#i have been around the rpf block many a time and rule 1 is don’t be a weirdo. don't let it out of fandom spaces :)

[cranberrymoons]

.

[grittyreadsfic]

[1/11] Hi!! I hope you're doing well :). I'm not here for anything in particular, I am just big mad about a fic that I'm /trying/ to write, and your vibes are that your blog is an acceptable place to scream about fic. So. Here I am. I'm writing about the loneliness of never fully feeling yourself in any part of your life. Because hockey RPF is prime projection real estate for me, I'm exploring that through the coexistence (or potential lack thereof) of hockey and not being straight.

[2/11] (I feel sort of bad for this, because I might not be queer. But like, I've been confused over my sexuality for enough years to be bothered by the loneliness of not feeling comfortable talking to my equivalent of my "hockey friends" about my tragic possible pining for my best friend. Hence the projection fic.) ANYWAYS, what I want to write about is, yes, the loneliness of being at the rink and not feel confident in bringing your sexuality there.

[3/11] However, I also want to write about the loneliness outside the rink too. In my life, my equivalent of "hockey" is a huge part of my life, and I don't think I'm really me without it. I'm at my best when I'm at the "rink". I’m at my most confident, my most ambitious, my most determined, my most resilient.

[4/11] I don't feel comfortable being honestly myself at the "rink" so I don't get to really be myself there, but I also don't get to be really myself outside the "rink" because I'm not really myself without "hockey". So, it's like I never get to be whole, and it's lonely because it feels like there's no one who knows me in my entirety, I'm always just broken up into pieces of myself (yikes that sounds dramatic, it’s not that bad it’s just :/ sometimes).

[5/11] The fic, while capturing that experience, is not super sad though!! It's a story of an old retired queer player (Danny Briere) taking a possibly-queer and probably-torn-up-about-his-sexuality-according-to-Captain-Dad-Giroux rookie (Carter Hart) under Danny's wing. From that, they feel less alone. It gives Carter someone with whom he's comfortable talking about all his confusion over his sexuality who really gets and understands Carter.

[6/11] He needs someone to lean on; he's a goddamn hockey player. Hockey players never do anything alone because they're always part of a team. That's how Carter grew up, and it's lonely to be faced with something he's so confused over and not be able to lean on his team. It gives Danny a chance for him to be seen by someone else in his entirety (sexuality, hockey, and everything else).

[7/11] *Gasp* I always circle around to The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known. It also gives Danny perspective that leads him to have compassion for his younger self, to understand that he didn't deserve to be alone then just as Carter deserves someone to lean on. It gives Danny a chance to have compassion for his current self too, to validate how hard it can be to feel not feel fully himself or fully known either at the rink or at home.

[8/11] Danny realizes that the reason it hurts for him is because, when he rips apart these pieces of himself, he never gets to be loved by his husband for all of who he is. But it's ok!!!! Carter gets the support he's missing and grows into himself a little. It's easier for him to come out to the people he wants to come out to (like teammates), once he has a better understanding of his sexuality.

[9/11] Also, Carter finally determines, that, yes, he has in fact had feelings for his high school best friend for about three years now. They start dating and Danny and his husband are very excited for their baby rookie, although the process of them being ready to date takes some time. Danny gets to see that he's not alone either, and he can in fact look for the corners of the hockey world where he gets to play hockey and not feel alone. Yikes this was incredibly long, I'm very sorry.

[10/11] I am seething because I know what I want out of this fic, I've written a lot of the scenes that really encapsulate important moments of Danny and Carter's arcs, but I cannot seem to outline it FOR THE LIFE OF ME. I lowkey want to throw my computer because I know where I am going!!!! But I cannot make a map and it's KILLING ME *screams*. Anyways thank you for running this blog!

[11/11] I really love finding new fics that you post about, and I also apologize for spamming your inbox with however many asks it takes to send you this whole thing. I'm sorry, you can do what you please with this, feel free to ignore it, I mostly wanted to vent and that has been accomplished. Also, fun fact, I just found out that you can only send ten asks in an hour or else tumblr yells at you and makes you wait an hour. Me: sends 11 anons. Tumblr: why are you like this??

editted with the final ask as of now: okay hello!! as of right now, it’s 10/11 for the messages because it reads as if that’s the end and i haven’t heard back from you about it re my post so i’ll edit it if need be! but for now: an answer (side note: i remember back when tumblr had no ask rules back in the day when i existed on pop punk tumblr in the early 2010s and i miss it)

this blog is 100% a place to come scream about fic! my need to scream about fic is why it exists in the first place

i am intimately familiar with the feeling you’re describing and i absolutely would love to read a fic focused around that (and god, what a fucking fun concept, i’m a sucker for fics with that kind of platonic dynamic at the forefront) 

i’m not much of a writer (i love world building and plotting things about but i never actually enjoy the act of writing) so take my suggestions with a grain of salt about it but: if you have the scenes, maybe try writing them all down on sticky notes/scraps of paper/programs like scrivener (i think it costs money idk if there’s free equivalent) and laying them out, and trying to figure out how to get from point a to b to c etc? or if you have someone you can talk through it all with, maybe? i process things externally and i’m more hands on, so those are just the two ways that come to mind for trying to map it out

i hope you get past the little block you’re having at this point of the writing process though! it sounds like a lovely fic!

