of the archive and can access this queue through special links enabled for their use. The queue looks a bit like a grid on a forum. It shows who wrote, name of fic, numbers of words. There are little buttons that enable the admin to go into that fic, and read it through. Then once the queued fic is on the screen, there are buttons whereby the admin can either validate or reject, or set conditions for posting. There are links that open up an email to the author.
Generally we write to authors for three main reasons:
1. To reject outright.
2. To ask for changes to be made before we validate.
3. To advise that we have validated but there are minor errors we still want fixing.
We have a number of admins, some with more experience than others. Admins work a variety of archives. There’s no required or set minimum work rate. It is accepted that admins do their stuff voluntarily, and that sometimes they will not be able to work the queues. My personal standard is to try and read three submissions each weekday, and maybe more at weekends. I have on occasion quixotically worked the entire Ashwinder queue. I’ve found this deeply counter productive, as on the two occasions I’ve actually killed the queue, I was so fed up with reading SS/HG fic, I did no validating for about a week. I therefore try and cap my vetting to five or six fics at weekends.
A lot of us have busy real lives, too and sometimes those issues take precedence (as indeed they should). Also a good few admins are fic writers themselves, and in my case, when the muse comes calling, I go with her.
I work on the queues at Ashwinder, Occlumency, Serpensortia and Lumos. Ashwinder takes up most of my time, as it is bigger, more popular, and the queue is always more backed up. Generally, the standard at the other three archives is higher. Because they are less popular and there are fewer submissions. As a point of information, I reject less slash than any other genre. Slash is a highly competitive genre in HP fen; there are some of the finest writers in this fandom writing slash, and you have to be good to get noticed. Generally, slash at its best is a highly polished product. I personally also think slash readers have been spoiled by some brilliant writers, and are a lot more discerning and a lot more aspirational.
So, onto the process. We have set standards and anyone who wants to know what they are can peruse the FAQ sections on the site.
My first task is to let the other admins know I am working on a fic. We have an admins board where we track all submissions, and record all decisions and letters sent. This is to maintain consistent standards, and to be able to have a clear history if there is dispute over fics. I note that I am viewing a fic, to save another admin inadvertently validating it.
The first thing I do is check that the formatting used is compatible with the site software. There are detailed guidelines available on site, about that, and failure to follow instructions results in immediate (but friendly) rejection. The story will not even be read if this is the case. So I cannot emphasise enough the need to double check the FAQ section on the site. If in doubt contact the administration of the site. We'd far rather explain to a techno-luddite, than reject a fic. We are there to help and advise - use us!
I then copy and paste the fic into word. I quickly scan and see what English is being used and enable the appropriate spell-checker. My spell checker knows canon spellings, too – I’ve been adding canon spellings since July 2003. Then I read through once to get the sense.
Then I read for spelling, grammar, punctuation and canon. This is all pretty easy, there are a finite number of errors allowed and you are out once you are over them. Still with errors below that number but a few – we hold the story in the queue and ask the writer to correct, and notify us when they do. Then the story is validated. Additionally, any story with errors in the summary, is either rejected, or held in the queue before validation. We do not accept errors that will be visible on the site home page.
If there are only a tiny few errors, we validate but advise authors what needs fixing.
Practically perfect story (or one where we cannot spot errors)? Validation. We do not as a rule advise authors when their submission is validated, though I have done so when they have resubmitted a few times. For me, that seems courteous and encouraging.
Rejection
Rejection for technical writing errors is fairly easy to understand. Those are quantifiable, and clearly demonstrable. However writers may also be rejected for more subjective reasons. I’ll give some reasons why I might consider rejection, other than technical error.
1. The ship, genre, etc is wrong for the archive. Eg, SS/HG is not the pairing and the fic is submitted to Ashwinder. It’s also up to writers to make the pairing clear and implicit in their writing. I’ve rejected poetry where the woman is just referred to as “she”. That’s not clear enough. Slash archives want slash pairings. And so on.
The pairing does not have to have a successful ending or a happy one. It needs to be the main pairing, of whatever archive, or the main character: Occlumency fics must be Snape-centric.
2. Out of character. This is difficult. I’ll allow a certain leeway, but essentially if a snide and abrasive character like Snape is collecting pressed wild flowers in a submitted fic, that fic, unless the author really sets it up, will probably be rejected. Ditto wildly made-over Hermione stories. Writers will need to do a bit better than these (which are not direct quotes but I’ve pretty much seen them all):
“Hermione had changed over the summer and now hated studying”
Or
“A/N. I’ve made Hermione blonde in this, and she looks a lot like Buffy Summers”
“Hermione now had sleek black hair with green streaks in it.” Sorry, that’s not Hermione Granger. Do soft-pedal the bushiness, agreed (Hermione’s hair is bushy in canon, but there is no canon indication that she regularly snaps hairbrushes), but this is bloody Mary Sue.
