Question Need guide-tutor

BarbieLee wrote: The story "Mindy" is NOT intended for inclusion in Whateley but may be posted if anyone finds it acceptable when finished. Writing is supposed to be fun not an exercise in futility trying to fit in someone else universe. The story jumped on me, Thought I'd put it to paper and ink. BIG MISTAKE.
thanks
Barb

Barb... hi and welcome. First things first - don't stress the details. Yes, the depth and complexity of canon is daunting if you're trying to keep things within the parameters of the canon text... as it should be when you consider that we recently exceeded the point of having 10 MILLION words published... in the CANON stories alone. That doesn't even start to count the hundreds (literally) of fan fiction (now called WhatIF) stories that have been shared by community members. Even canon authors go through a feedback cycle in which we point out continuity, mechanics, and character details in each others stories in order to do our best to keep everything tracked.. and we STILL miss things and get called on them from time to time by readers. So... you want to write a Whateley story? Don't have all the details in front of you. Don't stress it. It's not important. What IS important is that you are welcome, your stories will be welcome, and there are plenty of people who can and will help you solve the 'other stuff' that involves continuity and/or getting the story posted when it can be shared with others.

As other have said, the best way to get core data is the wiki. That's purely fan run and supported. Which is good, because tracking all the details and coordinating them into organized useful piles is NOT a skill in most of the canon authors' toolset. We're good for crazy, creative, and generating lots of stories (in that order, more often than not)... but even our canon-only data tracking methods are... well... lets just all be glad that its not our day jobs. And there's a lot of it, so it really could be a full time job for someone to keep up with it all... possible more than one someone.

However, even if its not in the wiki, its easy enough to ask for details. Some things won't get a canon answer... because the information may not be 'public' knowledge yet, and we try to minimize spoilers (especially on stuff that may not make it into stories until years from now). But I don't think those are the sorts of things you are asking. Your examples questions are pure fact details... and in most cases, we can easily give you those details... if a fan doesn't beat us to it.

If you're not in the mood for asking and waiting for questions... don't. No one is going to be upset if you write your story with Mr Conrad Wilson as Math Department Head when it is actually... Joe Z Crackerjack (or whoever it happens to really be for the timeline you're writing in). Worst case, someone will tell you who the real name is... but more likely, people won't care. What they WILL care about is if you get the 'big picture' stuff horribly wrong... like when characters are powerful enough that they belong in Marvel or DC comics instead of the WU... or when you take one of the more popular/well-known characters and portray them completely out of character. But honestly, even those things aren't going to bother too many people... they'll just chalk your stories up as ones with higher deviation from canon than others. And the only thing that deviating from canon does... is prevent a story from being included in canon.

One thing I can suggest from a technical standpoint. If you are usually visiting the site via a phone/tablet with a small screen... you should at least try once or twice to come here on a desktop/widescreen display. The reason for this is that the site is laid out with a header (in which is the main menu), a main center section, and both left and right sidebars. But on small screens, all four of these are placed in a single column.... header first, then main menu, then left side bar, then center section, then right side bar.

The Main (top) menu acts as a sort of Zone control, preventing the need for a single menu that has fifty some options in it.
- News: hits the 'front page' where I post the twice weekly release info and any pertinent site related news
- Stories: opens a 'recent' release collection of stories in the Original Timeline, but also provides a menu to the master archives of all stories on the site divided by timeline/genre
- Community: provides a menu of all the ways of communicating with the community - forums, PMs, shoutbox, etc. That defaults to the site rules/policy.
- WA Universe: Menu provides access to things related to the greater Whateley Universe - backstory, raw 'data' releases, the art gallery, and a link to the offsite WIKI.

If you have higher site access, there are also menu options for Authors, and Admin... which have additional tools/options for the appropriate groups of people.

In navigating the site, the most important thing to note is that MOST of the links and 'stuff' visible on every page... are shortcuts to recently released stories. Mostly, finding your way around the site involves knowing which ZONE menu to choose... and then finding the specific option in the submenu. This should be easier on phones and tablets now that the submenu is in the left sidebar instead of the top of the center ... because both menus should be visible near the top without much scrolling.

Unfortunately... a LOT of communication on the site, including lots of the raw data and means of conveying it... are in the forums. And smartphones are not exactly the ideal means of traversing a forums.

I'm going to chime in here with two examples of stories, One by Brandy Dewinter. It wasthe "First" fan fiction, and though it took place in The Whateley universe it was separated from the school. The second is actually the first few stories written by JG. He created his own little clique of characters, "The Outcast." He approached me for some feedback on his story and I gave it and liked the story enough I presented it to the other canon authors. They liked it too and he was invited in.

So my advice is: Write it out post it as people have previously said, get feedback and edit, Wash and repeat a few times until you think the story is tight enough. We created the fan fiction area specifically to create a sort of fan author group.

Writing is hard writing seat of your pants.