[kazliin]

not gonna lie, I would so read that mermaid au that you wrote the summary of

That was one of the ones I just couldn’t get out of my head so here’s some random extracts and concept writing.

Disclaimer - this is a fake au fic from the Rivals series. In universe it would be written by a Viktuuri fan and so is based on how that fans see umfb!viktor and Yuuri not as they actually are. It was also written as a joke on my phone in half an hour so please don’t take this as serious writing!

Original concept - no.12 of the ‘15 most popular fics in the Rivals universe alternate AO3’ - Original post here

Title : what would I pay, to stay here beside you

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: M/M

Fandom: Figure Skating RPF

Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Viktor Nikiforov

Characters: Katsuki Yuuri, Viktor Nikiforov, Phichit Chulanont, Christophe Giacometti, Yuri Plisetsky, Otabek Altin, Georgi Popovich, Mila Babicheva, Celestino Cialdini, Yakov Feltsman

Additional tags: Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion (original), Mermaid!Viktor, Prince!Yuuri, Happy Ending

Summary: Viktor has always been fascinated by the human world and especially one human in particular, a man he once saved from drowning one stormy night after a shipwreck. A dashing prince with a beautiful laugh, kind and beloved by all who know him. After loving him from afar for years Viktor makes a deal with the sea-witch, in exchange for his silver hair he has one month to make the prince fall in love and marry him or he will lose his life and be turned to nothing but foam on the sea. Known by all as impulsive and rash, Viktor takes the deal without a second thought and begins a life on land with the intention of wooing the prince and finding his happily ever after.

The one problem? The Prince hates him on sight.

Working against the clock, Viktor has one month to uncover the mystery of the Prince’s past and discover why he is so hated by the other man. And not only that but he must also convince the prince to fall in love and marry him, least he be lost to the sea forever.

Random snippet part 1 - extract from chapter 1 of 8

The human was beautiful, with soft dark hair and wide brown eyes, although those had fallen shut many hours ago and hadn’t opened since. Viktor might have been concerned that the human had died somewhere between the shipwreck and the shore if not for the gentle rise and fall of the man’s chest that signaled there was still life in his body.

Viktor dragged the limp figure further up the sandy beach, gritting his teeth as the coarse sand dug into his scales but determined to move the human fully out of the water that had almost taken his life.

The sun beat down on his back and he could feel his tail beginning to dry even after just a few minutes out of the water. The sea might have almost killed the human he had just saved but the land would kill him almost as quickly if he remained out of the water for much longer.

Reluctantly Viktor turned away, running his fingers over the human’s sleeping face one last time before he crawled back to the water and plunged gratefully back beneath the waves, allowing the cool water to soothe his body as he swam back further out into it’s depths.

Unwilling to leave just yet he turned around as soon as he was far enough out to be out of sight from land, resurfacing behind a clump of rocks and raising his torso above the waves to get a better look at the human where he was still lying prone on the beach. Viktor had chosen a spot that he knew was popular with the other humans who lived around the area, the man he had saved would surely be found soon.

A shout from across the beach confirmed his theory as another human appeared on the horizon, spotting the figure lying unconscious on the sand and running over to help, frantically waving over another group of humans who had just appeared in the distance. Viktor ducked behind the rocks as they drew closer, staying out of sight but wanting to make sure the man he rescued had fallen into good hands.

After a few minutes the group of humans picked up the unconscious man and carried him away, taking care not to hurt him as they held his prone body. Satisfied, Viktor ducked back beneath the waves, knowing that the human was safe.

Something about the man had fascinated him and Viktor hoped that maybe one day he would see him again.

Random snippet 2 - extract from chapter 2 of 8

“You’re disgusting, you know that don’t you?” Yuri growled, angrily splashing Viktor with his tail where they were both floating lazily in the shallows a few hundred meters away from the beach, concealed from view. Viktor ignored him, continuing to gaze at the beach where his human, Yuuri, was laughing and running with his dog by his side.

