TelephotoMarigold

JarlieFanEver (Sarah) is having trouble getting into the forum. She can only see posts if she is logged on as a guest. She can't post anything. Have suggested a few things for her to try but nothing has worked, hence putting this here on her behalf. She's on a laptop and uses Google or Safari as her search engine. She's tried logging in and logging out again. The board shows her as online even when she's not. Have told her that the forum was updated recently and perhaps this is the reason for restricted access. Any clue as to help her?

^^ This is neither helpful or constructive. Rules of writing say that a first chapter should introduce us to the story. Stephen King, William Faulkner, Lewis Carroll, and Frank McCourt are just a few of the many authors who have written short chapters proving that great length doesn't necessarily mean good storytelling. QA is correct, however, in that conversations need to be laid out differently, so that would mean you'd have to write your story like this. "Hey love," Irene said happily as she walked into the house with the shopping. "Hey, Irene," Nate replied warmly getting up to help her. "Did you hear Bianca and the gang are coming back for a few days?" "No way really that's great news," Nate replied with a smile. "Yeah darl, I'm not so sure I can sense something fishy is going on!" Heath, Bianca, and Ricky are sitting in the car on the road. "Did you tell her?" Ricky asked. "I couldn't," Bianca replied. "Well she'll find out soon and I think soon may be too soon," Heath replied. As for plot even with two short paragraphs, we can tell there are characters returning who may not be welcome, or something else is going on. To expand on what you've written think about adding in details about where they are, for example, we know Irene lives in the Beach house but does your reader? Why is Nate there? We know he's her lodger but think about what you can tell a reader who maybe is new to Home and Away. Other points to think about: What kind of car are they in, what colour is it, who's driving? How long have they been travelling? Are they looking forward to seeing anyone when they return to the Bay? Another thing you can add in is how the weather is. Is it hot and sunny, is it too hot for example? Irene could perhaps start the conversation with Nate by saying, "Hey, love," Irene said happily as she walked into the house with the shopping, "Blimey, it's so hot out there I thought my eggs were going to fry before I got them home!" To which Nate could reply. "Hey Irene," Nate replied warmly getting up to help her. "I was just about to head out for a swim down the beach myself." Then in the next line, you can have Irene tell Nate about Bianca coming back. Adding detail about where the characters are and what they are doing is something called 'Scene Setting'. I'm sure you've read a story where you see a picture in your head of what is happening in the story, like almost a mini movie playing. That is what you want to aim for so put as much detail in as you can. I've sent you a message to say I'm happy to help you with your story. I think you have the makings of an interesting plot and I would like to see where you are taking the story. Look forward to reading more.

This story will be finished. A new chapter will be up by the end of the week.

What are you doing about the people who can't post on the sight?

Every few days.

I've only used my laptop and I have to re-enter the passwords all the time.

Other stories? Like 'Remembrance of Time' which is the follow up to this one?

what questions?

Just had a report that a user has been trying to comment on my stories but the board won't let her.

No. This was set in the four year period that occurred between the stories 'The Darkness' and 'Remembrance of Time'. Lily was not born until 'Elliot's Return', the story after 'Remembrance of Time'.

I presume you're talking about the Comments forum in the NDL? I've now switched Archiving off for that forum so the topics will become available again shortly. The idea behind the Archiving system is that it disables topics that haven't been active for a set amount of time (it's currently set at a year). These are then moved into a separate database in order to reduce load on the server, which on a forum of this size is very significant. Obviously there are a few situations where this isn't ideal (I did overlook the Comments forum when I was disabling it in certain places a few weeks back), but if someone has something of significance to add to an old topic then it can be un-archived. As for the topic links/previews, it's something I'm very much aware of and have mentioned in the staff room. Again, it's useful in some situations but a pain in others where we've got existing lists of topics which have changed. QA has just mentioned in the staff room that she's gradually working through the FanFiction index in order to fix things in there. There is a workaround to avoid it when posting which I mentioned here. Yes, the Fan Fic index has some issues. Other writers stories have appeared in the list under my username. Some story titles appear in 'quote' boxes as opposed to being links. Section breaks I put in chapters in my stories no longer appear meaning that I need to go in and edit chapters. With regards to the stories themselves even when archived in the NDL or Vault people were still able to comment on them.

Has anyone reported the Fan Fic section as having glitches? Now you can't comment on any story that has been finished. Some links to stories appear as "quotes" in reply boxes.

Er.... do I have to remind you I'm homeless?? Bit hard to write ....

Apologies?? I thought I was going to have to write the chapter myself.... Steve you're up next ...