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The Fan Fiction Rules - Read Me~

Jersey Jimmy

¿dónde está el FOUR DOLLA TUBA?
Hmm. It's best to do one chapter a post for the sake of organization (It's easier for folks to keep their place as they read and whatnot, not to mention it makes creating an index—should you want one—a crapload easier.), but! We are lenient on short chapters if the fic in question is well-written. If it's clear that you've put a lot of thought into your work and don't, like, write a block o' text, it's probs all right. b)'')b

P.S. Welcome to the dark side our fic forum~! 8D

Walls of text? Ew. Ew. I'd never even consider something like that. I try my hardest to keep all of my stories well-formatted and easily readable. I'd say I could do three chapters a post until they eventually become long enough to drop to two, then one per post.

And thanks for the welcome! Hopefully you guys don't think I suck at this... hehe oh Arceus please let my stories be good.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Walls of text? Ew. Ew. I'd never even consider something like that. I try my hardest to keep all of my stories well-formatted and easily readable. I'd say I could do three chapters a post until they eventually become long enough to drop to two, then one per post.

Actually, I think I found the fic in question, and it looks like you write (on average) four pages per chapter early on. Given that our minimum's two pages per chapter, you pretty much have nothing to worry about. The two-pagers can be posted separately as well because the majority of your work already fulfills our minimum.

On that note, because you actually do meet our minimum requirements for page counts, I'd hate to say it, but this is actually a case where you'd run into another rule of ours about one post = one chapter. D: Sorry about that! If your chapters were shorter than two pages long but were still okay to post, I would've probably been okay with the idea of letting you post a bunch of tiny chapters in one go, but because you're actually good on the minimum requirement...!

(Sorry to sound a bit anal there. x_x Because you average four pages per chapter, while I don't think you'd hit our character limits—because yeeeeep we have one of those due to the other forums and the shenanigans they get up to—there's always the possibility of running into that issue. That and, like I said, it's just easier for folks to read if you kept them separate. *nod*)

But haha, good to hear you understand about walls o' text. ;D
 
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Jersey Jimmy

¿dónde está el FOUR DOLLA TUBA?
Actually, I think I found the fic in question, and it looks like you write (on average) four pages per chapter early on. Given that our minimum's two pages per chapter, you pretty much have nothing to worry about. The two-pagers can be posted separately as well because the majority of your work already fulfills our minimum.

On that note, because you actually do meet our minimum requirements for page counts, I'd hate to say it, but this is actually a case where you'd run into another rule of ours about one post = one chapter. D: Sorry about that! If your chapters were shorter than two pages long but were still okay to post, I would've probably been okay with the idea of letting you post a bunch of tiny chapters in one go, but because you're actually good on the minimum requirement...!

Wait, One Big Conspiracy, right? You're saying those dinky little chapters that start the story off double the requirement?! That's... that's impossible. If so... Jeezus, I can only imagine how many pages the penultimate chapter is in Word (I used Google Docs for every chapter from Fourteen on).
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Wait, One Big Conspiracy, right? You're saying those dinky little chapters that start the story off double the requirement?! That's... that's impossible. If so... Jeezus, I can only imagine how many pages the penultimate chapter is in Word (I used Google Docs for every chapter from Fourteen on).

Haha, the minimum requirement's actually pretty low and easy to achieve (~if you put your mind to it~ ... *cues Sailor Moon Says music*) precisely so that most people can hit it without much of a problem. It's pretty much so low that not writing enough to make it either means you were really trying or not even trying at all in anything regarding your fic. That's why it's actually one of those rules folks shouldn't really worry about. XD
 

Jersey Jimmy

¿dónde está el FOUR DOLLA TUBA?
Haha, the minimum requirement's actually pretty low and easy to achieve (~if you put your mind to it~ ... *cues Sailor Moon Says music*) precisely so that most people can hit it without much of a problem. It's pretty much so low that not writing enough to make it either means you were really trying or not even trying at all in anything regarding your fic. That's why it's actually one of those rules folks shouldn't really worry about. XD

Ah. Maybe I should lower my expectations for things, then. And if you read any of the story, what did you think of it?
 

Blackjack Gabbiani

Clearly we're great!
I'm pretty sure some chapters of Obsession were only about half a page long. How did they get past that?
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
I'm pretty sure some chapters of Obsession were only about half a page long. How did they get past that?

First and foremost, are you absolutely certain that some chapters are only about half a page long? Some folks think that their work is very short, when in actuality, it absolutely meets our requirements without a problem. Like I said, the bar is set pretty low for a reason.

Second, as I've said before, there are a couple of factors that go into whether or not a fic is passable. If most of your chapters meet our requirement, we generally let the odd short chapter here and there slide. This goes especially if your fic is passable in terms of quality anyway. Likewise, if your fic is passable in terms of quality from the get-go and if the shortness of each chapter is just part of the style of the fic, then we also tend to be lenient. The rule is in place to push people to take their time with their chapters and create enjoyable content that they've proofread and edited properly.
 

AmericanPi

Write on
Psychic said:
Completed Fics: Once you are satisfied that the story you posted here is complete and there’s nothing more to do to it, it can be moved into and archived in this forum. If you feel that your fic is done, PM a mod and ask them to move it here. Members cannot post in this section.

Just pointing out that the sentence in bold should be changed - if I remember correctly, recently the rules were changed so that people could post in Completed Fics. I'm not sure, though.
 

Dust_monster

Scribbler
Hey there!
Got a question regarding links in stories.

