storiesguilds

Storiesguilds are organized, collaborative communities focused on creating and publishing stories through a guild-like structure. Members contribute to shared storyworlds, engage in critique and worldbuilding, and collaborate on published works. The term describes a model rather than a single organization, and its exact practices vary by group, but common features include defined roles, published guidelines, and a culture of collective authorship.

Organization and governance: Most storiesguilds establish membership criteria, a governance body such as a council or guildmaster, and role descriptions (for example, scribe or writer, editor, editor-in-chief, archivist, and herald or promoter). Decision-making may be consensus-based or delegated to subcommittees. Codes of conduct and writing standards help maintain a uniform voice across collaborative projects.

Activities and workflow: Typical activities include story circles for critique, prompts and brainstorm sessions, outline and drafting sprints, and revision rounds. Work may culminate in serialized web publications or collected anthologies. Many groups maintain a shared archive or wiki where drafts, notes, and worldbuilding entries are recorded.

Platforms and artifacts: Storyworlds are stored in collaborative documents or wikis, version-controlled repositories, forums, or dedicated platforms that support branching drafts, tagging, and comment threads.

History and context: The concept has roots in craft guild traditions and modern collaborative writing communities. With the rise of online forums, wikis, and collaborative editing tools in the 21st century, storiesguilds emerged as a descriptive model for cooperative storytelling practices rather than a single organization.

See also: writer's guilds, writing circles, collaborative writing platforms, open-source authorship.