ROUND FOUR RULES
Greetings, and welcome to 1d_bigbang, your local One Direction Big Bang challenge! You may remember us from the last three years - or not - but in either case, we're back, bigger and better than ever before, with a brand new set of rules following your feedback! Rules that have changed since last year are marked with a star (★). All of these rule changes either have precedence in other fic challenges or have been piloted and reviewed by a team of seasoned Big Bang experts. If you have any questions about these changes, or the rules overall, please let us know!
You know that 1D fic you've been dying to write? The one about what would have happened in the bungalow if there really had been a mad cow murderer outside, or the one where only your ship stands between humanity and total apocalyptic extinction, or perhaps the one where One Direction are the stars of hit new show The Real Housewives Of The On The Road Again Tour and have to deal with even more publicity? Maybe you've been dying to write an epic about your OTP (or OT3… or OT5), or even just a fic about one member and his girlfriend.
In any case, this is the place for you!
A Big Bang challenge - for those of you who don't know - is a certain sort of ficwriting challenge that combines long fic with artwork/media. Writers and artists sign up, independently of each other. Writers write the fic, and artists pick a fic to work with based on premise, whereupon they will draw, vid, and/or mix a work to accompany the fic upon posting.
Here is the Round Four schedule:
author sign-ups: August 15 - September 19
artist sign-ups: August 29 - October 3 or all fics claimed (see below)
resource sign-ups: August 15 - January 23
first author check-in: October 17 - 24 (recommended word count of 6k)
second author check-in: November 21 - 28 (recommended word count of 12k)
"encouragement" check-in post: open throughout
author summary "reminder email": November 28
author finalized plot summaries and proof of 15k due by: December 12
artist claims open: December 19
second-round claims open (if necessary): December 26
claims post closes and artist/author teams finalized & posted: January 2 (latest)
authors must share most up-to-date working draft with artist : January 9 (latest)
final 20k+ drafts due by: January 23
art drafts/"good faith effort" proof due by: January 30
schedule posted: February 6
posting begins: February 10
You may also view our Round Four Google Calendar here.
Specifics:
Writers:
+In this specific Big Bang challenge, there is a minimum wordcount requirement, for writers, of 20,000 words (no maximum). Fics can be gen, het, or (fem)slash. They can be as explicit as you want them to be. They can be AUs, crossovers, fusion fics, or completely ~canonical. The only requirement is that they include at least one (but preferably more) ★ current and/or former member(s) of One Direction. If you want to see your favorite ship represented in this year's big bang, we recommend you sign up and encourage your friends to do the same!
+ ★ Your fic must be posted on your scheduled posting date in one fell swoop (i.e., it can be chaptered, but the chapters must all be posted at once). Your fic can be part of a broader arc or series, or function as a stand-alone. You may sign up with fics that you have already started working on; however, you may not sign up with fics that have already been in-part published (such as chapters or shorter versions).
+ You may co-write if you like. You may write more than one fic if you like. If, at any point in the process, you cannot complete the challenge, please let us know. You may drop out without penalty up until summary submission. Before final drafts are due, you must send in a summary of 1-2 paragraphs that will be posted anonymously by mods so that artists can claim your work. By sending in your summaries early enough for artist to have ample time to contribute to your fic, you are indicating that you have committed to completing your fic by the final draft date. If you drop out after submitting summaries, your artist claimant is affected as well. As such, if you drop out after this point, you will be ineligible to participate in Big Bang Round 5 and will have to wait for round 6.
+ As an addendum: ★ If you dropped out after submitting your summary last year, outside of the amnesty given to authors posting after Zayn left the band, you will be ineligible to participate this year. If you do not know whether this means you, please email us (1d.bigbang.mods at gmail) for clarification.
+★ Check-in posts are mandatory and are open for a week. ★ Rather than the optional focus-sustaining check-in posts we had open last year, we will have one “encouragement check-in post” open throughout the duration of the challenge. This post is designed to help sustain focus if you choose to use it, or seek out feedback and encouragement from other participants and consumers of the Big Bang challenge. We encourage you to use this pressure-free resource to check-in about non-wordcount-related issues, such as concerns you may be having with plot or with pacing yourself.
