8. What information do I need to include with my story?
You MUST include the following information at the top of the story itself, otherwise the
story cannot be properly archived:
- Title
- Author
The following information is optional; however, please
realize that if you don't include it, the archivist will not add the information for you.
- Summary
- one or two sentences about your story. It should describe the contents
of THAT story. (Note: The archivist is limited to approximately 400 characters in the
summary. If the summary exceeds that limit, "See part 1 of story" will appear as
the summary on the index page instead.)
- Category
- What kind of story is it? If you're not sure or you don't want to categorize your
story, then you can choose "Unclassified".
- Pairing
- Who is in the story? NOTE: If you include pairings, please put it in the
header information inside the story. The content of the story gets separated from
the subject line of the email message during archiving, and pairings listed there may not
be seen. If no pairing is listed, the story will be archived as UNCLASSIFIED; the
archivist does NOT add headings.
Most readers will appreciate it if you place the pairings on the story. Down in the Basement
will include the story if you place the pairings on or not, but it makes things easier both
for us and for the readers.
The most common groupings can include:
| M/K |
Mulder/Krycek |
| M/Sk |
Mulder/Skinner |
| Sk/K |
Skinner/Krycek |
| M/Sk/K |
Mulder/Skinner/Krycek |
Other character abbreviations include:
| Sc |
Dana Scully |
| MR or R |
Monica Reyes |
| Sc/R |
Dana Scully/Monica Reyes |
| f/f |
female/female slash and you can also specify which females,
Scully/Reyes, Scully/other, etc. |
| JD or D |
John Doggett |
| WMM |
Well Manicured Man |
| X |
Mr. X |
| CSM/CM |
Cigarette Smoking Man, Cancer Man |
| Sp |
Spender |
| P |
Pendrell |
| LGM |
Lone Gunmen - if you note a specific pairing with one or more of them,
please use full last names, Langly, Byers or Frohike to avoid confusion. |
| Other |
Other characters as they occur, either original characters or
secondary characters from an episode |
Again, please NOTE: If you don't include pairing information in your story, Down in the
Basement will not include it for you.
- Rating
- Based on the US movie rating system.
Generally, most slash stories would be rated one of the following:
| G |
general audiences, suitable for small children. |
| PG or PG-13 |
nothing stronger than kissing, really, light violence |
| R |
heavy violence, lots of blood, gunplay; deep passionate kissing,
hugging with intent, everything up to actual serious foreplay and sexual intercourse. |
| NC-17 |
actual foreplay, sexual intercourse and/or extreme gore |
These are just some broad general guidelines; use your discretion in assigning ratings.
