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RULES OF FANFIC-Please read before posting-


Jedi Kiara

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The rules.

-Non-Star Wars stories are welcome here!

 

-Be respectful of other people's writing. If you don't like it, you don't have to review. Or be constructive.

 

-Keep it PG. A14, PG-13 at most. Romance is approprate. Sex scenes are not. Evading the censors is not. Jedi.net's content rules apply in fanfic as well. If you're concerned and don't know if what you're going to post is approprate, contact a moderator.

 

 

The guide to writing.

 

 

Welcome to fanfic, all you new comers and revisiters alike! Please take the time to read through these tips before posting in fanfic... This is a list of helpful hints from the oldbies here. They are not all my own, they are suggestions from a few of the oldbies here.

 

*~*~*~*~

1- First of all, if you want to write a full sized story, I'm not talking the short few paragraph stories, I mean the really long stories, perhaps even novel sized. You should never post it all at once. We love to read your work, but if you give it all to us at once, it may be enough to daunt us, simply because it takes quite a while for us to read it, and we don't all have a lot of time when we get on the computer. It's more fun for both the writer and the readers if you post it in small sections. That way you get comments throughout the story, and not just at the very end. Plus, you can leave your readers hanging at times, and keep them wanting more!

 

 

2-Next, try to remember things like grammar, spelling and punctuation. I know that this isn't English class, and really, no one's perfect. But you will get more readers if you really try to watch those things, and they will take your story more seriously.

 

- For spelling... the best I can suggest is to first, write your story in WordPerfect, or any other writing program you have. That way you can use the spell check.

 

-For Grammar... I don't know what to tell you here. We've all been to school, and we've been taught proper grammar. Just do your best to remember what you've been taught. There are certain grammar rules that are in place, and if you follow these rules it will make your story much easier to understand and read.

 

-For punctuation...

*Make sure to remember to put ""s when people are speaking. Remember to begin and end with quotations. I often see quotes just left hanging, and I have also seen parts that were not meant to be speaking parts, surrounded with ""s.

*A good way to portray the character's thoughts is to put it in italics. If you don't know the coding for italics... it's and "i" inside brackets []'s, at the beginning, and then at the end, it's "/i" inside the brackets.

*It is helpful to put a space inbetween paragraphs, so that they are easier to see. Remember that there needs to be a new paragraph stared for each line of dialogue, or when the character speaks. Never put two different people's dialogue in the same paragraph, it is confusing! Always make sure that the reader understands who it was who spoke, by either saying that they said it, or saying some action they did as they were saying it.

*Remember to capitalize where appropriate!!!!

 

After all of this has been considered, there is always the fact, that the mistake was simply a typo. The best way to eliminate these sorts of errors is to proof read, and maybe even have a beta reader (someone you send the story to prior to posting, for editing.) This is another good reason to post in WordPerfect before, and then paste it in the reply box later.

 

 

3-Watch your tense!- There are countless stories I have read that have been excellent except...that they either wrote it in the wrong tense, or kept switching tenses throughout the story. The tense that is used in most stories (with very few exceptions) is past tense. You are telling a story not as it is happening, but as if it already had happened. So instead of saying things like She walks over to her friend and says, "hi.", you should say, She walked over to her friend and said, "hi." Using the wrong tense is one of my biggest pet peeves! The only time you should ever use present tense is when you are putting it in dialogue (when the character is talking.), or if you were a news broadcaster telling the story as it was happening, or if it was a ”˜Choose your own adventure story.' Those are the only exceptions.

 

(Tense is also one of my pet peeves. However, I've seen (and written) present tense stories. Please don't take this rule as 'don't post a story in present tense'. Take it as what it really is: stick to one tense, please. If you're going to tell a story in present tense, tell it in present tense and don't switch to past tense. The only time it's all right to switch tenses is if, say, you included a dream segment or a newscast insert.)

 

 

-Build your characters!- The more characterization you give, the more the reader will care about what happens to your character. You need to give each character a personality, and stay true to what the person is capable of. Try not to have characters (especially the characters that are from the actual movies or books), do anything that is out of their character. Really try to illustrate who they are, whether it's by the character's thoughts you include, or someone else noting it, but try to make it a point.

