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spnfanficpond · 4 years

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December 2019 Pond LiveChat Recap - Structuring Longer Plots

We had a great time chatting with @jhoomwrites, today! Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom and experience!

Our chat was all about structuring longer plots, filler vs plot, and the different types of structures that are out there. (Mostly, we talked about how we don’t always have a structure in mind when we’re writing, and how we deal with it when a story breaks apart the structure we’d so carefully constructed.) A rundown of the chat, as well as general Pond news, is below the cut!

For those who don’t know her, Ashley is an avid writer, not just of fan fiction. She’s popular on Tumblr and AO3 for Destiel stories of all lengths, from little emoji ficlets she bangs out from requests (where followers send her a short string of emojis and she writes a story using them all) up to epic stories. She’s currently working on a hockey fan fiction that was her NaNoWriMo project, but with 120 SPN works on AO3, we’ve got plenty to read while she’s distracted with her hockey boys! (I’ve convinced her to be a member of the Pond, so hopefully we’ll see her around a lot in the future!)

We started off talking about how long our fics can get ( @katehuntington won with her Sullivan Series, which is currently at 570k), and whether we’re planners or pansters or a mix. Kate and Ashley are both kind of mixed, while @mrswhozeewhatsis has never successfully outlined a story, yet.

Q: Was My Liege Lord (her longest at around 80k) planned or pansted?

Ashley: It was both. I had planned out some things, but then I got new ideas as I went that I wanted to explore and it padded out the length. I had a whole fic worth of plans, but just the amount of time in their lives I ended up covering necessitated adding things. Kate: I do that too. I stick to the plan, but I add soooooo much stuff along the way.

Q: When you write, and plan out a story, do you use a particular structure?

Ashley: I haven't written out a plan for a fic in some time, but I was really consistent with the style I used for a while. I would do a chart with the main plot points to the left, and then details (excerpt of dialogues, notes about specific scenes, etc) to the right. Here’s an example:

Ashley: It helps me when I get ideas later, I can find parts in the story by looking to the left and then add notes. It's my favorite way to plan out a story, especially if I know it will be multiple chapters and if I might not be starting it any time soon. This is much nicer than the outline for the story I'm working on now, which is just a list of events in chronological order (and another list of "things i could add but i don't know where this goes"). I wrote the outline about a day before I started so I didn't need as much structure.

Q: Having a plan helps, then?

Ashley: I didn't used to plan, but then I started a multi-chapter fic and realized...... I don't have an ending. So, I like to plan that out to make sure I have an actual beginning, middle, and end. Michelle: When I start, I have an idea and an ending. That’s it. All my stories have the same ending, though: And then they kissed and lived happily ever after!

Kate: It does give freedom, not having a detailed outline.

Ashley: That is true, it does make me sad when I get somewhere in the outline and there's something I'd liked, that I'd wanted to include, but it doesn't work anymore and I have to scrap it. Gotta balance sticking to the outline vs adapting to how the tone/characters have developed.

Q: Is your planning method something you learned, or something you developed? And do you use the same structure for all of your stories?

Ashley: Something I developed. I haven't had any real training or instruction in writing. I was struggling with longer fics being unorganized and not coming together at the end, so I needed something for myself. I like making charts, so I figured that was a good way to start! lol It's not something I do as much, anymore. It was a great tool when I started doing it, and I did it for years... but possibly because I've gained more writing experience with longer stories, I don't need to do it anymore. I start a fic with a general idea, I figure out where that idea is going, and start writing. I do more of a mental checklist now. Of course, for original stories, things I hope to one day publish, I will still outline.

Q: Do parts of your structure have names? A quick Google search on how to structure novels brought back about a lot of different methods for structuring a novel, all with different numbers of steps. Each step had a general idea, like rising action, climax, falling action, etc. I guess I mean, what parts of a story do you feel need to be there for it to work? What are the parts of your structure?

Ashley: Having never paid particular attention in my English classes, I would be hard pressed to put names on different parts of my story structure. I view it as beginning (set up, putting things in place), middle (the actual story more or less, all of the action), and ending (wrapping things up, resolution).

Q: When you half wing it and the story is coming along, and then you hit a plot hole, how do you handle that?

Ashley: Well uh... **points vaguely towards abandoned WIPs** it can be rough. I do have some people I work with in terms of brainstorming. And if I get stuck with a fic I'm committed to, that I'm enjoying writing, then I talk it through with them. Sometimes, those issues are coming up--not because the story wasn't outlined--but more because I've just lost that spark of interest that I had before, and it's time to move on, anyway.

