- Introduction
- Our Template
- Article Building
- Writing Taboos
- Article Tips & Clarifications
- Helpful Code Snippets
This guide has been taken off of the main site and has been linked to the Sandbox on the sidebar for convenience. The "posting" and "introduction" tabs have been removed as they are not relevant to the writing process. The full guide can be found back on the main site.
The full writing guide can be found on the main site here: http://www.wayward-wiki.net/about:writing-guide
Our Template
Use these when making your article. There are two styles to choose from.
For Wikipedia style info boxes (long and vertical), use this format. When you are pasting it into a fresh, new page remove the space before the “[[include…”
[[include component:oldinfobox title=NAMEHERE|image=IMGLINKHERE|type=TYPEHERE|threat=THREATHERE|active=ACTIVEHERE|names=NAMEHERE]]
[[<]]
**Description:**
**Background:**
**Location and Population:**
**Hunting or Procurement Methods:**
**Encounter Records:**
**Additional Notes:**
[[/<]]
For wide info boxes on the top of your article. Remember to remove the space before “[[include…” before pasting.
- This template comes with the added option to put a caption under your image.
[[include component:infobox title=TITLEHERE|image=IMGLINKHERE|caption=CAPTIONHERE|type=TYPEHERE|threat=THREATHERE|active=ACTIVEHERE|names=NAMESHERE]]
**Description:**
**Background:**
**Location and Population:**
**Hunting or Procurement Methods:**
**Encounter Records:**
**Additional Notes:**
Lastly, some articles might not even have a picture at the beginning. If this occurs, utilize this template.
- Note, the TITLEHERE of the other templates is not displayed with this one. The page title acts as the title.
[[include component:noimageinfobox type=TYPEHERE|threat=THREATHERE|active=ACTIVEHERE|names=NAMEHERE]]
[[<]]
**Description:**
**Background:**
**Location and Population:**
**Hunting or Procurement Methods:**
**Encounter Records:**
**Additional Notes:**
[[/<]]
Template Syntax:
TITLEHERE - What the name of your aberrant is.
IMGLINKHERE - A download link to your image or the name of your image you uploaded to the site manually. Pro tip: to upload an image to the site, go to the bottom of the page, click “files”, and upload your image, maybe renaming it. Replace “IMGLIMKHERE” with either a link to your image or the name of your manually uploaded image.
CAPTIONHERE - what you want to appear below your aberrant image.
TYPE - Your aberrant type. Replace with the following terms. (Case sensitive)
Cryptid
Artifact
Metaph
Spectre
Evergreen
THREATHERE - Your aberrant threat level. Replace with the following terms (Case sensitive).
White
Blue
Orange
Red
Black
ACTIVEHERE - Your aberrant active status. Replace this with the following terms (Case sensitive).
Prominent
Unknown
Pacified
Destroyed
NAMESHERE - Some other names for your aberrant.
Fringe Template
If making a Fringe page, you can use this template provided by our user Nagiros. Be sure to remove the space before [[include…
[[include component:fringebox
title=TITLEHERE|
image=IMAGEHERE|
caption=CAPTIONHERE|
name=NAMEHERE|
alias=ALIASHERE|
number=NUMBERHERE|
type=TYPEHERE|
threat=THREATHERE|
policy=POLICYHERE]]
**Description:** [Description of the Fringe.]
**History:** [Fringe history]
**Aims:** [Fringe goals]
**Additional Information:** Important, pertinent information we should know.
||||~ [[size 150%]]Known Members[[/size]]||
||~NAMHERE || DESCRIPTIONHERE ||
If you wanted to mess about with the component already provided, do so on your Fringe page. Do this only if you have an understanding of editing CSS. Code provided by Nagiros.
[[div style="float:left; margin:0 2em 1em 2em; width=100%; border:0;"]]
|||| [[image IMAGELINKHERE]] ||
||~ CAPTIONHERE||
[[/div]]
||||~ [[size 150%]]"FRINGENAMEHERE"[[/size]]||
||~ [[size 110%]]Name:[[/size]]||NAMEGOESHERE||
||~ [[size 110%]]Aliases:[[/size]]||//OTHERNAMESHERE//||
||~ [[size 110%]]Number:[[/size]]||POPULATIONGOESHERE||
||~ [[size 110%]]Type:[[/size]]||TYPEGOESHERE||
||~ [[size 110%]]Threat Level:[[/size]]||THREATCOLORHERE||
||~ [[size 110%]]Society Policy:[[/size]]||POLICY HERE||
**Description:** [Description of the Fringe.]
**History:** [Fringe history]
**Aims:** [Fringe goals]
**Additional Information:** [Any important extra information we should know about the Fringe]
||||~ [[size 150%]]Known Members[[/size]]||
||~NAMHERE || DESCRIPTIONHERE ||
Article Building
- In a world with no higher authority or a foundation to bring the light, it is up to the those that know the truth to rise up and protect the rest of the human race by keeping them ignorant of reality. The most notable of these groups, the Wayward Society, banded together and created a loose network to vanquish and keep at bay the malicious entities that threaten humanity. Keep this in mind when thinking of an idea for an aberrant.
