General Information, Guidelines, and Quality Control

Place where in-game literature is written and developed.

Moderators: Haplo, Lead Developers

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Haplo
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Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2003 6:22 pm
Location: Celibacy

General Information, Guidelines, and Quality Control

Post by Haplo »

Howdy folks, Haplo's the name, and literature is the game.

A list of predecessors: Arcadea had the idea for this forum, and Yinnie did much if not all of the initial moving in. Majra was the first moderator assigned to this board, and to the Finished Books board, as well. Later, he handed down his position to Jacurutu, who filled it admirably for a while. Next, Earl stepped up, but was absent for a while, and Haplo was made a moderator temporarily, just to get things going smoothly again. Then Earl came back for a while, and life was good. By then, the Literature boards were nearly dead. Haplo, being the amazing superhero that he is, saved the day, and breathed new life into almost every thread in the board, and it became as you see it today. After that, Earl had gone again, and Haplo fully replaced his position as Literature Moderator. After a while, Haplo got Xui'al involved, who would become the next person in charge. After a long term of Haplo-Xui'al, and Xui'al-Haplo, Haplo vacated the spot and Xui'al reigned in glory for months. Eventually, Nanu rose through the very few levels of bureaucracy involving the Literature section and became the Head of Literature. He was succeeded by gro-Dhal, the incumbent.

There's today's history lesson.

Q: Who is the Literature Moderator?

A: gro-Dhal


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General guidelines:
1) When submitting a new book, create a thread, with the title of your book as the title of the thread.


2) If your work is lore-heavy, you might want to clarify exactly how your story fits into lore before people who might know less about your specific subject get riled up. If you're not sure whether something will fly, PM me or gro-dhal. Others who know about lore but are less likely to answer your questions are Sload and Adanorcil. It's generally a good idea to PM 2 or more people for answers, especially if your unsure about something.


3) Copy and paste your story into the body of the post. Don't add it as an attachment; that's just silly.



4) If your story contains multiple acts or chapters, or other divisions (or if you've only written it up to a certain point)... just add those parts later by editing your first post. In fact, any time you change your story at all, whether to fix spelling or to use suggestions from TR members... edit all changes into first post. This makes threads easier to get around in.


5) The story will be reviewed for lore, grammar, spelling, and overall flow. If the story doesn't fit into established lore, the burden to fix any issues lies squarely on the writer. While TR members might be full of suggestions, don't expect them to write your story for you.


6) Once the three moons of lore, spelling, and grammar align properly... I'll give the writer some time to confirm that yes, (s)he has nothing left to add or modify, and the story can be considered finished.

-- -- --
a)
If your story is (or will be) long, it's a good idea to post part of it... so if it's lore-breaking, we can reject it right away and save you time :)

b) If you don't give an author name and race (and the book isn't supposed to have an anonymous author), those will be provided by... whomever suggests something halfway decent. A book doesn't necessarily need an author.


--- --- ---




ALL works needing a Lore or Grammar review, or an Author's Reply, should be titled as such:
:Name-Here: [Awaiting Author Reply/Grammar & Lore Check]

HOW TO TITLE & AUTHOR YOUR BOOK IN YOUR POST:
Bold the work's name. Follow it with 'by', lowercase, on a new line. NO colon after by, and DO NOT capitalize the b in by. Italicize the author's name.

Example:
The Seasons
by Horatio Gargonath

ALSO, please make sure you add the proper tag to your title!

The CS will only allow for 255 characters (including spaces) in the book's title, so from now on, please make your book title less than 255 characters.



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For those with lore questions...
The FAQ at the official forum:
[url]http://forums.bethsoft.com/forum/16-elder-scrolls-lore/[/url]


The Imperial Library:

[url]http://www.imperial-library.info/[/url]

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A wee story from long ago. :-):

Xui'al: "During the Great Terror of the Literature Forum, no one knew who would be the next to go, but everyone would remember the first... On the bleak morning of the 17th of February, He was taken to the chopping block. Within 20 minutes he was dead."

Haplo: "20 minutes? That sounds painful..."

Xui'al: "The axe was dull."

Haplo: "Ah. I almost pity him."

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SPELL OUT NUMBERS. SPELL OUT NUMBERS. SPELL OUT NUMBERS.

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[ninja updated by gro-Dhal 13/09/2013]
Last edited by Haplo on Sat Jul 12, 2008 3:54 am, edited 8 times in total.
Xui'al
Developer Emeritus
Posts: 1330
Joined: Tue Mar 29, 2005 9:21 pm
Location: Wastelands of Canada.

Post by Xui'al »

This is written by Ronain Arthyn:

Due to the large influx of aspiring writers, it has been deemed that there should be some kind of guide for the literature and writing section of TR. This was posted after consulting with Xui'al, at his request and currently meets his approval.


For those that desire to be a part of Tamriel Rebuilt by writing literature, I feel an introduction to Tamriel Rebuilt literature is in order. I fully understand the desire to be part of this project. It is a wondrous thing to see so many different people come together and work toward something of this magnitude. This is not meant to be condescending or disrespectful. This is written in altruism for the deluged literary moderators.

I would like to mention the following:

1.)Involving ones self in a project like this can lead to frustration, anxiety, anger, hostility, stress and depression.

2.)Projects of this nature require lots of time. More often than not, people don’t have the ability to dedicate the time required to accomplish things in the manner in which TR wants them to be done.

If you understand those things, and you would like to write for Tamriel Rebuilt then please do the following:

1.)Please take your time and decide a single topic, something or anything that interests you. (Stories about Hammerfell and informational literature about Stirk, Hammerfell and the surrounding area will catch the attention of the Modders and the Moderators.)

2.)Most of the Modders and Moderators here are more than willing to assist; one or more of the Modders or Moderators will review your work after it has been posted and make suggestions. If there is something that needs to be fixed, fix it. If you do not know how, ask for further assistance. The most important thing is being persistent and dedicated. No one is perfect. Don’t give up.

3.)Follow the steps that it takes to write a good story. Once you have your topic, outline what you wish to discuss. Use your outline to expound upon your theme.

4.)Do the research! You are writing the book, song, scroll, journal or quest. YOU should know the lore that substantiates and supports it, better than most. You should be able to defend your position.

5.)Tamriel Rebuilt is looking for things to be in line with Bethesda’s lore. This is non negotiable. There are myriad sites on the World Wide Web (WWW) to find TES GAME LORE, but some tend to be a bit more subjective than others. Tamriel Rebuilt recommends research to be done within game or at The Imperial Library, henceforth TIL. The works at TIL are taken directly from the game literature and manuals. TIL tends to be much more objective than some of the other sites. TIL can be found at http://til.gamingsource.net/

6.)PROOF READ your work. If someone else is not available to read your work prior to submission, try the following techniques:

I) Read the piece out loud.
II) Read the piece backwards.
III) Check your grammar.
IV) Check your stories tense. One tense please.
V) Check your spelling. Spell check is helpful, but dont rely on it. (i.e. There, Their and they're or to, two and two)

7.)Submit the work when you think it is ready. Don’t rush to get it done. This is about displaying your best work and you will be judged accordingly.

8.)If your first or second submission is rejected, keep at it. Dedication and devotion mean a great deal around here.

And finally, not everyone has the ability to write in the manner that Tamriel Rebuilt needs. Really look at the possibility of being rejected. Will it cause you undue anger and resentment if your work is rejected? Keep in mind that professional writers often go through periods of rejection that can last years. If you cannot deal with rejection or constructive criticism, writing is not the place for you.
'What if man is not really a scoundrel - man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind - then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it's all as it should be.'
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