The header is compulsory. Fail to use it once, and you will be warned. Do not add it, or fail to use it a second time, and your story (and any/all feedback) will be deleted.

Feel free to add it to any previously posted fics, and to add to the header anything you feel necessary.

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Certain behaviour towards concrit received on fanfiction has been rude, unacceptable, and bad for the forum in general. In view of this, people posting fanfiction must use the minimal header (copy and paste into your post):

in front of their stories. Authors will be honest, and reviewers will respect their wishes. It is advisable to note that those who encourage concrit tend to get a larger amount of reviews, feedback, and encouragement for their stories. If you ask for concrit, or do not discourage it, and then react badly when you recieve some, do not expect any sympathy.

The expanded header is as follows:

You must include the required fields that constitute the minimal header. You may use the expanded header or an abridged version of it if you so choose. The expanded header is optional; the minimal header is not optional.

Alternate version of optional expanded header:

Edit as of 10 July, 2007: Definition of "canon" added below, in response to a query on the thread.

Definitions of terms used in the expanded header follow, similar to this post.

Title: Self-explanatory.

Co-authors and/or betas: A 'beta' is a person who reads your story first, like a beta tester; usually they'll help you edit and tell you how they felt reading the story. They might help you with grammar and spelling, characterisation, canon information, or some other area on which you want feedback.

Genre/s: What type of story is it? For example: romance, science fiction, horror, mystery, adventure, alternate universe, alternate timeline, gen, a combination of the above. ("Gen" is discussed further below.) Slash, femslash and het are sometimes listed as genres, and refer to male/male, female/female, and male/female relationships respectively.

Summary: Self-explanatory. What the story's about, preferably in five sentences or less.

Main character/s: Self-explanatory.

Pairings: Assuming it won't spoil the plot, mention any pairings developed in the story if you wish to avoid irritating angry 'shippers. Artha and Kitt getting teased by Lance or Swayy holding an OC's hand as background scenery probably don't count, because one's canon and the other's minor; Artha and Kitt going on a date or Swayy and her OC having a plot role do count. Likewise Moordryd and Parm snogging, Reepyr and Cain engaging in a wild affair, or Chute being polyamorous with two OCs.

Rating: This is, to some extent, guesswork, particularly considering that text is a very different matter to sound and graphics on a movie screen. I usually assume:

G. Not too much violence, maybe just a little kissing, think Disney.
PG. Maybe some violence and some romance, nothing that wouldn't be onscreen in the show itself.
PG-13. A bit higher, a bit more violence and off-screen sex.
R. Violence, on-screen sex, and/or darker themes.
NC-17. Graphic violence, graphic sex, and/or very dark themes.

(Note: Same-sex kissing plus Disney-level violence counts as G, and so on and so forth without discrimination.)

Fanfiction.net employs K, K+, T, and M ratings in lieu of G, PG, PG-13 and R respectively, as defined at FictionRatings.com. NC-17 is roughly equivalent to MA under this system. Fanfiction.net does not allow NC-17 fics; adultfanfiction.net is the generic site for them.

Warnings: Anything a prospective reader might be concerned about, mostly used to announce graphic violence, explicit sex, episode spoilers and character death. "Read at your own risk" is a useful warning if spoiling the plot is a concern. I rather approve of warnings for heterosexual activity because irony is fun (slash and femslash should be classifications, not warnings).

Word Count: Self-explanatory. For the purposes of the fic index, the word count usually won't be noted until the fic is complete in case of inaccuracy.

No. of Chapters: The current number of chapters is always noted in the fic index. Some also choose to note the projected number of chapters, eg 5/8 (five chapters out of eight posted).

Complete/WiP: Whether or not the story's finished; WiP stands for work in progress.

Concrit: Constructive criticism. "This sux" is not constructive criticism. "This could be improved if you edited here and here" is constructive criticism. You do not have to obey constructive criticism, only refrain from rudeness to the giver, particularly if your header stated you were neutral about it or encouraged it. Personal insults ("you sux"), unsubstantiated negative comments ("this really sux") and unnecessary harshness ("revolting Mary-Sue, if I'd written this I'd probably just cut off my hands") are flames, and should be reported to the mod.

Mary-Sue (male version Gary-Stu): A character obviously favoured by the author; unrealistic by means of excess, either in terms of how s/he relates to the canon or in general terms of reasonable characterisation. Wikipedia, DB litmus test, more DB-Sue links. It is a general rule of writing that powerful and perfect characters tend to be rather boring to read about, conflict and all signs of flawed humanity in them having been subtracted; it's also important to note that displacing canon characters from their accustomed roles can cause irritation in a reader.

Disclaimer: A disclaimer ("I don't own Dragon Booster. This is a fanwork made for no profit.") is a gesture of goodwill with absolutely no legal effect. The precise legal status of fanfiction is presently unknown in the USA, UK and Australia. A disclaimer will not stop an author from sending you a cease-and-desist letter, or from suing you, although you might win. However, some of the creators have posted on this board; it's unlikely that they will suddenly decide they don't want fanfic, which if anything increases profits by keeping the fandom active. As is obvious from the board--"Dragon Booster->Dragon Booster->Fan Fiction"--the stories here are fanmade works based on Dragon Booster and do not claim ownership of any characters or situations found in the show. Leave disclaimers; it's nice.

