Twilighted :: All-Inclusive, High-Quality Twilight Fan Fiction

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Submission Guidelines

Twilighted Submission Guidelines

Mission Statement
Twilighted is a fanfiction archive that welcomes all ships, all ratings, and all categories of Twilight-related fanfiction as long as it is well-written. Our goal is to host quality fiction of varied subject and style that satisfies a certain level of craftsmanship. Through reviews and our forums, we hope to foster discussion of the Twilight universe and the fanfiction it inspires in a friendly, supportive environment.

Disclaimer
Twilighted is run by a staff of volunteers (Twilighted Validation Betas) who love the Twilight universe and have considerable experience reading, writing, and/or beta-ing Twilight fanfiction. We view the varied backgrounds and tastes of our staff as an asset. Please know that we make every effort to be fair and to prevent personal preferences from interfering with approval. It is impossible, however, to remove all aspects of subjectivity from the approval process, and we reserve the right to make subjective decisions about submissions. We do our best to accept stories that offer something interesting or new to the archive. Sometimes a story doesn't interest our staff or we've simply seen the idea too many times before. We reserve the right to say, "We're not interested."

Submissions Guidelines

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE ONLY ONE CHAPTER IN THE QUEUE AWAITING VALIDATION UNLESS YOU ARE WRITING MULTIPLE STORIES.
AUTHORS WRITING MULTIPLE STORIES MAY ONLY HAVE A TOTAL OF TWO CHAPTERS, EACH UPDATING DIFFERENT STORIES, IN THE QUEUE AT A TIME. This is defined as, but not limited to: one existing update and one new story, two one-shots, two different WIPs, one chapter of an existing story and one collaboration chapter, etc., but not two chapters of the same story.
IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING A SINGLE CHAPTER STORY, PLEASE PUT THE WORDS "ONE SHOT" IN THE CHAPTER TITLE.
PLEASE SAVE A COPY OF YOUR SUBMISSIONS ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER-IF A CHAPTER IS REJECTED, IT IS DELETED. WE DO NOT KEEP A COPY OF IT.
Story titles, chapter titles, and summaries must not contain profanity or banners/graphics with any genitalia, bare breasts, or bare bums.
After you are assigned a beta on chapter one of a multi-chapter fic, please put your beta's name in parentheses after the chapter name on ALL subsequent chapter submissions for the same story, so they can be easily found in the queue. The beta's name will be removed before publication. We validate those chapters that are labeled first, so IF YOU FAIL TO DO THIS, THE WAIT TIME FOR YOUR CHAPTER TO BE VALIDATED MAY BE SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED.

Story Disclaimers:

All submissions must be accompanied by a complete disclaimer. If a suitable disclaimer is not included, the site administrators reserve the right to add a disclaimer. Repeat offenders may be subject to further action up to and including removal of stories and account.

Sample Disclaimer

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Every chapter of a story must meet our acceptance standards. Acceptance of one chapter does not guarantee that later chapters will not be rejected if they fail to meet our submission qualifications.

You may not make changes to your chapter after it has been validated without express approval from your validation beta.

Warnings:

Stories involving sensitive subject matters MUST include warnings in the Summary, Story Notes, AND Chapter Notes (for EACH chapter) which should adequately alert potential readers of material they may reasonably find objectionable. Betas reserve the right to include or change a disclaimer or reject a chapter if sensitive content is not adequately disclosed.

Shipping:

All ships are acceptable, including slash pairings that are tastefully done and well written, but as discussed below, pedophilic pairings and incest pairings are NOT acceptable. If a multi-chaptered story is found to violate our shipping policy after it has been accepted, all chapters of the story will be deleted from the site. Additional inappropriate content is listed below.

Story Categories and Guidelines:

Canon

Excepted as stated below, stories submitted to the archive must take prior canon into consideration. Canon compliancy itself will be evaluated on a case by case basis. The approval team may take into consideration whether or not the story could have happened based on SM's defined universe, as opposed to whether it would happen. That is to say, your story does not necessarily have to be what we as an admin team believe SM would write next, but it should be evident from your own writing that the scenario you are writing about could grow from established canon.

Alternate Universe

Alternate Universe must take some canon elements into account-the characters, the setting, or the universe that SM created-but it can deviate from canon in any number of ways. In general, characters which we are familiar with through SM's writing should not act out of character for no discernable reason. AU stories must demonstrate a reason for creating an alternative universe. Alternate timelines (following canon to a point and then veering off course), alternate pairings, or contextual reassignment (changing time period, place, or situation) are a few examples of AU. As Twilighted has an "AU-Human" Category, by default, AU Twific must retain some supernatural element, even if not in a canon way.

All Human

AU-Human stories are given a wide berth. Due to their popularity, originality, and the diversity they add to the archive, such stories are generally acceptable in spite of having little relationship to Twilight other than characters sharing the names of those from the books. The characters may act OOC or may be the human counterparts of the Twilight characters. There should be no supernatural elements.

Real Person Fic

Real person fic (RPF) is allowed if there is sufficient connection to the Twilight universe.