Q: There was a question submitted to the Pond by @kittenofdoomage about filler vs. plot.

Ashley: I think that's a real issue I face, filler vs plot. For some stories, I feel like I write a chapter and then can't really see what it adds to the story except maybe giving more characterization. My Liege Lord, I can think of some examples... and sometimes those things are cool, they're fun little ideas to explore and that's the only universe you could do it in, so you do it maybe for your own sake more than the story's. I think there's also a difference between reader and writer perceptions of what's filler. For my current project, there are scenes I wanted to include because I felt they were necessary to the plot, but I got the impression from people I'd polled that they would not be interested in those scenes (basically it's a romance and I was going to include things that were not directly related to the romance aspect and they said if it was more than a few paragraphs or so they didn't care). Michelle: I struggled with that with The Babysitter. Almost half of that fic is flashbacks to when the brothers were growing up and how their relationship with the reader developed. I considered cutting them all, but the fic felt thin. Sometimes, I'd pop a flashback chapter in there just to slow down the action in the present a bit, if you know what I mean. Like, chapter X is the night before the big battle, and chapter Y is the big battle, but it felt rushed to just go from X to Y, so I stuck D in between them. Ashley: Yeah, pacing is important, so the "filler" can help regulate that. It might also depend on if you view stories as about the plot or about the characters. If you view it as plot, then yes, you don't want that non-plot filler. If you view it as characters, then the filler doesn't necessarily move the story, but it adds depth and dimension to the characters and makes you appreciate them more. (I mean... I love the characters so much, I'd watch an episode of them just doing chores around the bunker...no plot, just them.) Kate: I just write what I feel like is right. Plus, I’m a sucker for a slow burn myself, so I’m not scared to let the readers wait. I like to use fillers as a stairway to the big reveal or moment. What I love even more is to put a lot of foreshadowing in there, so when they read it the second time, they go: oh! Rhi: The thing is that I've found is that filler serves a lot of purposes. As mentioned above it's great for dropping a bit of foreshadowing. It's also great for expanding your background and making your characters more than two dimensional. It also gives your readers a breather. Especially if it's a heavy plot. I often find myself rambling in filler, which is where rereading is key. With longer stories, I have a brief outline of what I want. Sometimes I'll write the major points first, the ending etc then follow up with the filler. On occasion, your filler will end up imploding your plans but that's cool. That's when you either roll with it or take a break and neither of those are bad choices. It depends on the individual.

Q: (In one of the articles linked below) Peter Behrens mentioned a novel idea. He basically said he doesn’t worry about structure until the revision stage. He writes what he wants to, and then when he’s revising, he tweaks the story to fit whatever structure it fits to best.

Ashley: I do like that, and that's something that @unforth-ninawaters has mentioned. We're working on shorter stories that would need to be under 7.5k and I said I don't know if I could hit that. She said to write the whole story, even if it's longer, and then have someone edit it with an eye to shorten it, if necessary, and you'll probably end up with a tighter story that way. So, basically, that's how I view writing things, now. I write what I want to write for the story, and if it needs to go, it'll disappear later in the editing process. But what if it does belong? Well, then it's there, already. And yes on slow burns... for fic, it's a staple, and for WIPs, it's part of the lure, the draw in, as a reader--knowing that maybe they will maybe they won't hook up this week.

To close out the chat, we talked about the story structures listed in the following two links:

How to find your novel’s structure - This article discusses the traditional 5-stage plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution) and the 3-act structure (setup, confrontation, resolution), as well as some other points, like how characterization can affect structure.

Writing Cooperative - Use a story structure to make writing your novel a lot easier - This article lists several structures, and includes links to read more about each one and their strengths and weaknesses. Different stories might do better under different structures, too. A romance novel wouldn’t necessarily need the 12 steps in The Hero’s Journey.

These links are definitely worth checking out if you have any fears or concerns about your story’s structure!

Next month we’re going to talk about Real People Fiction! We’re still looking for a guest speaker, so if anyone is interested, send a message to @mrswhozeewhatsis!! Date and time to be announced!

General Pond Updates and Reminders

What we’ve got cooking up next: Not much, at the moment, since everyone is busy, so we’re just trying to keep up with the day-to-day at the moment! Our to do list is still long, though, and will not be neglected forever! Next up is organizing the tagging system on the blog to make it easier for readers to find the stories they’re interesting in and for writers to find the help they’re looking for!