+★ As soon as authors have finalized the plot for their fic and completed the rough draft minimum of 15k, they are welcome to submit their fic summary and rough draft to the mod email. ★ Doing so indicates commitment to complete the Big Bang challenge and dropping out after this point will result in being banned from participation in Round 5. ★ Authors may submit their draft at any point after sign-ups close on September 19 until the final summary due date of December 12; however, ★ if the draft is submitted prior to the final mandatory check-in, authors must still check-in with updated word counts. ★ Details regarding formatting for the summary submission email will be sent to all participants the day after sign-ups close, on September 20; ★ this email will also serve to confirm that your sign-up was processed.
+★Authors are required to share their working drafts of their fics with their artist within a week of author-artist match reveals. ★ Failure to do so, outside of extenuating circumstances cleared with mods in advance, will be considered a drop-out, and authors who do so will be ineligible to participate in Round 5.
+ Once you send in your final draft, due January 23, you will be assigned a posting date. Authors will receive a tentative posting schedule via Google Drive during the week of January 30 for date confirmation and finalization. The final schedule will be posted publicly on February 6th. Closer to posting time, posting guidelines will be published.
Artists:
+Artists, in this Big Bang, refers to mixers, vidders, and any other kind of traditional art medium (drawing, painting, manips, you name it!). ★ Artists may work individually or with another artist friend. ★ Individual artists or artist teams may claim just one fic per claim round; however, if you are working individually on one fic and with a partner on another, you may claim one fic on your own and one with your partner.
+If you are a mixer: your fanmix for the fic you choose should have at least 12 songs, though no more than would fit on a CD. Fanmixes must include album art of some variety. Host songs, either individually or in .zip format, either on a personal server or on mediafire (other sites expire quickly). If you are uncomfortable with making a downloadable fanmix, we recommend using 8tracks to host your entire mix.
+If you are a vidder: videos (or trailers) should be between two and five minutes long - think the length of a song. Either host privately or on youtube.
+If you do not fall under these two categories: Drawing, sketching, painting, manips - all of these are great! Create at least one work of art for the fic, and include appropriate ratings. You will need to find a host yourself - any image hosting site that does not take down images regularly, such as imgur or tumblr, will do, but make sure that, if the artwork is NSFW, you do not host it on a site that deletes NSFW images.
+★ Artists will sign up near-concurrently with authors, and sign-up information will be collected. However, artists will not claim summaries until December. ★ All signed-up artists will be emailed prior to round one artist claims opening up and notified that claims are opening. ★ If not all claims are filled in round one, artist sign-ups will re-open for round two so that additional artists may join the fest. ★ Artists may withdraw from participation prior to summary claims; however, once an artist claims a summary, they have committed to completing the challenge. As an artist, we ask that you only claim fics that you will absolutely complete art for. If you drop out last minute, this affects your author. As such, if you drop out after claiming a fic, you will be ineligible to participate in Big Bang Round 5 and will have to wait for Round 6.
+ ★ Each fic in the challenge must be claimed by one artist or one artist team before second-artist claims for all fics are considered.
+ ★ Artist claims will occur in two waves: Artists may claim one fic per individual artist or artist team once first-round claims open on December 19. ★If not all works are claimed by artists by December 26, artists will be welcome to claim an additional fic to work on. ★If all works have been claimed by December 26, we will open claims for each author to have two individual artists or teams working with it.
All:
+You may choose to be both a writer and an artist; however, you may not create art for your own fic.
+ A resource signups post will open ★ on the same day as author sign-ups for betas, britpicks, and the like to volunteer to aid authors who may need help the assistance, and will remain open until final drafts are due. We strongly suggest that those who sign up as a resource make a presence in the encouragement check-in post as well. Authors and artists may also sign up to be resources.
+★ If, for some reason, you cannot complete your submission, please let us know as soon as possibleso that we can adjust our records accordingly/find an art pinch-hitter if need be.
+★ Authors are expected to share their drafts with their collaborating artist within a week of author-artist pair reveals so that artists can complete the best work possible to accompany their claimed fic. As indicated above, failure to do so will be considered dropping out. ★ Further, if you, as an author or an artist, try to contact your partner (the author or artist of the work you are collaborating on) at any other point during the challenge, and they do not respond within 3 business days, ★ please let a mod know. If the mod is unable to get hold of the participant in a timely manner (i.e., three business days), that participant will be considered a dropout and will be ineligible to participate in Round 5.
+We will be posting a prompts post along with the sign-up post, in case you need help generating ideas. We will also email participants more detailed rules regarding submissions and posting guidelines closer to the appropriate dates.
