#zkrb26

[zkbigbang]

Huge thanks to @sooz-art for creating the art for this year's event!

Sign-ups will start on April 19th, so the countdown begins! Keep on the lookout for posts about the new guidelines!

[zkbigbang]

Zutara Reverse Bang 2026 SIGN - UPS

Okay, zutara friends, sign-ups for this year's Reverse Bang are HERE and they are LIVE until MAY 2ND. Invites will be send MAY 3RD.

Sign-up Form Rules and Guidelines Event Calendar

[zkbigbang]

ZKReverseBang26 Rules & Guidelines

General

It is expected that all participants read, understand, and adhere to the rules of the event. If anything in the rules is unclear, it is your responsibility to reach out to one of the mods for clarification.

All participants are required to be active in our event Discord server. Work space within the event server will be provided for every team, and separate servers or chats for individual projects are not allowed.

Members are welcome to announce their participation in the Reverse Bang, but should not discuss specifics about their project(s) publicly until after posting begins.

All art should be SFW, and all written fic rated G or T on Ao3.

Sign-Ups

Artists will be limited to one piece of art.

Writers will be limited to up to 2 projects.

We will do our best to include as many people as possible. However, should we have to cap sign-ups for matching purposes, participants will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.

Check-ins

Members who are inactive for three consecutive weeks may be dropped from their project(s) or the event as a whole.

Members who miss formal check-ins (see our event schedule below for dates) or fall behind on their progress will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Artists will be required to submit a WIP of their piece.

Writers will be required to have met a certain percentage of completion by the check-in dates.

Dropping Out

You DO NOT need to contact the mod team to tell them you are dropping out if:

You are an artist that has not submitted a project for bidding.

You are a writer who has not bid on a project and is not assigned to one.

You are a beta reader who has not joined a project.

In ALL OTHER CASES, please contact the mod team before dropping out of the event. We get that life happens, and want to make sure the project can continued as scheduled. You do not need to tell us your reason for dropping out if you are not comfortable doing so.

Content Creation

Use of AI in any way, shape, or form (writing, image generation, proofreading, etc) is not welcome in this event.

Plagiarism is not allowed.

All content should be standalone and created specifically for this event. Continuations of existing works or published WIPs are not permitted.

All art should be SFW, and all written fic rated G or T on Ao3.

All event information can be found here.

[zkbigbang]

Zutara Reverse Bang 2026...

...is officially happening! Behind the scenes, guidelines and rules are being finalized, servers are being built, turtles are getting programmed, art is being arted, and much much more is happening to make this event a reality. Thank you very much to everyone who participated in the poll, and we'll have more info to share soon!

[zkbigbang]

Reverse Bang Writer Guidelines

Writers

Completed fics should have a word count of at least 5000.

Stories must be rated G or T on Ao3. All content must be appropriately tagged. If you need help with tagging, please ask for it from either your team or the mods.

Fics must be written exclusively for this event, and relate to their artist’s piece. Sharing details about your work publicly before the posting date is not allowed.

Writers will be expected to collaborate with their artist, respond to check-ins throughout the event, share their progress with their team, and communicate with their team and the mods as needed.

All authors must have an Ao3 account, and post their final work to the collection on Ao3.

Plagiarism of another author’s writing and/or use of AI in any form is not allowed.

All fics should be complete by the end of the event, or, for multi-chapters, the sum of the chapters posted must be at least 5k. Your work should be free of basic spelling and grammar errors.

There is no maximum word count, but writers should consider the event timeline when making a claim. Please be conscious of the available writing period and do not claim something you cannot do justice to within that window.

Authors must strictly adhere to restrictions set forth by the artists (Their “Do Not Wants”). Please do not claim art with restrictions that you cannot uphold. Fics should be related to the artwork and discussed with the artist.

Writers may not deviate drastically from the artwork or agreed upon plot without artist input/permission. Please work with your artists when changes are needed.

While an artist may want to change aspects of their art to fit your fic or create additional artwork, they are not obligated to do so.

Fics for the event must be written in English as the primary language. If you wish, you are welcome to translate your fic to another language in addition to English.

Bidding

Writers will have several days to review projects before bidding.

Bidding will work on a rating scale. Writers will be asked to rate at least 5 projects based on their desire to work on them, and the mod team will assign writers to a project based on this rating. We do our best but cannot guarantee your getting to work on your #1 choice.

DO NOT BID ON ART YOU DO NOT WISH TO WRITE FOR.

[zkbigbang]

Reverse Bang Artist Guidelines

Artists

Artists will submit one artwork.

You may not sign up with multiple accounts to submit multiple pieces. Additionally, you may not submit artwork for friends or anything that you have not drawn yourself.

Any form of visual art is accepted.

All art should be SFW.

Art ideas should be secret before the start of the event to allow for fair, anonymous project bidding (as fair as it can be, accounting for individual art styles).

Artists will be expected to create at least one finished piece of art. Any type of visual art is welcome. Artists will be asked to meet several checkpoints throughout the event, and should share their progress with their teams as the event continues. Do not ghost your team!

Unfinished artwork (for example, preliminary sketches or uncolored lineart) will be removed from the event. Please create pieces that would be worth an author’s effort to write for!

Artists may make changes to their pieces post-submission, or create second works of art for the fic, if they wish. However, submitted pieces must be COMPLETE. Any changes made after the submission and bidding process must not significantly alter the subject of your work (unless you and the writer expressly agree to the changes).

Submissions

Artists will submit their art through a provided form. This process is anonymous, so we ask that you not post or discuss your art outside of the artist channels before bidding.

I’m worried about art theft, can I still watermark my artwork somehow?

Absolutely! Generic watermarks that do not include your name or other identifying labels (such as: For Use Only in ZKRB26) are perfectly fine! Upon final posting, you are welcome to watermark your work however you please.

When submitting art for bids, please appropriately tag and provide a short description of your work. In addition, the submissions form will ask you to provide a list of Wants/Do Not Wants. Keep in mind that authors are only asked to strictly adhere to “Do Not Wants”. For example:

Wants: A certain AU, a certain dynamic or ship etc

Do Not Wants: Explicit content, gore, etc

There is no file size limit or requirement, but please be mindful of final file sizes with regards to uploading and downloading. The file format is up to you, but please try to keep it to the most common and accessible file formats.

[zkbigbang]

😱

I'm so excited!!! Our team of mods is going through all the submissions right now and hope to have everything sent out by the end of the day! We'll post here again once all of the discord invites have been sent. Can't wait to see everyone in the server!

[zkbigbang]

Let's Talk Betas

Traditionally, each team was required to have at least one beta reader due to the writing-heavy nature of the event. As the Reverse Bang is more art-heavy, Betas are optional. Betas in this event can work with an author of their choice if they choose, or can join teams based on work summaries provided later in the event. If you have any questions, please send us an ask.

Betas

Betas will be expected to work closely with their team and provide advice and feedback as the work is completed. All beta readers should be able to provide SPaG feedback, and may be asked to provide additional support with plot and other creative decisions.

Beta readers can choose to work with a particular author, or be available for any author.

If a writer desires a beta reader from the Discord server, they will post in the appropriate channel with a short summary of their fic, timeline, word count, and any relevant content warnings. A beta reader may choose which fics they are comfortable betaing based upon work content warnings and summaries and reach out to the writer and mod team to be added to the project.