New story readme

If you want to add your own story to My Story, please read the guidelines below first. You may also want to read the general edit guidelines too.

Planning

 * Decide on your story first. Think of a general plot. It doens't need to be complete, but it does need to be exciting, interesting, and original. Try looking for a similiar story someone else is writing. You could ask the lead novelist to add you to their Project Team.


 * Add characters, add a theme, an atmosphere, a writing style. You can tell everyone how you want the story written in the talk page. People generally contribute more and better when they know how to add content to a particular page.


 * Do some homework before starting any project. The best storytellers don't make up things; they use real-life depictions. When an author writes about a place, he will do extensive research about the place, and even pay a visit, to be able to write a convincing account. The same goes for religions, histories, cultural and ethnic groups, events and so on.


 * Do not steal someone else's ideas, unless they give you permission, or the story was abandoned and you are reviving it or starting over.


 * Don't start a story on a whim; no one would want to continue a badly-written work. It will probably get abandoned, and deleted (by me, no less). You don't need to write like Shakespeare, but a minimum level of English (or other applicable language) proficiency, creative skills and effort will go a long way.


 * And yes, finally, please note that you are advised to write a work of fiction.

Writing

 * Stick to a consistent writing style. This makes it easier for others to decide how to write their own contributions.


 * Do not write to slander or defame someone, or to promote one's own interests. Such unscrupulous behaviour is highly frowned upon. It is also generally good practice to make up Presidents' names, and use contrived/satirical names for celebrities or politicians. The point gets across to the reader, and you won't get sued by an angry Hollywood star, like Arnold Schwartzhenneggherr (see?).


 * Some controversial content may be useful, even necessary (Dan Brown?) to make a story a success; however please do not cross the fine line between controversy and outright insult. You should refrain from using racial, obscene (profanity in adult-oriented stories are ok, but no obscenity allowed), discriminatory and other sorts of remarks.

Your fellow Wikizen

 * If you are intending to go solo, please take your business elsewhere. In My Story, everyone is allowed to edit your story. Instead of trying to enforce a particular style and syntax, you should try to embrace change and accept others Wikizens' ideas.


 * If a particular user is causing trouble in your story, try to resolve it peacefully. It could be simply conflicting ideas about whether the story ends happilty or sadly. On the other hand, it could be a vandal, spammer, or a disgrunted... person. If so, you should notify an administrator of the problem.

Who owns this story?

 * Your story is a collaborative work; it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. If you want to retain full ownership of your work, you should place it outside of Wikia.

More guidelines will be added if and when necessary; you can also propose new guidelines in the Talk:New story readme page, or add guidelines yourself after popular demand.