Worried that you'll forget to check LJ in time for deadlines? Follow the One Direction Big Bang tumblr account for updates straight to your dash!
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Comment here with your thoughts!
xoxoxoxo,
your mods
You know that 1D fic you've been dying to write? The one about what would have happened in the bungalow if there really had been a mad cow murderer outside, or the one where only your ship stands between humanity and total apocalyptic extinction, or perhaps the one where One Direction are the stars of hit new show The Real Housewives Of The On The Road Again Tour and have to deal with even more publicity? Maybe you've been dying to write an epic about your OTP (or OT3… or OT5), or even just a fic about one member and his girlfriend.
In any case, this is the place for you!
A Big Bang challenge - for those of you who don't know - is a certain sort of ficwriting challenge that combines long fic with artwork/media. Writers and artists sign up, independently of each other. Writers write the fic, and artists pick a fic to work with based on premise, whereupon they will draw, vid, and/or mix a work to accompany the fic upon posting.
Here is the Round Four schedule:
author sign-ups: August 15 - September 19
artist sign-ups: August 29 - October 3 or all fics claimed (see below)
resource sign-ups: August 15 - January 23
first author check-in: October 17 - 24 (recommended word count of 6k)
second author check-in: November 21 - 28 (recommended word count of 12k)
"encouragement" check-in post: open throughout
author summary "reminder email": November 28
author finalized plot summaries and proof of 15k due by: December 12
artist claims open: December 19
second-round claims open (if necessary): December 26
claims post closes and artist/author teams finalized & posted: January 2 (latest)
authors must share most up-to-date working draft with artist : January 9 (latest)
final 20k+ drafts due by: January 23
art drafts/"good faith effort" proof due by: January 30
schedule posted: February 6
posting begins: February 10
You may also view our Round Four Google Calendar here.
Specifics:
Writers:
+In this specific Big Bang challenge, there is a minimum wordcount requirement, for writers, of 20,000 words (no maximum). Fics can be gen, het, or (fem)slash. They can be as explicit as you want them to be. They can be AUs, crossovers, fusion fics, or completely ~canonical. The only requirement is that they include at least one (but preferably more) ★ current and/or former member(s) of One Direction. If you want to see your favorite ship represented in this year's big bang, we recommend you sign up and encourage your friends to do the same!
+ ★ Your fic must be posted on your scheduled posting date in one fell swoop (i.e., it can be chaptered, but the chapters must all be posted at once). Your fic can be part of a broader arc or series, or function as a stand-alone. You may sign up with fics that you have already started working on; however, you may not sign up with fics that have already been in-part published (such as chapters or shorter versions).
+ You may co-write if you like. You may write more than one fic if you like. If, at any point in the process, you cannot complete the challenge, please let us know. You may drop out without penalty up until summary submission. Before final drafts are due, you must send in a summary of 1-2 paragraphs that will be posted anonymously by mods so that artists can claim your work. By sending in your summaries early enough for artist to have ample time to contribute to your fic, you are indicating that you have committed to completing your fic by the final draft date. If you drop out after submitting summaries, your artist claimant is affected as well. As such, if you drop out after this point, you will be ineligible to participate in Big Bang Round 5 and will have to wait for round 6.
+ As an addendum: ★ If you dropped out after submitting your summary last year, outside of the amnesty given to authors posting after Zayn left the band, you will be ineligible to participate this year. If you do not know whether this means you, please email us (1d.bigbang.mods at gmail) for clarification.
+★ Check-in posts are mandatory and are open for a week. ★ Rather than the optional focus-sustaining check-in posts we had open last year, we will have one “encouragement check-in post” open throughout the duration of the challenge. This post is designed to help sustain focus if you choose to use it, or seek out feedback and encouragement from other participants and consumers of the Big Bang challenge. We encourage you to use this pressure-free resource to check-in about non-wordcount-related issues, such as concerns you may be having with plot or with pacing yourself.
+★ As soon as authors have finalized the plot for their fic and completed the rough draft minimum of 15k, they are welcome to submit their fic summary and rough draft to the mod email. ★ Doing so indicates commitment to complete the Big Bang challenge and dropping out after this point will result in being banned from participation in Round 5. ★ Authors may submit their draft at any point after sign-ups close on September 19 until the final summary due date of December 12; however, ★ if the draft is submitted prior to the final mandatory check-in, authors must still check-in with updated word counts. ★ Details regarding formatting for the summary submission email will be sent to all participants the day after sign-ups close, on September 20; ★ this email will also serve to confirm that your sign-up was processed.
