General Application GuidelinesPLEASE READ EVERYTHING BEFORE APPLYING1. All pieces for the zine (art or written work) should be 100% made by you, a human creator. No copying. No stealing. No generating (in any form of assistance). Generative AI has no place in this zine.
2. You must at least be 18 years old at the time of applying.
3. If accepted into the project, you are expected to be a responsible communicator as a contributor. Meaning, you must be willing to communicate any possible delay or issue on your end (especially when it comes to beating the deadlines), whether that is asking for an extension or wishing to drop from the zine. Communication is key to any collaborative project.
4. You are allowed to apply for or have multiple roles.
5. A Discord account is required. Joining our zine's Discord server is mandatory for communication and working on the project.
6. All contributors are expected to work and communicate semi-professionally in the server with the mods and their fellow contributors.
7. Previous zine experience is not required.
The Once Upon a Trail zine will feature both arts and short stories. Click the role you're interested in for the requirements and expectations.
Please don't hesitate to contact us for further information.For the working timeline, please check our Schedule.
NOTE
Given the nature of this project, being an expansion of an existing Trails fanart collaboration, artists who are accepted into this zine will be required to draw only Trails characters with existing AU designs (click here to view the list of taken characters) or recreate their own designs of characters not taken yet.Page ArtistIf accepted into the project, a Page Artist will be expected to draw a full illustration with the dimensions: 5.83 x 8.27"/1749 px x 2481 px.The piece must be fully colored.Comics are allowed and can be in flat colors only but should have clean lines. If the style is sketchy, it should still look clean or finished. The comic should only occupy at least one (1) whole page and a maximum of two (2) pages. (If you would like to work on a comic for this zine, please include comic samples in your portfolio upon application).Non-comic works (or full illustrations) should have a background. Backgrounds do not need to be complex or detailed.
Spot ArtistIf accepted into the project, a Spot Artist will be expected to submit a spot art that is at least 1000 px x 1000 px.The piece must be fully colored.Artworks have either no background or have a partial background that should not occupy a whole page.If the style is sketchy, it should still look clean or finished.Spot Artists are artists who will draw art to accompany/complement the short stories; thus, they will be expected to work with a writer.
Merch ArtistIf accepted into the project, a Merch Artist will be expected to submit arts/designs for digital merch only.The type of merch will still be decided on Interest Check results, but the following are being considered:* Desktop Wallpaper
* Phone Wallpaper
* Emotes
* Animated Emotes
* Printable Stationery
* Social Media Icons
* Social Media Banners
WriterIf accepted into the project, a Writer is expected to submit either a short story of about 3000 to 5000 words or a 500-word "drabble" (with 500 as the strict word limit).Given the nature of this project, being an expansion of an existing Trails fanart collaboration, writers who are accepted into this zine will be required to write only for Trails characters that already have AU designs. Meaning, the cast selection is based on the list of characters already taken (click here to view the list).However, if a new artist collaborator is accepted into the zine and will be redesigning a new character, and a writer wants to write about that character (not originally part of the old fantasy AU project), that is fine. This is something to be arranged once the project starts.Format:
Only press space once after a period.
Only press enter once after a paragraph.
Use a long em dash (—) instead of a shorter one (–).
Highlight italics in blue and bold in yellow-green.
Use quotation marks (" ") for speech and single quotes (' ') for quotes within speech.
Use lowercase letters for dialogue tags, as so: "Why?" he questioned.