Project Franklin 101: The MUST READ Post for Authors
In which Haly gives information on the rules & deadlines, the lore, the wiki, copyrighting Franklin stories, and keeping the city free of AI.
This post contains vital information that is MANDATORY for AUTHORS. If you’re joining us as a reader, you can adjust your account settings here: https://projectfranklin.substack.com/account. Simply un-toggle “For Authors” and these author info posts will skip you.
Thank you for contributing to Franklin!
First and foremost, thank you for your time and effort. No artistic collaboration can succeed without the dedication and support of its artists. Whether you are an author, a .CSS guru, or a visual artist,
and I want you to know that your skills and efforts are deeply appreciated.Thank you!
A Handy Info-Graphic of WTF is Going On
Reminders:
FIRST ROUND stories (the sixteen at the bottom, the green row) are DUE to BY THURSDAY, 29 MAY, 2025!! We have extended the date to allow for all of the confusion that is natural with any new endeavor.
DO NOT PUBLISH YOUR STORY!! You may schedule the post, but do not publish it. All 31 stories will be released at the same time! This is critical!
DO NOT SHARE ADVANCE COPIES OF THE STORIES!! There will be a brief period of voting between each round of writing. During these times, you will have CONFIDENTIAL access to the works of other writers. Do. Not. Share. These. Exclusive. Author-Only. Links. I don’t know how to emphasize this more. Each collection will have a PUBLIC release date, once all 31 stories have been written.
The official publishing date for ALL of COLLECTION ONE: Summer 2025 stories: Tuesday, 19 August, 2025, Midnight (Eastern).
The tentative publishing date for ALL of Collection Two: Halloween 2025 stories: Tuesday, 28 October, 2025, Midnight (Eastern).
The tentative publishing date for ALL of Collection Three: Long Nights and Holidays 2025 stories: Tuesday, 25 December, 2025, Midnight (Eastern).
Critical Author Information
Are you writing for Project Franklin? GREAT! Make sure you are subscribed to this newsletter as it is now the official source of Franklin-related information.
There is always a great deal of debate around when and whether to start a new publication. After all, sections are a handy thing to have and allow us to diversify our publications to reflect our whole selves, not just a niche-carved sliver of our authentic personalities.
So why a new publication to handle Franklin?
Communication.
and others are only members of , some of you are on Slack, some of you are on Discord, some of you are nowhere but Substack. Trying to manage a volume of information across multiple outlets is not just exhausting, but it makes it difficult for Thaddeus and I to give timely information to everyone, all in one place.
Some of you are only members ofPrivacy.
Y’all have trusted us with your email address, and we promised not to sell or trade them. And so, we’re not! Not everyone who is a member of the LitSal or Rhapsody will be interested in hearing about Franklin. Those who are interested will have ample opportunities to subscribe to this publication through synergistic links and cross-posting with my other publications. Same for Thaddeus (if he chooses). And if y’all want to cross-post these as well, that’s cool, too!
Franklin: The Official Map
This is the official Franklin map. Each square is ~3 blocks; 3 squares is ~1 mile. As stories are published, the map will grow with streets, neighborhoods, locations, monuments, landmarks, etc.
Yes, you can make up your own! THAT IS THE POINT!
Need help coming up with on-brand names for people and places in a midwestern river city? This article on Naming Places & People in Franklin will help! There, you’ll find lists for both masculine and feminine first names (many of which are interchangeable), and a list of the 100 most common surnames in the US! As well, there is information on how people in these parts name things. (Spoiler alert: call it what it is, we always do. German Church Road is where the Old German Church is.)
Did you know: There’s an interactive version of the map? You can view it as a part of the Franklin WorldAnvil!
(Fun fact! If you choose to test-drive a subscription, you can SAVE 51% on any new Guild Membership with code MoonlightBard.)
Franklin & Copyright
Collaborative efforts require collaborative copyrighting. The nature of this open-world fiction project demands a copyright that preserves each artist’s rights to sell and distribute their own work, while still respecting and contributing to the concept of open-world fiction.
For this reason, ALL Project Franklin stories that contribute to the group effort—that is, all of the stories that directly contribute to the worldbuilding of this open-world fiction project—MUST be published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 Copyright License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
This is not up for debate.
This license best protects the writers who contribute original locations and characters to the project, while allowing others to use those creations. That is, after all, the point of this project: cooperative worldbuilding through fiction.
There will be more information on this when we hit the second round of stories (and possibly begin writing with characters that were created by our peers). FOR NOW, you just need to include this graphic at the bottom of your story:
It is transparent and has been tested on a variety of colored backgrounds, so it should show up fine no matter how you have your publication styled. If you have any trouble, reach out to me (
) and I’ll help!Project Franklin is Proud to Be AI-Free!
In cities, suburbs, and towns across the Midwest, USA, communities are rising up to protest the building of AI data centers. AI companies want to strip the farmland and hinder America’s ability to feed itself, while poisoning the little water that remains for crops, herds, and people.
Generative AI is not welcome in Franklin, please and thank you!
Please notice that all of the graphics and .CSS editing have been done by me (
) and .Out of respect for the people and places in the Midwest, the food that we eat, for our peers in the fiction community, and ourselves as artists please do not bring AI content into the project. Spell-check your writing, of course! But robots have nothing new to contribute to creativity, only regurgitations of previous iterations. They cannot create, only recombine as they destroy.
And to show our respect for you and your hard, human work and creativity, this publication has been set up to deny AI-training bots. This is a setting provided by Substack, and you can enable it for your own publication in the “Privacy” section of your “Settings.”
As you can see, this will hurt our discoverability and so we are relying on you to boost that. Feel free to cross-post, restack, and even forward emails to creative peers and fans who will LOVE this project as much as you and I do!