So one guy posted a couple chapters in 7 Days of Incest. After much consideration, I declined them on account of some gross disassociation in events and characterization between the previous chapters and these ones. The only problem is... now what? Do I just delete the declined chapters? Let the guy edit them? What do you think is the best way to handle contributions by other authors in a game-mode type story?
It's your story, you set the ground rules. If they haven't reached out to you first before submitting the chapters, then they have no say in what happens to them. If you're feeling generous, you could message them and explain your decision, and how they either can change the stories or do something else with them.
Don't delete the chapters (before the contributor had the chance to save their work) If there is a chance that the chapters might fit your story with some editing, give the contributor the chance to adjust it. Make clear what you expect from contributors in your Writers Guideline. If some contribution touches a point which you didn't expect at first, update your Guidelines. If necessary, you can ask contributors to contact you before writing a chapter for your story.
I had a similar situation recently and I feel I handled it pretty well: -User posted chapter that I felt was of poor quality, despite being an interesting idea -I messaged them directly about what needed to improve and told them I would post it if said improvements happened. -The user asked me if I could make the changes, and I declined. I feel it's important to draw the line of editing. -On that note, I'd say it's reasonable to run another user's chapter through Grammarly and making sure Game Mode works. Beyond that, I try and keep a hands-off approach. I don't want someone else's work to become mine -Unfortunately, the user decided to delete the chapter and has since left this site. I feel so long you give a user a chance to fix their chapter and possibly save it somewhere else, you're being pretty fair. Whilst I do write for free, I do put a bit of effort into telling a story and I feel others should too.
As there are already a lot of pending chapters, please also decline the chapter (with an appropriate, polite decline reason.) That way, the reason is connected with the chapter (shown at the top of it) and it doesn't look like the chapter is still in review. (So you also avoid that a moderator reviews the chapter.)
