Guidelines

Guidelines for Posting on the SWAT Kats Fan Fiction Archive:

We will accept any piece of fanfiction based on the series SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron with a rating no higher than M (see below for ratings guidelines), written in English or Spanish. We can receive stories in most text formats (*.wpd, *.doc, *.txt, *.rtf) and in html. But, please, if you use *.doc or html format, do not send them with embedded or otherwise attached images. We cannot host images or sounds for your stories.
Submitting:

To submit, e-mail us at submissions@fyresight.com Please attach the story to your email.

We have a template listing the information we need from you at the top of each story. Please read it and use it so that we don’t have to mail you repeatedly to retrieve all the information we need.

If you want, one of us can review and critique any fan fiction before it is posted if you’re worried on how it might be received. Some of the best authors on this archive wouldn’t post until DJ Clawson pushed them into it.

Ratings System:

Please note that our ratings system, whatever it may favor, does not necessarily conform to any particular official system in use.

• “E or K” – Content is suitable for everyone. Contains nothing you wouldn’t have seen on the show.
• “K+” – Content is suitable for older children. Regular violence. Minor and lesser profanity.
• “T” – Content is suitable for ages 13 and up. Detailed violence, sexual innuendos.
• “M” – For more mature readers only. Heavy violence, implied sex, heavy profanity, insinuated homosexuality.

Any sexual content should be implied only. SWAT Kats was a children’s cartoon, and some readers may be more than a little surprised or offended to find two cuddly cartoon characters engaged in detailed sexual activities.

Things that are not accepted:

• Rape
• Incest
• Explicit sex
• Involved/detailed homosexuality

For those of you who disagree with the rating policy on homosexuality, please understand that this is a safeguard for the people who are bothered by it and don’t want to read your story because they will be offended (and feel compelled to write you or us an angry letter about how offended they are).

We do not rate stories based on their quality. It’s not our place to tell you how good the story is or not — you have to read every piece for yourself and make your own decision.

What is SWAT Kats and What isn’t:

We define SWAT Kats fan fiction to mean the story concerns characters and/or situations drawn from the TV show. This includes:

• T-Bone, Razor, and the other assorted main characters (such as recurring villains)
• Minor characters and non-recurring villains
• A new character, created by the author, who has some interaction with a character from the show

A piece about a character who happens to be a kat and happens to live in Megakat City but that’s the jist of their relationship to the series can be tricky.  We must be able to tell that your new character lives in Megakat City and not just a place that resembles it in name only. If you’re not going to use canon/show characters, we had better be able to identify your piece with the show in some way.

The one exception to this is RPG-related fanfiction. We do accept it, but it will be placed in the RPG section of the archive, and you need to tell us that it is RPG-related. Just as a warning for non-RPGers who choose to enter that section, we are not responsible for how much the stories involve the SWAT Kats themselves (if they do at all). They may involve a number of RPG characters you’ve never seen on the show. If you are a RPG writer and you wish to have your stories also posted on the main archive, they must contain the SWAT Kats or other main characters from the show in some way,  shape,  or form and require no background knowledge of the RPG characters introduced in the stories.

Other Genres We Accept:

• Poetry
• Crossovers – provided a recognizable character from SWAT Kats plays a major role.
• Songfics – provided proper credit is given and there is more original material than quoted lyrics.
• Alternate/Parallel Universes

If there’s any question in your mind as to how on-topic your story may be,  don’t hesitate to submit! We will inform you if we have any problems with it.

Plagiarism:

Do not plagiarize. If you take a fanfic and replace the author’s name with your own, it will be rejected and we will give you a warning. If you repeat this action, you will be banned from the Archive.  The same goes for directly copying any other source – movie, novel, anime, comic book, television series, game, etc.

Stories that merely favor one another due to a common theme will not be considered plagiarism. Quotations are not plagiarism.  (But, please always credit!)  However, do not submit stories obviously cobbled together from  slightly modified scenes taken out of works by your fellow fanfiction authors, movies, novels, anime, comic books, television series, or games.

If you are ever uncertain as to how closely your idea favors another just e-mail us. We understand that people can have similar ideas, and we understand that an author can subconsciously copy a favorite story without realizing it. We would be happy to offer feedback and suggestions.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. If copying large chunks of movies and stuff isn’t allowed, why are there stories on the Archive that do that?

The Archive has had several hosts over the years, and their policies on this issue varied. Any stories received prior to the current hosts’ time will remain on the site. Further, things do, unfortunately, still slip through. If we have no knowledge of the movie/series an author is copying and no hints as to its name,  we can’t act without concrete proof even if certain elements in the story raise warning flags.

2. I can’t understand this story!

We tried! Unfortunately, we neither have the time nor feel it our place to re-write fanfics that may be confusing. We do spellcheck every fanfic and make an effort to correct grammar and formatting problems that make the story difficult or impossible to read.

3 .Is it okay to put myself in my stories?

Yes, though we’d prefer it if you wouldn’t make yourself or any new character of yours a hopeless Mary Sue. ( What’s a “Mary Sue?” See here. )
However, the Archive’s stance on the issue is that author insertion stories are fine, as are new characters. They can be tasteful, believable, and well-written. However, we are really tired of stories that run like this:

A new character comes to MegaKat City and finds their way to the Salvage Yard where Jake and Chance instantly accept them and take them in, practically begging them to become a new SWAT Kat. The newcomer either proves to be super-SWAT Kat and/or falls instantly and madly in love with Chance or Jake.

Before introducing yourself or your new character to the SWAT Kats, ask yourself how you have met people and how you greet new people. Do you immediately tell people your deepest secrets after five minutes of small talk? If an action doesn’t sound like something you could ever imagine yourself doing, it will probably sound equally crazy to your readers when Chance and Jake do it.

4. Do you accept crossovers?

Yes, crossovers are fine in most cases, provided some character(s) from SWAT Kats plays a major role in the story. We will not accept massive, multi-series crossovers where the SWAT Kats appear in the good guy cast listing but only have about two lines apiece and are only present for about three paragraphs.

5. Why can’t I log in and upload my own fanfics?

We don’t have this option because we don’t have the resources to constantly police the site and make sure that everything submitted is genuine SWAT Kat fanfiction and not spam or other garbage uploaded by advertising bots and pranksters.

6. I don’t like the description you put for my story. Can I change it?

Sure. Mail us. We’ll post the new summary with the next update. Usually, if we’ve written the summary, it means you didn’t provide one. We’ll post the summary you want… unless it is a “I can’t write summaries” note or what should be the author’s greeting at the start of the fic. Those aren’t summaries.

7. I feel that my story was misrepresented on the archive. Who should I complain to?

Us. We’re open to all suggestions, comments, and questions. The only thing we may be a little inflexible about is ratings. We put ratings and warnings where they seem necessary. SWAT Kats was originally rated for children seven and up. It stands to reason that we might want to make note when a story drastically crosses out of that age range. Ratings don’t kill readership and they keep those nasty letters from readers who weren’t warned away from your emailbox.

8. Gee, I just finished reading this and I feel insulted/shied away from submitting/like you’re strict/like you’re evil.

We don’t bite! Snarl a little on Mondays sometimes maybe… Please don’t be afraid to submit! Your story is not terrible, but you’ll never know that until you give us a chance to read it and tell you it’s not.

References and Resources:

• The Swat Kats Encyclopedia
• The SK Zone

Finding Other Fans:

• The Forums at swatkats.us
• The swat_kats Community on LiveJournal
• The Yahoo! Clubs SWAT Kats Hangar

–The Management (Contains portions from DJ Clawson’s original Guidelines)