Preamble
Welcome to the Liminal Archives. If you're reading this guide, chances are you've been inspired by the strange, unusual, lonely or intriguing limspaces and thresholds you've seen on the site and want to create your own. You probably have some cool concepts in mind, and this writing guide is here to ensure that your idea becomes a reality.
If you're coming to this guide having read only a few articles on the site, we urge you to go back and keep reading- you'll want to have a good idea of the kinds of things we write about here before you start, to save yourself trouble later.
This writing guide mainly refers to limspaces, but most of the topics discussed are relevant to other kinds of articles, including thresholds, levels, entities, objects, documents, and even prose. This guide is a recommended read for all writers.
Brainstorming
When pondering an article concept, there are a few key things to consider:
- Is the concept interesting and original?
- Is the concept logically consistent? Does it make sense?
- Is this something that would fit well within the scope and scale of the Liminal Archives universe?
- Is this the kind of story or concept that translates well to writing?
It's strongly recommended that you consider these four questions when drafting or brainstorming. Remember, the best kinds of articles are those that a reader can grasp without you having to explain everything to them- it's the aha! moment that really pulls a reader in. You're free to make your concept as out there and obtuse as you like, just remember that you're not the only person who's going to read it.
If you want some feedback on the concept you've got, ask for feedback from the community in either the Forums section or in the Discord server; everyone will be happy to help. Remember that any feedback is useful, even if it isn't very detailed. Being told "It's boring" isn't a lot to work with, but at the very least it tells you that something can be improved.
If your concept gets panned, don't sweat it. Ask any writer on the site, and they will tell you that not every idea, concept, or pitch works out. Don't get discouraged! Try approaching the concept from a different angle, or asking others what to change about it. You'll be able to refine the concept until it works, or inspire a new concept that works even better.
As always, if you feel that a piece of critique you've received becomes less "constructive criticism" and more "personal attacks", feel free to contact a site or Discord moderator for help.
Putting Hand to Keyboard
So, you have an idea that you want to write, and the peanut gallery thinks it has potential. Now comes the task of actually writing the darned thing. There are many different ways to write a limspace article, and each works better or worse depending on the concepts used. It's your job to decide how to write your article to make the most out of your concept. There's no right answer, and writing methods are subjective, but here are several methodologies to consider.
Capturing a specific feeling or emotion:
Often, good liminal space fiction focuses on a specific feeling, or set of feelings. "Loneliness", "fear", and "Eeriness" are common choices, but the sky is the limit when it comes to capturing the human experience. Choosing an emotion which is a bit obscure, or an unexpected topic relating an emotion, can make for a very unique article. Here are some examples to get you thinking: "drowsiness", "comradery", "impatience", "decay". These aren't emotions commonly associated with liminal spaces, and some may not even be emotions by the traditional definition, but they can all be conveyed with writing.
Once you have something in mind, your article should focus on conveying that emotion. This can be achieved through the tone of writing, through the experience of characters in the article (dialogue), through imagery and mood, and through the physical characteristics of the limspace.
Tone of writing is the way that the article is written. The flow, pacing and style of the article itself plays an important role in capturing the desired emotions. Emotions can also be conveyed through characters who are experiencing it firsthand, if the reader is able to put himself in the character's shoes. Imagery and mood are also important for capturing an emotion; the way you choose to set the scene affects everything that happens inside it.
And finally, a great way to convey specific emotions is through the physical characteristics of the limspace should embody the emotion in a symbolic way. For example, a limspace about drowsiness might be foggy and slow, a limspace about impatience might be still, but constantly on the verge of rapidly changing, and a limspace about decay might be slowly falling apart. Being able to bake the themes and emotions of the limspace into the location itself is a unique and powerful aspect of liminal space writing, and you should do your best to capitalize on it.
With all that in mind, you should remember not to restrict yourself too much. Keeping a certain set of emotions or concepts in mind is useful for keeping an article thematically consistent and focused, but you don't need to pigeon-hole yourself into writing only about a specific emotion. Liminal spaces are layered, and can cover many different topics that are only tangentially related to the core ideas. Be flexible, and be creative!
Think about your writer's perspective & your world:
Imagine that every file in the Archives was written by a real person, likely someone who is fairly normal. Like people in real life, people in the Liminal Archives universe are different from each other, and their differences influence their writing. Whether the Archivists contributing new articles to the Archives are located on Earth, inside a threshold, or beyond in a limspace, their knowledge of the liminal gives them a unique, rich perspective to explore.
Are they a classic adventurer seeking a thrill in the unknown? A hermit seeking enlightenment in the inexplicable? A scientist seeking reason in the unreasonable? Think about what kind of person wrote the article you are creating. The unnatural world around them will warp their perspective in interesting ways that you can use to build a cohesive universe without direct explanations. Consider where they live, what they do, and what their relationship with the subject matter may be.
Capturing a character:
Use the infinite creative freedom of the limspaces to place your character against mortality, morality, fears and joys. Liminal Archives can be character-centric with the goddamn coolest or most appropriate tailor-made setting imaginable. Character writing is viable!