It had been two years since he had first laid eyes on the human, a prince he had later discovered, and since then his fascination with the man had only grown, much to his young protégée’s disgust and indignation. He visited the beach regularly, loving to watch as Yuuri played with his dog or laughed with his friends or simply sat on the warm sand with his feet bare and enjoyed the feeling of the ocean as it lapped gently at his toes. Occasionally he went swimming and on those times Viktor came as close as he dared, weaving deep beneath the water under the human’s feet, just out of sight but closer than he had ever been before.

“If you keep going like this you’re going to get caught.” Yuri snapped at him, sounding angry. “And you know what happens to our kind when we get caught. The rules about staying hidden from the humans exist for a reason you know!”

Viktor sighed, trying to block out the sound of the younger merman’s voice. He knew the rules as well as any other but he had never been any good at following them. Ever since he had been young he had always been drawn to the world above the sea and now that Yuuri existed in his life the draw was only growing more powerful by the day.

“You might as well give it up now Viktor.” Yuri continued. “It’s never going to happen between you two anyway. You’re two different species for fucks sake. What are you going to do, become a human?

Now, there was an idea.

Random snippet 3 - extract from chapter 5 of 8

Viktor sat on the balcony with his legs dangling over the edge of the drop, the cool breeze of the evening dancing over the bare skin of his feet. Even after three weeks on land he still hadn’t quite gotten used to the feeling of the strange new limbs, so different from the elegant tail that had once been in their place.

But he wouldn’t give up his legs, not for anything in the world. His time on land might not have gone exactly as he had expected and his relationship with Yuuri might have gotten off to a very rocky start but they had finally achieved peace between them, a peace that was day by day steadily turning into something more. Viktor knew that his time was starting to run out but after what had happened between him and Yuuri the day before he was confident that everything would finally go to plan.

As he thought he hummed a tune, a simple melody from his childhood about the joys of the sea. After the first few notes he changed from humming to singing softly, the words carrying across the silence of the evening.

“You sing very beautifully.”

Viktor startled at the noise but smiled when he turned around and recognised Yuuri standing behind him, face illuminated in the last dying light of the sun.

“Everyone can, where I come from.” Viktor replied automatically, without thinking about the words. While it was true his singing was considered especially beautiful among the merfolk, everyone one of them had a voice more beautiful than any human. There was a reason there were tales of bewitching merpeople luring sailors to their deaths with their siren song, tales that were not entirely unfounded. Just another reason for the tension between the two races and another reason that Viktor could never tell Yuuri who he really was.

“Where you come from?” Yuuri smiled. “The mysterious place that you never seem to talk about?”

“It’s far away.” Viktor countered, hoping that Yuuri would drop the subject without pressing to far. “And very small. You wouldn’t have heard of it.”

“A mysterious far away land full of beautiful singers.” Yuuri replied, eyes looking wistful. Viktor knew how much Yuuri longed for adventure, a life outside his role as a prince for his country and all the responsibility that came with it. But his sense of duty was far too strong for him to ever run away for the adventure he so desperately craved. “I would love to visit someday.”

Viktor almost responded that he would love to take Yuuri, as impossible as that desire was, but he was stopped when a hand reached out to grasp a strand of his hair, rolling the silky strands between gentle fingers.

“Do all the people from your homeland have such strangely coloured hair as you too?” Yuuri asked as he gazed at Viktor.

“Not all of us.” Viktor replied. “But some.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Yuuri told him. “It’s what made me notice you the first time we met, at the marketplace. Like slivers of silver.”

“It used to be longer.” Viktor confessed, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of Yuuri’s fingers as he grew bolder, running more freely though his hair and tugging on it gently. “All the way down to my waist. ”

“What happened to it?” Yuuri asked and Viktor had a sudden flashback to the knife slicing through strands, the pain that rocked through his body as it felt like he was being split in half, torn into pieces as every part of his being remoulded itself into something new under the greedy eye of the sea witch, still clutching his hair in her hands.

Viktor blinked out of the memory and turned back to Yuuri, beautiful in the light of the setting sun and finally close enough to touch.

“I traded it for something better.”

Random snippet 4 - extract from chapter 6 of 8

With only four days left to go, Viktor knew it was time to act. He loved Yuuri with all his heart and he was sure that Yuuri must feel the same. But his deal with the sea witch hadn’t just hinged on love. He had to convince Yuuri to marry him before the sun set on the final day or he would be lost forever.

He was planning on asking Yuuri that night, after they had shared dinner together as they had done every night before. They had never done any more than hold hands, had never even kissed but Viktor was sure that it was just Yuuri’s princely chivalry holding him back. The way Yuuri looked at him was enough for him to be sure that the other man would agree. He might be banned from telling Yuuri why he needed the marriage to happen so rapidly he wasn’t concerned of a rejection.

