Once in a while it becomes necessary to restate the rules.

This is such a time. The general rules of this site are the Terms of Service. Please take a moment to read them.

When the admins put together the Terms of Service, we tried to distill each main idea down to the basics. We hope that they are short and simple and easy to follow.

Today I need to reiterate that stories and reviews posted at MTT should not be continuations of scuffles that happen off-site.

These are good reasons for posting a story:

• You are a first-time writer, and you've worked up the gumption to post.
• You are a beginner, and want feedback that will help you improve.
• You are an established writer, and feel your work might inspire new writers.
• You crave feedback.
• You need to get a story idea out of your head, so you can concentrate on your regular, paying job again.
• You love The Office, Jim/Pam, Kelly/Ryan, Michael/Meredith, Stanley/Todd Packer. It's all good.

In other words, there should be positive (or at least constructive) motivation behind posting your story.

Likewise, all reviews, positive or negative, should be constructive. Good reasons to review might be:

• You want to tell the author that their story made you smile, cry, laugh, do a little dance, yell at a character, wish you were Pam, wish you were Toby.
• You want to encourage a new writer to keep posting.
• You want to point out images, themes, or word choices that you found particularly powerful.
• You want to encourage the author to quit their regular, paying job to write more fanfic for you.
• You want to point out something that may need work, and offer a solution to the problem.

Criticisms offered in reviews should always be about the story, never about the author. Period.

Here's to creative writing and helpful reviewing.

Thanks!

This is the last day of our fanfic primer.   Oh no! ;) I hope you enjoyed this list.  Readers, thanks again for participating!

The last 4 "Other Pairings" stories are as follows:

1) Candy Dish by ElizabethLynn (Pam/Phyllis- Rated K)

2) The Beard by nomadshan (Roy/Angela/Oscar/Jan- Rated M)

3) Five Stories Kelly Kapour Never Told by winterbaby (Kelly- Rated T)

4) The most nominated story: O*F*F*I*C*E by Annakovsky (Ensemble- Rated T)

I'll be back with challenges in the next few days. This weekend, authors will post their responses to this month's Five-Element Challenge. Exciting! :)

We have a lot of great new fanfic being posted, but in the spirit of celebrating the best we have had so far, here are 4 more favourite "Other Pairings" stories:

1) Eight Days a Week by mazily (Ryan/Michael- Rated M)

2) Awake by shannanagin (Pam/Roy- Rated T)

3) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Arsonists by swestworld (Ryan/Jan- Rated K+)

4) Snowball by ElizabethLynn (Madge/Roy- Rated T)  

Today, I am adding 4 of the 12 stories picked for the "Other Pairings" category for the fanfic primer.

1) Things Jim Can't Remember by annakovsky (Jim/Mark- Rated MA)

2) Fringe by ElizabethLynn (Jim/Gil- Rated T)

3) Boy Problems by bonorocks (Kelly/Oscar- Rated T)

4) Substitute by honeywheeler (Angela/Roy- Rated K+)

Happy reading!

We have had an incredible influx of new membership over the past couple weeks, so this is a great time to have a few points reiterated.

Authors new and old, please do not forget to categorise your story correctly. Morning Angel posted on this issue a few weeks back, but we are still finding a lot of stories are incorrectly tagged. I have now added the instructions on how to add a category and subcategory to your story on the Submission Rules, so it can be seen as you add a new story. Please take the time to read over it again.

We would love to see all stories properly categorised so that readers can easily search for the kind of story they would like to read.

For new authors. We are loving all the new creativity to the archive, but if you are a first time writer, please try to have your story beta'd before submitting it. We have an awesome pool of beta volunteers, and they can all be contacted by clicking the "Contact" link in their profile. We work hard to make this a supportive environment and encourage new authors, we want to help you be the best author you can be.

With the premiere only a few days away, there are going to be an awful lot of submissions post premiere, so let's make this the best premiere week ever!

Lastly, a small plug, over on the main site, Jenny has finished majority of the Episode Guides- she will be looking after that portion of MTT while I am on vacation and will be updating with Season 3 reviews.

