Fanfiction Posting Guidelines
Stories that contain explicit sex, graphic violence, or extreme gore are not permitted. Stories may involve sex, violence, and blood/gore, but if it's described in detail or particularly intense or over the top--the kind of thing you'd rate "Excplicit" on the Archive of Our Own's scale--it doesn't belong here.
This is obviously something of a fuzzy rule where it's hard to set hard-and-fast guidelines. If you're not planning to post erotica or something luridly violent, gross, or intended primarily to titillate your readers, you're probably fine. If you're unsure whether your story's appropriate to post here, though, feel free to contact a staff member with an excerpt of the content you're worried about. They'll be able to tell you if it's okay.
Please provide appropriate content warnings for your story. Generally speaking you should warn readers if your story contains violence, sexual content, blood/gore/other body fluids, drug abuse, strong language, suicide, sexual assault, or other themes that people may find disturbing. You may choose to include any other warnings you consider appropriate.
Content warnings should be posted either at the beginning of your story or at the beginning of an individual chapter. You can put them behind a spoiler if you like, so long as you make it clear what the spoiler contains and it's easy for people to find.
You may post fanfic for any fandom, or original works, but please tag appropriately. This forum has "Pokémon," "Non-Pokémon," and "Original Work" thread prefixes. Use them!
The first post in your thread must be an actual chapter. Want to provide a teaser for a story you're going to write or get feedback on an idea you have? Create a thread in Fanfic Discussion and come back when you're ready to post the first chapter. Want to post worldbuilding info about your fan-made region, describe your fakemon, or write bios for your original characters? Create a thread in Fanfic Discussion and come back when you're ready to post the first chapter. Want to get reader-submitted characters for a collaborative story? Create a thread in Fanfic Discussion and come back when you're ready to post the first chapter.
This also means that your thread should contain the actual content of your story, not simply a link to where you've posted it on another site. You can include links to other places you've posted your work if you like, but only if you also post the actual content of your story in the thread.
You may include an informational post with things like an extended summary, links to related works, a chapter index, etc. as the first post of your thread but only if you follow it up with the actual first chapter within a short amount of time (think a small number of hours at most).
Post only your own work, or with the author's explicit permission. Don't plagiarize. Don't be that guy. If you want to post something written by another person, you must get that person's permission to publish their work here, provide staff with proof of this permission, and clearly credit the author in your thread.
If you fail to adhere to the posting guidelines, your thread may be locked until you resolve the issue. If you repeatedly violate the guidelines, you may be infracted.
If you have any questions, feel free to post in this thread, create a thread in Help and Suggestions, or ask a staff member. Happy posting!
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