Help
What Are ficlets?
A ficlet is a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world.
Once you’ve written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you’ll never guess where (or even if!) it ends.
Does ficlets Cost Money?
Nope, it is completely free to join the ficlets community.
How Do I Get a ficlets Account?
Go to the ficlets site, and click on the “Sign In” link in the upper right hand corner.
There are two ways to sign in. If you have an AIM or AOL screen name, you can simply sign in using your existing account. You don’t have to have an AIM or AOL screen name to participate though—you can sign in using an Open ID. If you don’t have an Open ID, you will have to create one to sign in initially. An Open ID will allow you to piggy-back your information from an identity provider. For example, if you have an AOL or AIM screen name, you’d enter http://openid.aol.com/YOURSCREENNAME (replace YOURSCREENAME with your actual screen name). ficlets would then redirect you to your provider so that you can define what information you want to carry over.
How Do I Log In?
Using an existing AIM or AOL screen name, the login process and password is the same as your login to AIM/AOL. For OpenID logins, once you’ve entered your ID, you will be redirected to your information provider. Just sign in there and you’re in.
How Do I Find a Story?
Use the Search box to locate a tagged story. It can be found on the Home page or you can click the “Tags” link at the bottom of the page to open a Search page.
How Do I Write a New Story?
There are several ways to create a new story. You can click the “Write” link at the top of the Home Page, you can click the “Start a new ficlet.” link in “Your Desk” on the Home Page or you can click the “Write” link on the “To Do” line at the bottom of any page.
Want to do some formatting? You can use textile references to do it. For example, bold to get bold text, and italic to get italic text.Please note: New stories must have at least 64 characters and less than 1024 characters to be posted. There is a handy character counter just beneath the ficlet entry field.
How Do I Add To a Story?
There are several ways to add to a story. You can write a prequel, a sequel or make a comment. To add to a story, open the story in ficlets. There will be a box to rate the story underneath its text. Click the “Write a prequel” link to write a prequel to the text you’re viewing. Click the “Write a sequel” link to write a sequel to the text you’re viewing. Scroll to the bottom of the page to add a comment in the Comments box.
Please note: Comments must have a minimum of 8 characters to be posted.
What Are Drafts?
Drafts are ficlets you’re working on but have not yet finished. When you post your story, click the “Mark as draft” radio box to make sure it will be saved to your drafts folder. Then you can go back in and finish it later and it will only be visible to you.
Please note: Drafts must have at least 64 characters and less than 1024 characters to be posted.
What Are Clippings?
If you see a ficlet you want to come back to later, you can save it as a clipping. Open the story you’d like to remember and click the “Save to clippings” link on top of it to save it to your clippings.
You can access your clippings from “Your Desk” on the Home Page or via the “Clippings” link on the “To Do” bar at the bottom of each page.
What Are Tags?
Tags are words that describe your ficlet. You can enter them when you write your ficlet, in the “Tags” box. They are used to locate your ficlet later, and are accessible in search to find other ficlets. You can access Tags via the navigation link at the top of any screen or via the “Tags” link on the “To See” bar at the bottom of the screen.
What Are Inspirations?
Inspirations are photos, clippings and pieces of information you can use as inspiration to get you started on your ficlets. You can access Inspirations via the navigation link at the top of any screen or via the “Inspiration” link on the “To See” bar at the bottom of the screen.
What Is My Profile and How Do I Edit It?
A blank profile will be assigned to you when you sign in. To edit it, click the “Edit your profile” link in the “Your Desk” box or the “Edit Profile” link on the “To Do” bar at the bottom of any page.
You will be assigned a user number to start. You can go into Edit Profile to assign a Pen Name, a Pen Name URL and give information about yourself, including an avatar and biographical data.
What Are Notes and How Do I Use Them?
Notes are a great way to let other authors know what you think of their work. Simply browse to any story page and click the “Send a note” link (it’s down near the comment form!). When you sign in, any notes waiting for you can be accessed via the “Notes” link at the top of the page or via the “Notes” link on the “To Do” bar at the bottom of any page.
Can I Write Anything I Want?
Yes, provided your ficlets follow our Community Guidelines.
Will My Writing Be Edited or Censored?
From the Community Guidelines: “illegal activities, as well as hate speech of any sort and content which goes well beyond ‘mature’ and crosses into thoroughly inappropriate and patently obscene territory will not be tolerated. And when we say ‘will not be tolerated,’ we mean that such stories will be removed from the site entirely.”
The only editing or censoring that will take place will be as mentioned in the Community Guidelines.
Where Can I Report a Bug?
You can send us feedback at report any bugs here.
Where Can I Report a Problem Story?
ficlets are driven by the members of the community. If you see an offensive story, click the “Report this story” link in the right column next to it. Fill out the box that opens with what’s wrong with it and click “Submit Report” to bring your concerns to our attention.