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Please Note: If you are signing up to collaborate with a team both/all team members must fill out their own form. If you are also signing up for a solo submission in addition to a team collaboration you may only sign up for the Mini Bang for your solo work. PLEASE NOTE If you are signing up as part of a team, and as a solo author you must submit the author sign-up twice.
This post is based on my experiences participating in over a dozen bangs in the Supernatural fandom as either a writer or an artist, on my experience as a bang moderator, and on bang experiences shared with me by acquaintances.
Despite the title, this guide isn't definitive, but it should give you an idea as either a writer or an artist on how not to be a bad bang (or fest) participant, and whether bangs are for you.
The basics
For those of you who don't know:
Bangs are fan creation events where writers and artists work together.
For most bangs, a writer (or a pair of writers) will write a fanfic, create a summary of that fanfic, and then the fanfic is claimed by an artist who has read this summary, who will then create art related to that fanfic after having read a copy of the fanfic.
In reverse bangs, the process is different, with the artist creating a piece of art first, which is then claimed by a writer who writes a story based on the artist's art.
And some bangs are in fact collaborative from almost the start, with author and artist paired early, and working together in tandem to create a story and art.
How long stories should be and how many pieces of art should be created are set down in a bang's rules.
What kind of content is permitted will also be described in the bang's rules, as well as required ages for participants.
The finished fanfic and art are posted on websites like AO3, Tumblr, LiveJournal or Dreamwidth (where's okay to post and how, is normally described in bang rules, as well as follow up emails/blog posts).
All of this is normally co-ordinated by a bang's moderators. These volunteers will keep things running in terms of maintaining the schedule, enabling claims and arranging posting dates, potentially enabling promotions of fanfic before posting, as well as distributing (not submitting) what is a masterpost that links to both the finished story and art. They will also weigh in on any disputes that may arise, or help find another artist (or writer in reverse bangs) when one side drops out.
So far, so good - right?
Okay, now buckle up. We got a lot more to get through and I ain't sugar coating this.
What follows looks at regular bangs and reverse bangs, and discusses etiquette for writers and artists.
How to not be a terrible person (a dick) while taking part in a bang
Now before we go into too much detail:
If everything seems to be going to shit with your bang partner or the bang’s mods - talking about it privately among friends and fandom friends is fine. But don’t start ranting and raging on your blog, and naming and shaming people. If you do that - you’re being a dick.
Each section that follows repeats some of the other, so if you just want to read what’s relevant to writers - do that. Or if you just want to read what’s relevant to artists - do that.
Now that’s clear...
Writers
Be polite to the mods and other bang participants.
Do not lie about your age to bang mods. The reason age requirements are often included in a bang is to ensure that the moderators and participants are not breaking the law in their country or your own. If you lie about your age, you're being a dick.
Make a note of deadlines in the schedule and what's expected of you at each deadline (use something like Google Calendar or Google Keep, or Trello, to alert you to when things are coming up).
Stick to the same email address for the entire bang.
Check that email address regularly - if you can, make the account accessible via your cell.
If a big life issue comes up (illness, death of a loved one, school or work has gone to crap, hurricane, etc) and it's going to affect your ability to meet a bang deadline - tell the mods or get someone to tell them for you. The mods might be able to give you extensions on certain deadlines.
If a big life issue comes up, let your artist know - they might be able to help co-ordinate posting more, or talk to the mods for you.
If you find you are unable to keep up with deadlines and are likely to miss them before art claims, tell the mods and drop out. There is no shame in realizing you have bitten off more than you can chew.
Make sure you complete check-ins.
When a bang asks for 50%, 75%, 80%, and so on, of a story to be completed by a certain point (especially before claims) - ensure you do. Failure to meet these requirements, especially if it is one right before art claims, will likely lead to you being dropped from the bang. Also meeting a higher completion before art claims means that you are a lot more likely to complete the bang and not lead to your artist being frustrated with you, because you have left them with no story after they have already created art for it.