Consider the roles your entities play in the environment:
Writing a random creepy-crawly is easy, but explaining what it adds to its environment, aside from being there to kill wanderers, is a different matter. How does it survive? Does it fit in thematically? Is it invasive? Liminal spaces afford a lot of creativity, so don't waste it on something basic. Consider the overall picture aside from how entities interact with wanderers. A good entity will feel well-incorporated into the limspace it inhabits- natural, like it belongs there.
Getting to the Meat of Your Article
Sometimes a concept needs a bit of a shove to get it into a full article format- you might have a beginning to the "story" that is your article, but you don't know where to take it from there. Not to worry! All you need is a solid plan, and there are a few techniques that can help you along the way.
- What is it about your concept that interests you the most? Why? How could it be developed or expanded further?
- Imagine yourself as a member of the Archives, exploring your limspace. What are you likely to find? What would feel natural to stumble across?
- Find an image or a song or a piece of media that has the same kind of feeling you want for your article. Good inspiration can provide the bedrock upon which a concept can grow and prosper- the Discord has an excellent Article Inspiration channel where you can find all manner of liminal photography and art.
Common Mistakes
- WORDS WORDS WORDS: A lot of writers tend to stuff their article with information in an attempt to make it seem more professional or more interesting, but often, this makes the article confusing. Articles are most effective when they are focused, and don't meander into unnecessary detail. Ensure that your article is clear and flows linearly from one idea to the next, so that your writing is easy for readers to understand.
- Consider that the in-universe author of your article is most likely not a scientist, and thus wouldn't use a scientific vocabulary. The Archives are not organized like a research group or institution either, so there is little interest in standardization: this gives you ample opportunity to veer off in unique directions to distinguish your article.
- Though some ideas might seem cool on first consideration, keep in mind that "coolness" is not necessarily a primary factor when writing for this site. There can certainly be very cool ideas for visuals and mechanics, but you might not get too far based on cool ideas alone. Ideas must be executed effectively in order for an article to be enjoyable to read.
- Articles focused purely on being "dangerous" or "difficulty" have a similar issue. A limspace or entity being extremely lethal is not always particularly interesting.
- Loneliness and melancholy are major themes of the site, and you should become acquainted with these themes in your writing. They are not mandatory, but they go well with the concept of liminal spaces, and can be surprisingly flexible in application. You'll find that there are a myriad of forms to express either theme — and if not, that a little company and joy will be greatly accentuated by them.
- Always be wary of poor analogy use; even the best writers fall into this trap sometimes!
The Writing Process
If you are interested in writing an article for the Liminal Archives there are is a specific process that you must familiarize yourself with. This writing process should be followed in order to improve your writing and to avoid "coldposting". If an article is coldposted, it will be removed. A coldpost is an article that is uploaded without first receiving criticism.
- Starting out: Join the Sandbox Site. Click "Join" and then type in the name you wish your sandbox to be called. Click "create sandbox" and start working on your new page. You do not have to join the sandbox, but it allows you to test out your formatting and present your articles to others easily. Before beginning your draft, finish reading this guide, review the official format on the Formatting Guide, and read any other writing guides that may be relevant to your article. Guides can be found here.
- Rough Draft: Once you have written the basics of your article and are happy with your progress, post your draft to the Draft Forums or head to the Discord and post a link to your sandbox page in the draft-critique channel, and create a Discord thread. Every article uploaded to the official site is expected to have received at least two thorough pieces of criticism in the draft stage, or one thorough crit4crit exchange with another LA draft, per our rules. If this step is not completed, the article will be deleted for coldposting. Once you have received criticism, you are expected to calmly take and apply a majority of it to your article. If you disagree with the criticism given to you then you do not have to apply it, but you are expected to receive and apply criticism from more users. While we do not punish people for responding poorly to criticism, it reflects badly on the writer's character.
- Final Draft: After completing a rough draft and acting upon criticism, an article is expected to have most or all of its plot holes, grammar and other remaining issues fixed. You may continue to seek out more criticism to further improve your writing. Once you are happy with it and believe it to be finished, you may move onto publishing.
- Publish: Before publishing your article, give it one last read over. If you feel confident in your article and have followed the previous steps, then you are ready to post it. In order to create the page, first go to the URL which the page will be located on. The URL should usually be the same as the title for your article. For example: http://liminal-archives.wikidot.com/your-article-title-here
If there isn't already an article with that URL, there should be an information box with instructions to create the page, and there should be a link to create the page. Click the link to create the page, and it should open up the editor. Copy and paste your article into the space provided and edit the title to make it exactly how you want and to fix capitalization. Click "save", and the page should be created. Make sure that everything looks correct, and if there are any errors, edit the page to fix them.
Once you have done this, check out the Tagging Guide and edit the Tags section at the bottom of your article appropriately. Then post the link to your forum critique/discord thread channel/crit screenshots on the discussion page of your article (You should also credit any images that you use here, and some authors take this opportunity to thank the users who gave them critique on their article.) Congratulations! your article is now an official part of the site.
- Post-Publishing: If you ever feel that the article could be improved on, you are free to make edits. Note if the article ever remains at a rating of -3 or lower, the article will be removed. If your article is removed, you are absolutely free to reupload it again, once you've gotten another two runs of critique.