What is Random Fiction?
Each successive episode of a Random Fiction story is written by a different author to the one before, allowing the stories to evolve in often unexpected and original directions. Random Fiction is an open project for all to experiment with writing for the Doctor Who universe.
The episodic nature of the RF's necessitates a different structure and means of navigation than that used for the rest of Timelord's content. This page details how the RF's are laid out, how the reader navigates through them, and how the reader can also contribute via a rating's system for RF's that have been completed. For those readers wishing to contribute to an on-going story, please consult the writer's guide.
The Random Fiction window is split into four panes, the large area for viewing content, the other three for navigating the site, its stories and each story's episodes.
The Title Bar & Story Menus
Top Right & Bottom Left
The main logo at the top of the screen is a link that will return you to the front page of the site. The main RF menu's are situated on the bottom left hand frame, and are expandable by clicking on the white arrow to the left of the blue bar. Options available are as follows:
| RF Menus | |
| New Stories | The latest first episodes |
| Continuing stories | The latest episodes of stories already underway |
| A to Z list of stories | Browse the stories by Title |
| Completed Stories | Browse completed stories or download them to read offline |
| Crossover stories | Index of all the RF stories which crossover to another series, or character |
| Stories featuring | 1st Dr, 2nd Dr etc... Listings of stories by their star! Other stories are gathered under the two umbrella menus of "Other Doctors" and "No Doctor". |
| Random Audio | Download original Audio Drama and Readings of RF stories |
| Roleplay Archive | Archive of the two roleplay games so far played by RF authors |
| Random randomizer | Click to be taken, quite literally, to a random story! |
| More Information | |
| Reservations | A place to reserve RF episodes, and a list of current reservations |
| Readers Guide | The page you're currently reading! |
| The Best of RF | A selection of favourites; some complete, some still in progress. Also in here are any stories given the top Rating by readers |
| Writer's Guide | Advice and suggestions for writing Random Fiction |
On each episode page, clicking on the name of that episode's author will take you to a page listing all the contributors to the site. Also, all the completed stories offer you a chance to rate that particular story, and a guide to this ratings system is given below.
Whenever you click a story name, an index appears here, which has links to each episode. Sometimes, to save space, it'll take the form of a drop down menu. Either way, choose an episode and click - the episode will appear in the Main area.
The Main Area
The large area at the bottom right of the screen.
This is where you'll read the stories. Select a story from a menu, or click on an episode from each story's Episode listing, and the episodes will appear in this main area.
The Story Rating System
Only available for completed stories.
Ratings are welcome from everyone, including those who wrote for the story in question. At the end of the final episode of the completed stories the above graphic appears. It links to a page that sends me your rating for the story, and any other comments you care to make. The Overall Rating and any comments will form a new "rating" page for each completed story.
| Rating Guide |
 - Excellent - Good - OK - Bad - Terrible |
All suggestions for developing this system are welcome!
Any comments, suggestions or contributions for the site: email the editor, Kenny Davidson