3. And just impossible…
I’m not going to go heavily into detail, but I recently rejected a PWP because in order for the acts depicted to be accomplished, Hermione would have needed to be 6’7” and double jointed - in her spine. Indeed a professional circus contortionist would have been pleased to get up to what Hermione got up to with her Potions master in that one. I got a crick in my neck just considering it. That being said, I do not look for safe sex, or even realistic sex when validating PWP stories. Though I should point out, my favourite ones of that genre always travel the realism road (this admin’s top tip – depict sex, as brilliant but possible and you will go far, well with me at least. Do not confuse realism for nauseating, either). Remember, kiddies, the point of good pr0n is to make me/the reader wish to be a participant. And also to… whatever. Ahem. Though if fic writers continue to insist on lubeless DELETE for first timers, I will privately snigger, point and laugh. Do it often enough, and I will publicly snigger, point and laugh. On this journal. However, I digress…
4. Just bad.
The hardest of all. Writing that is technically sound in terms of grammar but is just awful, rather like the poetry of the Vogons in The Hitchhiker’s Guide. On stuff like that, I can only go with subconscious and personal instinct. I’ve validated stuff that I thought was not much cop (it later got hatfuls of adoring reviews). I reject stuff that might have cut it in the same way. I cannot say much about that, except to say that I am only human. Am I having a bad day, and have I just met a bad fic that irritates? Sorry, down into the waste disposal it will go.
5. Reasons I’d personally like to reject for but don’t. Be thankful kinder advice prevails.
Fanon irritations, headed by ‘Mione. Golden Trios. Sevvie. Constant repetition of “Miss Know it all” which in fact Snape never called her in canon. He docked points in POA for her being 'an insufferable know-it-all' – that’s all. To my canon knowledge he never called her that again. I suspect he has more imagination in his diction than to constantly repeat himself. Lupin permanently offering chocolate around. Psycho rapist Ron, depicted that way as deus ex machina for an SS/HG pairing. Over use of blatant Americanisms. The list is endless. But those are reasons I will not re-read, not why I will not validate. I validate “’Mione” fics, even whilst swearing. And I do swear, quite creatively, when I see “Mione” which so far as I know only ever made canon once, when said by Ron through a mouthful of potatoes.
Not satisfied?
There are ways of complaining, and ways of appealing a rejection, too. Email a senior admin, or failing that the Admin Mistress or Webmistress. Be balanced about it, and not hysterical.
If it is your fic, and you are unhappy with a decision, contact the site about it. Screaming abuse is never a good idea. Measured tones helps make us think you might have a point and we certainly look.
I’ve had emails about a change I’ve asked for where the author has made a good case against what I said, and I’ve revised my decisions. We are always willing to take a second look, and discuss things. Generally, when an admin gets such a complaint and cannot handle it, she will in turn get other admins to look.
If it is someone else’s validated fic, and you think it is pants, do the same. We have a quality review process.
Other Stuff
Remember this is a moderated archive. It’s not “elitist”. Anyone can submit a fic, and provided it meets the standards, it is in. That’s the point. It is middle ground. And besides I’ve yet to see an “elitist” archive remotely worthy of the name. Even the best of them will have someone (or several someones) who is clearly luggage. Most “invite only” archives are by invitation of the owner and the owner’s three best friends. Who invite their own best friends. That’s hardly elite. That’s just a clique of mutual commonality in a good many cases. Some soi disant elitist archives are clearly set up because at least one author or the founder is hacked off with one of the bigger archives, or because someone on it cannot get accepted by the bigger moderated archives because they do not meet the standards. Generally, the archives I’m fondest of are the ones where anyone who meets the standard gets a chance and a start. And if they do not meet the standards, they can have another go, and another. On moderated archives, you’ll get to share space with some damn fine writers.
And finally
Still pissed off? Think SH admins are teh suXX0r?
In 2003 I began writing a long canon post, which eventually mutated into a fanfic. It was a Snape back-story fic, which to be honest, I thought was the absolute dog's bollocks, despite having never written fiction before.
I played around with it for a while, and eventually nerved myself up to submit it for archive. I chose Fiction Alley, ideally Schnoogle, which houses novel length fics only and then of a minimum average chapter length of 3000 words. Why did I want Schnoogle? Because the authors I liked best at that point were there. I was a fangirl.
So I nervously submitted my first chapter to Schnoogle and waited for the fame, fortune and BNF status that was surely my due. Five days I waited.
And got the story back. For grammar and punctuation (in dialogue) reasons.
I howled, and cursed those ignorant yahoos who did not recognise genius when they saw it. And sniffed at the advice to get a beta reader.
Then I got a beta reader. I did not know her, we met via a beta reader’s exchange, and she nitpicked my work of genius a great deal. She said it was over wordy, and that there were too many long monologues. And I was annoyed by this.
So I took out a lot of the words, and also cut up some of the monologues.
She also suggested a number of things to break up the monotony: Facial expressions, nervous tics, like fiddling with sleeve buttons, a momentary bit of comic relief, this and that. And I found myself extensively re-writing the story.
And the end result was so much better, that lots of folks in fandom still tell me they adore that story (It’s called “Therapy”). And more to the point, I can still bear to read it, too. If I had succeeded in archiving the original, I'd probably cringe at the thought of it, and probably would not have written anything else.
And I learned loads. But it was the initial rejection that made me a better writer. I went out and bought the appropriate help books; I carefully studied dialogue formatting in published work.
And in the end, I resubmitted a much better story, which was accepted.
Now, if the original story had gone up, I might have got some okay reviews. That's because everyone gets okay reviews. If you don't believe me, cruise ffnet. As it was I got some great ones. But it was that rejection which taught me most. It taught me not to be satisfied with my first go. It taught me that anyone could improve. And it taught me that I had a lot to learn. I still think I have things to learn. It's a journey, and most of the time, it's a fun one, too. And that is why any fic writer should not be angry at rejection or a request to fix errors. Because the fact is, not one of us is perfect.
Keep on writing, keep on submitting and try always to go that little bit further. That’s my advice. |
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Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony ~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail |
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