Reminders:

Angel Fish Award nominations are accepted all month long! No need to wait to tell us how much you liked a fellow Fish’s work! IF YOU HAVE SENT IN A NOMINATION, BUT HAVE NOT RECEIVED A PRIVATE MESSAGE CONFIRMING WE RECEIVED IT, WE DIDN’T GET IT. Be sure to use Submit instead of Ask!

Don’t forget to submit your stories to be posted to the blog! When your stories are on the blog, then they are easier to nominate for Angel Fish Awards!

Say hi to November’s New Members! (If we missed someone, let us know!)

Check the Pond CALENDAR to see when Big Fish will be in the Skype chat room/discord general channel and other Pond and SPN events are happening! Know of something that’s not on the calendar, send us an ask or submission with the deets info details! The calendar offers a lot of features, such as showing you when things are in your own timezone! Since we’re an international group, that’s a definite plus!!

We’re looking for a guest speaker for January to talk about RPF! If you know of an RPF writer that you’d like to hear from, let us know!!

#spnfanficpond livechat #chat recap #chat room #let's chat #THE CHAT ROOM #pond chat #plot development #character development

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hetbigbang · 7 years

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2017 FAQ's & Schedule

2017 FAQs Welcome to another year of Het Big Bang!! It’s a challenge for writers and artists to step up from any fandom, for any het pairing you want!

New this year: if you'd like to see works or information from any past Bangs, check this Masterpost. Our "menu of links" has changed a little bit, cleaned up to reflect only what's currently useful. New banners are up here. We've also added a "Page-A-Mod" page. If you have queries, emergencies, whatever, go ahead and drop us a line and one of the mods will get back to you ASAP.

Reminder: the support community has been emptied. Since it is members-only for those involved in the Bang, you will need to rejoin once you have signed up. (Please note: links to sign-up posts are not active yet, but will be fixed once the challenge goes live on May 1st.) GENERAL INFORMATION

What is a Big Bang? There are actually two portions of this Bang Challenge. The Big Bang and the Little Bang. There are many different types of big bangs, all varying slightly, but generally, it's a process in which authors write long fics (25,000 words or longer for the BIG bang portion, or 10,000 words for the LITTLE big bang version) and artists make art for the pieces of work that exceed 25k. Then, on one singular shining day, we reveal all completed stories and artworks so that everybody goes blind from the overwhelming awesomeness. Simple in concept, right? This bang challenge is centered around heterosexual (male/female) pairings from any fandom you can name. Everything preliminary for this bang challenge is hosted in this livejournal comm, but on the reveal date, all contributions (art, stories, vids, fanmixes, etc.) will be hosted on AO3. Any het pairing, any fandom. Why AO3? A poll was taken in this community several years ago, and overwhelming numbers (90%) were comfortable with AO3. If you want to participate in this challenge, you have to sign up at AO3. We're sorry if you don't like this. Mainly, we will be hosting the final stories on AO3 because: 1. It'll allow you guys to format your own fics and edit after the big bang goes live. 2. By using a Collection, I can ensure no one releases their fics early, and it goes up simultaneously. 3. If we post fics on LJ, it'll require multiple posts per fics, and organizing that for a single-moment reveal will be a headache. (Trust us on that.) and 4. Your mods don’t want to repeat the horrible experience they had in prior years with creating a website (again, trust us). Therefore, AO3 will be neat and simple.

