For new writers, or writers in general

!!THIS THREAD IS NOT CRITICISM, IT IS ADVICE!!

Here is some scrict advice for writers. If this offends anyone please let me know! I don’t want this to come off as rude

DO RESEARCH
-If your story has a poc do research on their culture. if your story is taking place in another county, do research on that country. Especially if you don’t live in it! if your story has a lgbtq+ person in it, do research, if your story has a certain religion in it. do research, If your story contains anything like mental illness, domestic violence, or anything around that line. DO RESEARCH! Don’t follow stereotypes(unless they are proven true) and don’t always follow other stories with the same thing, sometimes they may do little to no research at all.

READ THE GUIDELINES
-I cannot stress this enough, don’t just be like “i’m gonna do whatever i want with my story” because that is exactly what leads to it getting deleted, and i’m pretty sure nobody wants their hard work to go to waste, so please take some time out of your day to look through the guidelines then write. I will link it at the bottom of this thread!

MAKE YOUR STORY UNIQUE!
-Cliche’s are fine, but maybe add something unique to your story. if it’s just the same story line someone had read over 80,000 times they will instantly click off. it’s completely ok to add a cliche in your story (i’m pretty sure every story has one) but add something different to it. something that maybe not much people use in their story, it doesn’t have to be big. but add something that will keep readers hooked.

ADD YOUR STORY UNDER THE RIGHT GENRE
-This is pretty simple, but please add your story under the right genre, i’m tired of seeing romance stories marked under comedy.

NOT EVERY STORY HAS TO CONTAIN A “BAD BOY”
-I swear i see this story line in every fucking story i read, my story itself even has it. A love interest doesn’t always have to be a bad boy.

CC ISNT NEEDED FOR EVERY CHARACTER
-Some people love character customization, but it honestly gets so boring having to customize character after character. i’m fine with customizing the mc, and Li(s), maybe the best friend. but i don’t want to customize every character to ever be in your story.

IF SOMEONE SAYS YOUR STORY IS OFFENSIVE, ITS PROBABLY OFFENSIVE
-Listen to others, if someone says a scene in your story offended them, fix it. it probably won’t be just them who you’re offending, don’t take years to address the situation.

ADD AN INTERESTING BACKSTORY
-This isn’t a MUST. But it definitely carries the story line, maybe add an interesting backstory to the best friend, love interest, or main character. Maybe their parent died, maybe they had a traumatizing experience in their past, maybe they were diagnosed with some type of sickness or disability. (BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER TO DO RESEARCH)

ADD DIVERSITY!
-By this i mean add other races in your story, add other genders in your story, add other sexualities in your story. Not all stories have to contain one race, by this i mean african american or caucasian.

GIVE CREDITS!
-Give credits to people who have done an art piece in your story, like your covers, splash, art scene, etc. Especially if it’s commissioned, it’s honestly just rude if you don’t since someone took time out of their day to make a piece for you.

PROOF READ!
-Proof read your story from episode 1 to the last episode. especially before publishing, fix any errors, spelling errors, or glitches in your stories before publishing. if you don’t have time to, maybe ask someone else if they can. I’ve read so many stories where the directing was messed up, a scene was coded wrong, or multiple spelling errors. so please proof read.

DONT COPY!
-Don’t copy others story line, characters, or anything around that line. it’s okay to add something similar but don’t copy the WHOLE story line & plot. If you didn’t know you copied someone’s characters, you probably didn’t. i’m talking about on purpose, if you copy someone’s characters without consent on purpose. that’s rude, if you didn’t know your character was the exact same, or didn’t even read the story. it’s fine

UPDATE FREQUENTLY
-Update your story frequently, this isn’t a must do. but it is recommended, if it takes you months to update a new episode people are going to forget what was happening in the story, if you have something going on. that’s fine! But don’t just disappear out of no where without saying a word and take ages to update your story. If it’s an emergency situation, people will understand.

Please leave more things on this thread so i can update it. Tell me if something on here is wrong, or if any errors are noticed. Also again, this isn’t meant to throw shade at anyone this is just saying what you should do, and advice. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Episode Guidelines

https://episodesupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004082994-Content-Guidelines

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Moved to Episode Fan Community since this doesn’t fit into any Creator’s Corner categories. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. :wink:

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bump

Thank you for your insight sarcasticemilee.

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bump

Bookmarked!

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:raised_hands:t2: I’m so happy someone finally addressed this. Thank you.
Sometimes, it is even a drama. :person_facepalming:t2:

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for real, i don’t understand how hard it is to put your story under the correct genre it takes literally 3 seconds. if they aren’t sure of the genre they should just put it in the genre they think it is and it should at least be close enough. how does a romance story even fit into comedy? aren’t they two different things :woman_facepalming:

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I was working on a story , I was on episode 3 about to release it and then I find out a story which looks just like mine .
The character is an event planner .
Chased by a violent ex.
Bla bla bla.
Everything was literally the same.
I had to ditch the idea.
Sometimes you just gotta let go.

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Argh I can’t stress my annoyance towards this enough. Just because there are two comedic moments in an episode, it doesn’t make it a comedy or it doesn’t even make comedy a sub genre of that story.
Or a story is a cute romance with no drama in it, it is still not a comedy but simply romance. A comedic romance is not a romantic comedy.
People will just try anything to get their romance and/or drama stories to trend higher. For this reason solely, the trending section per genre is all a mess.
I keep seeing romance in drama and vice versa, romance and drama in action, romance and drama in thriller, romance and drama in comedy which to me, is the most ridiculous.
Sure, stories can have sub genres, but that doesn’t give them the right to publish it under that sub genre when there is the main genre of that story present as obvious as daylight.

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so useful, thank you

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Bump! :fist:t4:

bump??