How it works

A story here is written by whoever shows up. Anyone can read it. Anyone with an account can vote on what happens next. If you are 16 or over, you can write the next part of it yourself.

A round every 48 hours

Every story moves in rounds, and a round lasts 48 hours. Each round adds one chapter.

• 24 hours to write. Read the story so far, then send your version of what happens next: 300 to 600 words. One passage each.
• 8 hours to choose. One person curates the round. They read everything that came in and pick five of them for the ballot. If fewer than five passages came in, nothing is cut: everything that was entered goes straight onto the ballot.
• 16 hours to vote. Everyone reads the ballot and picks the one they want to be canon. One vote each, and you can move it until voting closes.

When the round closes, the passage with the most votes becomes the next chapter of the story, word for word as it was written. The next round opens straight away.

No names until it closes

Nobody's name is attached to a passage until the round closes — not for the people voting, and not for the curator either. The passages are shuffled into a different order for every reader, so nothing is won by being first or by being followed. When the round closes, the winner is named on the chapter and keeps that credit for good.

Winning means curating

Whoever wins a round curates the next one. That means they choose the ballot the rest of us vote on — and while they are curating they do not enter and do not vote, so nobody can hand a round to themselves. The round after that, they are back in as a writer like everyone else.

How long a book takes

One chapter every two days, so the finish date is arithmetic rather than a promise. Every story shows its own projected finish from the day it opens.

• A short story — 17 chapters, about 7,650 words. That is 34 days, about 5 weeks.
• A novella — 60 chapters, about 27,000 words. That is 120 days, about 4 months.
• A novel — 182 chapters, about 81,900 words. That is 364 days, about 12 months.

If nobody enters a round, no chapter is written and the next round opens anyway. A story nobody writes in for several rounds goes quiet until somebody picks it up again.

What it costs

Reading is free. Voting is free. Writing is free. Membership only ever buys you room to write in more than one story at the same time — it never buys a better chance of winning a round.

Before you write

Worth reading first: the rules say what you can send and how a vote is weighed, your writing says what stays yours, and what we hold about you says exactly that.