+★Authors are required to share their working drafts of their fics with their artist within a week of author-artist match reveals. ★ Failure to do so, outside of extenuating circumstances cleared with mods in advance, will be considered a drop-out, and authors who do so will be ineligible to participate in Round 5.
+ Once you send in your final draft, due January 23, you will be assigned a posting date. Authors will receive a tentative posting schedule via Google Drive during the week of January 30 for date confirmation and finalization. The final schedule will be posted publicly on February 6th. Closer to posting time, posting guidelines will be published.
Artists:
+Artists, in this Big Bang, refers to mixers, vidders, and any other kind of traditional art medium (drawing, painting, manips, you name it!). ★ Artists may work individually or with another artist friend. ★ Individual artists or artist teams may claim just one fic per claim round; however, if you are working individually on one fic and with a partner on another, you may claim one fic on your own and one with your partner.
+If you are a mixer: your fanmix for the fic you choose should have at least 12 songs, though no more than would fit on a CD. Fanmixes must include album art of some variety. Host songs, either individually or in .zip format, either on a personal server or on mediafire (other sites expire quickly). If you are uncomfortable with making a downloadable fanmix, we recommend using 8tracks to host your entire mix.
+If you are a vidder: videos (or trailers) should be between two and five minutes long - think the length of a song. Either host privately or on youtube.
+If you do not fall under these two categories: Drawing, sketching, painting, manips - all of these are great! Create at least one work of art for the fic, and include appropriate ratings. You will need to find a host yourself - any image hosting site that does not take down images regularly, such as imgur or tumblr, will do, but make sure that, if the artwork is NSFW, you do not host it on a site that deletes NSFW images.
+★ Artists will sign up near-concurrently with authors, and sign-up information will be collected. However, artists will not claim summaries until December. ★ All signed-up artists will be emailed prior to round one artist claims opening up and notified that claims are opening. ★ If not all claims are filled in round one, artist sign-ups will re-open for round two so that additional artists may join the fest. ★ Artists may withdraw from participation prior to summary claims; however, once an artist claims a summary, they have committed to completing the challenge. As an artist, we ask that you only claim fics that you will absolutely complete art for. If you drop out last minute, this affects your author. As such, if you drop out after claiming a fic, you will be ineligible to participate in Big Bang Round 5 and will have to wait for Round 6.
+ ★ Each fic in the challenge must be claimed by one artist or one artist team before second-artist claims for all fics are considered.
+ ★ Artist claims will occur in two waves: Artists may claim one fic per individual artist or artist team once first-round claims open on December 19. ★If not all works are claimed by artists by December 26, artists will be welcome to claim an additional fic to work on. ★If all works have been claimed by December 26, we will open claims for each author to have two individual artists or teams working with it.
All:
+You may choose to be both a writer and an artist; however, you may not create art for your own fic.
+ A resource signups post will open ★ on the same day as author sign-ups for betas, britpicks, and the like to volunteer to aid authors who may need help the assistance, and will remain open until final drafts are due. We strongly suggest that those who sign up as a resource make a presence in the encouragement check-in post as well. Authors and artists may also sign up to be resources.
+★ If, for some reason, you cannot complete your submission, please let us know as soon as possibleso that we can adjust our records accordingly/find an art pinch-hitter if need be.
+★ Authors are expected to share their drafts with their collaborating artist within a week of author-artist pair reveals so that artists can complete the best work possible to accompany their claimed fic. As indicated above, failure to do so will be considered dropping out. ★ Further, if you, as an author or an artist, try to contact your partner (the author or artist of the work you are collaborating on) at any other point during the challenge, and they do not respond within 3 business days, ★ please let a mod know. If the mod is unable to get hold of the participant in a timely manner (i.e., three business days), that participant will be considered a dropout and will be ineligible to participate in Round 5.
+We will be posting a prompts post along with the sign-up post, in case you need help generating ideas. We will also email participants more detailed rules regarding submissions and posting guidelines closer to the appropriate dates.
Worried that you'll forget to check LJ in time for deadlines? Follow the One Direction Big Bang tumblr account for updates straight to your dash!
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Comment here with your thoughts!
xoxoxoxo,
your mods