Talk:Entering chapters
Cut out these drafts for clarity:
<DRAFT RULES BELOW - WHAT DO WE THINK?>
Long Chapters
We understand that on some occasions (though let this be exception rather than rule) your idea for a specific story twist does not match our ideals, that is why we wrote you should aim for 500 to 1500 words, rather than set this as a strict limit.
You can enter a longer chapter (again: please let this be a rarity), but there is a penalty: if you enter a long chapter, you thereby grant other users the right to enter a breakaway option where they see fit. So basically, your chapter is split up in two parts, where the only difference between posting two chapters in a row is that you do not have control over where the options are placed.
For those interested in breaking into a long chapter in this way, understand that you are only allowed to do this with chapters that Admin has marked as belonging to the long chapters category. You will recognise them by the notice at the bottom of the chapter. Please do not add chapters to this category yourself - you can put a notice on a chapter's talk page if you think it should be marked as a long chapter.
Short Chapters
You may have a brilliant idea, but you run out of time, get burried in work, or you're simply facing writer's block. And there you are, with that brilliant idea, but only a half finished chapter.
You can still enter it, but as a short chapter. This means other users are allowed to add to it, and not just at the end, after following an option, but anywhere they please. They can add some descriptive details, some lines of conversation, anything to 'fill out' your short chapter. So by entering a short chapter, you implictly invite the world to be your co-author.
To mark your own chapter as 'short', and put the code {{short}} at the end of your chapter. Please only add your own chapters to this category - if you think a chapter should be marked as short, put a notice on its talk page and Admin will review the situation.
<END OF DRAFT>
and some more from not posting two in a row:
Proposal: Do we need this one week waiting period? Or would longer chapters that other writers can break up at will, as proposed above, effectively make possible posting multiple consecutive chapters in one go anyway?
FROM: Talk:Their first date is a trip to the blacksmiths[edit]
Laurelote wrote:
- I must confess I know both angles I would like this story to go, but since I can't follow my own chapter...
Well, of course you can, as soon as a week passes and no one else has posted or claimed the chapter.
But if we all agree we'd be better of without that rule, we can also drop it altogether. It was put in place initially so one author wouldn't run away with a thread and alienate others, but now that the story has grown a bit and there are plenty of threads to choose from, maybe that sort of protection isn't necessary anymore.
-Iris 13 March 2006 20:48 (GMT)
Although knowing where I would like the story to go from my chapter, I would much rather have other people write it because and see what they think. I think that is much more interesting and otherwise I would probably just focus constantly on the one area of the story.
I like the current rule, but maybe it could be changed to something like - You cannot write more than 2 (or 3?) chapters in a row. This would stop people getting too carried away on one area of the story, and allow for situations where if you have a really great idea you can write it all down without having a single long chapter (Like Minx did for the sea monster bit The prophesy is that Faramir will do something else for Thorongil/Aragorn
And you could still fix a time limit in after that... What do you think?
-Laurelote 14 March 2006 09:15 (GMT)
I dunno, maybe that's overcomplicating things. The option of breaking into Long Chapters pretty much comes down to your suggestion. Just think of one long chapter as two chapters in a row by the same author, posted at the same time. That would also leave one option in the middle for another author, and that one week time cap on posting the next chapter for the original author.
I even wonder how much effect a time limit has with the pace the story has at the moment - I mean, by now it would be an uncharacteristic explosion of postings if both options of a chapter would be snapped up within a week.
-Iris 14 March 2006 17:13 (GMT)
Well maybe scrap the idea altogether and let authors write what they want... But leave it as a polite request for them not to take over an area too much... as you say, the story is quite big now with many angles so it wouldn't matter quite as much.
You could always give the author a friendly warning if you think they are taking over and put the rules back into place.
At the moment though, I think a week is pointless, but if you make the limit too long then you're in danger of slowing down the story even more.
-Laurelote 15 March 2006 08:28 (GMT)
- You could always give the author a friendly warning if you think they are taking over and put the rules back into place.
Ah, but then you assume anyone can take a hint. And believe you me, that isn't always so.
You put it perfectly when you wrote "Although knowing where I would like the story to go from my chapter, I would much rather have other people write it because and see what they think. I think that is much more interesting and otherwise I would probably just focus constantly on the one area of the story."
That's exactly it, isn't it? What makes this interactive story interesting, what makes it different from writing on your own, is this interaction with other writers: the fact that they'll take the story somewhere your own imagination would not have stretched to. As long as you recognise that as the charm of this whole arrangement, you will naturally want to sit back and let others have a go first, no need for a rule to stipulate you have to wait for a week.
But unfortunately, not everybody gets the idea. Some, and luckily they are a small minority, are happy to carry on writing themselves into isolation, even if time and time again other authors take no interest in the direction the story has taken. I'd say you then might as well -or even better so- write a stand-alone fic on your own somewhere. But some people just don't take hints.
The rules are mostly there for those kind of authors - those who don't seem to get it naturally. So we try to make them as unubtrusive for all others. Ideally, the rules describe that what comes naturally to you and me, so they won't hinder us.
And of course I'd like to get ridd of the rules completely, but once you do, there is also no grounds for 'friendly warnings'. Once, while we were in the middle of re-writing the rules, I tried to warn an author who had just claimed a chapter. I wanted to warn her about this upcoming rule, that wasn't in effect yet but would be by that evening, and would certainly influence the chapter she was working on. I just wanted to prevent her from having to throw work away. But this author fell so threatened by what was meant as a friendly head warning for the upcoming rule change, that she lashed out most ungraciously. I reckon she must have felt singled out, because this rule was not yet written down. Had it been written down already, she could have seen it applied to everyone, and there was no need to feel threatened.
Well, that's all speculation. Some people I just don't understand at all - but I have to sometimes, so I try to make sense of it all...
And when I have to deal with that minority of those who just.don't.get.it, having rules written down makes my life a lot easier. That's why we have idiotic rules like 'this is FaramirFiction.com, so don't turn this into the Harry Potter Interactive Story'. You wouldn't think we'd have to write down something that basic, you'd think that everyone would get that - but you'd be surprised...
- iris (@ 15 March 2006 15:24 (GMT))
One of my usual mistakes... I assume eveyone has common sense ;) I guess the rule will have to left as it is then. Although a week still seems too short for a time limit...
-Laurelote 17 March 2006 10:19 (GMT)
We started out with two weeks (as you can see from Minx's intro on Thorongil rescues Faramir despite his injury), then went to one week because there were so many chapters being posted in such a rapid pace at that time.
Maybe we could go back to two weeks. Or 10 days. Or maybe we should just try to get that pace back up to where it was ;)...
- iris @ 17 March 2006 10:30 (GMT)
How about 2 weeks AND try to get the pace back up to what it was. ;)
I am trying, but I just seem to get really enthusiastic about doing a particular chapter and then have a complete mind blank on what to write... I am slowly working on the next one though... :)
-Laurelote 17 March 2006 11:27 (GMT)