Submitted stories may be Word documents, text files, or simple HTML.

All stories at the Archive are formatted on an external style sheet, and accepted stories will be tagged appropriately to fit it. Please don't specify background colors, and only specify text colors if you are using them to differentiate among multiple authors.

When you submit, make sure that your formatting is clear--if you want a word italicized, italicize it in Word, put italics tags around it in HTML, or mark it with asterisks (*) in text only format. For bold, bold it in Word, use bold tags in HTML, or mark it with tildes (~) in text only. Words that an author has printed in all caps will be left in all caps and unformatted.

Please mark your scene breaks with noticeable characters (+++++, *****, -----, etc), rather than simply double spacing between scenes. This will help assure that no intended scene break is missed in the archived version.

Italicize the names of ships (Millennium Falcon, Executor, etc), or indicate by an underscore (_) in text.

Internal monologues, flashbacks, and character thoughts which break from the story's normal point of view (eg, if in a third person story, a character suddenly thinks, I need to leave this place) can be italicized or left unformatted at the author's preference, though italics are highly recommended for the sake of clarity. These can be marked with either an asterisk or an underscore in text only (both will be interpreted the same way).

If you use telepathic dialogue, frame it with "//"(eg, //Here is my telepathic dialogue//), to distinguish it from standard dialogue, with is framed with quotation marks. You may also opt to represent telepathic dialogue in italics, marked as indicated above.

Please use straight quotes instead of "smart" quotes, which don't appear in some browsers.

You may use standard British or American spelling--"realise" won't become "realize" or vice versa.

Use standard punctuation and format.

• There should be spaces around a quoted segment--ie:
  Han said, "Listen, sweetheart," and moved forward
  rather than
  Han said,"Listen, sweetheart,"and moved forward
• There should only be one speaker per paragraph.
• Spaces after most forms of punctuation, but not before.