Expert Writer for Hire

StoryHost.com
Reader’s Manual

READER MODE

After you log in, check that the toggle is set to “Reader Mode ON.”

Note: Click on the “Home Page” icon to hide the menu item text. 

Browsing for New Novels

You can browse for new novels in several ways: By update status, novel rating, character rating, intro chapter rating, and author rating. [The home page uses the word “rated’ a lot - Does that mean there’s no way to browse novels/authors alphabetically, without the ratings coming into it?] 

Browsing by Recently Updated

[This section’s still empty. I’m assuming that you’ll be able to see which stories got updated most recently.] 

Browsing by Top-Rated Novels

To browse by top-rated novels, scroll down the Home Page to “Top 10 Stories.” [This section’s still empty]. 

Browsing by Top-Rated Characters 

[You can’t actually click anything here - I assume that eventually you’ll be able to click a top-rated character. (But as of now I don’t think there’s a way to rate characters.) ] 

Browsing by Top-Rated Intro Chapters 

[You can’t actually click anything here - I assume that eventually you’ll be able to click a top-rated intro chapter. (But as of now I don’t think there’s a way to rate individual chapters.) ] 

Browsing by Top-Rated Writers 

To browse by top-rated writers, scroll down to “Top 10 Writers.” Click on the writer to view their Member Profile. 

LOOKING AT A WRITER 

Under the writer’s Member Profile, their novels are listed in order of popularity. You can also view the number of reader “Likes” and Good Read Tokens (GRTs) readers have spent on the novel. 

[There’s a heart in the upper righthand corner, but when I click nothing happens.]

READING A NOVEL 

When you click on a novel, you can read its Opening Scene: 

Beneath the Opening Scene is a list of characters in the novel: 

This novel, “This Planet is for the Birds,” currently has four characters: Royal Australian Artillery Sergeant Winstead, Sarah Elizabeth Hackett, Z’Talibrax, and Edie the Emu. This means that you can read “This Planet is for the Birds” from four different character perspectives. 

To read the entire story from Sergeant Winstead’s perspective, click Episode 1: Sergeant Winstead. The first chapter is free for all readers. 

To read past the first chapter, click “Award GRT” to unlock the next chapter [C note - might want an extra button for confirmation]. 

To read from a different character’s perspective, click the novel title at the top of the page. This takes you back to the list of characters. 

Some characters may exist in-story, but as of yet no writer has written the story from their perspective. In this example, the story hasn’t been told from Edie the Emu’s point of view yet: 

FAVORITES

As you read and browse, you can Favorite novels, authors, and characters. This makes it easier to view them later. 

Favorite Novels:

To add a novel to your favorites, click the heart in the upper right hand corner when reading. 

Adding Favorite Characters:

[It looks like there’s no way to favorite/rate a character, even though the home page implies you should be able to.] 

Adding Favorite Authors: 

To add an author to your Favorites, click on the heart on the author profile. [I’m assuming this is the intent, but as of now you can’t actually click the heart.] 

Viewing Favorites: 

To view favorite authors and novels, click the Favorites section on the left-hand menu. 

CONTINUE READING 

To continue novels that you already started, click “Current Novels” from the left-hand menu. 

You can also search for novels by title [C note: It would be nice to also be able to search by author and description] 

You can also continue to read novels from: 

1) The “Favorites” section in the menu.

2) Your Favorites are also displayed on the Home Page. 

GOOD READ TOKENS 

Good Read Tokens allow you to access stories after the first chapter. 

Viewing Good Read Tokens

To view your current Good Read Tokens (GRT), click “My Profile” on the menu. This will show your available and spent tokens. [It would be nice to be able to view your token allowance while reading, not just in this section.] You can also “Link Bank Account” here. 

Viewing Good Read Tokens

To purchase tokens, click the “Good Read Token Store” on the menu. 

[I spent 1 token to unlock one chapter of Suzanne. But how do I unlock the “story from 1 character’s perspective” For 5 tokens, like it says here?] 

[Ditto for $12.5 a month - how do I unlock the entire story versus just the one chapter at a time?] 

StoryHost.com
Writer’s Manual

Set up an account on Storyhost.com to become a Reader.

BECOMING A WRITER

Once you are a Reader, you will see the “Become a Writer”button on the left-hand side. Click on it[SK1] .

On this page, you will see “Open Adverts,” which is a list of stories that need writers. Underneath the stories, you will see a list of characters. Producers are looking for writers to fill these roles[SK2] [CB3] . 

Click the “More Information” button associated with each character to learn about the character’s personality and life story[SK4] .

You can apply for as many characters as you want as long as you can meet the deadlines[SK5] [SC6] and submit the chapters on time. 

Once you find a character you want to write, click the blue “Apply For Position” button. This will send your application to the Editor for approval[SK7] .