- Come up with an interesting idea for an aberrant. It’s highly recommended that you go to the forums (or Discord) and bounce your idea off of fellow members and use the feedback to make it better.
- Note: Remember that people are going to read your article for fun and enjoyment. Feel free to write a simple but valid idea if you wish, or something more complex. Aberrants don’t have to have any reason for existence unless you give them one. Feel like writing a simple monster who tears down an entire facility just cause? Good.
- Another helpful thing to remember is that the articles at Wayward are as much about the people behind the monsters just as much as the monsters themselves.
- Your article doesn’t have to forward the plot of the overarching Society in any way unless it wants to. There is no difference in importance between those that do and don’t.
- Don’t explore every nook and cranny of the aberrant if you feel like some things are better left unexplained. Not everything needs to be rewritten to be a soap opera where everything is revealed unless it would benefit from it.
- Note: An aberrant doesn’t have to necessarily be anomalous, but usually is. An example of this would be El Chupacabra (in the public mythos) as it is just a wolf-like creature which just sucks the blood of goats. If it scares humanity, the Society has interest in keeping it at bay.
- What scares you? What intrigues you? Does the mention of your idea pique the interest of the mind or evoke fear in other community members? If it does, then you should probably write about it.
The Image:
This is self-explanatory. Choose something that fits what your aberrant is. To upload, go to the bottom of the page, and click “files” tab. Follow the prompt and upload the picture. Go to the part of the template that is for images and replace it with the name of your image you just uploaded.
Type:
Read the “Aberration Category” tab in the “About” tab at the top of the page, and find out where your aberrant ideas lies.
Threat Level:
Read the “Threat Level” in the “About” tab. Usually the status of an aberrant isn’t decided right away.
Other Names:
This is just some other nicknames for an aberrant.
Description:
Pretty self-explanatory. Try to make a description of your aberrant concise. Remember not to give exact measurements if your aberrant has not been caught or killed yet.
Background
Pretty self-explanatory as well. When writing a background for your aberrant, you can decide how the Society came into contact with the aberrant and any speculation on its history. You can put as much or as little information in this part of the article as you want.
Location and Population
Simply put: how many are there (that the Society knows of) and where have they been seen?
Encounter Logs:
Hunting logs or information on Society encounters with the aberrant. This is expanded upon in the “Article Tips and Clarifications”. This tab can also serve as an experimentation log which goes more in-depth to explain how the aberrant reacts in certain situations.
Additional Notes:
Any extra information you would like to add to the end of the article.
Wayward Writing Taboos
Permanent
We are not a tightly-organized organization with near unlimited funds and resources that can deal with anomalies by throwing convicts and human sacrifices at them on a regular basis or building high-tech prisons. Perhaps a fringe group can do that in the future, but the Society currently can’t. The Society is a group of volunteers that, for now, are mainly based in the North American continent. If making your aberrant hard to destroy or contain makes the article more interesting, you can state that The Bureau (a branch of the US government that provides the Society with monetary aid) has made it possible. However, they themselves can’t afford to contain a Cthulhu.
Article Tips and Clarifications
Mindset
- When writing a description, remember that you don’t have to be super smart-sounding in tone. You should keep in mind that the purpose of these articles is to serve as a guide for Warders intending to hunt a particular aberrant, and not all of them are necessarily scientists who have a dictionary handy. You should still try to make the article sound concise, and nothing too convoluted. You also won’t expect to see exact estimates on an aberrant that hasn’t been caught, tamed/possessed, killed, or befriended yet.
- The people reading these articles in-universe are mostly hunters, not researchers. It is okay to refer to aberrants by a nickname throughout the article as long as the reader understands what the name is referring to. Give them a little personality as well! These catalog articles may be about the aberrants, but that doesn't mean the outfits that hunt them can't show through. Remember you're looking through the eyes of (mostly) regular people seeing extraordinary things. They're the ones detailing these logs and filling up the encounters.
- There are no such things as formal ranks within the Society. Rangers are Rangers because of their experience, and other Warders respect them enough to call them such.There are, however, bits of information that are savvy only to a select few Rangers who are known nationally as the Great Circle. These are Rangers who have been initiated into this specialist outfit for a greater purpose.
- We want to be as light on censoring things in an article as possible. A Warder (unless stated that only The Great Circle may see the article) who is reading it needs as much information as they can get if they are to hunt the aberrant. There are only ever around 13 Great Circle members at one time, and they are busy managing the entire Society, so don’t censor anything so only they can see it unless it is for a very good reason.
