General Guidelines

I have revised the submission guidelines to reflect some of the new features. Because the reader's survey pretty much agreed with the original philosophy of the page, the general submission guidelines will remain pretty much intact. Like us, our readers are more interested in the quality of stories that we post than the quantity.

We are still mainly in the market for on-duty, action oriented stories which include rescues. The favorite type of stories for most of our readers is drama. Good drama has touches of both tragedy and comedy. In our opinion, a good story, like a good roller coaster ride, is full of ups and downs. Roller coasters that only go down tend to crash and burn. We find that stories that are complete downers leave us wanting something. There are fans for that type of story and sites that welcome them so there is nothing at all wrong with writing them. They just don't work for us. We found the spirit of the show to be more upbeat than maudlin and angst only stories just seem out of whack to us. This, of course, does not mean that there can be no emotion, even sadness, in a story. But this must be derived from a larger plot. If your whole plot is "let's make 'um cry" this is really not the site for it. The characters are in a line of work that makes them a witness to many dramatic, life and death situations that could certainly have a profound affect on them. Tell us the whole story and don't leave us with an oh-woe-is-me attitude. The thing that makes them heroes is their ability to surmount problems and difficulties, not wallow in or whine about them.

We want stories to be set in the reality and the timeframe in which the show took place. This does not necessarily mean actually in the Seventies, but we like Roy and Johnny to be paramedics and the guys at 51 to be the same guys etc. We want the stories to be in that general setting but today's issues and medical advances can certainly be used. One of the advantages that TV characters have is that they don't have to age like the rest of us. But beware that the use of answering machines, VCRs, cellphones and laptops detract from the authenticity of your story with most readers.

We're interested in character driven stories and insist that the characters stay in character. Interaction between the characters is also a vital part of any story. Read your dialog out loud. It is the best way to tell if it really sounds like something that the character would say. We like character development stories but we like to see that in the context of a story that is as much like an episode as possible.

Crossover stories with similar fandoms are fine but we don't want the Emergency! characters in mere supporting roles. Humorous stories are very welcome and can break all the rules if they are funny enough.

For general submissions, we prefer stories to be similar to the actual episodes in that they are set in an "on the job" situation as much as possible and should involve some action. A story that takes place over a time frame of more than twenty four hours will naturally, involve some off duty time. Off duty stories about the characters themselves, not their family members, are perfectly acceptable. The guys can be on a fishing trip or out bowling etc but the story must be about them and not involve any wives, parents or offspring in more than a VERY minor role. Stories that are only about the home and family life of the characters are NOT what we are want. Writers who have no interest in rescues are probably not right for this site.

I want to emphasis the fact that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a writer writing whatever type of story she/he is comfortable with. Writers have the right to enjoy what they write. There are readers and sites that accept every kind of story under the sun. These are the types of stories that are not acceptable here because: 1) they are the specialty of another site 2) they were firmly trounced in the comments from the readers survey  3) they have been done to death or 4) they just do not come under my definition of an Emergency! story.

No Captain Roy & Johnny Stories.

No stories in which a character who was single in the show is either married, engaged, widowed, divorced, has a steady girlfriend or suddenly decides to adopt one or more children. Chet, Johnny and Marco were single in the show. Roy and the cap were married. We don't know for sure about Mike so it's the author's choice on that one. The show gave Roy two children and we think that is enough.

No smarmy or overly angsty stories.

No stories only about home and family life of any character.

No stories that depict rape or stories that use child abuse or endangerment (by a psychotic human -- danger from fire or accident is fine) as major plot points.

Absolutely NO stories which victimize Roy's children.

NO SLASH

NO killing off of characters but they may certainly be thought dead for a time.

No re-telling of episodes but we will now vignettes adding missing scenes or expanded endings.

No stories that are not complete. Multi-part stories are fine but all parts must be complete before it will be posted. There are far too many TO BE CONTINUED stories that never are completed on the web.

We are looking for stories not poetry or filks. (Filks for the Holiday page are okay)

No Mary Sue Stories.

No pseudo scripts or stories told in present tense.

No story in which Johnny is lying near death in a coma by page two and all other characters (especially Roy) are guilt-ridden, moping around Rampart and unable to face life. Some writers carry the friendship of the two main characters into an almost slash-like relationship that just doesn't work for us. It's not unlikely that Johnny (or one of the others) will end up at Rampart at some time or other but just make sure that it is as a result of a larger plot not that it is the only plot of the story and make sure you are writing a dramatic story not an angstfest. There is a huge difference.

Stories set in the future or entirely set in the past of any of the characters are probably not right for us.

Exceptions may be made for exceptional stories but stories with the above themes would probably be met with open arms on other sites so the writer would probably be better off submitting them elsewhere. There are LOTS of different sites so there is probably a home for almost every possible kind of story. It would be a complete duplication of effort and pretty boring if we all specialized in the same thing. My favorite kind of fan fiction (in any fandom) is stories that give us more of what we loved about the show. The concept and setting are as important to me as the characters themselves so I don't enjoy stories that stray too far from that. Other editors have completely different opinions. Check out all the sites. Chances are, you will find one whose tastes match yours. There is no right or wrong kind of story, it is just a matter of finding the right home for whatever kind of story you write. Good luck!

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Guidelines for the Station 51 Follies Page

Short, funny or ridiculous stories starring the guys from Station 51. Just about anything goes if it's funny enough. We all do embarassing things or find ourselves in ridiculous situations from time to time. This is where the guys will find themselves in embarrassing or ridiculous situations and we'll all get to enjoy it ;-)

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Guidelines for the Trauma Center Page

This page will be similar to the owie challenge but stories can be a little longer if you'd like. We accept both serious and funny stories for this page. We consider psychological torture (for example: stress induced by the job or the Phantom) and minor illness to be owies also. Groups owies are fine. For this page only, the main plot can be to trash a character. Stories that take place on-duty need not cover every minute of the shift and can cut right to the owie. One word of caution though, remember you are writing about men and they should act like men. An overabundance of weeping and hand holding are not really guy things and can really hurt the believability of your story. And please let's keep the actual angst level to a minimum. For one thing, angst is the speciality of another site and for another, I have to admit that I just don't like it. Major maimings, catastrophic illness and dozens of grief stricken family members are just not my cup of tea.

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This should go without saying but I'll say it, anyway. Stories must be your own original work. Downloading a story from another fandom and doing a search and replace to put Roy & Johnny's name into someone else's story does NOT make it your own. Yes, someone did this once.

Also, if your story is currently posted at another site, you should check with them before submitting the same story someplace else. Your story belongs to you, not the site and any site that feels that putting a story into html makes it theirs rather than yours should be avoided by everyone. Still, some work does go into setting a story up especially if a lot of editing is involved so you should show some loyalty to that site and not think about moving your story elsewhere for a reasonable length of time.

Submissions may be made as attachments in RTF (rich text format) ONLY. This type of file keeps all the formatting that you put in to the story, is readable by my older wordprocessor and more importantly, viruses can not attach themselves to it, as they can almost all microsoft files. Because I get a LOT of submissions via E-mail attachment and do not want any viruses I must delete unopened ANY other kind of attachment. If you are writing on a MAC and cannot save files as RFTs you can paste your story into an E-mail but paste-ins have to be reformatted by hand which takes a lot longer. Electronic submissions only. I have had stories sent to me in long hand. I don't have time to type anyone's story. That is the responsibility of the writer. 

Click here for a short tutorial on saving files as RTFs.      

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