Once you are approved, you will be notified XX[SK8] 

WRITING FOR A CHARACTER

You will interact with the editor and other writers to role-play and come up with the next scene. During this role-playing session, you and the others will decide upon the scene and how each character will interact with the other characters in the story. This takes place in the chat function on the website. 

In the chat area, you can send and receive messages from the other people involved in the story. Your name will appearon any messages you send (is this true[SK9] [SC10] ?) and you can upload a photo to help others identify who you are. (True[SK11] [SC12] ?)

You will then haveAs soon as your application is approved, you will have access to that character’s workroom, which you will seeat the bottom of the page when you are in Writer mode. The name of the character will appear at the top of the box.

Click on the box and you will enter the workroom. . In the workroom, you can write and upload your character’s interaction for the story.[SC13] 

Begin editing as you would in a regular Microsoft Word document.

When you finish editing, click the blue “Save Changes” Create Chapter button at the bottom of the page.

Once you have written your chapter, tThe Eeditor will look atreviewyour story to ensure it meets the agreed-upon scenes developed in the role-playing session. If the Eeditor finds an error or inconsistency, they will message you in the chat and ask you to make revisions.

When you are finished with your writing session, sign out at the bottom of the panel to the left of the edited document[SK14] .

[SK1]Insert a screenshot of the button and its placement

[SK2]Insert a screenshot of open adverts

[CB3]Stacy - This one might be a bit confusing since there aren't any open characters on the site

[SK4]Insert a screenshot showing where the button is located. 

[SK5]Where are the deadlines defined? In the role playing session? It seems that a writer would need to know the deadline before applying. 

[SC6]The site doesn’t have any provision for deadlines. That’s just something I assume Producers and Editors would set on their own.

[SK7]Insert a screenshot of the “apply” button and its position. 

[SK8]Not sure how people are notified that they are approved?

[SK9]Is this true?

[SC10]I believe that was one of the corrections made earlier in testing, yes.

[SK11]True? 

[SC12]Correct.

[SC13]Suzanne, can you be a bit more descriptive about how to use the chat functions and access the workroom here?

[SK14]Insert button showing where to sign out.

StoryHost.com
Producer’s Manual

The Producer’s role on Storyhost.com is to create new stories, assemble a team of writers and an editor, and generally manage the story-building process.

To become a Producer, you must have previously served as a Writer and an Editor. If you have advanced to the rank of Editor, your home page will include a link to “Become a Producer.” There you will fill out an application to the site admin for permission to upgrade your account.

Once assigned to the Producer role, sign in to storyhost.com using the blue “Sign In” button.

On the Home page, toggle “Reader Mode” to OFF.

Your left-hand column menu should change to show the following items:

· Home

· Profile

· Open Applications

· Messages

· Favorites

HOME

The Producer’s home page is where you begin the process of creating a new story or continue working on an existing project.

The main body of the page will show a list of icons for “Active Novels,” which are story projects either still in progress or completed. Clicking on an icon will open up a window with information about the story and controls to work on it, but first we will discuss how to create a new story.

Creating a New Novel

On the upper right of the home page you will see a blue button titled “Create New Novel.” This will take you to a form where you will enter information to create the story.

The top section of the form requests a name for your new novel and a synopsis describing the story. The synopsis should be short and interesting to draw attention and make readers want to read your story without giving away too much detail (think of what you would write on the back of a book jacket).

Next you will see two date fields. The first is the start date of the project, which defaults to the current date. The second is the expected closing date for completion of the project[SC1]  (this can be changed later if necessary).

Below the dates you will see a dropdown list to “Select Editor.” The list will be populated with all of the available candidates who have obtained Editor status. The Editor will be in charge of managing the writers’ submissions day-to-day, editing for grammar and readability, and making sure that each submission is in line with the Producer’s vision for the story and does not conflict with other submissions. You must choose an Editor in order to create a new novel.[SC2] 

The next section of the form is titled “Create Characters.” Here is where you define the main players in the story and attract writers to want to write from the perspective of that character.

The first step is to give the character a name, followed by a brief list of that character’s important personality traits[SC3] . In the box that says “About the Character,” you can write a more complete description of the characters personality and background in paragraph form. Although you may have many ideas, try to keep this to one or two paragraphs, both in order to attract the writer’s attention and to allow the writer room to expand on the character and make it their own.

Below all the character description you will see a dropdown menu for “Default Writer” which is populated with a list of available writers when you click on it. You may assign a writer to the character you just created or leave it blank. If you leave it blank, then the character will be open to applications from writers. In the meantime, you, the Producer, will be considered the default writer for this character. You are not required to assign another writer to a character if you want to write one of them yourself.

When you have finished describing your character and assigned a writer (if applicable), hit the blue + button next to the “Default Writer” dropdown to save your character. This will add a new box to the section below titled “Characters Involved” and clear the character creation form above so that you can add another character. You may repeat this process for as many characters as your story needs.