There will be plenty of time for those that do not have accounts on AO3 to sign up. You can ask a friend for an invite code, or you can request from A03 here or at ao3_invitecodes. We have started a for 2017 Collection [LINK COMING SOON] Het Big Bang over at Archive of Our Own that is identical to the 2016, 2015, 2013 and the 2012 Collections. A collection is a group of works collected together under one heading: here, for all Het Big Bang submissions. Only the author of the work can add his/her story into this collection; so, you gotta upload your fic onto AO3, and then add it into this collection. Here is the FAQ of AO3. Since this is a moderated collection, each work has to be approved by the Het Big Bang mods before it appears in the collection. Do not post your work anywhere else before the deadline! Do not publish your fic before the deadline! After the deadline, post it anywhere you want. Why is there no art for the Little Bang portion? Because it’s the option for those writers within our ranks that want to participate in this challenge, without being held accountable to an artist to finish their work. It is the low-key, no mutual obligation option. What kind of timeline will I be under? Author Sign Ups - open till May 17th, 12:00 PM (NOON) PST Mandatory Author Checkpoint - July 15th Artist Claiming of Big Bang Stories - July 20th Art and Fics Due - August 27th, 11:59 PM (Midnight) PST (here is a timezone converter) Debut Date (DD) - August 31st Why the delay between Arts/Fic submission and the Debut Date? Because in the past, we've had a some delays with artwork and some of the stories submitted were not properly formatted. Therefore, we need time to find pinch hit artists and let authors know thie fics need fixing. It is very, very important that if you sign up as an artist and claim a story, you submit on time because otherwise the entire big bang may be delayed. Can I join this comm? Absolutely! Feel free to join and watch the comm even if you aren't signing up. If you ARE signing up, you need to join the comm ASAP. Some important reminders and post will be members locked. Is there a support comm for this Big Bang? Yep! There is a sister comm where participants can go for help and flailing. het_banghelp: a community for all your support needs. This is the place for all your hand-holding, sharing of fics snippets, and flailing. Like prior years, special writing and enabling events will be hosted on that comm, like Snippet Days and Block Writing Events. Use it however you deem necessary, as long as it's het_bigbang related - post away!! It's members-only and f-locked to only those that have officially signed up as authors/artists and betas/cheerleaders, so remember to add yourself as soon as you sign up. (Please note, we have gone through the entire member's list for our support comm, and emptied out all of last year’s participants. As soon as you sign up for 2017, you can request to join membership again.) How do I sign up? SIGN UPS OPEN MAY 1ST. An AUTHOR, go here. If you an ARTIST, please go here. If you are offering to BETA READ, go here. If you would like to be a CHEERLEADER, go here. Other Comm Volunteers and their duties are listed below, and can sign up by dropping a note to this post. Please read this post before signing up! I signed up last year, and then dropped out. Can I still sign up again? Yes!! Best way to contact a mod? Your mods are going to be inundated with hundreds of comments from a dozen different posts, so the best way to make sure we actually see your question/comment/concern is to (a.) pm your mods, red_b_rackham or traycer_; (b.) email the mods at [email protected]; (c.) drop a note on this FAQ post or (d.) comment on THIS "Page A Mo

