In the past, these Guidelines were called Rules, but I really don’t like rules, and I don’t want to be put in the position of imposing rules on a process that’s supposed to be creative. Therefore, these are Guidelines:

Projects

Monthly Projects are presented approximately monthly, and each Project includes six prompts including options for verse, flash-fiction, a list, and an art-inspired piece of writing. Each prompt is labeled Option (Number). The numbers rotate, so that Option One (for example) may be “Can You Picture That” one month, and “Seven Things” the next.

It should be noted that we are no longer tying the change date to the first of any month.

Weekly Projects (i.e. The Thursday Threesome) are posted every Thursday at midnight in my timezone. (I have issues with people who do Thursday memes on Wednesday.) These are more casual prompts.

Submissions
Submissions to each Project should be made via blog comments. Please include whatever version of your name you wish to be displayed, the title of your piece, the option number, and the direct link to it on your blog or website.

We’re now using Mr. Linky’s widget to help make this easier…but please but the DIRECT LINK to your post. Not the link to your blog’s general page.

Multiple submissions, for the same or different Options, are welcome.

It is requested, but not required, that you leave comments open on your submitted posts, so that other Cafe Writers can let you know they’ve read your work – this includes the ability to comment using name/link or name/email/ling verification, and NOT an external validation source like typepad or google.

Please tag your posts with “cafe writing” or link to us in the post, both for tracking purposes, and to help spread the love.

Submissions for one Project close as soon as the next Project is open.

Participants Pages
Between one and three weeks after a Project has begun, a Participants Page will be posted. This Page collects the links to all submissions for that Project. Links are added as long as the Project remains open.

Original Work
Because this is a writing project, we ask that all work be your own. If something you see here reminds you of a favorite poem from a book you read in high school, that’s great, but said poem isn’t something you should submit.

As well, while we have no issue with combining our prompts with other writing prompts or memes (and couldn’t prevent it, even if we did have an issue), we prefer that any submissions be written for the Project, and not just relevant archived work. In most cases, you have an entire month, after all.