how do you get your story so that no one will steal it?

You can pay through the actual copyrighting bureau, or, if you're cheap like me, you could mail your stuff to yourself and leave it unopened. The date and everything is evidence that you had the idea and it was yours before so-and-so tried to copyright it or claim it as their own.

Copyrighting doesn't necessarily have to cost money. From what I've heard from other authors, just posting your story online is claiming it as yours. You might want to add a little note at the bottom though saying "don't copy, edit or post this without my permission" or with the copyright sign, and then your name. If you want to post your story, and be absolutely sure of your copyrights then you might want to try a website like DeviantArt.com They let you choose your copyright, so when you post it everyone knows what's allowed. So, post it on DeviantArt and it's copyrighted on the internet.

Don't post it on Yahoo! Answers. To get it copyrighted (officially) does cost money, so I don't think you'll enjoy looking into that, right? I put a lot of my work up on http://www.fictionpress.com/ It's a community of authors focused on THEIR own stories, and I'm guessing since the reason you want it on Y!A is to have it reviewed, right? Yeah....the site kind of covers it. You upload the story, let other read it, and they review. It's less likely that your story will get stolen here.

Your story will not be completely safe unless it is published. Sorry, but that's the way it works. But if someone sees your story online, they could easily steal the idea and just word it differently and you could do nothing about it. So my suggestion to you is that if you absolutely don't want your story stolen, do not put it online. Copyright or no copyright, anyone can easily steal your idea.

Answer mine, please?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AhP_O...

If you send yourself, via registered mail, a sealed copy of the story, and leave that sealed copy intact, you have proof that the story was yours first.

This may or may not be sufficient in court of law, but it is a good step to protecting your rights. A copyright mark such as "Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]" should be considered sufficient warning to anybody wishing to steal your work.

Be aware that you should be prepared to prosecute violators of your copyright in civil court.

Don't post it on Yahoo Answers.