#it's mostly happening in AO3 comments dreamwidth and twitter

[katoska]

About (I'm paraphrasing) "Why does the OTW not send all reports of CSAM to crime-fighting agencies directly? Why is it on the PAC team to evaluate that with their own untrained eyes on their own computers, risking their safety and mental health, when NCMEC have far better tools and training to do that work?" questions and worries brought up by current anti-ao3/otw talk going around.

Do you WANT the NCMEC to be spammed with hentai?

More than it is already, I mean. Yes, website mods and evaluators of reported content do not have access to the databases that would let them determine whether a pornographic photograph/gif was of an actual, already identified child, or just of a short adult porn actor with a baby face whose porn gets reported frequently enough to be in any database under "Not CSAM". And if there were any A.I.s who could determine the likely ages in new/non-archieved material, they probably couldn't afford them (though I personally would not trust those tools to be accurate or incapable of messing up - in either direction - one bit). These A.I. would be extremely unlikely to impossible to be better at that work than human beings.

Evaluation and moderation - if a site chooses to do the latter - is important work, and while it sucks that many websites outsource it to barely-paid workers offshore or have to rely on unpaid volunteers to do it due to the sheer manpower it requires for larger sites, it's still necessary to do it. No matter how unpleasant and taxing it is. I'd love if everyone who did that work was well-compensated for it and had access to mental-health services, but that just isn't affordable for organisations who aren't specifically given money to do that (unlike police and agencies).

Someone needs to sort through the (reported or actively moderated) content to seperate the fanart of Steven Universe from the photos of real people, and the photos of what appears to be actual children from photos that appear to be of adults. Do those people sometimes fuck up? Sure. Wrt "cartoon vs photo", even, child protection organisations that should really know better have fucked up on occasion. To say nothing of the amount of people reporting cartoons as CSAM/CSEM all over fandom/the US-based internet.

That's why those layers of evaluation are so crucial to enabling actual law-enforcement to do their jobs. You see something that you believe is CSEM on a website, you report it to the evaluators on that website. They make a call whether that is a child in danger and, if yes, pass it on to the NCMEC or similar, and then they make their own evaluation to decide whether or not to notify the police, who makes their own evaluation to determine if it's truly legally actionable and then opens a case and tries to find the perpetrator. But if it doesn't look like any child is in danger according to the lower layers of evaluators - from the average person making a good-faith judgement to professional organisation workers allegedly trained to deal with this stuff - actual investigators don't have to waste their time dealing all by themselves with it. Or, to put it another way, so it's not all left up to the judgement of cops whether or nor someone committed an online sex crime.

Encouraging people to skip those layers out of worry that members of an Abuse Team - who took that job voluntarily, (well-)paid or not - might get disturbed by doing their jobs, is a terrible idea. And as long as those evaluators have a report to point to in the unlikely event that police find suspicious pictures in their cache during any unrelated investigation of them, they are gonna be fine wrt accusations of possession. Nor is the OTW liable if someone evaluate a ticket and determines the content legal when it later turns out it wasn't, as long as the illegality wasn't obvious (eg the words "Does anyone want to buy some photos of naked minors?" in a non-fictional context) or could have been proven with the tools at their disposal (which, since those tools are "human eyes and brains", means there's only proof of liability in fairly obvious cases). And that is as it should be, because lot whole lot of porn could be argued to feature people who aren't clearly 18 or older. You can't report all porn of people who look between 16 and 25 as CSEM, cause that would create a lot of false - and if not false, not proveable - reports.

The OTW cannot moderate all content, and the nature and purpose of the site makes forbidding certain suspicious words or tags pretty much impossible (but is also why it would be hard for anyone looking for criminal content to find and download it). But if they were to moderate certain suspicious-but-not-obviously-illegal content/tags, it would then make them liable if any content they didn't get to due to sheer volume - even as of yet unreported content - turns out to be illegal. Because it could be argued that if they moderate/screen a tag, they were likely to know about illegal activity in it, or at least suspected that the tag fascilitates such activity (cause why else moderate that tag but not others?). So they should have banned the tag, since they couldn't adequately moderate it. Which is why the people of the OTW don't look at anything or evaluate it unless it's been reported, and they don't kick it off the site "just in case" because then they would be moderating and liable. Kind of like how writers can't admit they read any fanfiction, only much much worse.

I'm not sure what would happen to AO3 if no one in PAC was willing to take "potential CSEM" tickets anymore. It's not like anyone can force them, nor should they. I doubt the OTW would be allowed to forward content to NCMEC automatically, in that case. Both because of the "layers are needed" argument above, and cause I'm sure that if website owners didn't have to hire their own people to deal with illegal material, they (the for-profit ones, at least) mostly just... wouldn't. So the most likely outcome would be that AO3 would have to be shut down.

[wipbigbang]

WIP Big Bang 2023 Round Schedule & FAQ!

