For those of you who have been keeping up with the Shur'tugal Fan Fiction Adventure, the gangs are now open! If you have completed Challenge 4, you are eligible to join one of the four gangs: the Brawlers, the Council, the Lurkers, or the Rogues. Each gang has a unique style and goal, so be sure to carefully choose which one to join. For more information about gangs (and for joining up), visit the forums here .

For those of you who have not yet entered the SFF Adventure, why not sign up today? The Adventure is a combination roleplaying and text adventure that follows the troubles of the people of Narda, driven from their home by the evil Rider Lord Iris. Participants in the Adventure create a character and, through many writing challenges and other tasks, guide their way through the unfolding world and story. To begin, all you need to do is go over to the Character board on the forums and create a character of your very own! (And don't worry about signing up for the forums- if you already have an SFF account, you automatically have a forums account.)

Congratulations to the following new Validated Authors:

Ceranthor
Wutus
EmeraldDragonRider
ColumbiaPhoenix

They will now be posting in the Validated category and can skip the queue!

Want to be Validated? Or wanted to apply this time but weren't sure if you were ready yet? There will be another opportunity to apply about a month from now, so in the meantime, here's the list of things to do to prepare to apply.

—Not enough chapters? Keep posting!
—Grammar isn’t so great? “Hire” a beta reader and make them double check your stories. Edit old stories to fix past mistakes.
—Remember: you can ask your beta to help you with plot and characterization too!
—Show what an awesome user you are by reading and reviewing on SFF and participating helpfully in SF3 discussions.

   Picture this: You had an idea. A seriously amazing, AWESOME idea. You start daydreaming, then doodling, then outlining. Finally, you have the guts to start a writing your story. A few sentences becomes a page and then a chapter. Your characters come to life before you and suddenly you realize that you've created something all your own. You want to share your story with your friends, and hope to find a few new readers who will help you get better and enjoy your work along with you.

   Exciting, isn't it? 

   Now, try this image: You're online, still excited about your story. You decide to google it, or look for other stories like it. Suddenly, the search page comes up and you see your story. It's on the wrong website. It's by the wrong author. Someone stole your work and claimed it as your own - all your ideas, all your hard work. 

   Not so exciting, huh?

   Recently, the SFF moderators have been contacted about a user doing exactly this: stealing stories and posting them, word for word, as her own. For anyone who's read the site rules or simply written their own story and been afraid of plagiarism, you KNOW this is not cool. SFF is a site where we can enjoy stories based on the Inheritance series and even a few original works too. It's a place for authors to grow and be encouraged and get better. But this is not going to happen if their work is being stolen. Not only is this simply wrong, but they are missing out on a chance to improve their craft or find people to share in the excitement of writing.

   This is a VERY serious offense. Anyone who thinks they can get away with this needs to know that your entire account - even if every other story is something you've written - will be deleted and you will be permanently banned from the site. The moderating staff has zero tolerance for plagiarists and we will not hesitate to kick you off if you're caught. 

    If you're concerned that your story may fall under this category - PLEASE review the rules, especially these points:

   - Stealing another fan's work in it's entirety (whole chapters, scenes, stories, etc... this INCLUDES edited stories with different character names or only slightly adjusted facts)

   - Do NOT post stories you did not write - this means you can NOT post stories for friends

   - Borrowing any small elements of another fan's work (ie a specific plot point or a character) may be done but only with specific permission from the original author and a clear reference to their story

   In the mean time: if you see anything that looks suspicious or if you catch anyone plagiarising, notify the moderators immediately! Unfortunately, we have missed this once before and it can certainly happen again even if we are on the lookout for this. And if we can help it, we want to make sure it is not the author themselves who has to step forward and provide proof of their own hard work. There is nothing acceptable about that. 

   Thank you for your cooperation!