WRITER'S REQUIREMENTS AND INFO What type of requirements are there for a writer? There are two portions of the Bang Challenge for Writers! The Big Bang and the Little Bang. The Big Bang: Your fic must be completed and at least 25,000 words long. Writers accomplishing this goal will get an artist assigned to them by the comm, and they will receive artwork for their story! You are also welcome to find your own artist. The Little Bang challenge is ditto to the above, but only at least 10,000 words long. There will be no assigned artists for these stories. (Authors can go out and find themselves an artist, if they want, but they MUST inform the mods that they have made these arrangements. Just so we can approve them for the collection submissions, when the time comes.) All stories must focus on or revolve around a het pairing of your choosing, and mandatorily beta-read before the posting date. At the time of signing up for this, you need to know the following: a) what you think you'll be writing (fandom/pairing, prompt -- and yeah, you can change your mind later all the way until the Mandatory Author Check-point in July!); b) whether you are participating in the Big Bang challenge or the Little Bang challenge (and yes, you can change your mind later on, all the way up to the Mandatory Author Check-point in July.) c) whether you already have an AO3 account, and if not, that you will be willing to acquire one before the submission deadline; d) give us your e-mail address; and e) then go to join het_bigbang AND friend the community. You *must* join and friend for updates; it's a requirement to participate in this challenge. Define a qualified het pairing, please! Any het pairing, any fandom. Crossovers and/or fusions, genderbender het, and RPF (Real Person Fic) are all allowed. There may be more than one het pairing in the fic. There may be other secondary slash or femslash pairings within the fic, as long as a het pairing is the primary focus. Slash, threesomes or moresomes should NOT be your focus. But what if our fic is, like, more gen but with a hint of ship? Um, that probably doesn't qualify. We want a het pairing as a primary focus. We are not going to psychoanalyze how "shippy" the fic you're writing is, but please use your best judgment. After much debate, it's been decided that Original Works based on your creations are allowed. All standard rules/procedures apply. Can I sign up more than once as an author? I've got so many plotbunnies! Yes, you can sign up as an author twice! Both times for the Big Bang, or both times for the Little Bang, or in both the Little Bang and the Big Bang! Your choice. However, it must be for stories centered around different pairings. (Same fandom is fine.) Don't sign up twice for the same pairing. You must sign up twice in the Author's sign up post with separate comments, so we are crystal clear that you are participating twice! I don't know what to write! I've got so many ideas! We're here to help! While you can change your plotbunny at any time, we're also offering you this post [LINK COMING SOON] to help figure things out. You provide descriptions of up to five of your plotbunnies, and we put up a poll here to see what people are interested in. No obligation to go with the winner, but it might help you choose! I've already been writing a het pairing story already. Can I use that? Was it written for last year’s Het Big Bang/Little Bang and just never completed? If so, sure! If not…. then for the Little Bang, you gotta start fresh. Sorry. However, either way, for the Big Bang you are allowed to use a WIP in this big bang if it's less than 10k written. Ideally, your story should not have appeared anywhere on the net already, and if it hasn't been posted anywhere, you only have to reach the goal of 25k total. However, if you do already have a couple thousand words of it up somewhere public (at max, 10k), then we won't count that towards your total 25k requirement, and you must immediately take it off the internet completely for the duration of the challenge. Can I write with someone else? Yes, you may co-author your big bang if you want to. Do I really have to have my fic be beta-read? Yes. Dear God, yes. A beta reader is a person who reads another person's written work with a critical eye, with the aim of improving grammar, spelling, characterization, and general style of a story before the author posts it up. All participants must get their fiction beta’d by at least one person. Betareading is love, people! There is a post just for volunteers who are willing to beta read at this post [LINK COMING SOON]. What happens if I can't write that much by the posting deadline? First, relax and don't panic! You've got until August for finishing this baby off! For writers, this is not a reciprocal challenge, so we're not going to go chasing after you with a big giant stick if you drop out. It's hard to write this much fic on a deadline! We understand! Don't stress yourself; fandom is meant to be fun. Usually in these things, at least half of the writers drop out. That's expected. But please, please, please - if you need to drop out of this challenge, drop your mod a quick note. Another note: If you fall short of the word count, don't panic. Do not sign up with the *intent* of writing anything short of a minimum word count, but if you fall a little short, just contact your mod and we'll try to work something out if we can. Wait, what is this I see about a Mandatory check-in later on? What's that about? The mandatory check-in for authors is scheduled on July 15th. All authors must participate, or they will be kicked out of the challenge. Authors must firmly declare whether they are in the Little Bang or the Big Bang. If they are in the Little Bang, they complete a comm poll and identify their fic’s fandom/pairing(s). (No changing your selections after this point!) If they are in the Big Bang Challenge, they complete a comm poll, identify their fic's fandom/pairing(s), and they will submit three small snippets (up to 500 words each) of their work to the Mods. The Mods will then put up a new post with all the fics' information (no author info attached) where artists will claim which stories they'd like to do art for. (No changing your selections after this point!) What if I am determined to be in the Big Bang portion at the time of the Mandatory Check-in, but then fall short of 25k? Can I still submit my story for the Little Bang portion? Keep in mind that your story will have already been assigned to an Artist after the Mandatory Check-in. You have committed yourself to a 25k fic at that point, just like your Artist has committed themselves to you. If you fall a little short in your story, we can be forgiving. But if you flagrantly ignore the 25k word count, that will be a problem. Talk to us about it, but just – don’t do this? Okay? Please? It’ll be insult to your artist and all the other participants in this challenge. Can I have contact with my artist? We will provide you with contact information once an artist is committed to you. From there, you absolutely can contact them to find out more about their interests. We would like to encourage you to be in contact with them and to share and collaborate, but ONLY in fun. The artist is under no obligation to work directly with you. Ultimately, what they create for your fic is their creation, just like how they cannot dictate what you write for your fanfiction. But we all want everyone to be happy with what they get and what they create, so I hope this remains a happy, fun, friendly experience. What if I hate my artist and/or dislike the artwork that is done for my fanfiction? The politest way I can honestly word this is: get over yourself. The artist is trying their best, I'm sure, to produce a good piece of work for you. Give thanks, and be on your merry way. Not everybody is a master but this Bang is intended to be postive and fun. Find something nice to say and move along!