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 1st Sign-ups Close- April 21st Check In #1- April 22nd Check In #2- May 15th Snippets Due- June 1st Art Claims Begin- June 17th Check In #3- June 22nd Check In #4- July 6th Rough Drafts Due- July 15th Posting Claims Begin- July 23rd Posting Claims Ends- August 1st Final Drafts/Art Due- August 7th Posting Starts- August 8th Posting Ends- October 31st (the last two weeks are reserved for emergency posting)

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your fanfic drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and sometimes Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

How many fics can we sign up for? We absolutely don’t mind multiple sign-ups. I know one year someone submitted 50 fics to finish, and got at least half of them done. We just ask that when you sign up with more than one fic you give each fic a unique user ID (please do not use the same ID for all your fics...it’s important to have different IDs for the check-ins).

Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter.

Can an outline count towards those first 500 words that are needed at sign up? We have admitted work on an outline before so yes, if your outline is fleshed out enough to cover a 7,500 word+ fic, we’ll allow it.

Are multi-chapter fics allowed? Yes, multi-chapter fics are allowed and even more so encouraged if your fic is lengthy.

What about fics that are already posted on ao3 in part? Do those qualify for the bang? It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. All we ask is that you not post any public updates to the fic until August 1st (or July 1st with the mod’s okay). We don’t want you to lose kudos and comments so don’t worry about pulling the fic down, just hold off on updates for now.

Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words for each finished fic, but the sky's the limit, right?

I see that the fic minimum is 7500 words and that published WIPs are acceptable - but what if the WIP I’m considering is already more than 7500 words? Is the expectation to add an additional 7500 to it? No. You can add as much or as little as you need to finish the story, though we do expect at least 1,000 or so new words if your WIP already meets the word count.

What happens if an author finishes the fic they signed up with but it’s less than 7,500 words? The intent was to go over the minimum but once they got into it the story was shorter than they thought and stretching it out would make it less good. Do they have to drop out at that point? By all means, we want your stories to feel as natural as possible, and if it’s under 7,500 words you may have two options:

1 - Drop the fic for the main BB event, post it now, and wait to post it to our AO3 collection in February when we run our International Fanworks Day celebration of finishing fics that are less than 7,500 words when finished. There’s no art for the fic, but bragging rights are posted to the communities for a week.

2 - If there are enough fics that fit that category, we can do a special day of posting the fics, but you’ll have to forgo art for the fic. I, as a mod, would probably pick October 31st for the posting day, as it’s the last day of posting for the bang and I don’t think anyone will mind more than one fic that day. You can post bragging rights to the community and share the fic with everyone.

Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. RPS/RPF is fine. Incest pairings are fine. Things like that I know have been hinted at in questions asked and as long as you tag for them, we’ll allow it. Also, canon settings with mostly OCs is allowed. We just ask that it be tagged properly with any content warnings you would deem fit and be given the appropriate rating for the level of sex/violence there is in the fic. As of the 2023 round, original work is also allowed; however, we recommend you bring in your own artist or forgo art for an original work.

I have a fic I wrote a few years ago, but only the first couple chapters are posted on AO3 because I was never happy with the rest of it and knew it needed major revision. Is that something I could use for WIP Big Bang? The entire fic has been posted, but only on one platform, and it would be rewritten for AO3 and WIPBB. I think revising a fic for posting would work, as long as you have at least 500 words done, will have 7,500 words at a minimum when it’s done, and are planning to add more to the fic. Simply rewriting what you have would be a gray area, but if you’re going to take stuff out and add new scenes, either in the old scenes place or on your own, you should be fine.

What's the etiquette around OC-centric stories? Ones that are set in a well known fandom and use several characters, but still lean a lot on original characters? Are they discouraged, or fine? Based on my own personal experience making art for a story that had a heavy OC presence, it’s not something we discourage at all, but be forewarned when it comes to the art accompanying your fic your artist may not be able to incorporate the OCs into your art. Not everyone makes art of a hand-drawn or digitally drawn nature, so it helps if you have people for face claims ahead of art submissions, and you and your artist communicate regularly. You can also end up with art not featuring the OCs at all, just the canon characters, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Your other options are to bring in an artist you trust with your vision of your OC/make your own art (we do allow that, we just need to be told during the check-in before art that you’re bringing in your own artist if you go that route, or that you’re doing your own art…there will not be a need to sign up in the artist’s sign up, however) or to opt-out of art entirely. So there’s plenty of options to call on when it comes time for art. What are 'check-ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. Basically a form is posted that you fill out with your user ID (unique for each fic) and a checkbox to let us know you’re still participating, plus a section for any notes for the mods.

How are the check in IDs used? They are solely for the mods organizational purposes. Each ID being for a separate story allows us to keep all the information you submit during check-ins and for snippets in one line on our spreadsheet. You don’t have to share your check in IDs with anyone else if you don’t want to.

How much progress should authors be making between each checkpoint? (Percentage-wise from our estimated total wc, I guess?) Ideally, with each check-in, you should be at least 25% closer to finishing. The end word count only really matters in that the fic needs to be at least 7,500 words when done, so it’s more your progress towards finishing that should be measured, not so much the word count.

