A few guidelines to follow…

• Be original – as in ‘the story must be your own work’. If you choose to quote or use an extract from the work of other people, you must reference it.
• Don’t identify yourself or others. Yours and others privacy and safety is important.
• Try and include what you have learned as a result of your experiences.
• Leave out the ‘aggro’ - don’t write insulting, threatening, abusive or racist stuff. No one wants to read that.
• Keep it under 1500 characters – that’s around 3 pages.

If you’re having trouble getting started, here are 2 quick tips:

1. Check out other people's stories on the REAL STORIES main page - someone's story might inspire you to write your own.
2. Just start writing. I know, sounds a bit simple. But just start writing without knowing exactly where you’re going with it. The results might surprise you!