➡️ Never done a bang before but curious about joining in?
Here’s everything you need to know about what a bang is and how they work.
⭐️ Bangs are creative fandom events run by fans for fans, and they are based around a theme: a favourite character, pairing, setting or concept. So there is a bang that is for works all about Crowley, or works centred around wincest or destiel, works with a horror twist can include any spn character, or works in an historical setting, or works inspired by classic movies or song lyrics. The list goes on. There are many different flavours of bangs to choose from.
⭐️ There are 2 main types of bang. Regular and Reverse. In a regular Bang authors sign up to write a story around the advertised theme and they are given a deadline by which they must complete a good chunk of their story. Once the deadline arrives and they are about 80% completed writing (variable depending on the bang) authors submit a synopsis of their story to the bang moderators. This is an overview of the plot, any warnings and the story rating. All the story summaries are then displayed anonymously to the artists who signed up to the bang. It’s anonymous so that artists will choose a story just based on a plot or ideas that interest them, not on who the writer is. On Claims Day the artists submit a list of their top 3 (or 5 etc depending on the bang) choices. The moderators pair up the artists with an author on a first come first served basis, by order of their top choice. This process is repeated (and maybe opened to public claims from artists not already signed up to the bang) until every author in the bang has been assigned an artist who is interested in their story. After that the artist and the author pair are given a posting date and they work together to create art for the story. Some authors still have more writing to do and might take creative input from their artist as they start talking over what art is to be drawn for the story. Some authors are finished writing by claims and it’s more a case of giving the artist the draft and waiting for a picture. It’s up to individual pairs how much collaboration they want to do and how much back and forth they have. So if you are looking to make new friends this can be a great way to meet people but if you are more of an introvert that’s okay too, you can just write or draw and keep your partner advised of your progress. On posting day the author and the artist both post their works and links to their partners works. The bang moderators also post adverts for the works on the bang page.
➡️ The benefit of a bang for an author is that they get free art 😄. The artist might get collaborative input but it’s not guaranteed, but they do get to read a new story about a favourite topic before anyone else 😁. And both benefit from each partner advertising the others work come posting day. Plus the event organiser should also do extensive advertising for each artwork and fic submitted. Bangs often have followings of readers who enjoy the bang theme will check out several of the works from the event - so by being in a bang you have a ready made target audience for your works 😄.
➡️ Cons of being in a bang: you need to work to a deadline. For some people this is good motivation, for others it’s just added pressure. You can withdraw from a bang if an irl issue comes up but you need to keep your bang partner and the moderators informed, not just ghost. The other con is that you need to work with a partner which might not be easy if you are an introvert, but mostly in a bang you are working with people who enjoy the same topic as you do, so while it’s still a bit of a lottery who you end up paired with it’s likely that you at least have some things in common. The moderators are also there to help if you aren’t getting on with your partner. They can find Pinch Hitters to step in and take over if someone has to drop out for any reason. And finally the other hard part of a bang is that even if you get all your work done early you still have to wait for your assigned posting date! No instant gratification here unfortunately, but on the plus side there will be plenty of other bang followers who are also eagerly awaiting your posting date! 😁
⭐️ So thats bangs! 😄 and I mentioned that there are also Reverse Bangs out there. In those the artists start off by drawing a picture for the theme of the bang. The artist adds a short synopsis of the idea that led to their art, plus any personal do-not-want’s that they have and the artwork is displayed anonymously in a claims gallery. Then on claims day the authors choose a picture to write a story for by submitting their top choices on a first come first served basis. The moderators pair up the artists and authors that way. Then both partners post their works on the given posting day, same as in a regular bang. Many of the bangs out there alternate between doing regular bangs then reverse bangs, so it’s up to you which style of bang you wanna try.
➡️ if you haven’t tried a bang before I’d definitely advise every creative person to give it a go. Bangs are for all levels of writers and artists and are a good way to get more involved in fandom with likeminded people.
Resources for finding a bang for you:
⭐️⭐️ The Events and Challenges page in the Spn Fanart Community - this is aimed at artists but gives links to bang pages that authors can follow for next time if the author deadline has already passed,
⭐️⭐️ The Spn Bang Calendar - a calendar view display of many upcoming bangs
⭐️⭐️ The Big Bang Blog Project - @thebigbangblogproject is a multifandom page that promotes all sorts of various bangs, events and creative challenges.
I have some questions about karaoke night, Alex Hirsch. Very Important Questions. Which I will happily scream at a poor hapless baby triangle who can have no answers for me, and possibly also does not have object permanence yet.
Follow-up that is I guess suggestive, but let's be real here, Bill's a fucking triangle:
Dude slipped right into his birthday suit, lmao
this is so stupid :D
Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, this brilliant individual knows what's up - Bill is absolutely way more of a monsterfucker than Ford could or ever will be, full stop.
sooo so happie to launch into space the art i did for this @zukkabigbang2024 for the beautiful fic
The Mercy of Magpies
written by the wonderful showstopping @ranilla-bean and betaed by the equally iconic @faux-fires. Featuring dilves, birdies, true love, war, crazy plans, dubious plastic surgery and a galaxy far, far away.
Please check out the rebloggable fic post with its special cover art here (or jump directly to the fic, I can't blame you, it is That Good)
also, some extra juicy plot relevant characters pop up in later chapters and havent been included for 👀 spoiler reasons 👀 but you can already try to guess who they are who's that pokemon style <3