In March of 1999, Maria Hanton, a die-hard Newsies (Disney, 1992) fan, created the original newsgirls lodging house in " Lower Manhattan," as a fan fiction writing circle for lovers of the film across the Internet. Once the first lodging house became full, more and more were created to accomodate the number of people wanting to join, and the once lone house for newsgirls became several, and hence the Newsgirls Union was formed. Now the Union has grown to not only a center for Newsies fan fiction, but has now encompassed all aspects of historical fiction pertaining to the relative time period of Newsies (1899).
But the Newsgirls Union is not only a place for stories to be posted. Yes, that is an ideal part of it, but not everything. The Union is an actual community of people, where each writer has a specific newsgirl character and profile. That character stays and lives at the lodging house they have joined. Most of the lodging houses have chats in which that character (as well as any other characters that the writer has in their story, or a newsboy character) can be played, so other people in the Union can meet him/her.
For more information on the Union, visit the resources on the Links page.
About the South Street Lodging House
The South Street Lodging House was created in February of 2000 (1902, newsieverse time) by K.D.Rankins (Compass Rose Albright) and Brieana Garner (Nautica Thorstein) when they found, to much dismay, that every single position for newsgirls in the Union was full. They had been planning to do it for a while, but finally, K.D.'s boredom overcame her and she began working on a layout for the site, as well as images and a design concept. Brieana worked on the text and dialogues as well as (several) profiles. What slowly began to develop was a full-fledged lodging house, and all that was lacking was acception into the Newsgirls Union, which, currently, was closed.
As of March nineteenth, 2000, South Street has been accepted into the Newsgirls Union (which means, it's official! After all our hard work!). Therefore, the South Street Lodging House is open and accepting applications for newsgirls and newsboys. Unlike other lodging houses, that only have stories for the newsgirls, South Street encourages newsboys to write stories as well. We want to know about them, too! ::grin::
South Street Lodging House Guidelines
Yes . . . though Nautica and I pride ourselves in being nice Union leaders, we do have to have some rules. We're not insane. These rules do make sense. Encompassing our rules, our motto has come to be: If you don't care, we don't care. We put a lot of work into the lodging house and dead weight is something we won't carry.
Profiles: Acception/Rejection. Though we do have many openings for South Street, we do not run it on a first-come, first-served basis. If we are not impressed with your profile, we are not going to accept you into South Street. Find another lodging house that will accept you, or rewrite your profile so that it does impress us (and what would be even better is that you have a bit of your first story for us, too—not necessary, but certainly a plus).
Profiles: Give us as much information as possible. Now, this shouldn't be difficult for a writer. And the Newsgirls Union is for writers. Since, currently, we do not ask for a writing sample (though we just may do so in the future), we want you to tell us about your character! We want to be interested. One-word and one-sentence answers really aren't enough for many of the questions. If your character doesn't interest us, and your profile doesn't show that you can at least write decently, you're not going to be accepted into South Street. Because the stories are the most important part of the Union, right? And if your character isn't good, will your story be?
Profiles and Stories: Be historically accurate. The Newsieverse, right now, exists in 1903. Now, when we say 1903, we mean it. And when we receive profiles and stories, we still mean it. If you don't know anything about turn-of-the-century New York, or don't even have an inkling of what life was like then, do some research before you write up a profile or write your story. Characters should act, speak, and dress like they would in context of the time period, not in today's context or the context of whatever-you-please. Historical fiction is extremely difficult to write, but if you want to write it, you have to know what you're talking about. If you don't want to take the time to create historically accurate characters and stories, find a writing circle for another time period or for modern day. If you're not sure where to start for research, take a look at our links page.
Profiles and Stories: Don't be ridiculous. When we say "ridiculous," we mean that we don't want aliens, space travel, time travel in general (that excludes flashbacks, naturally), or things of that sort. But that doesn't mean that we exclude the category usually known as "science fiction" out. But we do mean keep it within reason. If you want a character who has a psychic healing ability or weak telekinesis, or you want to write story with a ghost in it, go ahead, because such a thing is very possible.But be realistic and handle matters of the sort delicately and carefully. Don't let it take over your character or story! If you do, it becomes ridiculous and unrealistic.
Stories: Ratings. The South Street Lodging House has an "R" rating, which means we'll accept almost anything, with the acceptions of extremely graphic sexuality and violence. We don't want to censor, but we don't want to offend people or not allow people under such-and-such an age to read them. When you write your stories, please include a list of ratings, shown on the stories page, descirbing what content your story has.
Stories: Deadlines. Though South Street does not have a deadline for when your stories have to be in, we do expect you to work on either your stories for South Street or your other Union stories. We don't want to carry dead weight. After all, the Newsgirls Union is meant to be a writers' circle, with a good collection of stories. If you notify the management about how you'll be able to work on your stories, that's best. We know you have lives, and that's why we don't have a deadline. But we do expect you to be at least thinking about us. :)
Characters: Limitations. For newsboys and newsgirls in South Street, we really don't want one person having more than three newsies. Sometimes, and only sometimes, can an exception be made, if you can come up with a good enough argument. Otherwise, no. It's not fair to others. There aren't any limitations for people in the character index, but only people who play a newsie in South Street may add to the index.
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