Forum: Story Ideas

you had to follow their strict guidelines for writing there.

From the site, which is hard to read the dark blue text on the black background:

Rules For Story Submissions.

Due to the increase of authors writing in the MORFS Universe, I've felt that it is necessary to add this section to the Universe Rules.

Rule #1 - Grammar & Structure. Stories submitted for posting must have proper sentence structure and grammar. The story doesn't need to be perfect if it hasn't yet been proofed, but the proofreaders should not have to re-format the entire structure of a story before it is legible. The following are thing to watch for when writing a story.

Avoid run-on sentences and paragraphs. During dialog, there should be a new paragraph for each different character. This helps the reader follow who is speaking.

Use the proper punctuation. "… " are used for dialog. I will accept *… * or italics for telepathic dialog or thoughts, although I do prefer italics be used for thoughts and the asterisks be used for telepathy.

Use proper dialog techniques. New paragraph for each speaker. Identify the speakers by using phrases such as …," said John. or …," cried Jane. This is an easy way to identify the speaker and to add the correct emotion to what they've just said. NEVER use script format dialog such as:

John: Hi Jane, how are you?

Jane: I'm having a great day. Thanks for asking.

If I receive a story written with script format, I will not read/edit/post it. Use contractions. If you listen to how people talk, they rarely say phrases like do not, would not or they are. They say don't wouldn't and they're. Stories that don't use contractions during dialog have characters that sound flat and untrue. If you want character that feel real, then use slang and contractions. With a good author, you can tell who is speaking from the various speech patterns the individual characters have.

Rule #2 - Format. All stories should be sent to morfs@nowhere2go.org in either a txt, rtf or html file. rtf is the preferred format out of those three. When you e-mail it, let me know whether it is finished or needs proofing. I would ask that all authors wait at least one week after the story has been posted here before posting it at other sites.

Rule #3 - Extras. I would ask that authors send me a database entry for each main Morfed character in their story, following the examples listed on the database page. A picture is nice, but not required. Also, I would ask that anything you feel should be added to the MORFS Encyclopedia be sent to me along with your story.

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For those interested.

edit to add: The exact set of grammar and structure rules aren't stated - I'm aware of 3 used in the USA while the UK and Australia have some variations to the USA ones too.

It would also imply you have to attribute every dialogue, and not use the saving ping-pong drop attribution dialogue techniques with only two speakers. I can only assume any html code is accepted (blink code anyone).