Points to consider when deciding to submit a story

#1 – Do you have the time to type out chapters and finish the story?

#2 – How much have you written so far?

#3 – Are you going to follow your own idea, or do you have to borrow a lot from other authors?

#4 – If you have any questions about your story you can email the site before you decide to submit a story.

Points to consider when writing the story

#1 – Is the story readable?

#2 – Are you using the grammar / spell checker?

#3 – Be careful as you reread your chapter. Some words can be correctly written, but not the word you wanted. I.e.: To for two, red for read, and led for lead.

#4 – Remember Joe’s full name is spelled Joseph.

#5 – Be extra careful when going over for mistakes if English isn’t your first language.

#6 – For British and European writers, don’t worry about words like color being spelled colour. I like to keep those versions in the story so it can have the unique difference.

#7 – To introduce new characters it will be helpful to have a character profile.

#8 – How would you rate the content? Click here if you are unsure.

#9 - If you are going to use clones in your story, it’s best to help the audience keep each one separate, by using #1, #2, etc.

#10 – Have you edited so that you won’t have to resubmit a chapter?

#11 – Here is the best trick to help you to submit a good story. Wait an hour or more after you've written your chapter. Then read it back to yourself. You'd be surprised how many mistakes you can catch.

#12 – Don’t be afraid to email me and ask questions on plot, characters, editing, etc. I love helping with that, and I promise not to give your secrets out. Check out the message board. There are a lot of readers there that can give you a lot of helpful tips.

#13 – Space out the dialogue. Only one person should be speaking in a paragraph unless one or more people are speaking at the same time.

#14 – Check the flow of the story. Is your story reading too fast or too slow? Sometimes great chapters come with a little more detail, while others sometimes have too much. This takes practice.

#15 - Check the flow of the chapter. Make sure you're not jumping around with your characters. Don't have the same character lying down on the ground then suddenly standing afar, unless it's in a dream sequence. Mention details but then don't forget to refer to them later on. Changing around even the smallest details can confuse the reader. This is a creative process that takes time to develop. Just be sure to keep things flowing smoothly.

#16 - Are you considering teaming up the characters with a set of other characters that are not part of the series? Here you may want to refer to a profile page or to another website. For example if you wanted to team up Frank and Joe with Simon and Simon, it would be helpful to the readers if your story told story behind the new characters. Or you can refer to another website that talks about them.

More points to consider when writing the story

#1 – Common misused words. These words all sound and look almost alike but have totally different meanings.

#2 - Verb Tense. Verbs come in three tenses; past, present and future. Check to make sure the verbs in your sentence has the proper tense so the story flows evenly.

(Past) Frank read the paper.

(Present) Frank is reading the paper.

(Future) Frank will read the paper.

#3 - Be careful with conscious and conscience.

Conscious is the state of awareness. How well you react to stimuli like heat and cold. And it can also mean you deliberately do something or your concern about something.

Conscience is the part of a person that decides what is right and wrong. Feeling guilt, remorse, gratitude, etc.

#4 - It's and its have two different meanings.

It's is the contraction of the words it and is. Example: It's raining today.

Its shows possesion. Example: The dog was wagging its tail.

#5 - Visit the Grammar Slammer for more help in writing rules.

How to submit a story?

Well, it’s easy to submit a story. Making the story, now that’s that hard part. To submit a story, make sure to save it to a disk, zipdisk, or CD. A crashed hard drive can happen to anyone. Next, save all your files as Microsoft Word documents. Then send those documents as attached files to an email. Give each file a consistent name. Example: the hush – chapter 1, the hush – chapter 2, etc. This way if you send multiple stories or chapters, it helps me to keep them in order.

Wait and ask before you send a very large file. This is so I can make sure I have the room in my email box to receive it. Next, if you send a chapter but are unsure whether I have it or not, please email and ask, but don’t repeatedly send the chapter. Doing that sends in multiple chapters which floods my email box.

Don't panic if you don't see your story posted right away. Sometimes a slow connection will cause slow editing. Check to see if I've received your chapters. Remember to hit the refresh button to check for new chapters, and check the message board for updates. If you see errors in your story, please let me know. I can edit most errors using the editors on the site.

Points to consider as an author on Moonstar

#1 – You’re not alone if you think you’re not making good chapters. Many authors are nervous about submitting new stuff.

#2 – While you may disagree with another author please keep your opinions to a moderate level. Destroying another author is not the way to get your opinion noticed. Many verbal arguments have been started because one opinion led to another which grew out of control.

#3 – Don’t feel that by adding your opinion to a growing argument on the message board that it will help stop it. Instead let the admins of the message board work the argument out.

#4 – Don’t be afraid to ask for opinions from the Moonstar creator. It’s better to get your mistakes in grammar and other things taken care of before the story is on the web.

#5 – Your story is your own, but please consider other authors if you’re going to borrow ideas. You must be limited in your use of borrowing ideas. For example you can’t outright copy someone else’s story and change a few lines. It’s best to try and create something on your own.