ARTIST'S REQUIREMENTS AND INFO

How do I know what I'm making art for? After the writers have their mandatory check-in on July 15th, we'll make a claims post listing fandoms and pairings. In this post, we'll also include the story summary and any warnings the author gives. You can choose which fic you'd like to create art for, and then that person's fic will get crossed off the list. Author's names will not be attached to their fanfics on this post; the artist's claims will be done blind that way. This is done to even the playing field, so that an artist may claim a fanfic based on the summary/pairing/fandom, rather than the popularity of the writer. (Though by no means is the author prohibited at any point from telling people which fandom/pairing/story is theirs. We imagine that in any case, we'll be able to have a great number of educated guesses for authors based on the pairing/fandom alone. That's fine. We're just trying to make the artists' claims post less about favoring popular authors, and more about showcasing the merits of the story.) What are the requirements for art? You can make whatever kind of art you feel like, in whichever medium. Drawing, painting, digital, manips, vids, fanmix, anything you can think of. We just ask that you put some time and genuine effort into it, as our authors have put major effort into their story. You are required to make a minimum of ONE piece of art for the story you claim. MORE IS BETTER. We love more! We want more! But, based on feedback from prior year’s artists, we only have a requirement of one piece of artwork. Make it nice, put some serious effort into it! :) How do I sign up and/or claim an artwork? You can sign up to be an artist now, but claims will happen much later, on July 20th, after writers have had their mandatory check in. Claims are done on a first come, first serve basis. We will be putting up a members-locked post and the artists will reply to it with the story they claim to do art for (so make sure you are a member of the community!). Sign ups for artists will remain open until all fanfics get claimed! What if I sign up as an artist but there's no fandoms I can art for by the time claims go up? That's okay - sometimes it happens. Signing up as an artist does not commit you in stone, so it's okay if there's absolutely nothing you can art for. We hope you can maybe stretch outside your "known" fandoms and help an author out, but we understand it's not always possible. Just spread the word to all your artist friends and help recruit other artists to come make claims!! What happens if the number of authors doesn't match up with the number of artists or mixers? We will do several rounds of claiming so that EVERY fic has an artist. In the event that fics outnumber artists, we will allow artists to make a second or even third claim. Can I have contact with my author? We will provide you with contact information once you have committed to an author. From there, you can contact them to find out more about their interests. We would like to encourage you to be in contact with them and to share and collaborate, but ONLY in fun. You are under no obligation to work directly with the author. Ultimately, what you create for your artwork is your creation, just like how you cannot dictate what the author writes for their fanfiction. But we all want everyone to be happy with what they get and what they create, so we hope this remains a happy, fun, friendly experience. Also, if your writer does not complete his/her story by the due date, but you've completed your artwork, go ahead and submit it! It will still be showcased on AO3 anyway. You deserve recognition for your hard work! :) What if I cannot create the fanart by the deadline? Think very, very hard before claiming a story! This part is kinda set in stone. There is a person who is expecting some fanart for their work, and we'll have to hunt down a back-up artist to take your place if you end up dropping out. If you can't create the fanworks, tell us as soon as humanly possible. Everything will go live at once, on August 31st. Finding artists is hard enough with a decent timeline, but finding backups are a nightmare, so for this reason, if an artist drops out at the last second (within the last 10 days of the deadline), then they may be banned from participating in future bang challenges here.

TIMELINE What kind of timeline will I be under? Author Sign Ups - open till May 17th, 12:00 PM (NOON) PST Mandatory Author Checkpoint - July 15th Artist Claiming of Big Bang Stories - July 20th Art and Fics Due - August 27th, 11:59 PM (Midnight) PST (here is a timezone converter) Debut Date (DD) - August 31st What's the Author’s mandatory checkpoint? This one is mandatory check-in for authors. Authors firmly declare whether they are Big Bang or Little Bang participants. If you’re going for a Big Bang, you get assigned an artist. (More info above in the Writer’s Requirement section.) Will artists get checkpoints? We will be making sure everyone's on the right track and are able to finish their art before the deadline, but these checkpoints will be less formal, as there is no word count for a piece of art. Are there going to be any extensions? No. Extensions for final fic and art submissions will not be granted. We totally understand RL circumstances happen, we really do. But unfortunately, we have deadlines in place for a reason and extensions are unfair to everyone who completed them on time (also the mods just about melted down one year in the final days of the Bang due to trying to accomodate many people and we simply cannot do it that way again XD). We will not accept submissions beyond August 27th (the submission deadline).

POSTING REQUIREMENTS Where do we post our completed fics? We are using AO3 collections, with the reveal date of August 31st. You can post your fics anywhere else you like after that date, just don’t post them up anywhere before the Debut Date. Again, there is plenty of time for those that do not have accounts on AO3 to sign up. You can ask a friend for an invite code, or you can request from A03 here or at ao3_invitecodes. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is the FAQ of AO3. Submit your fic and art to our 2016 collection. Only the author of a work can add it to a collection, and then the mods approve it and we’ll reveal it on the Debut Date. Because we have experienced some glitches with AO3 collections in the past, we are also asking you to drop an email to thehetbigbang (at) gmail.com when you submit your work to AO3, with the following information: Email Subject Line: (Fic or Art Submission. YOUR NAME.)

