Guidelines to Writing for TR

[10Kaziem]

This thread contains rough guidelines to writing for TR as well as general guidelines to submitting a new book.

General guidelines to submitting a new book for TR:
1) Create a thread with the title of your book as the title of the thread.

2) Copy and paste your story into the body of the post. Don't add it as an attachment.

3) 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 others, edit all changes into first post. This makes threads easier to get around in.

4) If your work is lore-heavy, you may want to clarify exactly how your story fits into lore before people who might know less about your specific subject get riled up.

5) Use the following format to title & author your book in your post:
bold the work's title. 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



Guidelines to writing for TR:
When talking about the place books have in Tamriel Rebuilt, we are really asking what they do in an Elder Scrolls game, because in the end that is what we are making. Books have a role to play because they carry an enormous potential to build a world beyond the several gigabytes that constitute the game. They can establish things that are far beyond the budget, time limit or skill of any development team (including us) and can often plainly do things that are impossible to describe otherwise. They are necessary, because to some extent they save the fictional world we can portray through our game engine from becoming a facade, transitory and ultimately meaningless.

Keeping the above in mind, it becomes obvious that books, far more than a source of information, are tools. Any worthwhile book seeks to do something; it takes the world as we imagine it and builds upon it, deconstructs it, reconstructs it, changes it, nuances it, … Books always have hidden agendas.

1) Take your time to decide a single subject. Something or anything that interests you.

2) The people around here are more than willing to assist; your work will be reviewed, discussed and suggestions will be made. If something needs to be fixed, fix it. If you don't know how, ask for further assistance. It is most important to be persistent and dedicated. No one is perfect, don't give up.

3) Follow the steps it takes to write a good story. Once you have your subject, 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) 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 story's tense. One tense please.
V) Check your spelling. Spell check is helpful, but don't rely on it. (i.e. there, their and they're or to, too and two)


Great sources of TES lore:
The FAQ at the official forum:
http://forums.bethsoft.com/forum/16-elder-scrolls-lore/

The Imperial Library:
http://www.imperial-library.info/

This thread is a replacement for [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=15500]these guidelines[/url] and [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=23844]this thread[/url]. The discussion thread for this sticky is [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=25006]here[/url]