Rules are simple:
-There is no genre limitation (with the exception of “No erotica, please”)—-horror, romance, comedy, no particular category, whatever.
-There is no word minimum or limit—-one paragraph or two hundred, doesn’t matter (which means there’s no real excuse for slacking).
-There is no real consequence if you miss a day or seventeen.
-Constructive criticism is allowed IF THE AUTHOR REQUESTS, but for the most part, this isn’t about making perfect, publishable stories. It’s just about writing. Practice makes better.
-This is all rough draft, off the top of your head, so no freaking out about how stupid your story is. (This rule is as much for my benefit as everyone else’s). Just post it.
-I reserve the right to delete posts that are obviously trolls or jerks or what have you, but given the crowd I know, I doubt that’ll be a problem.
5 comments:
no erotica? that was directed at me, wasn't it? hmph. yer crampin' my style. =p
Believe me when I say you're not the only one.
I would like to know the reasoning behind the no erotica "rule", and also ... why rules? And why does one person decide the rules? I thought this was more of a way for a group of people to support each others creative expression, not limit that creative expression to genres that one person finds "acceptable".
"Believe me when I say you're not the only one". Okay, if THAT many people feel inspired to write erotica, then... uh... why the limitation?
Just wondering.
Valid questions, all.
First, my comment about "not the only one" was just a joke in reference to jokes a couple of other people had made. No one has actually expressed interest.
Second, the "rules" are just sort of...I dunno, guidelines? As I say, it's not like there are any consequences or anything. I mostly threw those up because I had several of the new people ask me what the deal was, what word limits were, can I do scripts instead of stories, stuff like that. They're meant to be more "reassurance" than "rules," I suppose. As you can see, most of them say, "There are no rules."
Thirdly, when I say "no erotica" I certainly don't mean there can't/shouldn't be sex in a story--some of you write some very good bedroom bits. I'm referring more to the "no purpose but sex" or "detailed, graphic, print out and keep by your bedside for a dry spell" stories.
I'd really rather not have to click the little toggle that says "Adult content" on this site because that limits our audience and our participants to people above the age of 18. I'm not trying to limit expression--honestly, I don't know how limiting it is to ask writers to avoid one subgenre of the many hundreds out there, you know?
As far as how come I got to post the rules, I just put them up when I set up the website. *shrug*
However, I hope you know that I DO very much want this to be a place where people can be creative and feel supported and encouraged. Heck, that's why I wanted to do it again in the first place. That's also why I asked that critique only be given on the author's okay because I didn't want people to avoid posting out of fear of being shredded.
How about this? If anyone wants to write erotica, post a link to the story offsite and a line that reads something like, "Contains adult content" or "Not work safe" or whatever. Is that fair?
Oh sure, that's fair. I tend to apply all sorts of warning labels to myself anyway. One more isn't going to be a problem.
and its not like I want to sit around and write porn, but hey, you never know what a title will inspire.
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