Ratings:

Twilighted hosts stories with ratings from G to NC-17. (Please see our Ratings Guidelines for more specific information about ratings categories.) The staff may change a rating on any story at any time, if deemed necessary. You must be 18 or over or the age of legal consent in your country to read and submit stories at Twilighted that are rated R or NC-17.

Beta Service:

All stories published at Twilighted have been reviewed and/or edited by a Twilighted Validation Beta who has been invited to join our staff by reason of their demonstrated writing ability, experience, or education. We expect all authors to go through this process, regardless of whether or not a story has been published at other sites. It is our belief that every author can benefit from the review of their work, whether to clarify confusing plot points, improve grammar, or to catch one more typo. Please recognize that in order to expedite validation, a validation beta may make minor changes to a story (normally but not exclusively limited to corrections) without first consulting the author.

Twilighted betas serve as jurors first and foremost, initially deciding on whether or not submissions meet our standards for quality and compliance with our rules, but they do not fulfill the role of a conventional beta with in-depth advice and or story assistance. Therefore, authors are encouraged to engage the services of a conventional beta but are expected, in any event, to do their best at catching typos and errors before submitting their work to Twilighted.

Errors hold up the validation process and can result in rejection, so the better the writing is when a chapter is submitted, the faster it will be posted. Our volunteers have a limited amount of time to spend reading and correcting submissions. Any author determined to be abusing this service will be given a warning. If an author submits a rejected chapter three times without significant improvement, the author's account will be locked for one week, after which Twilighted administration will review the case and make a decision on whether or not to allow further submissions.

Your validation beta for a story will generally not change until completion of that story, although a substitute beta may step in to help if the assigned beta becomes temporarily unavailable or a permanent change may be made if a beta retires. However, each story you submit may have a different validation beta. New story submissions should not contain the name of a validation beta unless the validation beta has agreed to beta in advance. Keep in mind that the new story submission must still await its turn in the queue for validation.

Every chapter of a story must meet our acceptance standards. Acceptance of one chapter does not guarantee that later chapters will not be rejected if they fail to meet our submission qualifications.

Visit the Betas for Hire Thread in the forums if you need assistance finding a pre-beta to help you get your story ready for submission.

Please see our Story Standards set forth below, Beta Guidelines, and Author Guidelines to see more specific information regarding our expectations of authors and betas.

Inappropriate Content:

Twilighted does not accept submissions that deal with incest (except among the adopted siblings of the Cullen family, of course, in Canon or AU stories only), pedophilia (except between centenarian vampires and 17 year old humans), necrophilia (except with vampires of course) or bestiality (with the exception of werewolves, of course). (What kind of book is this Twilight, anyway? Sheesh!)

Stories involving the development of a romantic relationship between characters after non-consensual sex has occurred between them are usually not allowed, although the historical or AU context may be taken into account. If your story contains a scenario of this type, you should discuss it with your validation beta in advance or run the risk that your story will be removed.

Racial intolerance, rape as titillation, and romantic relationships among HUMAN adopted children raised as siblings since childhood (with or without knowledge) are also not acceptable. No undocumented (either by interviews or pictures) drug use or other illegal behavior in Real Person Fiction is allowed, assuming the character is a real person. Fics declined due to this content cannot be resubmitted without a substantial rewrite.

Any user that posts stories, poems, or other literary works that would normally require approval via the story validation process in their bio, a forum, or in a series that contains no approved stories will have their account deleted.

Story titles, chapter titles, summaries, and pen names must not contain profanity or banners/graphics with any genitalia, bare breasts or bare bums.

Content Requiring Warnings in the Summary:

Stories dealing with extreme violence, racism, non-consensual sex, and extreme sexual fetishes are subject to Administration approval and may be rejected if deemed inappropriate. Fics declined due to such content cannot be resubmitted without a substantial rewrite. If a proper warning is not included and the fic is approved, the beta assigned will edit the summary to reflect the necessary warning.

"Please read," "Untitled," etc. are not acceptable titles or summaries.

Story Standards:

Spelling and Grammar: Any story that has more than ten (10) spelling and/or grammar mistakes for every thousand words will be declined.
- Spelling mistakes may include a major character's name, a location name, any other important Twilight element, or any other misspelled or misused words.
- Major grammar errors include but are not limited to: capitalization, punctuation, quotations, inconsistent verb tenses, dialogue formatting, improper or repetitive sentence and paragraph structure, switching between past and present tense (outside of epilogues, prologues, and flashbacks), and the use of Netspeak.
- Artistic license is not an acceptable reason for departing from accepted usage.
Quality: Stories may be rejected due to overall quality. This may include, but is not limited to, lack of original plot (including plot conventions that are frequently submitted to the archive, even if well-written), implausible plot, inconsistency in plot, clumsy sentences, consistent use of one-sentence paragraphs, choppy organization, no explanation for characters being OOC (when applicable), and any other factor the Administration deems to not meet our standards of quality.
- Inappropriate comments, bashing of the site, other authors, members, or validation betas in summaries or author/end notes are not allowed and will be removed by the beta. Violations of this rule will result in a warning and possible suspension from the site.
- Beta requested corrections must be made within seven days of the request or the chapter will be rejected and removed from the queue.
- Chapters, including beta requested corrections, must not be revised after validation-such action will result in a warning and possible suspension from the site.

