How This Works back

This is the dig site — the private and pseudonymous workshop of a writers’ guild. Learn more here.

Participation is invite-only. The group is certainly interested in adding writers to The Rooster’s roster, and it is especially open to the recommendations of animals currently roaming in The Land. If you’d like to write here, send along a pseudonymized bio and a fiction vignette and The Rooster will read them leisurely, principally for the sake of enjoyment.

What follows are some basic guidelines for the work being done here. From them we begin.

    Hello

  1. This is a laboratory
  2. Every single verse and vignette is listed here
  3. Every single collection is listed here
  4. Every single Haiku is here
  5. Every single Pellet is here
  6. Every single Pony Ride is here (led by Horse)
  7. Every single Todd is here (co-led by Rabbit and Bear)
  8. Most pieces are held in the workshop solely for fellow writers, but a superfeed of favorites is populated on a rolling basis, and those pieces are available for public viewership here

    9. The Vignette (and likewise The Verse)

  9. The principal form of writing in Rooster Land is the vignette (-like/-ish), with a secondary place for verse
  10. Other forms exist in dedicated channels that run out from the core concept like spokes, including audio readings, and there are visual supplements here or there, but again the principal form is the vignette
  11. A vignette is a brief evocative description, account, or episode — a small illustration or portrait that fades into its background without a definite border
  12. Around 200 or 350 or 500 words as a general matter, but rather than get caught up in numbers think of a vignette as a reason to make neutral time meaningful — traffic, doctor’s office, elevator, bedtime, train stop, coffee buzz, etc.
  13. A vignette is a spirit, not always a letter of law
  14. The vignette is more of an invitation than a command
  15. Fiction is preferred, but again, don’t get all hung up in it

    16. Tagging & Excerpting

  16. Roughly four or five tags, lowercase, any part of speech, and aim for single words or short phrases
  17. Each tag must be separated by a comma if added in a group, but the words of short phrases can be separated by a space and then separated from other tags with commas
  18. Aim to fit tags into trending collections if authentically suited, but freedom reigns
  19. There is a tag-like status for media development partnership pitches, appearing as PITCH in the main feed — these are deployed for core-team strategy purposes, but engagement with them is equally encouraged
  20. The excerpt under the title in vignette listings on the main page is kind of like a summary — use a fine turn of phrase on one line, capitalize the first letter, end it with a period or other final punctuation (though a grammatically correct sentence isn’t necessary)

    21. Replies

  21. As far as replies go, Rooster Land is a writing community — think of your comments as a substantive contribution to the piece and the community
  22. Alert writers to a reply in a reply via automatic email by using @animalname (i.e. @ symbol plus all lowercase animal name)

    23. Revisions

  23. Verses and vignettes, along with some other channel content, can be revised at any time, creating what is called a revision
  24. Revisions are stored and are available for comparison with the latest (current) version of the content
  25. Viewable revisions include hard commits since initial publication, meaning that autosaves in between commits and drafts prior to publication generally won’t appear in the viewable revision list even if appearing in the total revision count
  26. Any revision itself can be deleted to leave only select revisions
  27. Writers may choose to hold a piece in FLUX which means the piece is under a higher degree of active revision by its author, and that other writers are especially encouraged to engage with it via reply (there is also a status for FLEX that invites other authors to collaborate or expand on a piece under co-authorship)
  28. The principal purpose of revisions is to permit animals to see how a piece has developed, or to gain insight on an author’s choices and processes, which can enhance meaning and the ultimate goal of communication between writer and reader — and revisions may also show what suggestions an animal has taken from those offered in replies
  29. The way revisions work is by comparing the selected revision always and only with the latest version, always showing the latest version in a green column but with different change results displayed depending on the revision chosen, and always showing the chosen revision text in a red column with its change results
  30. In the comparison table this is text deleted from the revision, and this is text added to the current version
  31. Added or removed content with line breaks appears without highlighting and alongside a chunk of blank spacing (such as new or nixed paragraphs, or merely new or nixed line breaks themselves)
  32. Note that if a piece was submitted to the editorial team for review before it was published, there will appear in the list of revisions a revision representing only that layer of publication — which won’t include any changes as they may appear in true revisions
  33. Revision comparison takes some getting used to, but after a few exploratory comparisons you’ll no doubt get it, including why certain revisions show up as and where they do in the mix

