Okay, you've finished your story. You've checked it for errors, had it beta read, fixed it up, and spellchecked it again. You're ready to post. Yay! Here's how to use FFnet so your story doesn't end up looking like crap. (This assumes you're writing in Word, and should be pretty similar in most other programs, though you'll need to experiment a bit.)

There's good news about uploading to FFnet and bad news. The good news is that it now supports .doc files with formatting, the bad news is that it doesn't put in space breaks or paragraphing. So, to put a file online and have it look right...

* Go to the File menu. Choose File → Save. save it as a .doc file. Make sure that you have a line of blank space between every paragraph.

* Log in to FFnet. On the left-hand menu, choose "Documents". Scroll down and fill in the Doc Label, then hit "Browse..." and choose the .doc file from your computer. Click "Submit Document."

* After you upload it, scroll back up and choose "Edit/Preview." At this point, you'll need to go in and put all of your space/time breaks in. Since FFnet no longer allows for punctuation, it's now required to use a hard line break. If your browser loads the QuickEdit version of FFnet, where you have convenient buttons, the last button has a thin grey line. Click that to add in a hard break wherever you need one. If you don't have any buttons, insert the HTML tags <P><HR></P> for every break. Then make sure you save your changes. Either technique should come out looking like this:

* Next, choose "Stories" from the left-hand menu. At the top right, you can click "New Story" and you will then be asked to acknowledge that you've read FFnet's TOS and guidelines. You can then select a category, subcategory, etc. for your fic. (In this case, usually Movies → Newsies.) Once you finish filling out the necessary information, there you go. New story created!

If you're updating a previously existing story, click on it in the Story List. When it loads, choose "Content/Chapters" to add a new chapter. Fill in your chapter title and select the chapter you already uploaded from the drop-down menu. Click "Add" and there you go!

How do you get an FFnet account? Go to the FFnet main page and look for a link for new users to sign up. Do so, follow the instructions. Make sure you have a valid email (there's a 99% chance you already do, if you spend any time online) and that's about all you need.

Here's something I wish I'd thought of when I signed up; find a pen name you actually like. After awhile, people start to look for stories by authors they know they like, so you'll want people to be able to remember your pen name so they can keep an eye out for it. Hint: names that end with a seemingly random five-digit number? Hard to remember, and probably ought to be avoided. ;) (Just call me B. It's easier.)