Common Reasons for Rejection

More than one chapter of the same story in the queue at one time.
More than two chapters of different stories with the same author in the queue at one time.
Titles, banners, and graphics with profanity, bare breasts, bare bums, and other clearly expressed sexual tone/content.
Inadequate disclaimers for stories with delicate subject matter.
Violation of Shipping and Canon Rules which include, among other things, pedophilic pairings, incest, OOC for no discernable reason (where applicable), drug use or other negative images of real people in RPF-based stories.
Plot implausibility.
Unoriginal Plot/story content.
Grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors that exceed ten errors per one thousand words.
Inappropriate story content violation as stated in rules.

The Twilighted Administration reserves the right to reject any story they deem unfit for the site. This is purely subjective.

Length:

All story submissions must be no less than 500 words. This policy applies to one-shots and each chapter of a multi-chapter story. Author's notes, quotes, or song lyrics used to frame a story will not be included in the word count.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is defined as copying the work of another author, in part or in whole, regardless of where that work appears. Paraphrasing can also be considered plagiarism. Because the source material for all fics is the same, similar plots are not unusual; however, when the similarities are too unusual or numerous to be considered coincidental, they will be subject to investigation. The Twilighted Administration will investigate all charges of plagiarism. Stories found to be plagiarized and/or paraphrased will be deleted and offending authors may be banned from the site. To the extent your story "borrows" or is "based on" another published work, such as a book or movie (except Twilight), attribution should be given, even in obvious cases.

Categories:

Stories must be submitted to the proper category. If there is an appropriate sub-category, DO NOT add your story to the main category. Only one category per story is allowed unless approval is otherwise given by a validation beta.

Pairings:

Story pairings should be limited to the top two characters within the story.

Language:

All stories must be in English. British-English colloquialisms or slang are acceptable only if the characters in the story are from or living in the British Commonwealth.

Poetry/Lyrics/Plays/Screenplays:

Twilighted does not accept poetry, lyrics, plays, or screenplays as stories in the archive.

Multi-chaptered Stories:

Stories with multiple chapters should be archived as such and NEVER as separate stories. Upload the first chapter of your story, and then click on Manage Stories in your account to add additional chapters. If you have trouble with this, please contact the Administration or ask a friend to help you. PLEASE UPLOAD NO MORE THAN ONE CHAPTER PER STORY OR TWO CHAPTERS PER AUTHOR (FOR TWO DIFFERENT STORIES) AT A TIME-WHEN ONE HAS BEEN VALIDATED, YOU MAY UPLOAD ANOTHER, AND SO ON.

Publishing and Submission of Stories:

Submitted stories are reviewed by the Twilighted Administration Validation Betas. Approval or rejection may take three to four weeks.
Betas claim the stories they would like to beta from the submission queue. You may request a particular beta, but the beta is under no obligation to accept the request. You will receive an email from your beta once they accept the story or if it needs editing. Do not put a beta's name on a new story submission unless you have secured the beta's prior permission to do so.
You will receive an email if your story is rejected. We try to provide some detail with the rejection letter to explain why a story was rejected, but we are unable to provide true beta service showing full reasons for rejection. It is up to the discretion of the individual beta to give examples of why a story was rejected. IMPORTANT: There are cases where a story is rejected but either the author has an incorrect email listed in their profile, or their email provider has spam filters running that block automatic email. Please make sure that you have the correct email address listed and that you allow all emails from info@twilighted.net and psymommy@yahoo.com.
Rejected stories may be resubmitted only after they have been revised in accordance with suggested improvements or corrections. Authors who resubmit without taking the suggestions given in the rejection letter into consideration will be rejected automatically. Repeated offenses will result in being banned from the site.
Any user that posts stories, poems, or other literary works that would normally require approval via the story validation process in their bio or in a series that contains no approved stories will have their account deleted.

Publishing and Submission of Additional Chapters of an Accepted Story:

Must include Beta name in parentheses after the chapter title.
Must meet the standard for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and content.
Must not exceed ten errors per one thousand words.
Once a story is accepted, validation of subsequent chapters will normally occur between one and seven days of chapter submission.

Change of Policy:

These policies and guidelines are effective immediately and apply to all authors, new submissions, and stories currently awaiting approval. However, any new policies and guidelines will not be enforced retroactively for already archived stories. New chapters of WIP stories will be subject to these guidelines.

*These policies and guidelines are subject to change without notice.

Twilighted Submission Guidelines adapted from:

Checkmated Submission Guidelines at www.checkmated.com

Twilighted Rating Guidelines

Stories and/or chapters submitted to Twilighted are required to conform to the following ratings guidelines. These guidelines should not be confused with, or compared to, the ratings system used by the Motion Picture Association of America. The internet rules for decency are based on what is appropriate for a thirteen-year-old, and these guidelines are written to reflect that standard.

Every author and beta is expected to respect these guidelines and ensure that material submitted to the site is appropriately labeled. Failure to do so will result in immediate action by the Administration.

G: General audience, appropriate for all ages.