Be clear in you art claim summary about any warnings that your fic may need when it finally posts. A lot of things are people's squicks, but you should always warn for graphic depictions of violence, major and minor character death, rape and non-consexual acts, psychological issues, cheating partners, and underage.
In the case of mentioning underage in a summary: say how old characters are - some artists may be okay with a 15 year old getting involved with someone, but not 13. (They might be okay with it, if it's not described in detail (think fade to black).)
But again - if a bang's rules say not to include certain things - do not include those things in your fic.
Avoid including stuff you didn't warn for after art claims have happened.
But if you later write something into your fanfic that you should have warned for in the summary - talk to your artist as soon as possible and check they are okay with this. If your artist is not okay with this, accommodate for their squicks.
If you are absolutely unable to accommodate for your artist's squicks after adding something you have not previously warned for, and the artist no longer wants to work with you, tell the mods ASAP so that they can find you a pinch hitter. But understand that if this happens and the artist has already created art - you're being a dick.
And in the case of adding potential squicks to fanfics for reverse bangs - always check with the artist first. ALWAYS. If you can't accommodate for the artist's squicks in a reverse bang, accept you will likely be dropped - and that you're being a dick.
Send your fanfic draft to your artist as soon as you know who they are - the sooner they can start working on art, the better
In reverse bangs, send your story to your artist as soon as you have a complete draft.
Communicate regularly with your artist. Daily, weekly, every couple of weeks, be it via email, Tumblr messenger, Discord, Twitter DMs or whatever - talk with your artist and often.
Should you fic go from being a mini to a big bang, and so on - do not expect extra art from your artist. They claimed your bang based on the length you said it was in the claims summary and how much art the bang rules said is required for that size.
Once you are assigned a posting date, check with your artist that they're okay with it.
And if you have not heard from your artist in a month (and they didn't tell you ahead of time that they were going off somewhere for work or holiday or personal reasons) - tell the mods.
If you have not heard from your artist within a week of your posting deadline - tell the mods.
Discuss within a month of your posting deadline who it is that will be submitting a masterpost (how this process works will be described by your mods). Do not leave this discussion until the day before posting.
Ask your artist if it is okay to embed their art in your fanfic.
Talk to your artist ahead of time about what time of day you're looking to post on posting day, and be sure of which time zones the other is in.
Understand that if your artist drops out, and the closer this happens to your posting date, that your posting date may be pushed back to accommodate for a new artist.
When a bang asks for you to use a beta reader for your fanfic - use a beta reader and credit them in the finished fanfic.
Make back-ups of your fanfic, so you have copies of it in more than one place or on more than one cloud file service.
If your artist starts having second thoughts about their art and you've seen some of it - be supportive, tell them they can do it.
Give your artist the link to your finished fic as soon as you possibly can, so they are able to link to it in their art post.
In your fic, include the link to your artist's art as soon as you are able to. Always credit them by name.
When posting on AO3, ensure that your fic is included in any collections that might have been created for the bang.
And finally, if you majorly overhaul your story, drastically changing it after art claims, and making it so none of the art your artist has created fits any more - you're being a dick.
Yep there’s more...
Artists
Be polite to the mods and other bang participants.
Do not lie about your age to bang mods. The reason age requirements are often included in a bang is to ensure that the moderators and participants are not breaking the law in their country or your own. If you lie about your age, you're being a dick.
Make a note of deadlines in the schedule and what's expected of you at each deadline (use something like Google Calendar or Google Keep, or Trello, to alert you to when things are coming up).
Stick to the same email address for the entire bang.
Check that email address regularly - if you can, make the account accessible via your cell.
If a big life issue comes up (illness, death of a loved one, school or work has gone to crap, hurricane, etc) and it's going to affect your ability to meet a bang deadline - tell the mods or get someone to tell them for you. The mods might be able to give you extensions on certain deadlines.
If a big life issue comes up, let your writer know - they might be able to help co-ordinate posting more, or talk to the mods for you.