In future chapters of my fic, I was intending to link to youtube videos where "background music" could play, like say, during a Pokemon battle. Said link would just be there in the middle of the chapter (when it's intended to be played as background music, or mood music, for the ongoing chapter.) Is this kind of practice allowed?

Haven't seen any clear-cut rules about that, so thanks for clarifying.
 

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
It's fine. People do that all the time.
 

Psychic

Really and truly
Hey all, just wanted to let you know that the following has been added under rule #2 under the Rules for Readers section:

By extension, reviews may only be posted once they are complete, and must show that you've read a chapter or work all the way through. Going back and editing posted reviews to add something you've forgotten or correct minor issues is perfectly acceptable. Additionally, choosing not to review every chapter of a fic in a single review is fine. What's not okay is posting only a partial review to a fragment of the chapter or one-shot. This is considered bad etiquette. Please save incomplete reviews on your computer, and only post them online only once it is finished, the same way authors may only post their works once they are finished.

This has kind of always gone without saying, but we recently felt the need to officially add it to the rules. Thanks for reading!

~The fic moderating team
 

Case Azula

Hades's Assassin
How do i post additional chapters?
 

Case Azula

Hades's Assassin
Hi!

You can post them in separate posts in your story's thread. Feel free to check out other fics around the forum for examples.

Hope that helps!

It does help! Thanks!
 

Polipuff

Artisan of Words
Hi. I'm new. How can I post something to help other authors? (It's not advice but a character sheet that you can fill out, specifically for pokemon fanfictions. I made it myself btw.) Thanks.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Hi. I'm new. How can I post something to help other authors? (It's not advice but a character sheet that you can fill out, specifically for pokemon fanfictions. I made it myself btw.) Thanks.

Hey there! Welcome to the forums, and thanks for the upcoming content! ;D

There are a couple places where you're free to throw in something advice-like. The Authors' Cafe is the place where all writing-related discussion, including threads for tips and whatnot. There's also a dedicated advice thread, Advice for Aspiring Authors. Either way, please note that we kinda frown on linking to external sites around these parts (it's advertising and all), so if you can simply copy and paste that character sheet, that'd be great. b)'')b If not (like, if it's actually a form made with Javascript or what-have-you), Iiiiii'll go talk to the other mods to see how best to handle that.

I'd personally recommend going with The Authors' Cafe over AfAA, as that'll open your thread up to not only discussion of your character sheet (i.e., if folks can think of anything you might've missed, they can toss in suggestions and whatnot) but also allow folks to fill the sheet out themselves, which would then turn it into a rather fun board activity. The AfAA, meanwhile, is more for instances where you're like, "Here's what you need to focus on when creating your characters, and here is an accompanying character sheet as a kind of learning exercise." Which is totally cool too but less interactive. *nod*

Hope something in this tl;dr helps. XD Welcome again, and looking forward to that sheet~!
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Hello, all! The mods have come together to draft another change to the rules, this time under General Rules:

Writers must respect readers
Posts that highlight the lack of response to your fic (including continuously asking people to read and review, asking people whether or not you should continue due to a lack of response, refusing to update unless you receive a certain number of reviews, or simply stating multiple times that no one is reading), even in the author's notes of a chapter, creates an unpleasant atmosphere and is considered bad manners. People are more likely to read and review your work if you do the same for others and are an active member of the community.

By posting your work for the world to see, you will receive both positive and negative criticism. Whether or not you agree with it, listen to what your readers say and thank them. They’re trying to help you and give you advice to improve. Take advantage of these opportunities by listening, considering, learning and practicing. Listen to what a reader says; consider their advice and what value it may have; try to learn from it; and put what you’ve learned into practice in your writing.

Technically speaking, this is an expansion on what was actually there beforehand, to add a bit more clarification and specifics. The first paragraph of this change in particular brings in a few new points, so please be sure to read it carefully. As always, feel free to ask questions if need be.

Thanks for reading!
 

Negrek

Lost but Seeking
Hmm, I'm a little unclear as to whether these are rules-rules or more like guidelines? Like, most of the first post is stuff that's actually enforceable by mod action, whether it's an infraction or thread closure, but these changes seem a bit more fuzzy. Like, would you actually infract someone for putting, "Please review, guys, it really means a lot to me" in their author's notes? I get that people bemoaning a lack of reviews all the time can get annoying and, sure, it's "bad manners," but unless it's something a person does a lot outside their 'fic thread even after being told to stop it doesn't seem like an actionable offense. If it's not an actionable offense, maybe clarify that in the paragraph itself, or put it in AAA or something if it's more a politeness thing and not a moderation issue.

Likewise, the paragraph about how to respond to reviews... it seems kind of weird to take a hard line on how people should respond to criticism? Outside the general rules of being courteous and respectful to the reviewer, whether you agree with their advice or not, I don't think people are in any way obligated to learn from or put into practice anything given as feedback. Leaving aside bad or outright inaccurate advice, if people really refuse to learn how to punctuate dialogue, I guess that's their prerogative, but it doesn't seem like something worth giving them a talking-to about, much less an infraction. It also seems like it would be difficult to determine whether someone was properly reflecting on and implementing criticism--like, what if it just takes them a really long time to figure out dialogue punctuation, even with help? Again, would not properly putting into practice someone's review be an infractable offense, and if so, how would you actually define that? If not, maybe it's more appropriate for some general advice about how to handle criticism, but perhaps not the rules thread.

Not sure how much of this is an actual change since I can't see the original, but that kind of stuck out to me.
 
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