Selection Criteria

Welcome back to the days when fans shared their fan experience in 'zines with that personal touch, short stories that carried something of themselves in them. While you'll see little of Mary Sue here, you will see Star Trek stories that have been hand-chosen to reflect the passion that we all share for The Roddenberry Dream – across all eras, based on canon and non-canon, featuring the characters we have come to love and new, original ones springing from the hearts and minds of their authors into the world of Star Trek!

We encourage your participation, to let your imaginations take flight and to tell us, not just new stories based on Star Trek canon but creative reinterpretation of the existing story lines and characters. However, there are some rules to the game.

Content

All works must be complete. We will not accept works in progress under any circumstances.

It is the author's responsibility to submit their work with correct grammar, spelling (British or American spellings are fine, but be consistent within your own work) and punctuation. See the Chicago Manual of Style for more information: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

Ratings

We will not accept stories or graphics that have a rating stronger than M. MA rated material is not allowed, except for the Adult Trek Anthology. However, PWP (Porn without Plot) will not be acceptable under any circumstances.

More leeway is allowed for stories rated K, K+ or T versus M and MA. The definitions that we use are those of Fiction Ratings. Descriptions of their ratings system can be found online at http://www.fictionratings.com/). There can be ambiguity, and reasonable minds can differ, when it comes to ratings. Our decision as to ratings is final, but we will accept your feedback and suggestions. We will make every effort to review all submissions in full and decide on a case by case basis. A certain number of swear words, for example, will not automatically invoke a rating, and changing the number of swear words will not automatically alter a rating.

It has to be Star Trek.

It's what we are all about! Any era, series or season, canon or original characters. Non-canon or alternate universe stories are acceptable but crossovers will need a strong pitch for their inclusion.

Our focus is on people.

We call it Personal Logs for two reasons: first, because fan fiction is a very personal interaction between the author and their passion and, second, because we are interested in people. What we want are personal dramas played out against the backdrop of the the Star Trek universe and what that might tell us about the human condition. What we don't want is space opera where the cardboard cutout characters play second-fiddle to bigger and uglier villains, more violent battles and whiz-bang technobabble.

There must be closure.

We want our reader's experience to be enjoyable and fulfilling. They need to feel good walking away from it, and for that they need closure of some sort in the stories. "Bottle stories" are best; serials are okay but over no more than three issues. While we actively invite stories that might introduce a reader to an author's other work, as we have with Madison Bruffy's Nova Trek stories, what we don't want are cliff-hangers that are "to be continued" or pieces that need a knowledge of that author's wider work to be understood.

It must be good fiction.

Characters need to have a motivation for their actions (especially canon characters). Without it the works stop being fan fiction and become fan fantasy. Because this is Personal Logs, it is a given that some stories will deal with interpersonal relationships. Gratuitous scenes of sex and violence are just that – gratuitous – and have no place in Personal Logs. But affection, romance, physical contact and generally described violence are often a large part of good storytelling and are encouraged. Naturally, for the Adult Trek Anthology, there is more leeway in the areas of sex, sexuality and violence.

Good characterizations are always welcome, regardless of the characters' sexuality.

However, the writer will need to make a strong case for any radical departures from canon. This is true, not only of canon characters' sexuality and relationships, but also their behavior, personalities, appearances, etc. Turning Scotty into an Eskimo will require a lot of explanation and altered backstory – possibly too much for Personal Logs. The hill is steep but not impossible.

What will we deliver in return?

Your story will be in an issue of Personal Logs, which will be presented as a pdf file lodged online on Issuu for browsing and download.

Every effort will be made to get a title page illustration for every story, mostly by artists on Deviant Art. The fanzines will be promoted on Facebook and Twitter plus a variety of Star Trek forums, such as Trek United, Trek BBS, fan production forums like the ST Phase II, ST Hidden Frontiers and ST Intrepid forums and fan fiction forums ranging from alt.startrek.creative to your own forum.

Your work always remains your own.

It is fan fiction so you cannot own the copyright except for the original characters you create. However, you can always exercise your moral right to be identified as the creator of the work.

All that is asked is that you do not publish your work elsewhere for one month prior to and one month after the publishing date of the fanzine. If there are extenuating circumstances – a competition, a gift for a friend – make that known to the editor, as exceptions can be made. All graphics and files will be made available to you. If you want to involve yourself in the publishing of the 'zine, every effort will be made to explain what and why we do what we do so that you can get a start creating your own pdf 'zines if you desire.

Let's get started!