A/N: Author's notes.

Gen: The precise definition of gen has been quibbled about at various times by various people in fandom. It's short for "general", and means that the story will usually be expected to have no or few pairings and deal with other issues found in the source material, often keeping the same rating and flavour as the source material. In DB, genfic would probably involve Artha finding a new ancient artefact of the week and maybe just a little Artha/Kitt because that's got canon support, but it wouldn't focus on the romance; in Harry Potter, there might be a little Ron/Hermione or Harry/Ginny but mostly a genfic would be about fighting evil wizards or dealing with canon themes that aren't romance. Some people prefer genfic to have no pairings whatsoever, but many others accept minor or canon pairings in their gen. The fic index uses "gen" and "none" as pairing classifications to refer to minor/ifyousquint and none at all respectively.

Canon: Canon in this context refers to the collection of authorised material making up one series or individual work. For example, different Christian sects have different ideas of what books constitute Biblical canon, Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle are Holmes canon, and all the DB episodes are DB canon. Canon characters are the characters appearing in the authorised material, canon pairings are the romantic relationships present in the source material, events are canon if they happened in the source material, and so on and so forth. See also Wikipedia.

The term "secondary canon" is sometimes used to describe extra materials with some authorial approval that didn't and/or might not make it into official series canon, for example creator interviews or the information on the DB trading cards.

Excellent idea, LightningFlash. :D I agree thoroughly, and I for one note here that should I see any writers who openly admit they desire only positive reviews, I will (as is only polite) refrain from saying anything if I cannot think of something nice.

ERR
Ididnt understand at all :(

Basically LightingFlash is saying people who have recived Constructive Criticsisim recently have been behaving in a rudely and complain about the ConCrit.


So People should put that header on their fics to say if they want ConCrit, or not, or if you don't care.

Great idea LightningFlash!

But a question, do you want us to go back and edit this into our old posts, or is it just from here on in?

She says it's "currently optional". I'd assume that means "only go back and edit if you want". (I'm guessing you don't. :) You're a good writer, and seem to take criticism well.)

Yeah, only add it if you want it. I'll think about the editing thing a bit more if it does become compulsory, but I think it'd only need to be added to recent fics.

Why not include "Warnings" up there as well. They're usually included in A/N but it might be easier to just include them in that top header, lj-style.

It's definately a good idea! :D I think I'll have to go back to my fic and add it in sometime. ;)

And no doubt one may also want to insert "Summary," "Pairing," "Characters," and so on as per personal preference. :)

Added 'warnings' and 'pairings.' I figure summary and characters are more of an optional thing.

Umm.... what does Mary Sue mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

I was wondering what a Mary :) -Sue meant. Thanks PennyDreadful.

Uh......english please? :P But seriously......what?

It says that Mary Sues are unbelievable characters that the authors favor over the canon characters, sometimes to the point where they are the main character of a fic. Marty or Gary Stus are the male kind.

Mary Sue is often the image of the author or how s/he imagines her/himself in the DB world. Often a superman/woman, is more important than original characters and shines like gold from above even if in ashes... Serioulsy, if you want to shine then shake of the ashes and come down to earth.
Take my story for example: at first Davit was sueish. But thanks to Sarah Frost I kinda noted that, took a big hammer and made a few adjustements to level him with the DB world, equalised in other words.

P.S.: I don't quite understand the Pairings part. What is it? :*

So a mary-sue is a godlike madeup character?

Yes, that's what I wrote.

List what pairing is in your story. For instance, is it an Artha/Kitt, or a Moordryd/Parm? Or are there no pairings? Maybe there's a Mortis/Kitt/Pyrrah threesome, etc.

(Dies) Man...that would be worth reading... ^_^

Hopefully, such a story would take place in the future, otherwise I think we may already know how it ends: Mortis goes to jail because Kitt and Pyrrah are both underage minors. :D

Not where I come from. :P (Sixteen is also apparently the average age for first sexual experience.)

Hopefully, that's with someone in the same age bracket and not with some creepy 47 year old guy who names himself after the Latin word for death and feels the need to wear a costume and a mask. :D Though I think there's potential for a humor-fic there if done right. ;)

Yup, there's a definite issue there. :)

However...

Ask and ye shall receive. (Posted on LJ in case it's a bit much for the board, and short enough on actual sex that the Furox could feel reasonably comfortable reading. Not quite a threesome, but I hope it's close enough. Femslash warning!)

(Is revived, only to die again) Sarah, you are a genius. A slightly evil genius.

Does the warning part means warning of possible contents that are unsuitable for younger audiences such as violence? :unsure:

Because my planned fanfic might contain violence and blood and if that's the case, I must state these contents under the warning part, right?

