Okay Guys, Year 2 has reached its end, and what a glorious journey it was! Year 3 lies ahead. As always, respect the chapter queue. If it is not your turn DON’T POST! If your character is not approved by the project heads, DON'T POST! We eagerly welcome new talent, but are extremely serious about the integrity of this project. The most important of these things being the rules that we, the original GP’ers, have all put together for the project. Please make sure you read them through them once again, I’m posting them just below this. Exceptions may occasionally be made, but only with general approval. Also, there is a separate thread for the bios of GP’ers writers. Trust me, this will help a lot when you’re searching for the eye colour of a character or trying to figure out what colour of clothes they would be wearing. Also I would like to ask that if you could please add to your bio any ways to reach you, the writer, in case we need to talk about something. We can always reach each other through PM’s on GP, but having an extra way like through e-mails, MSN, AIM, or something is helpful. I hope everyone is as excited about third year as I am. Please if you have a time sensitive chapter for the summer, go and add it to the list. Provide a date if necessary, and a time if there's a lot going on on the date you choose (like Christmas). If your chapter isn’t time sensitive, it still needs to be in queue. The chapter queue is in the forum, under the topic "GPers Go To Hogwarts - Year 3 Chapter List". Rules are as follows... A strong commitment to the story is MANDATORY!! We’ve (the original GP’ers) already put YEARS into this project, and it will take years to complete. Dedication is the key word here. Please complete and post a full bio of your character. This includes physical appearance, personality, mannerisms, history, background, anything else of importance. The more details you provide, the better. This information helps everyone who is writing: we can refer back to the information when mentioning or featuring your character. Also please add to your bio contact information for the writer. This will allow us to talk to you about plots just in case we can’t get a hold of you on PM. Your character has a better chance of being accepted if you make him/her an entering firstie. Transfer students at Hogwarts do not seem to be particularly common, and it makes your character less likely to conflict with existing plotlines. At least 1000 words per chapters. Smaller chapters MAY be allowed for the sorting, but after that time chapters should be of greater length. We recommend an intro chapter of 1500 words or more: if you can't write 1500 words about what makes your character tick, he/she probably doesn't belong in this story. If you ask to do a chapter that is time sensitive (needs to be done in a certain month) you need to write it ON TIME. We have a FIVE-DAY time limit for chapters. It is enforced by Oddish, and he is about as flexible as a rock. Your time limit will be enforced to the hour. Oddish will likely PM you when it is your turn, please check the site frequently when your turn is close. Run plot ideas by those who have been here longer. We’ve put a great deal of time into our plots and ideas. By talking about our plots together we can bring them all together and not have them interfere with each others. If it is a big plot idea post it in the GP’ers thread so everyone can talk about it. Respect the other writer’s characters. Don’t bend them to your will just because they’re in your chapter. Everyone has worked hard to make backgrounds, personalities, and real characters. To make sure you’ve gotten a character right, before posting please show your chapter to the author who controls that character. We are continuing to enforce the strict PG-13 limit. If you plan on going over this, you will be asked to post it outside of GP’ers as a continuance or missing chapter. Posting R-rated material will get you, at the very least, a warning (and you will be asked to alter or remove the chapter). Posting X-rated material will result in expulsion from our fellowship, and probably from the site as well. The time limit for joining in the New Year is the end of the sorting. Up until that time you can join (subject to standard approval protocols), but after the sorting is done you will have to wait until the next year. We’re sorry to have to put this in, but we had many people try to enter in the middle of the year in first year and they had not read the story before they came in. This rule might be put to the side IF you speak with the moderators of GP’ers and have your characters and ideas approved. You must also read the fic before posting, and demonstrate knowledge of it, so you know where we are in the year and what is going on. Try to keep all chapters done in proper English. Look out for spelling, grammar, and other easy mistakes. We're not all perfect so having a few is alright, but at least make an effort. NETSPEAK OR ARCHY-STYLE WRITING (in other words, all small letters and no punctuation) WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! Stay involved in whatever plot discussions we have. This does not mean that all of your plots have to involve the "group" plot. They don't. Just keep aware of what we as a group are planning, so that you don't write something contrary to it (for instance, having the Halloween night flight of the Fat Lady cancelled, even though half a dozen of us have chapters about it. COROLLARY: If a plotline that you're planning could seriously affect the story's plot, make the other writers aware of it in advance. If you're not sure, and you'd prefer your plot to be a surprise, then PM it to one of the main GPers: Luna26, Alex81, MaskedMaiden, Oddish and/or CassandraSerenity (the latter two are probably the best choices, as they are the project founder and project leader, respectively). We will be as discreet as we can, though we may require that other members be notified. SECOND COROLLARY: Before thinking about couples for your character look to the list of already taken characters. No offence, but we’ve been here longer and we’ve made plans with these characters. If you are considering pairing your character off with another character, especially a canon one, check our Couples List under the "Joining GPers Go To Hogwarts" topic. For instance, Daniel will be dating Ginny through most of Year 3, but she will be available in Year 4. Cass will be with George for the entire story, so he's not available at all. The shipping list may periodically change; check it regularly. Good rule of thumb: start your new chapter as soon as you finish posting your old one. Don't wait until everyone else has posted their chapters and it's your turn already. The time limit is five days, but if you keep up, you should be able to post in far less time. The faster everyone posts, the quicker the story grows. If you need details from another chapter for part of your chapter, skip that bit and write the part of your chapter that doesn't depend on the other chapter, then come back later. Or, ask the author for the necessary details, and explain why you want them. Check the story for new additions often: we frequently get bursts of 4 or 5 chapters up. It may be your turn before you expect it. If writer's block hits you, and it's your turn, see if your chapter can be either delayed (have it take place in April instead of February, for instance), or skipped. Or, feel free to ask another GP’er for assistance. Some of our best chapters were collaborative efforts. If you are going to move your chapter, it must be done LESS THAN HALFWAY through your designated five-day window. That's 60 hours, people. Two and a half days. When Oddish PM's you, he will give you both your overall deadline and the deadline for moving your chapter, using Greenwich Mean Time. You are responsible for figuring what time that is where you are. Remember to use other Player Characters (Ray, Magenta, Daniel, etc.) only with their Real World Counterpart's permission. This need not apply to brief mentioning (passing Cassandra in the hall, maybe, or sitting across from Kaisar at the lunch table). We all understood that our character might be mentioned in passing thus. The Writers for each character are as follows. Characters who went inactive before second year began are not included. Alondra and Sebastian - MaskedMaiden Daniel and Matt - Oddish Cassandra - CassandraSerenity Rachael (Ray) - Alex81 Magenta - Luna26 Kaisar - Kaisar Arabella - Klutz4life Jordyn - Ginnywitch Jimmy - JimMcGuffin Holly - Pliva Sadie - Issela Claire - Jasminemoon Unless you obviously have little need for one (that is to say, you have very good punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar), please USE A BETA! No one wants to read gibberish. And follow the rule of the Ents: don't say anything unless it's worth taking a long time to say. Just make sure that you say SOMETHING. If you need a beta for your chapter, Oddish will serve as one, but only for "GPers Go To Hogwarts" chapters. Also, if you have difficulty posting your chapter, he will post it for you. Either way, just PM it to him. Let the next phase in our saga... BEGIN!!!