What Difference Does It Make?

As a service to our readers, we decided at the very beginning of Dokuga to make sure that all the stories we hosted had categories... and that the categories were used properly. Say you’re looking for an interesting story to spend the afternoon reading. Would you want to get involved in reading something that was just a Oneshot? Or would you rather know, before getting engrossed in the story, that it was a Chapter Story? Many of us involved in Dokuga at the beginning felt very strongly about this issue, thus we set three different categories.

What Is a Oneshot?

A Oneshot is a one-chapter story. Just what it implies. It might stretch to two chapters, but should NEVER go beyond that point, by virtue of what the name implies. It is a story that is told, beginning to end, in one tasty chunk.

What is a Oneshot Collection?

This is one of the most misunderstood categories, I think. Oneshot Collections are more to house drabbles. For the uninitiated, drabbles are short stories, usually no more than 800 words, but can be ANY length. Oneshot Collections might be a series of drabbles that tell a story in several parts, but each drabble should be able to stand on its own. In any case, one should categorize one’s ‘story’ as a Oneshot Collection if one’s chapters are going to be less than 700 words per chapter, like drabbles.

What is a Chapter Story?

This, too, is a misunderstood category. One might think, on the face of it, that Chapter Story would mean anything one might write that is multi-chaptered. Such is NOT the case, however. In order to avoid the regrettable tendency of some to write many small chapters for the sake of garnering more reviews, we have a specific set of rules that apply to our Chapter Stories.

A Chapter Story is a multi-chaptered story. Beyond that, it MUST contain AT LEAST 700 words per chapter, of actual story (this does NOT include any author's notes, disclaimers, or chapter headings).

Now, I am more than willing to average the number of words per chapter, however, if you start your story with a prologue that is less than 700 words of actual story, please don’t post it until you have another chapter completed that will bring your average for the two chapters up to the 700 word per chapter minimum. At all times, you MUST maintain a 700 word per chapter of actual story average or, if found, you will receive ONE warning, followed by story deletion if the per chapter word count is not corrected.

Again, the rules governing categories can be found at http://dokuga.com/rules. Please consider your story category carefully, and categorize it properly. It will save us all time and trouble in the future!!

~~Wiccan~~
PS - If you have reason to believe that a story already posted has been incorrectly categorized, PLEASE do not wait for a warning to change it!! Thank you!

Please note an IMPORTANT ADDITION to this tutorial.

Chapter Story word counts are predicated on words of ACTUAL STORY. This does not include disclaimers, Author's Notes, or chapter headings. At all times, you must have an average of 700 words of ACTUAL STORY per chapter in a Chapter Story, or you will receive a warning.

Thank you!

~~Wiccan~~

This might prove to be a dumb question, but my gf seems to think that its a problem. Does it matter HOW short the oneshot is? The 'story' I wanted to post is around 8-12 sentences. would that be a problem?

To my knowledge no as long as it is posted under one-shots. It would be considered a drabble, what is usually around 100, 200 or 300 words.

should I just put it in the title or something?

You mean put that it's a drabble in the title? If so you can or the summary, or the simple fact of how few words there are should tell people. We're pretty used to drabbles here on Dokuga.

thank you =]

You're welcome and very cute drabble .

Hi W,

I just noticed that! See, this is my problem, I wanted to use the drabble format yet some of the chapters couldn't stand on their own... that's why I decided to put is a multi-chapter story because, well, it is one in a way.

I'm unable to create another chapter by your deadline because I do work in what I would define the real world and rarely have time to write--I actually do so as a hobby. Given the circumstances, I'm not sure if you'd allow me to maintain the story and give me a time limit of two or three weeks to add another chapter. Otherwise, I suppose there's no choice but to delete it.

Thanks,
V

V,

Your other option would be to categorize it as oneshot collections then you would not have to abide by a tighter deadline. You would have more leniency with your 'chapters' as well.

Also another thing I just thought of, you could also post several drabbles together on each 'chapter' if you wished. I know several authors that do this because one 200 word drabble doesn't stand as well on its own as it would with say, 2 or 3 seperate drabbles meshed together. (Forthright does this frequently in her story 'Imperceptible', and that's just one example for you)

Very well put, Lady Kirara!! Thank you for pointing that out!

~~Wiccan~~

I have a question, it's not strictly speaking about the categories since I know I'm going for oneshot collections, but it is related... I want to publish a collection of drabbles as I come up with them, they're all separate from each other and stand alone. The problem I'm having is choosing the universe in the story properties. The first drabble I have written is AU, but I don't know yet about any future ones I might write and some of them could be Canon. Any suggestions?

Edit: I suppose for now I choose the universe as Alternative, since the first drabble is AU. When the collection's complete I can count which universe is represented more often and select that one.