Yes. 'Warnings' are for anything that potential readers might find offensive or might prefer to avoid. Basically that's violence or sex, the latter generally being found more shocking due to Cultural Issues, and of course there's the issues over text versus screen. ("She stabbed him" on paper is so much less dramatic than "On screen, we see her brandish the knife and then there's blood spurting and screaming".) (Some people also warn for slash/femslash, but by rights that should be a classification issue like any other pairing issue.)

Don't worry about me. :) I'm not one to get uptight over fictional stories. If you want to make 16 be the age consent in Dragon City, then go for it.

Eh, some of them are apparently earning their own living at that age. It'd be a bit contradictory if the age of consent wasn't fairly low, maybe even Thailand-esque (though, yeah, most of the DB characters are fairly unattractive to me, not least because of age and maturity issues).

Hey, here 18 is old enough to give your life for your country, but it isn't old enough to have a drink in a bar. These things don't always make sense. :unsure:

For the header, I just realized that it doesn't have a disclaimer line about the same time I realized I wasn't putting in my disclaimers. I fixed myself but...

Added. :)

what is Mary Sue?

A poorly developed original character who gratifies the author rather than the readers. Wikipedia, DB litmus test based on other Mary-Sue tests.

Mary-Sue example: Lea, written by Lea, rides non-canonical dragon colour with special necklace and wings, fourteen years old and already in the Academy. They're often written by younger authors and rip into canon, overshadowing it with excessive Specialness.

Sorry... what exactly is a Mary Sue?

Read the links and the thread.

A Mary-Sue is a new character who doesn't fit into the DB universe because they're too glamorous. Lea is a Mary-Sue because: her dragon isn't anything like the canonically existing dragons, she's named after you which means you're probably too sympathetic to her to write her fairly, and she's in the Academy as a fourteen-year-old when the canon characters are finding it tough at sixteen (and that two years makes a lot of difference at that age). In other words, she shouldn't exist.

DB isn't exactly the greatest authority on Proper Characterisation, but the key to writing a fanmade character is fitting in. Don't have them part of some new special secret group that we haven't heard of yet for some strange mysterious reason, don't have them take any spotlight away from the canon characters, don't make them implausibly gifted, don't make them ridiculously perfect. It's boring to read about a character with so many abilities they'll obviously save the day every single time, it's annoying to fans of the canon characters if an original character suddenly comes in and is better than them, and it's unrealistic to have a character with heaps of advantages. Try to think of weaknesses (ex. maybe winged dragons do exist in Dragon City but their wings are extremely fragile or they sunburn easily or have some other special need that means they aren't very popular), and don't give one character too many advantages. Decent writing also helps salvage a character.

Okay i'll go change it then although I don't know what dragon to use then...

Try a colour that you know exists; you've got about eleven to choose from. Or try a strange breed if you must, but stick some heavy weaknesses in there. We know winged dragons aren't a common sight on the streets--likely people don't want them for a *reason*, the wings get in the way, the wings tend to be fragile, aero gear generally does a better job, in order to fly rather than glide the dragon's body would have to be so small and light they wouldn't be useful for anything else. Or a combo, if you're really invested in being Special--pink dragons might be Sun City fashion but they aren't very good for racing, or a blue/red blend like Beau appears to be might be not quite as fast as reds and not quite as agile as blues but a good moderate.

And try thinking about what you really want for your character, and what weaknesses you'll have to include as a result. If you really want the "in the Academy at fourteen" thing, for example, maybe an instructor's kid could get into the Academy early because of that advantage, but they might also feel very pressured at having to live up to that and be at a social disadvantage because of all that extra practice their well-meaning parent forced them into when they could have been learning how to interact with real people. Or maybe a very rich kid whose parents help fund the Academy gets in early on that strength, and constantly falls behind in most of their classes because of the age thing. Or if you just want a typical Academy student, maybe just your ordinary Sun City kid who might like chatting to her friends, is tone-deaf, grew up knowing they'd get into the Academy and doesn't try as hard as they might because of tips they've learned from their tutors.

It's hard to write a character you identify with too closely well, because nobody's perfect and it's essential to understand that at least one person has a good reason (not just personal prejudice, a legitimate logical reason) for disliking every character. If you're too invested in one character and don't consider these logical reasons for dislike, that character's given special privileges--and that's irritating. X might be nice and kind and saccharine to everyone she meets and volunteer at the local dragon shelter three nights a week--but Y might reasonably think she's a fake who doesn't care enough about real issues like the poverty of the lower cities, and X might have personality flaws like a deep insecurity that leads her to try too hard to be liked and freak out when she thinks someone dislikes her, and Y's big flaw might be anger that doesn't let her see the smart way of solving the big problems she sees. And Z might hate Y even though she agrees with her because Y's just too angry and Z finds that draining to be around, and so on.

Okay, I guess i'm not used to this. The online community you could say that I come from, everyone make a up a character like mine. We come up with all sorts of things that involve canines with horns or felines with wings etc. I'm also an rper so when we do our intro's detail is very important. Also the character is supposed to be me, myself. We create persona's and fursona's where we imagine ourselves as a dog with wings or a wolf with powers etc. Fantasy is a big thing in my community you could say. We can expand our imagination endlessly there but here, I have to get used to one specific region. That's how I was brought up so i'm still learning.