Let me preface this by saying that I am not a computer person. Rick Cook, one of my favorite fantasy writers, once wrote a series of novels back in the 80′s about a computer programmer named ‘Wiz’ Zumwalt who somehow gets transported to a world where magic exists and computer programmers, by speaking in computer code out loud, can cast spells.
It was a great series, highly original, and I recommend it to anyone who likes a little funny with their sci-fi/fantasy, but that’s not why I’m mentioning this particular book. The reason I’m talking about it is because there are multiple jokes in it about just how bad writers and English majors are at computers and programming and he was right. In fact, most everything I know about technology probably came from this book and, to tell you the truth, all of it went over my head. I was in high school when this was published and I remember the chapter where they taught one of the older wizards of this world basic DOS where he had to create a blinking ‘HELLO’ in midair. None of you living in the age of apps and one-click icons will know what that means but, back when computers were as rare as hen’s teeth, they would try to teach us DOS by teaching us to code a blinking HELLO on our computers.
God, that was a pain in the ass.
Needless to say, I never got mine to work.
In the 90′s when we fanficcers were making the transition from cons and underground zines that were xeroxed and bound then sent through ‘snail mail’ to online fanfiction, a lot of people began building their own web pages. Nowadays this is a simple process, back then though it was a huge deal. I was one of the moderators of an online community on Usenet called alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated and we didn’t have free robomodding apps back then. There was no Yahoogroups, Google didn’t exist yet, everyone was using Hotmail and most people had AOL--which are names most of you probably have never heard before. Moderating a discussion group was a lot of fucking work--especially for someone like me who had no clue as to how to do anything. We didn’t even have Word with an integrated spellcheck, that’s how far back I’m talking about here, and I’m not even going to get into all the squabbles and controversies going on about zines versus webpages and people’s paranoia about being exposed to public scrutiny if people found out they wrote fanfiction. Now no one cares but, back then, writing fanfiction, especially erotic fanfiction with homosexual relationships, could get you fired or worse. People were genuinely afraid of being ‘outed’ as fanfiction writers and the internet was a scary place. I was one of the few who dared to not only be open about my writing, but attach my real name to it. And, yeah, a few times I got burned. I had people in real life ‘find out’, not that I gave a shit, but they made some nasty remarks and one person reported me as a spammer to my ISP just to fuck with me and get me to stop (I fixed it), but it’s not like it was a huge burden or anything.
Still, I believe that’s why webpages and groups like LiveJournal started becoming more popular and eventually killed off the chatrooms and message boards altogether. In addition to the lack of hassle, it let writers feel like they were more ‘in control’ of their writing. They didn’t have to wait for someone like me to get off work and go online--dial up, BTW. They didn’t have to have someone open two separate email programs and a Usenet program, go through each and every message individually, copy and paste them into the new message, transfer their names and information, then send it. I had to do this for hundreds of messages every day and it took hours to get through all of it. All they had to do was write their stories and publish them themselves. They could add fancy lettering and graphics, and not deal with anyone else screwing up their work on accident or deleting something by mistake.
On the downside, it led to a lack of community atmosphere in fandom which is why I think that the practice of ‘nettiquette’ went out with the dinosaurs.
Again, though, I digress.
Back then having a webpage was the equivalent of showing up to a party in the latest haute couture. It was a status symbol and everyone envied those shining few who had their own slick webpages with all kinds of cool gizmos and who could code in HTML. I never learned how to do that. I have no idea how other people learned it but my brain couldn’t deal with it. I have zero talent for that sort of thing. It wasn’t until a year or so ago that a friend taught me how to use AO3 the right way and some basic HTML that I got it.
Not only that, but I thought I was the only one to not know this stuff but, as it turns out, Wiz Zumwalt was right: Writers can’t code for shit. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know but, hopefully, this quick tutorial may help those few who, like myself, feel lost and alone in a sea of computer and literary savants.
Let’s start with the basics. AO3 has this nifty little option when you post called RICH TEXT.
See those buttons at the top? One says HTML for those computer savant people I was talking about and the other says RICH TEXT for the rest of us.
When you click RICH TEXT, you get these options above the message body:
See them? You can highlight stuff and change it to BOLD or Italic, or a bunch of other stuff easy peasy.
Now AO3 has some really great tutorials use can use here:
http://archiveofourown.org/faq/posting-and-editing?language_id=en
https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/201
Those tutorials can show you easy ways to insert pictures, audio, even video into your works so I definitely recommend you check them out.
What I want to talk about now though is inserting a picture.
