FAQ: How do I create a new story?

Creating a New Story

When you choose to start a new story you simply select "New Story" from the "Write" menu in the menu bar at the top of the page. This will bring you to the "Creating A New Story" screen, where you set up the information needed for your new story.

You then move on and create your first room. Creating this room follows most of the same rules as creating a general room in a story, only with fewer options. See the FAQ on Creating A New Room for more about this. After adding the room you will be greeted with a message telling you it was successfully added.

Updating Story Settings

Almost all of this story information can be changed after the fact by going to your Story Settings from within the story menu for that story. In those cases it's called the "Updating A Story" screen, but it's the same Story Elements found when creating a new story.

Elements of the Story Settings

The "Creating A New Story" and "Updating A Story" screens are separated into numerous listings you have to go down and either fill out or choose what setting you want. This section will detail each of them.

Story Title:	This is simply the name the story is going to have.
Short Description:	This is the subtitle that will appear on the search screens below your stories title. It is best to keep this relatively short.
Category:	This is the category the story will fall into. There are many categories to choose from, from Fantasy to Romance to Drama.
Maturity Rating:	This is the rating you give your story as far as how mature the content in it is. These follow the same basic style as the ratings movies are given.
Publicly Viewed Story:	This sets the story to public or private, allowing it to either be seen or hidden from view by other users (even if they look at your profile).
Public Room Adding:	This sets the on/off function that allows others to add rooms to the story or not. If this is set on anyone can add a room to the story. Setting Access Rights can always override this setting for certain people.
Room Review:	This sets the on/off switch for rooms that have been added by others requiring your approval before they get added to the story.
Email Alert:	This sets the on/off switch for email alerts whenever a new room is added to the story. Warning, this feature does not always work, so don't rely on it 100%.
Bold Links:	When this on/off switch is set on then links that have rooms attached will show up in bold. This is helpful when creating a story and looking for rooms that don't have rooms attached yet. Warning, this feature does not always work right so some unattached rooms may appear in bold.
Room Looping:	This on/off switch sets the ability to loop rooms for all those who have writing privileges in the story. When it is off only the owner of the story can make looping links.
Voting Eligibility:	This on/off switch sets the eligibility of the story to be voted on in any contests or special features the site may choose to do. These are not always happening so this does not always do anything.
Notes to Others:	These are some quick notes you may want to pass on to others who wish to add to your story. This is a good place to give basic information about the plot, themes, and directions you have in mind for the story.
Deleted:	This setting is only used to set a story as deleted or not. Deleted stories can be resurrected by changing this setting on them.