AO3 Name/LJ Name: (both) Fandom: Pairing: Artwork or Fic: (artwork for "Title of Fic, by Author") or (Fic: "Title, rating, and word count. Big Bang or Little Bang.") Summary: (if applicable.)

Further Posting guidelines below. 1. Sign up for A03. You can check ask a friend for an invite code, or you can request from A03 here or at ao3_invitecodes 2. DO NOT POST YOUR FICS/ARTS SO THAT THE GENERAL PUBLIC CAN SEE THEM. Double check after posting to make sure it doesn't get posted to the general audience. If it does, delete the work and start over. Instead, you need to allow the mods to collect your fic/arts so that we can reveal everything together on August 31st. Go here, to the 2016 Het Big Bang Collection, and go the "Post to Collection" button in the top right corner. The collection is currently open, moderated and unrevealed. This will bring you to the normal template where you submit your fic/artwork. In the first block, you fill out all the tags: fandom, warnings, ratings, characters, pairings, additional tags, etc. In the second block, you fill out the preface information, including title, summary, and author's notes. 2a. For Artist: your summary line should include your author's name and the title of their story (if you know it). 3. In the third block, for "Associations," make sure the line for "Post to Collections/Challenges" lists "Het_Big_Little_Bang_2016." 3A. For Artists: the next line, "Gift this work to:" should be filled out as well. Artist, you know your Author's A03 name, which should have been provided to you through your emails. If for some reason it was not, please contact your authors and get this name from them. Fill in the "Gift this work to:" line with your author's name. That will link your artwork to them. After the submissions have gone live on the Debut Date, we would like you to go back and edit your submission to add in a link to the specific story you created your artwork for. But until the entire big bang goes public, the main way you'll attach your artwork to the piece will be by identifying the author through gifting. When you finally get the chance to link to the story, edit your submission and use the HTLM coding: <*a href="INSERT THE URL HERE">Title, by Author. (Remove the *) You can put this in your author's note or summary. 3b. For Authors: After the submissions have gone live on the Debut Date, we would need you to go back and edit your submission to add in a link to the specific artwork that was created for your story. You don't have to "Gift this work to:" to the artist, but it would be neat if you wanted to do so. When you finally get the chance to link to the artwork, edit your submission and use the HTLM coding: <*a href="INSERT THE URL HERE">Title, by Artist. (Remove the *) You can put this in your author's note or summary. 4. Formatting and coding guidelines are important. 4a. For Artists: AO3 video embeds are working from Youtube, Vimeo, blip.tv, Dailymotion, Viddler, Metacafe and 4shared. So if you have a video, you upload it to Youtube for example, and then embed into an AO3 post. For images like artwork and icons and banners and cover art, use the <*img src="INSERT YOUR URL HERE"> HTML coding (remove the *). You can first upload your images at Tinypic or photobucket or a similar image hosting website, and then make an A03 post with the HTML coding. 5. Submit your fic/artwork. You need to make sure when you hit "Post" that you see this text at the top of the resulting page:

"This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon! You can find details here: Het Big/Little Bang Challenge 2016"

6. Now, your fic should NOT be displayed to the general audience. It might not even show up on your dash, but fear not. You can still edit, add new chapters, mess around with it to your heart's content. We, the mods, unfortunately do not have access to your story. We cannot tell if it is properly formatted or not. THIS IS FRUSTRATING, but there's nothing we can do about it. We can only see your name. All works are titled "Mystery Works" until we reveal the entire big bang. So, please make sure your own fic is properly formatted. If you need to edit your fic, login and go to your dashboard. Go to the "Edit Works" button in the top right corner. From there, you can edit your works.

A03 will require you to format a header with all regular information on it. Remember to properly tag your works, including appropriate warnings.

Both HTML and Rich Text are supported, and you can edit/delete, have multiple chapters, etc… 1. The Rich Text Editor lets you add formatting, links and pictures to text without using HTML tags. It also has an option for pasting from Word which will preserve some of your Word formatting, although please note that this is buggy. The Rich Text Editor is only available for your work text. 2. The HTML editor allows you to change the look of your text with HTML tags. It can be used in any place you can submit text, although some fields permit only a small subsection of allowed tags. You can see a full list of the allowed HTML on the Archive FAQ, but the standard HTML tags is as follows: b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, datetime, div, dl, dt, em, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, height, hr, href, i, img, ins, small, span, src, strike, strong, sub, sup, table, u, and more. Also, a few years ago, anr was a saint and provided you with a post that explained "how to format a fic for posting in less than 30 seconds no matter the story length or amount of formatting" trick. The mods won’t be overly picky about formatting. We'd prefer for all dividers and scene breaks to use <*hr> (remove the *) which creates a horizontal line that serves perfectly as a scene break. However, that’s optional. You choose your own way to format! Other optional suggestions, just for uniformity sake: How do I do Chapter Titles: Bold 'em. How do I timestamp and do locations: Italizice the dates and locations. How do I do subtitle stuff: Italicize it. There is only one major fail regarding format, and that has to do with paragraphs breaks. There must be a full line break between paragraphs. Example of doing it wrong:

Chapter One: The Invasion March 6, 2005 - The City of Atlantis Elizabeth ducked quickly behind a console and attempted to catch her breath. A flush of pink colored her cheeks and a thin sheen of sweat had appeared on her brow. If the situation weren't so dire, John would have been turned on. As it was, however, he couldn't give it much thought as he had to focus on the batch of Ancient zombies that were slowly staggering in through the Stargate. "At least they can't run," he offered lamely. Elizabeth spared him a glare. "Why can't they run?" "I don't know." John shrugged. "But they never seem to run. They always lurch. Maybe when they're brought back to life they don't get knees?"

Example of doing it right:

Chapter Two: Ancient Ex-Girlfriends Yes, They're Zombies Too Elizabeth peeked around the consol. "Oh, my god," she breathed. "Is that--" "Chaya?!" John squeaked. "Talk about creepy ex-girlfriends." Rodney scrunched his nose. "She doesn't look good in green." John cringed and crouched down lower. "Do you think she's their leader?" Elizabeth looked thoughtful. "Well, this may be better for us." She narrowed her eyes at John. "We can give them you in trade for a cease fire--" Something caught her attention behind John and she broke off. "No, wait. Look to the left! That's... oh, god, John. That's Teer!" John and Rodney stared in disbelief. "Damn you, Kirk!" Rodney groused, and hit John upside the head. "We're going to be killed by a legion of your dead ex-girlfriends!" "Okay, everybody calm down," John soothed. "Let's not overreact and go blaming--" "Hey, look, your ex-wife!" "What?!!"

Grammar and Spelling fail: If your fic doesn't look beta'ed, we will call you on it, which will create an AWKWARD situation for all of us. Having a beta is a REQUIREMENT. Grammar, spelling, proper paragraph structure, etc… these are all REQUIREMENTS. You need to give your beta ample opportunity to go over your fic for mistakes and edits, so remember to factor that into your deadline. Don't have a beta? Check out this post! Can I post it to my journal a few days early to show my friends? No. The first time you show your fic for this big bang must be on Debut Day (August 31st), on this comm. Mods will handle the revealing details. There will be more posts on that to come. Once the Big Bang collection goes live, feel free to post your stuff wherever.

PARTICIPATION FOR NON-WRITERS AND NON-ARTISTS Beta readers - Please comment here and state the following: what pairing(s)/fandom(s) you like, what your strengths are as a beta reader, and what kind of turn around someone can probably expect from you. Also, leave an e-mail address that will be good for the next few months. *g* Most people will already have their own beta reader, but hey, maybe they want to try someone new. Cheering - Please comment here. Sometimes people just need someone to read through their story and maybe help brainstorm a bit, give them a push or some encouragement. If this is something you'd like to do and can make yourself available for, let me know! Advertising this Big Bang - Go here. We need people to volunteer to pimp this Big Bang around on appropriate comms! SPREAD THE WORD. Tell different fandoms, tell flisters, go on Tumblr, twitter, dreamwidth, and other websites, SPREAD THE GLORIOUSNESS!

ADDITIONAL INSPIRATIONAL CRAZY STUFF You can find a bunch of banners and linkback buttons and icons HERE and HERE and HERE! Don’t hesitate to take advantage of our polling options if you're wavering on what to write. There will be community writing events and informal check-ins scheduled throughout the challenge. Stay tuned for timings/dates - be sure to friend the comm and watch for notifcations! We will continue the Random Stories/Artworks of the Day, where after the Debut Date, we’ll post about one to two random stories and their artworks every day, until we run through the entire selection. And last, regarding options to download fic or doing some type of customized e-reader. AO3 has a download option. Lucky us!! Any questions, let us know!! Now, sign up, already! ~ Standard disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their public respective owners. No money is being made from this project. No copyright infringement is intended. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in any way, shape or form. from Het Big Bang http://ift.tt/2oLa7Jp via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Het Big Bang #hbb2015

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