My plan was not to post a new challenge this week since the DVD release provided so much fodder for fic. Then, I realized that the new season starts on Thursday, and so many people will be writing episode-related fic so we will start having new sources of inspiration every week. All this to say, I am posting a challenge because they're fun, and I can't stop. ;)

This week's challenge is courtesy of rdhp12, and is called Star-Crossed Lovers. The children of Dwangela and Jam meet and fall in love. Could Jim really stand it if his little girl married Dwight K. Schrute the 4th? Could Angela live with bridemaids wearing green dresses at the wedding? Pure chaos ensues in the houses of Schrute and Halpert. Fun idea, no? :)

Furthermore, may I just remind you that we still have our September challenge going on, if you are looking to do more writing.

There were so many good fics for the last two challenges! I love our writers. :)

This week's challenge comes courtesy of Pam!Pam!ThankyouMam! The idea is very topical, and made me laugh a lot, so here we go: Conan Lands in The Office. What if Conan O'Brien had stayed in the office instead of going to the Emmys? Would he get a job, if any, at Dunder-Mifflin? Would Jim get jealous of Conan and Pam's sexual tension? Would Dwight plot revenge on Jim for making Conan fall out of the ceiling? I can't wait to read your various takes on Conan's stay in the office.

Important announcement for new authors and a reminder for writers who have been posting here for a while about story categorization. I have noticed that not all stories are tagged properly, and in the spirit of making sure readers can easily find stories, I would just ask you please to verify that your stories have both a main category, and a subcategory.

Stories should be labelled in one of two main categories: Jim/Pam or Other. Stories should then be tagged as belonging to one or more of the following 6 subcategories (THIS APPLIES TO BOTH JIM/PAM STORIES AS WELL AS OTHER STORIES):

• Past: Story takes place before the show
• Present: Takes place at the same time as the documentary but not what we have seen in episodes
• Future: Takes place a long time somewhere down the road.
• Episode-related: The story shows us missing scenes of an episode or deals with the internal monologues some characters may have had during certain scenes.
• Crossover: Characters from another TV show/movie/book interact with the Dunder-Mifflinites.
• Alternate Universe : The story takes place in another time and/or setting. "Hope" by Nomadshan is the perfect example.

The subcategories are little bit hidden when authors post stories, which is why they are easy to miss.

1) After you used the scrolldown menu to select either Jim/Pam or Other, hit select.

2) Return to the same menu, and you will now see the subcategories have appeared.

3) Select as many subcategories as needed for your story. Hit select.

4) Your story is now both tagged for a main category and subcategories!

We are switching it up a bit today since we have received a few suggestions for non-Pam/Jim challenges.  Today's challenge comes courtesy of Lucif, and asks for a Jim and Jan story: Second Choices .  Post-Confession, Pre-Kiss. Rejected by Pam, Jim finds solace in someone who knows the pain he's feeling: Jan.

It is Thursday (also known as Office day in my world!) so it is always a good day to issue a challenge to our writers. Today, I am proposing a story idea that has been going through my mind for quite a while: Caught Red-Handed. Jim & Pam get caught in the act, whatever that might be: playing a prank on Dwight, making fun of Michael, making out in the parking lot,... Jim & Pam are so sneaky and snarky, but something is bound to bounce back in their face at some point.

I hope that sparks some story ideas for writers. As always, please submit any suggestions of challenges to morethanthat1@gmail.com. They are greatly appreciated!

We haven't posted challenges in a little while so here are 2 new ideas that will hopefully generate some great stories.

The first challenge was suggested by stele, and is called Reality TV Hit. The documentary airs and it becomes something of a reality TV hit, as everyone in fake TV land becomes as fanatic as we in real TV land. The story opens just after "Casino Night" has aired, complete with the confession & the kiss. Time has passed between the moment when that was filmed and the airdate. Jim and Pam are not together. I'll let you decide the circumstances. So, what happens? How does Jim deal with having his heart broken in front of everyone? Does Pam come by to visit? Do they re-establish contact? Is Jim mobbed by a huge crowd of weeping women and carried off to Utah for a polygamous mass wedding?

Our second challenge was suggested by thedoors, and is titled Talent Show. This challenge requires writers to create an alternate ending to season 2. Instead of having a casino night, Michael decides to hold a talent show as a "fun-raiser" and emotions start to run high.

If you want to submit more challenge ideas, please email us at morethanthat1@gmail.com.