Editorial Guidelines

Last updated 26 August 2026. Inflection cloud is a place for amateur writers to share personal stories. Read these guidelines before you send work. Publication is also covered by our Terms of Use.

What we publish

We want original personal stories based on your own experience and point of view. Fiction is welcome when it is clearly yours. We look for diverse, authentic voices and a respectful tone toward readers and the people in your story.

Original work

Send work you wrote. Do not plagiarise. If you quote someone else, keep it short and say whose words they are. We may decline work that has already been published elsewhere; tell us if it has.

Other people

If a story identifies a living person who is not you (by name, photo, or details that would identify them), you must have the right to tell that story in public, or you must change names and details so they cannot reasonably be identified. Do not use the Site to harass, defame, or expose someone else’s private life. We may edit or refuse a piece on that basis.

Language and harm

We welcome difficult subjects. We do not publish hate speech, or content that attacks people for who they are. We may edit for clarity. We may refuse material that is pornographic, that instructs serious crime, or that we think would put someone at genuine risk.

Length and craft

Aim for 500 to 2,500 words. Longer pieces are considered case by case. Write so a stranger can follow the thread: a beginning, a change, an ending that earns its keep. We may edit for clarity and coherence, and we may ask you for a fact or a source if the piece depends on one.

Images and AI

If you send a photograph, you must own it or have permission to publish it, including permission from recognisable people in it. Do not send a story or artwork generated wholly by AI and present it as your lived experience. If a tool helped you edit, say so in your email. We may still decline it.

Copyright

You keep copyright in your story. If we accept it, you grant us permission to edit for clarity, publish it on Inflection cloud, and promote it (including an excerpt and your name) on the Site and our social channels, as set out in the Terms of Use. That is not a transfer of your copyright.

How to submit

Email your story to [email protected] with your name as you want it published and a short biographical line if you have one. Attach the text as a document or paste it in the email. Do not use on-page forms; send email only.

We will try to reply. We are not obliged to publish, to give feedback, or to keep unpublished files after we have decided.

Games

Public games on Games are puzzles you can play. They are not a way to submit stories or photos.