E S S A Y S
Heading Up Your Fiction by Sorcha
When you're submitting fiction to a mailing list or to be archived on thing to make sure you have attached is a header. This will make both your life, and the life of the archiver/readers, much easier. If you're new to this big ole world of fanfiction however don't worry because here you can learn how to construct a basic header that would suffice for most mailing lists or archives.
Title: This is where you put the title of your fiction. Often followed by which part it is if you're writing a multi-chapter fiction. Or 1/1, if it's a one-shot.
Author: This is where your name or writing pseudonym goes.
Feedback: Do you want feedback? Ask here and leave an email address.
Rating: What rating is your fic? This is very important, if you're not sure go read our essay about rating guidelines.
Character/Pairing: State your main characters or pairings, just so people know and can avoid if they wish.
Spoilers: Does your fic contain any spoilers? If so then you should tell people what episode, they should have watched up to here so that unsuspecting people are not caught out.
Summary: A short summary, probably a line long, which describes your story.
Disclaimer: Very important. Say you don't own anything. Say who does, in this case: Joss, Mutant Enemy, WB, UPN et cetera.
Author's Note: Anything extra goes here, that could be a dedication or thanks to your betas or even credit for song lyrics you may have used.
After all that you should be ready to send your story, just stick the header to the top of the fic, leave a line or block off with some stars and then hit send. If you want to see an example of a finished header then take a look here:
Title: Forever and Ever, Whatever
Author: Mr John Smith
Feedback: Yes please, send to: jsmith@hotmail.com
Rating: R, for sex and drug use
Character/Pairing: Buffy/Angel
Spoilers: Everything up to Chosen.
Summary: Buffy and Angel meet some gangsters in LA.
Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit, everything belongs to Joss et al.
Author's Note: Thanks to my beta Suzie Soup!