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Welcome to the rules page for Wyvern’s Library. The following will be the breakdown of the rules within the Library, detailing what is and what is not allowed, things to be careful of, and general procedures that are good practices to follow.
Elfwood requires that all material going into the Wyvern’s Library have some form of
Science Fiction or Fantasy elements, making it ‘In Genre’. For an explanation of what is
‘In Genre’ please see the General Rules.
All stories must have SF&F(Science Fiction or Fantasy) elements within the body of the file,
having it only in the description will not cut it. However, the exception to this rule is if
the SF&F elements don’t reveal themselves until further into the story and would only be found
on a separate file. If this is the case, please be sure that you submit the files together.
Genres:
Quality Guidelines do exist within the Library, as they do in the art sections of Elfwood.
The quality guidelines are for viewing purposes, and have nothing to do with how well written
the story is.
Below are some of the common declines seen for quality, please note that you can view your
files before they wait for approval of a moderator, and that it is recommended that you double
check the file while it is uploaded to Elfwood for any problems.
(A) Bad HTML coding.
Check http://www.nethermind.co.nz/html.html to see
some examples on how to code your story properly.
(D) Too many items in a file.
Fan fiction is recognized by the use of words, phrasing, languages and locations that are accepted as being part of another creator’s world. For example: ‘hobbit’ or ‘the Shire’ are from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” and use of those words in your story would be considered Fan Fiction.
Another example is the most common form of fan fiction submitted to Elfwood. The word “Drow“, when used to refer to a race of elves, is copyrighted to TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast.
Elfwood also considers works Fan Fiction if the story has original characters but is based on someone else‘s world, it‘s still fan fiction.
However, this does *NOT* apply to worlds within Elfwood. If you’re writing a story based on another Elfwood writer/artist’s world and they’ve given you permission to do so, this is acceptable even if that person has their work published outside of Elfwood later.
Many more examples of fan fiction exist, more than we could possibly hope to list here. However, the ruling on it is simple. Fan fiction, in any form, is not allowed within the Wyvern‘s Library.
Beyond uploading your stories and giving them the appropriate titles and so forth, there are a few guidelines to how to organize your content correctly. This applies to illustrations, character and racial biographies, dictionaries and thesauruses. Please follow the guidelines below regarding this content:
A) Illustrations.
You can use an illustration if:
For the ease of the moderators, we require that you provide this information in the stories description, and give proper credit and state that you have permission to use it if the image is not done by you. Also, please provide a link to the original artist if possible.
To add an illustration to your story, use the following code in your HTML. For this example, I‘ve used my own UID and webpage.
<img src="http://www.elfwood.com/libr/n/e/netpoet22/image1.jpg" height="210" width="375">
Just replace my link with the link to your illustration. Be sure to indicate within the HTML what size you want your picture to be. The maximum size the picture can be is 450x450 pixels and 250Kb in file size.
Illustrations for your stories within the Wyvern‘s Library MUST be uploaded to Elfwood and the links must come from there. You may NOT hotlink to an illustration that‘s uploaded anywhere else, such as on a site other than Elfwood or to your Elfwood artwork page. Each illustration must be uploaded individually and linked appropriately, though they can be used for more than one story (such as if you have a divider picture that you use routinely, etc.).
B) Foreign/made-up languages.
All stories are to be written primarily
in English. Other languages are allowed for dialogue, but we require that you inform
the readers what language you are using in the description box, if you don’t provide
a translation of the text. Made up languages are fine, but we require a note that you
are using a made up language in the description box.
There are other acceptable ways to inform the readers other than the description box though.
Within the body of the text itself. Example: Ed sighed. “G‘lar kadu means that she likes you, you foolish elf.“
By use of footnotes. If you use footnotes, simply place a number after the language in question, and detail out the translations at the bottom of each story that utilizes the language.
By indicating in the description that all non-English language is translated in a single file that is used for a dictionary/thesaurus for all your Elfwood stories. Then don’t forget to provide a link.
C) Dictionary/Thesaurus.
All Wyvern’s Library members are allowed one (1) file that they can use as a running
dictionary/thesaurus for ALL of their stories in one file. This is the only file that
can be non genre.
D) Character/Racial biographies.
All Wyvern’s Library members are allowed
one (1) file that they can use to map out and describe character profiles, racial biographies,
histories, and land descriptions.
A) Public domain works.
Stories, movies, and other related items
that have had their copyrights expire are considered public domain works. Once
a story has become a public domain work, stories and parodies involving these
worlds and characters are perfectly acceptable within Wyverns Library, as long
as they follow all other rulings.
So by this, a story about Romeo and Juliet set in space and involving alien races, would be perfectly acceptable. This includes plays, works of prose and poetry, and fairy tales.
B) Brand names.
Some usage of brand name products, especially in
a modern-day setting, is allowed. However, too many dropped product names will
get your story declined.
C) Dreams/Hallucinations.
Dreams and hallucinations, by themselves,
are not considered in genre. The exception to this is, if the dream/hallucination
has any impact on the “real“ world after it‘s completion, then it would be
considered in genre.
Additionally, there are some stories that are only revealed to be dreams/hallucinations near the very end of a long story. Those type of stories are allowed as long as the stories are well over fifteen (15) chapters of genre elements present before you reveal that it‘s nothing more than a dream.
C) Links within stories.
No HTML links will be allowed within the
body of the story, beyond simple ones such as moving between different sections
of the existing story (anchor linking).
D) Celebrities.
No celebrity will be allowed to be used as a
character in any of your stories. They can be MENTIONED in passing but
NOT as actual characters.
E) More rulings... will be added to this section as the need dictates. Elfwood is an ever-changing beast, and what there isn‘t a rule for at the moment doesn‘t necessarily mean there won‘t be a rule about it in the future. Watch this space here for future details.
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is maintained by helpful
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