Stuff You Can Post About

There are a number of ways members can contribute posts on the GWYO LJ comm. Some of the most common contributions are enumerated below with guidelines for how to make these posts the most effective for the community. The comm operates with moderated posting, so during check-ins it may take some time for your post to appear. If a post is not appropriate in some way, it will be rejected and a reason will be given.

Discussion Posts

We fully encourage members to make posts and start discussions. Any posts related to writing and publishing are on-topic. You might post a question inspired by your writing (perhaps a personal issue you're currently facing in your work, a writing topic you're interested in discussing, or a question to get to know your fellow GYWO writers), a write-up of your own writing advice or experience, a link to an article or blog about writing or publishing, or a review or recommendation about a writing tool or technique.

We recommend that these posts leave room for discussion (perhaps by ending on a question or eliciting opinions before providing your own in the comments). We also ask that members appropriately credit writers and publications for any articles linked to/mentioned or for any quoted work.

Share Your Work

As this is a writing comm, we want you to share what you've written. Works of any size or type may be posted, but we do ask that when you do, you follow a few guidelines. Posts that do not meet these guidelines will receive a moderator note requesting changes—either through the moderation queue or through a comment for minor changes. If you are asked to make a change, please know that we want your work to post, we just also want ease for readers and the community.

Each post of fanfic or original work must have a header with it. The header should include:

Title: do not title it "Untitled", or anything else that gets you out of writing a real title
Fandom or Original Universe: for fanfic, or if you have been posting numerous snippets from the same original universe
Rating: please use either the MPAA ratings (G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17), or describe your rating (i.e., "All Ages", "Mature", etc.)
Word count: since that's the point of the group!
Brief summary: 1–3 sentences should suffice
Brief warnings: any particular hardcore violence or sex acts within
Writing Prompt: (optional) if wrote to a challenge or prompt from the community
Beta: (optional) if you use a beta, note it here

The entire story must be behind a cut, no matter the length. Please place any author's notes behind the cut (to keep headers as brief as possible); we recommend at the end of the story.

Links to your personal journal or writing journal are fine, but please still use the above header when posting on GYWO.

Because we are not set up to be an archive, please only tag your fic using the tags that are provided for genre. If you need a tag made for a specific genre or subgenre, please let a moderator know and we'll take care of that for you.

Challenge/Contest Announcements

During the year you may come across writing challenges/exchanges/contests here on LJ. Should you want to share that information with GYWO, please include a description of the community (such as "Harry Potter Next Gen Big Bang"), any basic requirements for participation ("minimum 5,000 words"), and important dates ("sign ups from Jan 15-Jan 31, rough draft due March 15, final draft due April 30"). We welcome announcements for any writing chanllenges, be they fandom-specific or multifandom, or original. If two or more people enter a post about the the same fest around the same time, we will try to take the first post submitted, unless another post has more information.

Kudos

Finally, once you've become a great writer and achieved something to crow about, we want you to share the joy! Let us know about your successes and celebrate with you!