SPBB 2013: Rules, info, & schedule for authors

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Main objective: Write a South Park fanfic of 20,000 words or longer. After completing the story, 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


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 December 10, 2012, and closes on January 2, 2013.
• 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 completed story, so it’s crucial to have that turned in by April 15, 2013! More information about drafts and matching will come nearer to the deadline.
• Posting guidelines will be disseminated before posting begins in July 2013.
• Extensions may be granted where necessary; inquire for details. In general the sooner you inform us of your situation, the more likely we are to grant you an extension. Reasonable extension requests usually relate to unforeseen or unexpected life occurrences. “Homework” does not necessitate an extension. In the past we were very flexible and generous with extensions, but this was often to the detriment of the event and made for increased stress for the organizers. For SPBB 2013 we are going to be stricter about enforcing deadlines. There is no reason why anyone who commits cannot write a 20,000-word story in four months, barring unforeseen circumstances. If you think you cannot do this, please do not sign up.
• Though posting is several months away, we know we will be moving to a one-story-daily format. More information about posting will be forthcoming in the months ahead.
• There is no reason you can’t begin writing right now!
• 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 (check back for link on December 10, 2012) with an active e-mail address, and we’ll get in touch with you.

Important dates for authors

December 10, 2012-January 2, 2013: Writer sign-ups
February 1: Optional check-in
March 1: Mandatory check-in
April 1: Rough draft + matching info
April 15: Final draft
April 15-May 3: Artist recruitment based on final drafts
June 28: Art deadline
Early July-August (depending): Posting

Further questions? Comment on this entry or e-mail your organizers at southparkbigbang@gmail.com.

See you on December 10!