- Remember, some Warders make hunting aberrants a job. Usually the Society will relay bounties through Data Collection Centers from private individuals, or pay Warders for their feats themselves. If an aberrant is dangerous enough, it might be a smart idea to make it so outfits or individual Warders have more of a reason to hunt it via a bounty.
- The more dangerous it is, the more likely you will see someone more experienced hunting it down. White to orange aberrants are usually hunted by regular Warders, and red to black ones are hunted by an outfit lead by a rangers or a group of rangers.
Other organizations
As of the time of updating, we are not connected to any other creative writing canon. We are our own, standalone project. The only outside organization we have established is The Bureau, which is a fringe group the site has established for itself in the Societyverse. For now, and probably forever, we are going to stay separate as our own universe. This most likely will not change in the future. It is wholly possible for there to be groups like the Wayward Society outside of North America, they just haven’t been established yet.
Story
- Warders are allowed to keep any aberrants they find (mainly tamed aberrants and artifacts) as long as they can feasibly find a place to store it and use it responsibly, not in a way that harms Normans. There might be exceptions where the Society will require an outfit hand over the aberrant. Everything else, including the corpses of killed/broken aberrants can be turned over to Data Collection Centers for storage.
- Gore and questionable (written) content is fine, but there is a line to not cross. Once it becomes gratuitous and is the only thing an article has going for it, then readers may regard it negatively and make it harder for the article to become a main-stay.
- There are such things as hunting bans on certain aberrants, but there has to be a good reason as to why.
- While you do have the option of referencing an existing aberrant in your article, ask yourself whether this is going to make your article better/more interesting or add unnecessary bloat.
- When writing an encounter log, you have as much freedom as you want in terms of how an outfit or Data Collection Center catalogues their kills and encounters. It could be notecards explaining how an entire outfit met their demise at the hands of a particular aberrant, a journal entry from a Warder who has faced an aberrant, a video of an outfit hunting an aberrant, etc. This part of the article is optional, but highly recommended as it gives more layers to an article. Note that in most cases encounter logs will feature an outfit hunting an aberrant. The members of these outfits must use code-names as to maintain their anonymity. Outfits have the potential to only appear in one article and never again, or appear in multiple articles. If outfits appearing in multiple, well-received articles becomes a common occurrence, we will open a page and catalogue them.
- If you absolutely must use living people in your story, try to make generic references instead of direct ones. We are mostly trying to use fictional characters for our writing community, but we understand that it might be hard considering our premise. Historical figures (to an extent) are fair game, however.
Helpful Code Snippets
Collapsible Text:
[[collapsible show="+ Title for showing text" hide="- Title for hiding text"]]
[YOUR TEXT]
[[/collapsible]]
In action:
[YOUR TEXT]
————
Footnotes:
Blah blah blah blah [[footnote]][TEXT][[/footnote]] blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah blah1 blah blah blah.
To see this code in action, look at the bottom of this page.
————
Quote boxes:
> This is text with a neat little box around it. I really like it because it makes an article less bland looking.
>
> Oh look, I started a new paragraph seperate from the one above this one so to keep it in the same box I had to have an arrow between my two statements and give it a space even though it isn’t visible.
Notice the space between the arrow and the text. If it is not there, the text will simply not appear on your article.
This code in action:
This is text with a neat little box around it. I really like it because it makes an article have some visual variety.
Oh look, I started a new paragraph seperate from the one above this one so to keep it in the same box I had to have an arrow between my two statements and give it a space even though it isn’t visible.
Hyperlinks:
Want to link to another page on yours?
[[*pastelinkhere| What you want to show up in place of the link]]
This code in action:
- Note: I have made it so this link redirects back to this page. Don’t take it as a sign of being broken.
[I made it redirect back here.]
————
Images:
Two versions you can use. Insert into your article where you want it to appear. Remember to remove the space before the first line. Replace the “image=“ portion of the code to your own image link or the name of the image file if the code is being used on a page to where image itself is uploaded to. The one provided is for the sake of example.
Play around with the width value to get a picture size you like.
No Captions:
[[include :snippets:image
|image=http://wayward.wdfiles.com/local--files/aberrationsandbox%3Athe-meeting/Spook
|width=300
]]
This code in action:
With Captions:
[[include :snippets:image
|image=http://wayward.wdfiles.com/local--files/about%3Awriting-guide/Biggie
|caption=Yay Captions!
|width=300
]]
This code in action:
| Yay Captions! |
Image above is Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 by STEVE OTTO. Image link: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MAPhotosm.jpg#mw-jump-to-license
————
Tables:
||~ Header 1 ||~ Header 2 ||~ Header 3 ||
|| Example 1. || Example 2. || Example 3. ||
This code in action:
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Example 1. | Example 2. | Example 3. |