    34. Style

  34. All other works of any type and kind, like The Library of Babel or The Grand Budapest Hotel, capitalized and italicized (generally, or use discretion with quotation marks for lesser items)

  35. Quotes of any type or kind are blockquoted

    (generally, or use discretion with quotation marks for briefer segments)

  36. One space after a period. Not two.
  37. En dash with space on either side for a thought break — hyphens are used for connected compounds like hard-fought
  38. Refrain from use of ellipses unless to signify gap in quoted material . . . [which] keeps it functional and discourages unfinished business
  39. Refrain from the written equivalent of “air-quotes” around words for emphasis (use italics sparingly instead)
  40. Preferably single elements of punctuation where punctuation appears!
  41. Punctuation “outside of quotes preferred”, though there’s “a case to be made otherwise.”
  42. We don’t indent and instead use double line breaks for a new paragraph

    43. Intellectual Property

  43. IP is a big deal in The Land and it works in a unique way
  44. Writers have the ability to choose IP on a piece-by-piece basis
  45. The tiers available are listed below, and more are in development

Copyright Code: RL1

  1. This is the default Rooster Land copyright understanding, and everything in Rooster Land carries this copyright unless there is another explicitly identified copyright associated with content
  2. You own what you write here
  3. When things get intertextual, the understanding is still that you own what you write here
  4. In exchange for the benefit that accrues to you while writing here, we ask that you credit Rooster Land in any cross-publication or derivative
  5. Rooster Land receives a license to display contributed content in/on Rooster Land and associated sites/publications with the author’s option to buy back exclusivity for a percentage of royalty revenue share to Rooster Land if triggered
  6. Rooster Land receives a right of first refusal to transmute contributed content into further media with a percentage of royalty revenue share to the author if triggered

Copyright Code: LI1

  1. For use as lorem ipsum in digital media, as well as in/on Rooster Land and associated sites
  2. Not for further development or conceptual inclusion in other works by any individual or organization other than the author and/or Rooster Land at a mutually agreeable royalty revenue share if triggered
  3. Credit to Rooster Land in any media, publication or derivative

Copyright Code: CC0

  1. This is Creative Commons Zero, the parameters of which are listed here

Copyright Code: XX0

  1. All rights reserved to the author except limited license to Rooster Land for display only on the dig site, meaning these pieces are not even superfeedable
  2. Rooster Land will take no effort to develop these pieces, they will be idle on the dig site
  3. These pieces live naked in the dig site until, if ever, their god kills them

Copyright Code: XX1

  1. All rights reserved to the author except limited license to Rooster Land for display only on the dig site, including the superfeed, which is what differentiates this copyright from XX0
  2. Rooster Land will take no effort to develop these pieces, they will be idle on the dig site
  3. These pieces live naked in the dig site until, if ever, their god kills them

Copyright Code: PS0

  1. This code is primarily intended for pellets but is extendable to verses/vignettes etc.
  2. Pellets are a sort of FLEX piece — they get picked and developed by others
  3. Until a PS0 piece is picked it idles at RL1
  4. Once picked, the original author is automatically deemed to fully release and assign all copyrights to the developing/extending author(s)
  5. All content developed/extended from the original pellet is defaulted to RL1 and otherwise subject to the copyright code assigned to it by the developing/extending author(s) just like any other piece in The Land
  6. The effect of a PS0 code is that authors are able to donate their work to other authors and the donee authors are able to fully incorporate it without an historical restriction

Again, if you’re interested in writing here, talk to The Rooster. Now continue back to the feed and dig into the rest.