The Palace - Trainer and Owner Pamphlets

Trainer's Pamphlet

When Training a Key, there are three basic rules a Trainer must keep in mind when thinking about a character: the Key must be a male sexual slave; the environment must be enclosed and the Key must be unable to leave it; and the Key must be an original character.

When a concept has been formed, it's time to put it down in words. At a bare minimum, a Key description must include the Key's physical appearance, his personality and his environment.

The more detail you add, however, the richer the tapestry that the eventual Owner has to work with. To get you started, here are some suggestions that are often useful to think about and describe: name, age, physical description, background, personality, temprament, experience, likes/dislikes, quirks, environment. I'm sure you can think of more, as well. Remember, detail is good!

Finally, the Key must fit the 'theme' of his Key name in some way. How this ties in is up to the Trainer, and may be as subtle or obvious as desired, as long as it is present somewhere.

Other than the above, there are no limitations on your Key. The character may be from any genre, location, time, world, even species, that you can think of! But one final thing to remember - sometimes it can be tempting to go for the fantastic or outlandish, and these can be good fun, but plain old humans can be just as interesting, if imagined and described vividly enough. And the final thing to keep in mind is: have fun! If you're having fun writing, it's pretty much a given that people will have fun reading. Good luck!

Owner's Pamphlet

Once a writer or artist has taken possession of a Key, then begins the task of creating a work of fiction or art with them.

Essentially, the Owner may not change the overall concept of their Key. Sometimes it may be neccessary to change small details that may not be appropriate to setting or genre. This is perfectly acceptable, as long as the work remains faithful to the greater portion of the description given.

There are no limitations on the type of work to be produced other than for length. Fics are most common, followed by pictures; sometimes a talented and enthusiastic Owner will create both. There are no limitations on the genre or style of writing; even poetry is quite acceptable. Similarly, artwork may be in any medium desired.

There are no limits on the number of pieces of art, but there is an encouraged limit to the length of stories. Ideally, stories should be between 2500 and 5000 words, with the bare minimum being 750. If your story is approaching 7000 words, you've probably written too much. For information on the change in rules, see the Palace Guidebook.

"...if an Owner wishes to do a long, multi-chapter work, said Owner must prove that they are going to follow through and finish the work in a reasonable amount of time. This can be done by the Owner showing multiple examples of completed long works, and telling us how long it took to complete them on average. The staff must be completely convinced of an Owner's ability to keep up work on a long fic before granting her/him permission to do so.

Alternatively, an Owner may first submit the required short fic in the required month, making sure it can stand as a self-contained work, and then work on additional chapters after the completion of that. The only thing we ask if you do this is that you only submit these additional chapters after the work is finished. You may post the chapters individually on places like the ML, the LJ, or your own website/blog, but in order to be archived on the Palace, you must reach a definitive The End'."

What is written is of course up to the Owner. However, the staff has a few recommendations that might be helpful. Firstly, after you've finished a section, leave it for a little while, and come back later to do a complete edit. Sometimes it can help catch mistakes you were too involved to notice while writing.

Secondly, a beta reader is an invaluable resource. They can help you with all facets of writing, from the technical side of things (eg, spelling, grammar, phrasing, etc) to the content (eg, characterisation, plot holes, flow, etc). If you're interested in getting a beta reader for your Keyfic, a good place to enquire might be the Palace guestbook or mailing list (check out the Palace Guidebook for more details). If neither of these resources help, there are quite a few mailing lists at yahoogroups which deal with editing and writing fic.

[If you have any questions or information that you think might be useful to include in the Pamphlet, please e-mail us.]