Rules, info, schedule, & how to get in touch

[sekrit_omg]

Main objective: Write a South Park fanfic of 20,000 words or longer. After completing a rough draft, writers will be paired up with artists, who will illustrate the fic. The result will be an influx of substantial new works for the SP fandom to enjoy.

Bonus objectives: To bring together disparate SP fandom communities. To revive the fanzine tradition of pairing fics with artwork. To give both new and old SP fans long, thoughtful fics and new, narrative-driven artwork to enjoy. To celebrate the show we all love, its quirky characters, and the demented town they all live in.

Rules and Extended Info
Or, what the fuck am I doing?


For authors:

• Stories must be at least 20,000 words in length.
• Content will not be restricted. You may write gen, het, slash, or any combination thereof; AU or crossover; any rating, any pairing, any tense, any voice, any focus. The only caveat is that the main pairing or character focus must be on characters who originated in either the television show South Park or the 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
• You may use a story in progress so long as it has never been accessible outside of this challenge.
• Beta-reading is required of all stories. For this purpose, we are recruiting betas, or you may use your own.
• You may write in collaboration if you wish.
• Sign-up begins on November 1, 2011, and closes on December 1.
• Authors should join spbigbang and spbigbangtalk in order to receive information about deadlines, posting, formatting, matching, etc. We encourage you to use our unmoderated chat community to work out ideas and keep communication open between all participants.
• You’ll be matched with an artist based on your rough draft, so it’s crucial to have that turned in by March 1, 2012! More information about drafts and matching will come nearer to the deadline.
• Posting guidelines will be disseminated before posting begins on March 31, 2012. Plan to have your fic finished and ready to go by then.
• Extensions are likely to be granted if you let us know ASAP!
• You do not need a LiveJournal account to participate! Simply leave an anonymous comment or comment with your OpenID on the author sign-up post with an active e-mail address, and we’ll get in touch with you.

For artists:

• You will be given the rough draft of a story (or, stories - see below) to illustrate based on your preferences by March 4, 2012.
• When you sign up, we will ask that you let us know whether you are interested in illustrating more than one story, and if you have preferences that can help us in matching.
• Collaboration on artworks is allowed.
• Sign-up begins on November 1 and closes on January 2, 2012.
• We use “illustration” very generally. Artwork can be mixed media, digital, ink, animation, etc.
• Please, no fan videos, fanmixes, or photo manipulations - unless you are submitting those in addition to a non-video visual artwork.
• Artists should join spbigbang and spbigbangtalk in order to receive information about deadlines, posting, formatting, matching, etc. We encourage you to use our unmoderated chat community to work out ideas and keep communication open between all participants.
• Posting guidelines will be disseminated before posting begins on April 1, 2012. Plan to have your art finished and ready to go by then.
• Extensions are likely to be granted if you let us know ASAP!
• You do not need a LiveJournal account to participate! Simply leave an anonymous comment or comment with your OpenID on the artist sign-up post with an active e-mail address, and we’ll get in touch with you.

For beta readers:

• We’ll be recruiting betas throughout the challenge for reading fics before they’re posted to give them that extra polish.
• We’ll be listing betas in directory format so that authors can get in touch if they’re in need of a beta.
• We’ll be asking you to provide your strengths, preferences, and contact info so authors can find the best beta for their fic.
• Sign-up begins on November 1 and closes on January 2, 2012.
• Beta readers should join spbigbang and spbigbangtalk in order to stay involved in the challenge. We encourage you to use our unmoderated chat community to work out ideas and keep communication open between all participants. Betas can be a great resource for authors and artists who need feedback, or just want to toss ideas around.
• You do not need a LiveJournal account to participate! Simply leave an anonymous comment or comment with your OpenID on the beta sign-up post with an active e-mail address, and we’ll get in touch with you.
• This is a great opportunity for those who usually observe to get involved!

Schedule

Author sign-ups: November 1 to December 1, 2011
Artist and beta sign-ups: November 1, 2011 to January 2, 2012
Optional checkpoint: January 2, 2012
Writer's mandatory checkpoint: February 1, 2012
Rough drafts due: March 1, 2012
Artist assignments: March 4, 2012
Art and fics due: March 30, 2012
Posting begins: April 1, 2012


Questions? Comments?

Comment here, message your mods miaoujones, sekrit-omg, or w0rmsign, or e-mail us at southparkbigbang@gmail.com.

Sign-ups open on November 1!