Linked Universe Big Bang 2023 - Infomercial and General Rules
What is a Big Bang?
A Big Bang is an event in fandom where authors write a fic and are paired with artists who create art to go with it. These pieces are posted at the same time/together, reprising the older zine tradition of writers and artists collaborating for fandom.
How can you participate? There are three ways you can join the LU Big Bang: as an author, an artist, or a beta.
Authors will write a fic, artists will make fan art for that fic, and betas will provide the invaluable service of editing said fic if requested.
F.A.Q. for Big Bangs and specific information for this event under the cut.
What counts as art? If you are an artist participating in this event, there are a lot of ways that "count." You can do traditional, digital, moodboards, banners, a piece of embroidery... as long as it is a visual piece of art that goes with the fic you are paired with, it counts!
Minimum Word Count: The absolute minimum word count for fic is going to be 5k. It can be a one-shot, or a multi-chapter fic. It can be 7k or 200k, whatever your heart desires. As long as it is at least five thousand words, and done by the deadline, it counts.
Can I write in a language other than English?
Of course you can! As long as you are able to communicate with your artist in whatever language to get the collaboration done, I fully endorse fanworks in the native languages of the authors.
LU-centric: This event is for the Linked Universe fandom. That means that all art and fic must fall into the greater umbrella of the LU.
That being said, if you want to write something that is entirely about one member of the chain, or only features three of them, that is completely fine. AUs are allowed. Crossovers are also permitted, as long as the focus is our beloved Links.
Go crazy. Just stay in the fandom.
Ratings: Go nuts. Fluff, angst, any and all archive warnings and ratings are permitted. Write G, write E, write whatever speaks to you. That being said, y'all better be tagging responsibly. Artists will be asked when filling out their signup sheets if they are comfortable creating art for certain ratings/warnings.
Original Works Only: All entries for this event must be original to this event. That means that authors can't add a few chapters to their current WIP and call it a day. And artist cannot decide that an existing project is close enough and make edits. The point of this is to create an explosion (or a BIG BANG if you will) of brand new fanworks.
Authors: this is the perfect excuse to dust of those plotbunnies and flesh them out.
Collaboration: This is a collaborative event. We are celebrating our love for the Legend of Zelda franchise, the Linked Universe, and the Chain together. That means that you have to keep in contact with your partner, and complete the two check-ins with me (the event organizer) so that everyone has a good time working together to make something beautiful.
Beta Reading: As someone who chronically posts without a beta, I am not going to enforce having one. That being said, this event will have a beta sign-up, and I strongly encourage taking advantage of our kind volunteers. Or use your own regular beta. Or live that "no beta, we die like men" life. You do you, I guess.
For those of you interested in volunteering to beta read, please, feel free to do so. There will be a sign-up for you wonderful, beautiful, selfless people.
Hosting: All fics will be hosted on Archive of Our Own. You are more than welcome to post them elsewhere as you so desire in addition, but the "homepage" for the event will be an Ao3 collection. If you are an author who wants to participate but does not yet have an Ao3 account, I recommend signing up for one now. Last time I checked, the wait list was about a week. Not bad. Paired art-pieces can be hosted anywhere that the artist chooses, as long as it is linked/attached to the corresponding fic.
Posting: Since a majority of the fandom is currently going though whumptober/flufftober/linktober, and I know how Nano can be, I am looking at a late early december post date.
That being said, when we do get to posting, there will be a couple of hard-fast rules. Fic will be posted with the art and a link to the art hosting page/artist. Art will be posted with a link to the fic. The point of this is that they go together, after all.
Support: Please reach out to me. Send me a message/ask for the tiniest thing. If you think that someone else already asked it, it's fine, I will answer it with a link to the other answered ask. This is not the first Big Bang or Reverse Bang that I have run, so no matter what the question is, I am sure I have heard it before. Ask it. It's fine.
Also, reach out to your fellow artists and authors. The point of events like this is to make friends, so go on! Talk to people!
Extensions/Deadlines: The point of this event is to create an explosion of content on one set date. That being said, I know that life happens. Words can be hard. The muse can abandon you, and leave you bereft of the ability to finish the work.
This is where that communication thing comes in. If you make sure that your partner and the mod (that's me, hi) knows that you are just running behind, then all is forgiven. That being said, do try to meet the deadline. And those who have not completed their work for this event will not be allowed to participate in the next event I run (if/when) that occurs until said work is completed. It wouldn't be fair to your partner otherwise.
Where do I sign up?
The official timeline and sign-up sheet will be out by this Sunday, October 8th. I will be posting it on my Tumblr. And will tag all successive posts for this event with #LUBB2023 (Linked Universe Big Bang 2023).
Any other questions?
Send me an ask, reply/comment on this post. Go crazy. And please reblog this post if this sounds fun. The more people that see this, the more people potentially signing up for the event.