I'm dividing the unofficial version of the official FAQ into four threads. This one covers the section on Stories.

The main FAQ was written by site admins. This version was updated by me and members of this group and is unofficial.

Stories
I need some help with my writing!

For writing advice, including grammar, storytelling, cliches to avoid, and other helpful advice, please check out this excellent guide by Ezn. You can also seek help in The Writer’s Group, The Proofreader Group, and The Equestrian Critics Society.

How do I create a story?

To create a story, select the 'stories' section from your user drop-down in the navigation bar, and click on the 'new story' button in the top left corner.

How do I edit a story?

Stories can be edited by selecting the 'edit' button from the stories page in the dropdown under your username.

How do I submit a story? What does submitting do?

Submitting a story can be done by clicking the 'submit' button at the top of your story from the main story page.

Doing this sends it into the site's approval queue, where it will be looked over by our story approvers. If the story meets the submission standards, it will be added to the approved queue, and will appear on the front page of the site under 'new stories' shortly thereafter.

Submitting a story also makes it possible for it to show up in the 'featured box' and 'popular stories' bar, as well as allowing it to be added to groups. If you haven't submitted a story, you can still give a link out, and people can read and comment on the published chapters. In the edit section of the story, you can add a password if you don't want just anyone with the write link to see it.

Why can't I submit a story with less than 1,000 words?

A thousand words is the minimum story word count we allow on submitted stories. You're free to post a story with fewer word and share it as an unpublished links, but it was decided as a reasonable lower limit for how many words you can tell a proper story in.

Note that for smaller stories, such as flash fiction or prompt-based writing, a good solution is to collect multiple stories as chapters and submit them all as one story. Please also note that padding a story of fewer than a thousand words with lyrics, spam, garbage, or author notes is not acceptable and may cause you to fail moderation.

How do I publish a chapter of a story? What does it do?

To publish a chapter, simply click the 'publish' button in the top left-hand corner of the bar at the top of your chapter's text while viewing the chapter. Publishing a chapter makes it visible to other users of the site. Until it's published, the only people who can view a chapter are you and the staff.

What defines whether a story is rated as teen or mature?

For the purpose of stories on Fimfic, how to rate a story relies on the description and events contained therein.

'Teen' is anything more risqué or salacious than content you might see in the show: foul language, minor violence with brief descriptions, physical affection more intense than a quick peck on the lips, blood, etc.

‘Mature' is anything that should require an aged or mature perspective to read: things like extreme violence, explicit descriptions of physical intimacy, or content intended for older audiences.

The divide between ‘Teen’ and ‘Mature’ is generally in how much is mentioned and how much is shown in the story. If a character only makes reference to having sex, that would typically be fine with a ‘Teen’ rating. If characters in the story actually have sex, that would require a ‘Mature’ rating.

Just use your best discretion, and feel free to PM a mod if you have a question about the specific content of your story. At worst, you can always submit and be told that a change is required if the rating you've selected doesn't match the discretion of the story-approval team.

When should I use the 'sex' and 'gore' tags?

This is simple enough: use 'gore' when there is explicit description of violence/grotesque imagery in your story, and use 'sex' when there's... well... sex. On a Teen rated story, 'sex' can be used to indicate sexual humor or situations that are heated but don't have explicit sex.

What do the categories mean?

Here's a quick rundown from Meeester:
Tragedy: It is not just for a tragic death ending; an entire story can be a series of sad, tragic events.
Sad: Boo hoo Derpy is being bullied. :c
Dark: Lighter form of Grimdark in that you've got evil goings-on & characters (worse than in the show)
Random: No sense or point other than an idea that came out of nowhere that doesn't fit any other category.
Crossover: If you have the Tardis, Mario, Batman, etc. in the story or significant chunks of a game/universe not related to MLP.
Adventure: Pinkie goes on an adventure to find out the magic 8th flavor of cupcakes spanning space and time.
Slice of Life: Pinkie bakes normal cupcakes. A day in the life of anyone with nothing out of the ordinary (blocked from being used with Adventure)
Alternate Universe: 'What if' situations where you take an episode/event from the show in a different direction from how it occured. (i.e. Chrysalis being successful)
Human/Anthro: If you have a human character in the story or everyone is humanized/anthropomorphic.

Why can I only have 6 categories on my story?

Categories are meant to be broad descriptions of a story's content or themes. We set them up in such a way that no more than six should be required at any time, and we feel some of them conflict and shouldn't be used together, as listed in the next entry.

For this reason, we ask that you restrict your story to six categories or less. Any more than that, and you should probably think more about what your story is really all about, and what ideas and moods are at the heart of it.

Why do certain categories conflict?