Under “Characters Involved,” clicking on the blue box with a character’s name will reveal a trash icon to delete the character and a pencil icon to edit the character’s description after it has already been saved the first time. When editing the character, simply click “Save Changes” to exit the editing window that pops up.

The final section of the form is “Add Additional Info.” The box that says “Upload Thumbnail” allows you to add a small image that will be displayed to readers to represent your novel in the list of available stories, and on all editing screens for project participants. “Enter Genre” allows you to define the category of story you are telling for readers searching for a particular type of tale.

Finally, “Set the Opening Scene”[SC4]  is where you write the opening scene for your story. This section introduces major characters, gets the plot rolling, and should be designed to draw in both readers wanting to know more and writers who want to participate in creating the story.

Once you have filled out all your story information, just hit the blue “Submit & Create” button at the bottom of the form. This will add your story to the list of available projects for writers and make your characters available for writers to apply.

Editing an Active Novel

The list of active novels on your home page will show you thumbnails representing each of the novels you have created so far. Click on one to open a pop-up window with the controls for that novel.

The pop-up window will show the synopsis for the novel, the thumbnail image you chose, the workrooms for the characters, and buttons to update and delete the novel.

To update any of the information you entered when creating the novel, click the “Update Novel” button, which will open up the original form used to create the new novel. This will allow you to edit and create new characters, edit the opening scene or the synopsis, or replace the thumbnail with a new one. Scroll to the bottom an click the “Update” button to save your changes.

If you want to cancel a project and remove your novel from the site (for instance, if you created a dummy project just to see how the site works), click the “Delete Novel” button. Please be sure you want to do this before clicking this button, since the deletion is not reversible.

As a Producer, you have the same editing privileges over individual character submissions that an Editor has. Below the synopsis in the pop-up window, you will see the name of a character on the left, an “Enter Workroom” button in the middle, and left and right arrows on the right. Clicking on the arrows will scroll back and forth through your list of characters, changing the name that appears on the left. Clicking “Enter Workroom” will take you to the workroom screen for the character whose name is currently displayed, allowing you to edit any of the chapters submitted by the writer in charge of that character (see Editor’s Manual for instructions).

OPEN APPLICATIONS

“Open Applications” is the Producer’s portal to review applications for the various positions open in a new project.

On this page you will see tab headings for Writers, Editors, Producers, and Saved. Each of the first three tabs will contain applications for that position to be reviewed. Each application consists of a box containing the writer’s name or handle, the title of the project they are applying for, a message from the applicant, and three buttons: Save Candidate, Accept, and Reject.

Accepting an application immediately gives that person access to the functions their position permits them to use, and they may begin working on the project. Rejecting an application is self-explanatory.

If you have a lot of open applications and not much time, or perhaps a tough choice between good candidates, you may wish to “Save Candidate” to make them easier to locate later when you have more time to decide. Clicking this button will move their application over to the “Saved” tab, where your choice of buttons will be reduced to Accept or Reject.

Once you have accepted or rejected an application, it will be cleared from the Open Applications board.

[SC1]There doesn’t appear to be any consequence for going past this date. What exactly is the purpose of it?

[SC2]If you don’t choose an Editor, will it default to the Producer?

[SC3]Note: the label on this box misspells “charater”.

[SC4]Note: This is just a single text box on the form, but since this is actually part of the story, it should have a workroom-style window with a toolbar for word processing functions like font size, alignment, bold, etc.

Later screens that display the results of this box do not even show paragraph breaks that are added in the original form.

StoryHost.com
Editor’s Manual

Before you can edit a story, you must first be assigned to the Editor role by the Producer.

Once assigned to the Editor role, sign in to storyhost.com using the blue “Sign In” button.

On the Home page, toggle “Reader Mode” to OFF.

WORKROOMS

Scroll down to “Available Workrooms.” There will be a workroom for each character in the story.

Click on “Enter Workroom” for the first character.

There are three sections, or boxes, on the page. The top box is titled with the character’s name. The middle box is titled “Completed Chapters.” The bottom box is titled “Upcoming Chapter.” 

In the middle box, click on the first chapter under “Completed Chapters” (blue text). This will take you into the chapter to be edited. You will see a tab at the very top of the page with the chapter title and a pencil icon on the far left indicating the page is in editing mode. Under that, the page looks similar to a Word document with the ribbon at the top showing various font and formatting options, etc. 

Begin editing as you would in a regular Microsoft Word document.

When you finish editing, click the blue “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page. 

Return to the prior page (Completed Chapters) and repeat the process above for each completed chapter. Remember to “Save Changes.”

Repeat this process for each character.

When all completed chapters have been edited, sign out at the bottom of the panel to the left of the edited document.

Switch from the Reader side to the Story creation side by clicking on the Reader Mode Button.