Difference between revisions of "Posts and Coposts"

Types of Posts

What is a Post? A third-person story featuring personas created by club members.

Solo Post

A post is a finished story that you have written by yourself. The story should be in third person, should be properly formatted into paragraphs, and be spell-checked. It should also be sent in plain text-- not HTML. That means no stationary, no bold, and no pretty fonts.

Coposts/Joint Posts

Coposts (sometimes called Joint Posts/JPs) are where two writers reply back and forth over email to create a story together. In the forums we have a Copost subforum where you can ask for coposters. There are always people willing to copost! You can also join us on our Discord.

How Do I Start a Copost?

Starting a copost is incredibly easy. It is just the beginning of the story which is written by one writer and then sent on to the next. The first installment of a copost is called a "start". A start can be as complicated as a few paragraphs or as simple as a sentence. All you are doing is getting the story going.

An example of a start:

R'der smiled when he looked up to see Kawaii walking his way. "Hello gorgeous."

Another example:

R'der looked down into his ale wondering just how he had gotten himself in this mess. Kawaii was beautiful, fascinating, totally intoxicating. After the Flight he thought they had really hit if off well. But then everthing seemed to fall apart. Nothing seemed to matter anymore - his drills, his craft, his friends, not even the drink between his hands. He didn't even look up when a shadow passed across him.

Replying to a Copost

Coposts are written by first one person writing their persona's actions in a situation which they then pass on to the next person. The next person then adds their own persona's reaction to what the first persona did. There is no formula for how long a reply should be. It is totally up to you. Just write what you think would be best to tell your persona's story.

For example, Writer 1 sends you:

R'der looked down into his ale wondering just how he had gotten himself in this mess. Kawaii was beautiful, fascinating, totally intoxicating. After the Flight he thought they had really hit it off well. But then everything seemed to fall apart. Nothing seemed to matter anymore - his drills, his craft, even his friends. He didn't even look up when a shadow passed across him.

You can write back:

Kawaii smiled tentatively. "Excuse me, R'der. Can I sit with you a while?"

Easy as that!

THINGS TO REMEMBER

• Do not add your reply to the TOP of the mail. Add it to the bottom so it flows easily as any story should. Otherwise it is a real pain cutting and pasting all those paragraphs back in order when it comes time to send it to the list.

• Make sure you do not send a reply with carrots (>>). Those also will be a real pain to edit out later.

• You cannot write for the other writer's persona, only react to what they do.

Gmail Coposts (Technical)

An easy way to give your coposters a clean post to work with is to:

• Click Forward
• Clear out the annoying header it puts on the post
• Then Change the post back to reply to your coposter
• Go to the bottom to post your reply.

In this way you don't leave things up to one or the other of you to have to put the post together to send to the list.

What is a control post?

Often when big, involved storylines that affect many people are being planned, it is best to have a post that signals the start of the storyline. The starting post is called the "control post". No stories about the storyline should be sent to the list before that happens, but once the control post is sent, feel free to post away.

When a story is serving as a control post, there should be a note indicating such in the header (the exception possibly being Hatchings when the Hatching post can just be assumed to be the control post).

A good example of this is the Hatching post. When a Queen's eggs hatch, typically the Queen's rider and her mates' rider will co-post what happened. Then you are free to post about your persona's experience during the hatching or the following feast.

Formatting

Posts consist of a Title (in the subject line of the email), a Header, the Body (story), and a Signature.

Where do I put the title?

The title goes in the subject line of the e-mail. Some members chose to write it also into the header, but that is not necessary. Writing in the subject line is.

The title should include the location of the post and then the actual title of the story:

• DCW: This Is My Title

Make sure to list all locations in the title if the post takes place at more than one:

• EFH/DCW: This Is My Title

HINT: If you are stuck for a title, take a word or phrase that jumps out at you from the body of the text and adopt it as a title. Some members find that helpful when they are stuck.

Speech

• Dragon to a human/ other dragon: }: :{
• Human thoughts/ talking to dragon: ** **
• Normal human speech: " "
• Firelizard sending feelings/ images: ~~ ~~

Headers

The following headers are used on all posts, but can be left blank if they don't apply. Only Who, Where, When, and What will absolutely have to be on every post.

• Who: (the personas in the post)

• Where: (the location of the post)

• When: (the date of the post, Pernese - m??d??)

• What: (a brief summary of the post for the Timeliners)

• NPCs: (any NPCs used in the post)

• Mentioned: (any personas mentioned in the post)

• Notes: (any notes to the club or about the post)

Signatures

We put signatures at the bottom of our posts so that newbies know which personas belong to which writers. Common signatures could look like this:

• Writer (writer@triadweyrs.org)

• G'rover, rider of bronze Berteth, DCW

or

• Writer - writer@triadweyrs.org

• Oscar, Sr. Journeyman Healer, ACH

I'm not sure what my co-poster wrote fits canon... What should I do?

If the person you are co-posting with does not seem to be following canon, stop.

Remember, by adding your signature to the end of the co-post, you are saying that you agree with everything in the post as written. It means if your co-poster is called on their canon mistake, you might be called on it too.

The best thing to do is gently point the mistake our to your co-poster. If you are not sure whether or not their reply fits canon ask. There is absolutely no harm in asking. In fact, we prefer it. And sometimes even the vetrans are not sure on some of the greyer areas and have to get a second opinion.

We are all here to have fun, but having to retract a post due to canon errors isn't fun for anyone.

Where do I send my post to?

Completed posts should be sent to: triadweyrs@googlegroups.com

Subject lines should include the abbreviation of the location(s) the post takes place at, and a title.

Example:

• To: triadweyrs@googlegroups.com

• Subject: DFW: The Great Dragon Adventure