And the first round is over! So, what did you think?

[jane_elliot]

The first round of the Small Fandom Big Bang Challenge has come to a close, with eight stories posted, clocking in at over 100,000 words total!  Thank you to all of the authors who participated in the challenge and to all of the volunteers for their fabulous assists!

As you are all aware, this is the first challenge for myself and the SFBB team,

Comments

[princess_sock]

Anonymous posting is still disabled.

[jane_elliot]

Well, hell. This means I don't know how to enable anonymous commenting. Any suggestions or directions to how-to guides would be much appreciated:)

[princess_sock]

Manage Comments

You'll have to select what user to work as (it should list all of your communities).

Check the box for "Enable commenting from:" and make sure "Everybody" is in the drop down box.

[jane_elliot]

That's the thing, I already have the enable commenting field set to everyone. In fact, it's always been set that way. Which is why it's so baffling (and frustrating -- darn you, LJ!) that the anonymous commenting isn't working.

[anonymous]

I personally do not plan to participate in this challenge again

[jane_elliot]

Thanks for your comment

[anonymous]

Honestly? I think you would do better and run a more successful challenge if you focused more on advertising in the various fandom communities than by offering your 'hallmark' support. Most writers I know prefer to work with people they know and have relationships with, especially on a fic with this scope.

The limitations you put on your challenge put off a lot of people. If you had left the fandom choices open and spent more time advertising in various small fandom communities (especially Yuletide), I think you would have had a much better turn out (for writers and artists) and run a better challenge.

[jane_elliot]

We advertised quite a bit for the challenge, in comms for the individual fandoms and in the Yuletide comm. I guess we could have done more, but at a certain point it becomes less advertising and more badgering, which would have turned people off. I especially didn't want to overuse Yuletide, since we only posted there at the sufferance of the Yuletide mods and I'm hoping to announce the round two challenge on the Yuletide comm as well

[anonymous]

I won't be blindly signing up for a beta job again. I'll happily cheerlead for anyone in a fandom I know at least a little bit and beta for folks that I know and trust to tell me what I'll be signing up for beforehand. But that'll be it. Sorry. I'm hoping the new overhauled volunteer process will make it easier for all involved.

Oh, the favorite part? All the stories, of course!

[jane_elliot]

Thanks for the comment!

[anonymous]

I appreciate the chance to have participated. I've wondered about doing a big bang, and it was nice to get the experience on a small one.

I wasn't initially happy about the two beta requirement, as I usually only have one, but it worked out well. Art would have been cool, but I haven't done a big bang, so didn't have that expectation.

That said, I don't intend to sign up for the big bang. I found having both a deadline and a word count stressful, and honestly, I'm not sure I have a plot for 40,000 words. Also, feedback was really low, so that was a disappointing ending for the amount of work. (Not that that's anything to do with the small bang process, but I'm shallow and live for feedback, so it plays a factor in my feelings and decision-making.)

I hope you do get lots of sign-ups. I'll look forward to reading the next round.

[jane_elliot]

Well, the longer challenge is only 30,000 words, but I get your point:) I do think there will be another rush of feedback once we announce the end of the challenge in the various comms where we first announced it -- we've been holding off because sign-ups start next week and we needed to clarify what changes we're going to make to the challenge before announcing the end of the first round and the start of the second. Though I definitely know the feeling of living for feedback:) In the end, however, we are a young challenge and so a lack of familiarity is always a difficulty. Maybe you can give us another try in a couple of years? I suspect we'll have made a splash by then.

[anonymous]

I will definitely keep an eye on the challenge and think about doing it again. I've committed to three fics in a row and I think that was part of my stress. I'm taking the next few months to write whatever I like whenever I think about it!

[megyal]

I'm a bigbang noob, so every point within that first comment is one I don't agree with. I didn't expect art, although it would have been nice. I'm not sure if you would have found enough artists in smaller fandoms, unless you dragged some of your artist friends away and harassed them for it

[jane_elliot]

Thank you for your positive comments! I have to admit, I really needed them:)

The artwork has been and continues to be a challenge for the, uh, challenge. We're looking into options for the next round, but I think it's safe to say that we're probably not going to have artists assigned to each author, though we might give that a try next year. We will keep the check-ins, though to what degree we aren't sure. Lots of learning this time around:)

Finally, I'm thrilled that you were happy with your beta! I'm so pleased with the volunteers we had this time around and I know that they appreciate your kind words.

Thanks again for the comments!

[megyal]

I really didn't expect art, like I said, so if you include it or not the next round, it would be the same thing to me. I was thinking it would be kind of elitist to expect it, to be honest. I'm guessing that other Big Bangs have established that, as if it were some sort of prize for writing, hooray, and This Is The Way All Big Bangs Should Be. And I didn't have that impression at the start at all, that art would be submitted, but I could be wrong, I hardly pay attention to a lot of things.

Just consider that at least you have one person who was delighted with the challenge. And if you've lost at least one writer, you've kept at least one. Simple maths.

[megyal]

I don't think it's "elitist" to expect art from a big bang.

My understanding is that the term was coined to describe challenges that involve lengthy fics + art work.

It's possible my understanding is incorrect and it just means lengthy fic, but every other big bang I've seen incorporates both, which is why I assumed this one would as well.