On this site it is our characters who make connections and learn about other character members, not their authors.

 

We writers have no right to anything our characters learn here. Should characters form relationships of any kind and each of their authors agree on a narrative about that relationship, they may decide to allow limited authorship of their character in somebody else’s work, alternatively they might agree to write that character’s storylines in the other writers work or allow some events from their own body of work to be reported in the other author’s writing.

 

Caution must be practised, though. Authors change their minds and when this happens, it may be obligatory that the other party completely remove all reference to that person’s works, indeed, attempt to completely forget about it.

 

We depend upon this etiquette.

 

It is the policy of this community and all members, not to defend people who plagiarise the creations of others. If a friendship between one of your characters and a character belonging to somebody else ends, stop and check your common work.

 

Best practice when there is a dispute is to first remove that character from your work and any event involving both characters from your character’s history, then look at any work done together. Every common writing or idea which was thought up together has to be settled upon, write a statement of ideas you plan to continue and discontinue with a statement of what you intend to do with them. Once you do this, any remaining dispute is for the courts.

 

If a character feels hard done by, they can say what they want here, but in published work that character isn’t allowed to mention it in any detail, though they can be as miserable as they want about it.

 

By joining, you sign up to this policy.