Monday, February 27, 2012

Donation request for February

HASA is currently at -$25 for January, and the $150 bill for February will soon be due. HASA depends on donations to meet hosting costs. While this means that we come 'begging' about once a month, the good news is that a little can make a great difference! Thanks to our seven monthly subscribers who pay for almost one third of our monthly costs, you’re much appreciated. Thanks also for individual donations.

HASA is in its tenth year of providing ad-free, fee-free JRRT fanfiction that is owned and operated by the fandom, not corporate interests. Your contact information is not for sale to marketeers. There are no tests to take to join, all genres, characters, ratings and story lengths are welcome, and we get hundreds of readers a day. If you are one of our regular visitors, please consider setting up a subscription. $5 = one day of hosting. Or, if you cannot commit to a regular donation, give an individual donation.

Economic times are tough, but every little bit helps. If you can't spare money, then please give something just as valuable – your time. There are stories that need reviews, a story comment can really make an author's day, we have forums for discussing any topic and of course you can post your own works for the enjoyment of everyone.
Thanks for enjoying HASA!

Julie

Sunday, February 19, 2012

HASA How-tos - February 2012

This month's HASA How-to looks at posting stories.

How do I...

... post my stories?

This month we look at how to post your stories at HASA.

How to post your story at HASA

Every HASA member can post as many stories as she likes to the site.

First, check you’re logged in. Then go to My Stuff and select My Stories. Choose Add New Story.

Now that you have done that, the next thing you have to do is create a story overview. In the story overview you put in the title, a summary, and some details like characters and the type of story it is.

Next, you can add chapters to your story.

Please be sure to read the onscreen instructions (on the righthand side of the page) the first few times you create stories, or if you run into problems. They will help you avoid the most common errors.

When you’re done, press Edit Story (at the bottom of the form).

You are returned to your story list. Now find the story you just added and directly select ‘add chapter’ in the story list. You can also click on the title of the story and add your chapter(s) from the Story Overview.

Once you’re in the chapter dialogue, enter a title for your chapter under Chapter Title, and paste in your chapter text in the Chapter Text window (mind to use the ‘paste from Word’ option if you are pasting from Word).

Take a minute to read the notes about the editor toolbar on the right – there are useful hints there.

Select a chapter status: private or public

Private means your chapter won’t be visible. Your default choice should be Public, unless you have specific reason to keep a chapter out of view for the time being.

Now ‘add chapter’. You will now see what your chapter looks like. You can make edits if you need to (‘edit this chapter’). Other options are ‘add chapter’, ‘convert line breaks’ (look at last month’s how-to; however this is only relevant if you are editing an older story), copy chapter and ‘return to story overview’.

Select ‘return to story overview’. Now comes an important step in making sure your story can be read: Set chapter numbers. Your chapters do not appear to readers if the chapter number is ‘0’.

Select your chapter number. If you have more chapters listed already, select Reorder List.

Now you can add another chapter(s) if you like.

Done?

 

Check if all your chapters are set to public and have a number greater than ‘0’.

Done!

 

If there is any topic you’d like to see in the how-to, please let us know!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

HASA News - Reviews

Since the previous Bulletin, no stories passed through review while there are currently 16 stories waiting for reviewers. Make an author's day and review a story!

As I type this, there are 16 stories waiting for your review (remember to log in before you follow the link).

Member participation is crucial for reviews. The more people are involved in reviewing, the more different opinions are represented. Having more people involved also means that stories pass through review more quickly – which is good for everyone. If you are an active reviewer, why not go and check out a story?

Or, if you are a writer, take the plunge and submit a story for review; and when you do, please remember: Put one in, take one out.

By submitting a story for review, you are asking nine other members to read and evaluate it. So why not do for the other authors who have a story in review what you'd like other reviewers to do for you: check out one of the stories already in review and give it a read.

Becoming a reviewer

If you’re not an active reviewer, but think you can spare a bit of time... – even if you just review one or two stories in a month, every review is welcome. If you are logged in, you can sign up here if you've been a member of HASA for thirty days or more.

Daunted by the idea of reviewing? Don’t worry, reviewing at its simplest comes down to asking yourself: “Would I recommend this story to someone?” Then, whether the answer is ’yes’ or ’no’, you can make a choice from the capsule reasons to clarify your decision. If you want to, you can add a few more words to convey what you (dis)liked about the story, but just the capsule reason is perfectly fine as well.

And remember: even if you think you're too critical or not critical enough: your review is only one of nine, and all points of view are welcome. Not every reviewer has to review every story and in the end it does all level out to a balanced judgement.

Make an author’s day, review a story or post a comment.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

HASA news - Birthdays, Nuzgûl of the Month, Stories

February Birthday Challenge

Is your birthday in February, and would you like a drabble about your favourite character or topic? You can request it here.

Not sure what the birthday cards are about? Have a look at stories written for previous requests.

Nuzgûl of the Month

Just as Challenges come from Prospective Challenges, Prospective Challenges come from Nuzgûl, and Nuzgûl need attention to grow from tiny ideas into big stories. Step into the Nuzgûl hutch. The bunnies don't bite (much). And who knows what ideas you may come out with?

The Nuzgûl of the Month!

The February Nuzgûl, Lord of Men, Lord of Elves, can be found here, and will run until the end of the month.

Come on over to the Nuzgûl of the Month Workshop and join in the fun. If you've written a story for any of the previous months, don't forget to add it to the Playlist!

January Stories

All of us writers love feedback. It is the lembas and miruvor that sustains us as we write our story, and leaving a few words about a story you read is always a nice thing to do, whether the story is new or old.

Every fifteen minutes HASA highlights a story chosen at random from the Reviewed and General stories in the archive. Read the currently featured story on our front page.

Many talented writers are publishing every day. In January:

Thank you for reading at HASA. Enjoy!