 

*You can't write stories that are all battle, and no downtime. What makes a good story is not how well they fight, or how gory it gets. It's who the character is, and what led to the fighting (if any).

It's about the story, not the battle/plot. So try to keep that in mind.

 

*Original characters are good. Don't try to create too many at one time, though, or your readers may get bogged down. If someone has eight new characters introduced at the same time, it's far too easy to forgot significant details about each characters. While it's far from my perfect, in "Castaways" I introduced several new characters, but focused one one particular character, Joel Lance. (contributed by X-Wing Original.)

 

*Keep characters in character. For example, having Luke Skywalker breaking laws and turning to the dark side wouldn't be in character. Similarly, having Han Solo become a completely serious-minded individual also wouldn't work. Along those lines, make sure your original characters have distinct personalities, too. D & D players can think of terms like "lawful good," "chaotic good," "lawful evil," and "chaotic evil" for some ideas. Is your character serious or sarcastic, helpful or mean?

 

*Be original. Rehashing old superweapon plots can get so old. Originality is what makes a fanfic stand out. A unique plot, something that hasn't been done before, or even an old plot with a new spin is far more interesting (and entertaining) then a "the Empire has built a new and we have to destroy it." I'm not saying superweapons are bad, but seriously, how many planet-killers does an Empire need?

 

*Space out character introductions- Introduce characters as they are needed. If you dump ten characters into one post, it will overwhelm a reader. Personally, I'm turned off from a fic when a bunch of original characters show up simultaenously. Often it's too intimidating and confusing to continue.

 

*Make sure you aren't creating a bunch of superhumans. Everyone has their strong and weak points. Perhaps even let the character have to learn a few lessons along the way.

 

4-READ OTHER PEOPLE'S WORK!!!!. A good way to get readers, is to read other people's work. Experience another person's writing. If they see you reading and encouraging them regulary, they will return the courtesy and read yours. It's a good way to get involved and known by the people here.

 

5- Don't use stuff like * or < in your writing. I've seen a lot of people- not necessarily on this site, because we have italics- who use asterisks or these <> little things to indicate thoughts. Please don't do this. It looks tacky. Just take the time to put in the italics, because it looks so much more professional.

 

(In the event of Star Wars fanfiction, when using the Force and thoughts, it's quite approprate to use square brackets [like this] to indicate things said through the Force.)

 

6- Be open to suggestions. Don't get offended if people offer opinions to improve your fic. We aren't meaning to flame...or at least I'm not. You'll find that most people in fanfic, I could maybe say all of us are not out to flame anyone. We're just happy to get new people to join in on fanfic! WE wouldn't want to scare people out. So try not to be easily offended.

 

7-RP crossovers to fanfic... I have noticed a that we have gained a few writers from the RP forum. I think that is great! When you think about it, RP and fanfic really do almost walk hand in hand.

 

*For whom it may concern, I would like to point out that if you truly want your story to be a success here, it is very important that you remember to work on characterization. Even if you are using users from the site, make sure you explain well who each character is. Write your stories like you are telling them to people who have never heard of RP, or Jedi.net for that matter.

 

*~*~*~*~

 

(Tiana edits were made in indigo. I didn't remove anything. But I found the original rules to be a bit slighting of NSW writers and people who write in present tense. No one's ever been banned for writing in present tense. No one's ever been yelled at for not posting Star Wars fics. And they weren't even rules. So I posted the rules. We love all writing here!)

 

 

If you feel that anything else needs to be added, please feel free to PM me (or the current moderator)!

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 years later...
There have been a lot of these popping up these days. I guess maybe it is the season for sharing. Anyway, this announcement doesn't necessarily relate to any of the usual users of the website, it is mostly for the benefit of those wanting to advertise either a story, or their own fanfiction website.

 

We have a thread called the Fanfiction news thread, at the top of the page labeled "sticky". If you would like to announce a link, please do so in that thread. The normal threads are reserved for posting the actual story, which you would do in small incriments.

 

If you have any questions, please see the 'Read First for New Fanfic Writers' thread. Or you can contact me by pm.

 

 

Or you can view the rules in the FAQ section...

 

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Thanks!

 

Jedi Kiara

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