Hi everyone. It's nearly at that time for fic posting for the Artistic Anniversary Challenge. Yay! We know everyone's excited to get started (including us!), and we know you all have questions about how everything is going to go. We'll try to answer everything here, but if there's something else you're curious about, please let us know in the comments. There's a lot of information here, so grab a snack, get comfy, and get ready to learn about all the amazing things happening in October...

How and when do I post my story?
Starting at midnight on October 1 (site time, which is Eastern US time-it's listed under the shoutbox), you'll see a checkbox on the page where you add a new story:

As soon as you see that box, you're free to post. If your story is part of the challenge, check the box and you're good to go.

Your fic does not need to be complete prior to posting. In fact, it doesn't even need to be completed during October. So any authors stressing about the timeline, please take a breath because you have the whole month, during which you only need to BEGIN posting the story.

In terms of banner credit, the artists need to be credited for the wonderful works, so all authors need to include the following line in the Summary section when uploading your fic. Written for the Elysian Fields 'Artistic Anniversary Challenge'. Banner 00 by artistname.

Here's a fictional example of what it should look like:

Summary: The day began just like any other for Buffy. Just your average Tuesday. That is, until the phone rang. Written for the Elysian Fields 'Artistic Anniversary Challenge'. Banner 375 by angelic_amy.

You can link to the banner master list also if you wish: http://dark-solace.org/elysian/artisticanniversary.php. This might be a good idea so that your readers are aware of the challenge specifics. Alternatively, you could copy and paste the challenge specifics into the Story or Chapter Notes of your story.

Hopefully by this time all of your authors have made contact with your artists. If you've not been able to make contact with them, or forgot, please let Amy know and she'll put you in contact with each other.

To add the banner to your story, you can upload the banner to your account in the Your Images section of your account info page, or to an image sharing site (imgur.com, photobucket.com, etc...) . Enter the image URL (which should end in .jpg, .gif or .png - nothing should be after the file type) into the line marked Banner URL:

How do I find the stories that are being added to the challenge?
Besides the note in the story summary, challenge stories will have a little artist's palette next to the title:

This will make it easy to spot challenge fics. Also, don't forget that we have a site events browse page where you can view all the stories from previous site events, as well as the ones from this challenge.

Will you be featuring regular stories while the challenge is going on?
There won't be any mod-chosen featured stories in October. To celebrate the 10 years of stories, we're doing a little something different. Since this is all because it's Elysian Fields' 10th bithday, from the 1st-10th we're highlighting stories from each year of EF's existence. Each day will focus on one year (1st-2006, 2nd-2007, and so on...), and will contain a random assortment of stories published in that particular year. Starting on the 11th, that section will change to feature a random assortment of fics that are part of the Artistic Anniversary challenge.

This challenge celebrates the amazing authors and artists at Elysian Fields, but what about the readers?
Don't worry readers, we haven't forgotten about your incredible contributions to EF. We want to celebrate you by having a challenge you can participate in as well. If you write at least 15 reviews in October that all contain at least 8 words (for any stories here on EF, not just the challenge ones), you'll meet the requirements of the reviewer challenge! You'll see a link to the review challenge leaderboard on the homepage under the Members of the Month where the all star reviewer list is usually located. Authors and artists who participated/are participating in the Artistic Anniversary challenge are welcome to participate in the reviewer challenge!

Besides an amazing sense of pride, do we get anything for participating in these challenges?
Of course you do! We have some amazing awards that will be given out after the end of October. Our wonderful Kathleen (pfeifferpack) created the following awards for participating authors: , artists: , and reviewers: .

What's going to happen to the banners that weren't selected for the challenge?
That's still being determined, and will be announced shortly after the challenge ends.

That about covers it. Please let us know if there's any additional questions. Hurray for Fictober!