Copyright applies to anything created - the trick of it is proving copyright.
For authors, the age-old technique was to plop a copy of their manuscript into the mail, addressed to themselves. The package was kept sealed until needed by a court, and the postmark served as the time stamp.
Nowadays, a writer can publish to the internet and the time & date on the story's page serve as the "first published" date.
. . . . but . . . .
(https://i.imgur.com/jhiOCAX.jpg)
Quote𝕭𝖞 𝖍𝖔𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊, 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖇𝖞 𝖌𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝖚𝖘 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖕𝖊𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖑 𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙, 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖆𝖑𝖘𝖔 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖕𝖊𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖑 𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖘𝖚𝖇-𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖗𝖉 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖊𝖘. 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝖆𝖑𝖘𝖔 𝖌𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝖚𝖘 𝖚𝖓𝖑𝖎𝖒𝖎𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖕𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖍 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙 𝖆𝖘 𝖜𝖊 𝖈𝖍𝖔𝖔𝖘𝖊, 𝖆𝖘 𝖜𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝖆𝖘 𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓𝖚𝖊𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖕𝖊𝖙𝖚𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖞 𝖉𝖗𝖞-𝖍𝖚𝖒𝖕𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖛𝖊 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖘 . . .
. . . lots of the sites that offer such hosting come with horrible terms of service (I understand hosting costs money, but the above terms are simply ridiculous [bluntly, a lot of these places will use these terms to publish
your work and you won't see a penny of any profits {and depending on the verbiage, you may have lost ownership of your own work}])
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I have set up a "writers refuge" where amateur writers can host their content for the purposes of establishing "first publishing" date (and for sharing with others) without any draconian terms of service.
Find it: https://stories.novarata.net