How to copyright one of my short story?

Step one: Ask a secular, game-gifting forum on the internet

You can ask gooogle experts.

Publishing. You don't need to do anything.

Edit: Wait, not exactly. Try to read the Copyright article on Wikipedia.

Well, I'm not sure about where you live, in Canada, sending yourself a registered copy of your story that is postmarked for a date prior to the first publishing of the material will establish copyright (so, before you send it to anyone else, send yourself a copy by registered mail) don't open it.. the seal is your evidence. (dating the material inside won't hurt either) If you ever have a dispute over ownership you will always have your signed sealed dated copy that you can refer a judge to. That will establish that you were the original creator of the work. (sending a copy to your lawyer or a family member, with an explanation and instructions not to open it wouldn't be a bad idea either, redundant copies just in case..) Either way, from the first time it is published under your name you have a claim to copyright, the registered copies are only for disputes should they arise. Your work should technically be covered from the moment you've written it.
I'm just now reading up on American copyright law here http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-register.html and it appears there is a $35 fee and forms to fill out, but I think a registered letter, signed, dated, and unopened would win you a lawsuit and prove intellectual property ownership, even if you are American ;D

Regardless of where you live, sending it through Canadian registered mail will at the very least register it as your work written on "X" date, and Most countries cooperate with one another over copyright claims.. so Canadian registration may be enough.

(I only wrote with certainty as far as Canada goes, I've only dealt with my own copyright laws so far.)

Do it Creative Commons. Ideas are free.

Ask a writer.

That might get you somewhere.

Google is always your friend.

lol

Creative Commons.

Any work you create is automatically copyright by and for yourself. If you create it while working for someone else, it is still your copyright, however most contracts that you sign (or even verbal contracts, which are legal at least here) will stipulate that any work you create will belong in whole to the company for whom you worked.

The problem is enforcing copyright in court when push comes to shove, and the systems in place are about establishing the fact that you are the one that created the work. The poor man's copyright (sending it to yourself by registered mail) does work, but for a foolproof method, you can register (at least here in Canada) with a government board for around $50 providing all materials that you wish to copyright.

You just did. By writing it. It's just really hard to protect and enforce. So that's that.

Anyway, I was worried about that too, until I realised three things:

1. No one is going to steal your idea. You're far too insignificant for that.
2. You've already stolen someone else's idea. Seriously.
3. If someone is going to steal from you, it won't be worth it to fight them. It's going to cost more than it's worth.

I guess that's my advice.

If you're in the US, you can do it for a fee at the US Copyright office. You'll have to send a copy of the work too, I believe. It's on the website.

No need to go beyond the act of writing it.

However, when I write anything significantly long or valuable, I always post it to myself (either a physical copy, or a DVD containing the file) and store it [unopened]. In case of any sort of dispute, I have a dated, unopened copy of my work, which should [hopefully] put my claim beyond reasonble doubt.

I see from other posts in the thread that this doesn't hold any weight in some other countries, but I've been led to believe that it works over here. Oh well :)

I think you've pretty much received your answer, by now. Once you've written your story/article/whatever, it's yours. Should you wish to prevent someone from republishing your writing, you will need to provide legal proof that you are the original author. If you publish something on the internet, the original presentation may be traced back through the use of a search engine. (Some of my stuff from 1987 is still floating around.)