If you need to drop out, because something has come up that means you can't finish - the sooner you tell your writer and the mods, the better. This ensures that the mods have enough time to find another artist to pinch hit.
Make sure you complete check-ins.
When a bang asks for 50%, 75%, 80%, and so on, of your art to be completed by a certain point (especially right before posting starts, or claims in a reverse bang) - do it. Failure to meet these requirements, especially if it is one right before posting (or reverse claims) is due to start, will likely lead to you being dropped from the bang. Mods will need proof of art to be sure you can post on time or decide whether they need to drop you from a bang and get a pinch hitter.
In reverse bangs, be clear about anything you would like to or would not like to see included in the fanfic being written for it, and don't include in your art anything that is not permitted in the rules.
Read your writer's fic as soon as possible once you have it. In regular bangs, if they haven't told you about any scenes they want created, make a note of the ones that interest you and tell the writer. If you don't have time to read the entire thing, at least read some of it - your ability to take part in the bang also includes having some time to read the fic. If you ask the writer if there are scenes they want done, but they don't know - don't be rude about it, just work with what you can read.
If you are uninspired by the fanfic you have claimed, and don't want to make art for it and you've left it more than a couple of weeks after getting the fic to come to this realization - you're being a dick.
If the fic you've claimed has underage in it, you're likely better off not depicting this in any graphic detail, as there's a chance you'll be breaking the law in either your own country, the mods' country, or your writer's country.
Communicate regularly with your writer. Daily, weekly, every couple of weeks, be it via email, Tumblr messenger, Discord, Twitter DMs or whatever - talk regularly with your writer and share drafts of your art with them.
Once you are assigned a posting date, check with your writer that they're okay with it.
And if you have not heard from your writer in a month (and they didn't tell you ahead of time that they were going off somewhere for work or holiday or personal reasons) - tell the mods.
If you have not heard from your writer within a week of your posting deadline - tell the mods.
Discuss within a month of your posting deadline who it is that will be submitting a masterpost (how this process works will be described by your mods). Do not leave this discussion until the day before posting.
Talk to your writer ahead of time about what time of day you're looking to post on posting day, and be sure of which time zones the other is in.
Keep backups of your work. Digital copies should exist in more than one location. Traditional art should be well photographed/scanned and have its files stored in more than one location.
Let your writer know if embedding your art is okay or not.
If your writer starts having second thoughts about their story and you've made art for it already - be supportive, tell them they can do it.
When it comes to posting and if you're putting your art on AO3, don't forget to add it to the collection that may have been set up by the bang mods.
Communication is the key to successfully taking part in a bang
A lot of the problems that arise in bangs can be avoided if people talk to each other. After claims, communication failure is (anecdotally) the number 1 reason behind fics or art not posting on time or at all.
And at the end of the day, regardless of whether you're a writer or an artist, mods understand that life stuff happens - they just want you to tell them as soon as possible, so they can work around it.
But if you feel anxious about the idea of talking and being truthful about your progress, then I would suggest that you are not suited to taking part in a bang.
Or if you don't care about your bang partner's squicks, then I would suggest that you are not suited to taking part in a bang.
And if you don't give a crap about a bang's rules? You are definitely not suited to taking part in that bang.
Hey! I'm new to this whole thing so I don't really understand any of this but I'm interested in beta'ing for people. How do I go about that? And do they share the file with me via google docs and I comment on it? Email me a word document?
Why hello there, anon!
So glad you asked! On July 15th, author and beta sign-ups will open. You'll fill out a Google form with your interests and limits and submit it to us. On that form will be your preferred method of contact (email, tumblr, discord, other) and your info will be put on a list. That information will be shared with Authors and they will be responsible for reaching out to your preferred method of contact for help.
Additionally, we have a shiny new discord being created. After you sign up, you'll receive an invite code to it and there will be a beta request room as a secondary method of requesting aid.
When/if you're hooked up with an author/authors (you'll get to choose what you are interested in beta-ing for) you can determine what works best for you (Google docs, word document, emailed, etc).
