About the Community & Contest Guidelines

[inkstains_mod]

WELCOME TO INKSTAINS!

We are a weekly, prompt-based writing community, dedicated to helping members hone their creative writing skills. Whether you write as an amateur or professional, whether you’ve just started or have been writing for ages, and whatever your social or cultural background – we welcome you.
Questions, suggestions, and/or comments can be directed to your friendly mods.

THE CONTEST

Our main contest is a weekly stand-alone with a variety of prompts and, occasionally, additional restrictions to increase the challenge. Members are free to submit prompt ideas and will be credited when the submissions poll is posted.

SUBMISSIONS

Every Thursday, a moderator will post the topic post, which will contain the submissions poll. Here, you can showcase what you’ve done with the weekly prompt. Take the prompt and make it your own; we accept poetry, prose, prosetry, screenplay/scripts, fiction, nonfiction, and fanfiction. Art and music is also welcome, as long as there is a written element. You are also free to write in any language you wish, but please include an English translation in your entry - this is so the other members can understand your submission and give it all the votes it deserves!

When submitting, bear in mind that the audience includes members with different sensibilities and histories. Kindly include warnings if your submission contains any of the following elements:
- Explicit sexual content,
- Graphic violence,
- Strong language,
- Self-harm,
- Abuse/assault,
- Incest,
- Character death (especially suicide),
- Sexual violence and sexual scenes of dubious consent or non-consent,
- Underage sexual activity,
- Anything else which you believe may trigger a reader.

The submissions poll will have three sections for you to fill out. The first is a text entry box into which you can paste the link to your entry. The second is a text entry box in which you should include the warnings listed above, if any apply to your submission. These warnings will be listed with your entry in the poll; any other author's notes may go on your entry itself. The final section consists of two radio buttons - click the top button to request a volunteer editor or the bottom button not to request an edit.

VOTING

Use one account to vote (no sockpuppets!), but you may vote for as many entries as you wish. Feel free to advertise the community and your entry to your friends, but ask them to read all the entries and vote fairly if they're interested, not just show up to support you without reading the other entries. Voting will last from Thursday to at least Saturday; voting periods will be extended if many entries are in the poll.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Every Tuesday, Tips and Tricks will be posted. This is a writing advice column aimed at sharing experiences and helping one another with any problems they may be facing in their writing. TnT will also feature reminders of the current contest, any open calls for submissions we're aware of, and any humanitarian projects members bring to our attention.

Any member is welcome to write a column of their own and post it on a Tuesday, provided they include the reminders section. Otherwise, feel free to PM or email your TnT to a mod, who will be glad to post it for you with the appropriate reminders. Posting is currently moderated for any member not doing poll work to prevent multiple TnTs on the same day.

EDITING

You are welcome to sign up for an edit when submitting your entry – edits will be offered purely on a volunteer basis. We request that you stop by and offer an edit to someone else if you ask for someone to volunteer to edit your entry, but this is not a requirement. We will not, at this time, set up a regular editing team with assignments, and as such, we cannot guarantee that your submission will receive an edit.

FURTHER COMMUNITY RULES

We have a strong belief in author responsibility, and we are working to make this as safe a space as possible for all members. No free passes with slurs, "it's just a joke!", or "you're being too sensitive!". Really. Having a character with prejudices is acceptable, but the story itself must be presented respectfully. That means:
- No racism. This includes cultural appropriation, exoticism, etc.
- No discrimination against (non-)religion. Honest questions are all right, stereotyping is not.
- No ableism. Don’t throw around words like "blind" or "crazy".
- No sexism, homophobia or transphobia.
- No classism.
If any member feels uncomfortable with anything that another member has written or said, please inform a moderator and we will do our best to resolve the situation as civilly and safely as possible. Conversely, if we have missed something because of our own privileges, do call us out at once and please accept our apologies.