The door beside him opened and Yuuri emerged, looking resigned. Viktor caught a quick glimpse of the kind and queen, stern faced and regal, before the door swung shut again behind him.

“You didn’t have to wait for me.” Yuuri told him but the small smile on his face showed that he appreciated the gesture all the same.

“I wanted to.” Viktor replied, returning the smile. “What was it they wanted to talk to you about.”

Yuuri’s face fell again and he turned away, averting his eyes.

“Marriage.” he said bluntly and Viktor’s heart leapt in his chest. If Yuuri’s parents were pushing for their son to finally marry it would be even easier to convince Yuuri to rush their wedding.

“They told me it’s time. They let Phichit and I put it off for years but they’re getting older and so is his father and they want us to do it within the year.”

Viktor froze, every part of his body suddenly turning to ice like the arctic waters he had swam in only once.

“Phichit?” he asked and his voice sounded surprisingly calm even to himself, none of his inner turmoil showing on the surface.

“Yes.” Yuuri stopped walking for a minute, turning to Viktor and looking confused. “You’ve met him Viktor, he was here just last week.”

Of course Viktor knew who Phichit was, Yuuri had introduced them enthusiastically and the two of them had gotten along well. Phichit was bright and bubbly and he and Yuuri were very close. But they had never shown any romantic inclination towards each other during any of the time that Phichit had been there, on a diplomatic visit with his kingly father.

“But why would you marry Phichit?” Viktor asked and he could hear a slight hint of desperation begin to creep into his voice. “I thought you were just friends.”

“We are.” Yuuri was still staring at Viktor, looking confused. “He’s the best friend I’ve ever had. But we’ve been betrothed since we were both children. We were both hoping to delay the actual wedding for a few more years but our families are finally putting their foot down.”

“But you don’t love him?” Viktor said, still trying to comprehend the enormity of what he had just discovered, something that would ruin everything. “Why would you marry someone if not for love.”

“I’m a prince Viktor.” Yuuri signed and he sounded resigned again. “The second child of royalty. I was always going to have to marry politically. I’m just lucky Phichit and I became such good friends. We might not be in love and never will be but we have a lot more than most arranged marriages do. I was happy to go through with it when I was older before…”

Yuuri’s sentence trailed off and his eyes flickered to Viktor’s face and then away again in an instant, so quickly Viktor thought he might have imagined it. Then Yuuri’s gaze returned and he was looking puzzled again.

“But why are you sounding so surprised about this Viktor. It’s common knowledge that Phichit and I are betrothed. I thought you knew?”

Random snippet 5 - extract from chapter 6 of 8

Viktor sat by the water’s edge, gazing out into the ocean and allowing the tears to fall silently down his cheeks. He couldn’t believe how quickly everything had come tumbling down, all his dreams crushed in a few short words.

Viktor loved Yuuri and he was sure that Yuuri must love him back. But Yuuri was betrothed, soon to be married and had been for years. His sense of duty to his kingdom and his people outweighed anything else and he wouldn’t break off that proposal for anything, Viktor was sure of that. Not even for love.

It was Viktor’s own fault, for falling in love with a human and trading his life away for what he thought would be a happily ever after. His father had called him rash and impulsive many times before but Viktor had always laughed it off. Until now, when it was finally time to face the consequences of his decisions, choices he had made without ever really considering the consequences.

He had made a deal with the sea witch, a human life and one month to make Yuuri fall in love and marry him, or lose his life and be turned to foam on the sea. He might have succeeded at one part but he had failed spectacularly at the other, had never considered the human he had fallen for might already be promised to someone else. And now suddenly it all made sense, the way Yuuri always seemed to keep a careful distance between them even as he seemed to want to come closer, the way they had never kissed even if Yuuri sometimes gazed at his mouth like his desperately wanted to.

Gazing out at the sea Viktor wondered if he would ever get the chance to see his home and family again before the end. There were only three days left and the last light of the sun of the third day was already rapidly fading away. He didn’t have enough time and even if he had wanted to, he had no way of contacting his family nor of returning to his home. He was trapped on land, waiting as the last of his time trickled swiftly away.

A splash from the water in front of him made him jump and he startled when a head appeared from the waves, a familiar face surrounded by wet blond hair glaring at him angrily.

“I heard that you fucked up and your precious prince is all set to marry someone else.” Yuri told him, ignoring Viktor’s look of shock.

“I told you it was a bad idea to fall in love with a human and I was right. So now maybe you should try listening to me for once.”

“It’s too late to change anything.” Viktor replied, closing his eyes, unwilling to look his ex-student in the face.

“No it’s not.” Yuri said and his voice was hard and cold. “I have a plan.”

[hetbigbang]

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 thehetbigbang@gmail.com; (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