Adventure and Slice of Life
Given that an Adventure involves going completely out of your daily life, even by Ponyville standards, it completely takes precedence over the Slice-of-Life, which represents day-to-day experiences. Defeating Discord is simply not a day-to-day experience, even if the story spends some time on the characters’ daily routine.

Comedy and Sad
Sometimes people get confused and think that morbid humor or a sad story with some jokes is equal to a sad comedy. It isn't. You cannot have sadness in equal measure to comedy in a story. One will inevitably take the spotlight, because in the end your story will achieve primarily one outcome: either it makes the reader sad... or it makes them smile.

I'm afraid to post my fiction for the negative feedback it might receive. What's the best course of action?

A good way to avoid a lot of problems is to find a proofreader or two who have some experience writing)and ask them to take a look at your story for you and tell you their honest opinion of it. You can refer to 'I need some help with my writing.'

Why can my story only have 5 character tags?

Character tags on stories are largely in place for readers, and not for authors. While you might have a lot of characters in your story, the character tags are intended to make it easy for people to search for stories that feature one or more characters in an important role.

For this reason, we have a limit of 5 character tags per story, as the notion of focusing on any more characters than this as key players in the story is not really practical. If you feel your story is an exception, we would ask that you consider ranking your character tags in order of significance, and try to add just the ones that would best correspond to reader interest in your story.

How do I add author notes?

Author's notes can be added to each chapter by editing that chapter and typing the notes you wish to add into the 'Author's Notes' box at the end.

How do I find statistical information on my story?

Clicking on the 'stats' button on the main page of your story will allow you to view detailed information on its statistics, including views over time, favorites, and referrals.

I have submitted my story for review, and [insert timeframe] has passed. Why hasn't it been approved yet?

While we have a hard-working team of dedicated prereaders and mods on staff, the Fimfiction approval process is still subject to human participation. As such, it might happen sometimes that none of the site's staff have had the time to get around to approving your story. In instances like this, all we ask is that you be patient with us, and know that your story will be looked at as soon as we can get around to it. For further information about the approval queue process, please see Poultron's Blog Post.

How can I chose to view/not view mature stories?

The 'view mature' checkbox can be toggled from your user drop down in the main navigation bar. It can also be enabled from the settings option in the main navigation bar.

How do I rearrange/sort my story's chapters?

Story chapters can be reordered by dragging the four-dotted symbol to the left of the chapter. Just make sure you save the order by clicking the 'save chapter order' button below!

My story doesn't seem to be accumulating views, what's up?

Story views are only cached every 20 minutes, so you may need to wait a little while to see new views.

How does the 'popular stories' list work?

Various actions add 'heat' to stories which falls off over time. The popular stories list shows the stories with the highest amount of heat.

What does the 'Revoke Submission' button do?

Revoking a submission makes a story invisible on the site again. It will need to be submitted again and go through moderation before it is visible on the site again.

How are featured stories selected?

Featured stories are completely automated. They are calculated on a mix of a few things. The number of likes a story has received, the proportion of likes to dislikes, the total number of ratings, how frequently it's being viewed and the time since it was approved are all factored into the equation.

I found a story which violated the rules, what can I do?

Use the Report button at the top of the story to report the story, and one of us will look over it to see if it does. Note that we hold the final decision as to whether or not a story violates our rules.

What is the 'view password' option?

By giving a story a view password, you can restrict who can see your story while it is not approved. Approved stories can be viewed by anyone. If no password is provided, everything will be visible except for unpublished chapters.

How do I add chapters to my story?

You need to create the story before you can add chapters. Once you've done so, use the Add Chapter button on the story page to add a new chapter to the story.

A chapter I added didn't bump my story to the frontpage, why is this?

Your story can only be bumped at most once a day. If you are caught bumping by adding and removing chapters, your story will be removed. If you've ever published the chapter before, even if the story wasn't actually submitted yet, publishing it won't bump the fanfic, either.

How do I download stories?

To download individual chapters, hover over the icon to the left of the chapter, and click the .txt or .html icon that comes up. To download an entire story, hover over the below the chapter listing and you can download it as a txt, html or an epub file to read offline.

What are story referrals?

This is a list of web pages that have linked to your story, so you can find out where people are discovering your work on the rest of the internet.

I can't find a specific story, even though I know what it's called. Where is it?

Well, that could be one of two things. One, it might not actually be on the site! If you know that it's on the site, make sure that you have the "View Mature" option checked, or you won't be able to see Mature content at all.

Help! I accidentally deleted my story. Is there any way I can get it back?

If you've accidentally deleted a story, you can PM one of the moderators to have it restored.

Is it possible to transfer stories between accounts?

Yes. You can PM a moderator and ask for a story transfer, but there better be a good reason for it.

References:

This is where I'll post where any information I referred to in this faq came from that I remember.

--Sweetie Belle