Photoshopped banners are the new haute couture of fandom and everybody wants one for their stories--admit it, you know I’m right. Photoshop is expensive though, not to mention the fact that the newest versions have to be downloaded and take up a lot of bandwidth. Not all of us are lucky to have cable or unlimited access. Some, like me, are on DSL which is a pain in the ass. I tried downloading the trial version of Photoshop several times and it kept messing up, plus it’s complicated and Photoshop isn’t very user friendly which is why most of us come to the fandom party in old jeans and plain tees and leave the fancy stuff to others. Sometimes we get lucky and some kindly person will make us a banner or bookcover and, if this has ever happened to you, make sure to always pay it forward should you ever learn Photoshop yourself. I’ve had a few lovely people do this for me so when I finally got my own Photoshop, stumbling and amateurish though my efforts may be, I try to make up a few book covers for friends and new acquaintances when I can. I consider this good karma and hope the people I do this for pass it on to the next writers they stumble across.
Again: nettiquette and community.
I finally had to go on eBay and found a set of disks for Photoshop Elements 9. It was the most recent version I could find at the time that was still on disks and installed that.
Now, once you get your Photoshop or a kind friend who’ll make you a banner, the next question becomes how do I get my nifty picture into my story?
Let’s start with uploading it to Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/
Pinterest is free and easy to use, plus it gives you a lot of raw material for your photo manips and stuff. Here’s mine:
https://www.pinterest.com/cjjingram/
In case you’re paying attention the whole thing is basically where I stick my visual research for my stories.
I created a page just for my fumbling photoshop efforts here:
https://www.pinterest.com/cjjingram/sunshine-art/
Most of it admittedly sucks but you can see how I get better in time and, as with everything else, it’s a learning process.
Now let’s pretend you’ve gotten your banner made, uploaded it to Pinterest, what now?
I have this nifty banner here:
Like that? I just made it so feel free to use it for whatever you like with my permission.
The easy way to get that into my story is to use RICH TEXT, specifically this little icon thingie:
See that? It’s that little rectangle that looks like a picture of some mountains and a sun:
Click that and this box will appear asking you to insert the address of your picture:
Now, you can ignore all the size thingies and the rest of it. The only one you have to worry about is the IMAGE URL because you can easily size the picture after you get it on the page. It’ll be highlighted by a blue box and you can manipulate it however you like.
So start by back clicking your image and go to COPY IMAGE ADDRESS then insert your image addy:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/6e/03/36/6e033699002146498a05a85c95289694.jpg
into the first box thing and...
VOILA! It’ll be in the body of your message. Of course, I did that for dramatic purposes here but it really is just that easy.
Now, while googling all this stuff for you guys, I ran into this lady’s blog:
http://jade-fest.tumblr.com/post/79282010097/posting-guide-for-all-mediums
Her instructions are even easier to follow than mine so be sure to check it out.
Now, how about for the people who want to do it the hard way for whatever reason?
I have to admit, I started off doing this because I didn’t know about the RICH TEXT option. Since then my life has gotten much easier. However, it is nice to know a little HTML just in case so here you go:
And some handy dandy AO3 tutorials:
http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/92
http://archiveofourown.org/faq/posting-and-editing?language_id=en#htmleditor
Now here’s our new banner again, because Felicity really is just that awesome:
And here’s how to embed a picture manually using limited HTML on AO3:
And, as an aside, anytime you as a more experienced writer or HTML wizard have the opportunity to share your knowledge with others, I encourage you to do so. While this stuff may come easy to you, it doesn’t necessarily come easy to everyone else. It’s all very good to come onto Tumblr and rant about social issues and how there is a lack of kindness and consideration in this world, but if you don’t practice the small kindnesses, the ones that go towards building a community among your fellow fandom denizens, you can’t really change anything.
A lot of times, however right and from the heart your rants and memes might be, it can come across as preachy and make people feel as though you’re screaming in their faces or shoving it in their noses. It’s like walking into the mall and having people shove religious tracts and pamphlets in your face as they shout propaganda at you. Maybe you agree with them, maybe you support their cause, but you’re at the mall to enjoy yourself and buy new underwear, not listen to some very passionate people preach at you for an hour.
I’m not saying don’t spread those messages, what I am saying is it’s better to engage people in a dialog that involves a free exchange of ideas than to merely tell people what to think. The best way to do that is by creating a sense of community. When you reach out to people, offer constructive criticism, answer their questions respectfully, and put forth the effort to get to know them and help them overcome even the simplest of hurdles, you’re actually making the world a better place. It might not be much in the grand scheme of things, but it means a lot to that one person. And not everyone out there likes having people help them or can accept constructive criticism, but that doesn’t mean you should stop. Just because that one guy was an ungrateful ass, doesn’t mean someone else can’t benefit from what you have to say. Unless you communicate this stuff to people, they won’t know. Being a writer means being a teacher. When you write, you pass on ideas and points of view that your readers might never see otherwise. Even if you aren’t a writer, even if you’re ‘just’ a critical reader, you’re vital to this process as well. You might not be able to string two words together, but by helping the writers whose work you enjoy, by passing on your knowledge and bringing your other skills to the table, you’re helping to build something.
Anyway, that’s all for today. As always feel free to reblog and happy writing. (grin)