What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. If you are having trouble finding a beta, try this post.

Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

What does posting look like? Do we have to post the whole thing on the day, or can we stretch it out between when posting starts and our date? I’ve had a few longfics get killed by big bangs forcing posting to happen on a given day, and would prefer to avoid that if possible. For most fics, posting to AO3/FF.net/other places will be allowed to start in August and you can stretch it out as many posts as you want as long as the complete fic is up by your posting date (and posting dates go from August 8th to October 16th with two weeks for emergency posting). However, you can send us an ask/e-mail about posting as early as July if you have an extremely long fic/something with a long posting schedule. Mostly what we want is the fic to be completely up on the website of your choice by your posting date, and I know some people don’t want to overwhelm their readers. So we want to work with writers to give them ample time to post the story up to their posting date.

Now, as for posting to the communities, you get to choose which day your link to the story and bragging rights are posted, and as I said, we have a range of dates from August 8th to October 16th with two to three stories posting a day. If for some reason you miss your posting date, you have until October 31st to post to the community, during the two weeks of emergency posting. So hopefully there should be plenty of time to get a longfic up and posted to the website of your choice and our BB.

Will the three snippets per story we have to send in be the ones we want the artist to make art for? Or can it just be random snippets and then later the artist and I can check together to see which scenes would work best for art? So ideally, you and the artist will be communicating once you’re each sent each other’s contact information, and you’ll give your artist a chance to read all that you’ve written at that point. That’s what happens in most cases. If your fic gets picked by an artist and they don’t work with you, then the snippets you sent will be what the artwork will be based on. It’s a good idea to know that, while most of the time the artists work closely with the authors, there are a few exceptions to that.

How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be three fics, plus art, posting per day between August 8th and October 31st. The post with date claims will go up on July 23rd and you'll have to choose your date by August 1st.

Posting of chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post) generally starts August 1st, but you can post earlier (as early as July 1st) if you let us know you have a long story. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post your bragging rights to the communities on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked or you can email us your bragging rights and we can post by proxy for you. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

What am I posting to the Dreamwidth/Tumblr community if I’m posting the fic elsewhere? You’ll be posting what we call bragging rights. It’s a small form you fill out and post to the community with a link to your fic (we’ll enable moderated posting to the Tumblr and Dreamwidth communities for members on August 8th). We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. Artists sign-ups and art claims are the same thing; we use one form for both things, and that way the authors don’t have to sign up for an event they may not end up participating in. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with, and on and on until all stories are claimed for art.

If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by June 13th.

Can I swap out a fic if my muse abandons it again? When you sign up, you give us the information on the potential fic(s) you want to write. If, say, one fic isn’t working but one you didn’t sign up for is, you can switch them out while letting the mods know if you need to change a user ID you used. It is absolutely okay to switch fics all the way up until snippets are due. By then, we hope you’ll have however many fics you plan on doing to at least 80% completion since rough drafts are due not much later. Just drop an email to the mods at wipbigbang@gmail.com with the new information (title, fandom, etc) and if you want a new sign in ID or plan to use the same one for the fic you’re replacing it with.

Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by July 13th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.

Are we allowed to participate without joining the Discord? Absolutely! The Discord server is optional, as just another way to interact with your fellow writers and get updates on important dates. It’s not mandatory you join, however.

I was just wondering if there’s any way to enter the bang anonymously? Like would it be okay to put our work in an anonymous collection on ao3 or something? Unfortunately, I can’t think of a way for that to work. The collection that we use is moderated but it’s not anonymous, and there are the bragging posts that you post on your posting day, which you would have your username on whichever platform you use.

I was just wondering whether I'm sworn to secrecy on which fics I'll be finishing up, or if I can shout it out to the world? No one is sworn to secrecy once they’ve signed up (aside from posting new parts to fic that’s already up somewhere…we ask that you refrain from doing that until at least July 1st)! We will be running Word Wars, where you can add more to a fic in a certain amount of time, and Whine Bars, where you can complain or ask for help or whatever else you feel like talking about when it comes to struggling with a fic, all after sign-ups end on a weekly basis, plus there’s the Discord server for chatting with your fellow authors and artists.

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[iamanartichoke]

I was trying to keep up with people's comments and additions on my copyright post but I literally can't anymore bc there's just too many (i read the tags people add, too, bc I just like to). I was really scared of getting some hate or of being ridiculously wrong but it seems that the general consensus (including from actual lawyers) is that I'm mostly correct. Ultimately the bottom line is that charging people for fanworks is going to leave you vulnerable to lawsuits being filed against you.

So, yeah. I wasn't really that invested in this whole thing, to be honest; my original intent was just to share some info bc I know a lot of people (like myself, most of the time) aren't going to bother to read the TOS or won't read it closely, and I also know that when you don't read the TOS, you never quite know what you're agreeing to when you click "I Accept" so - but, after looking further into it and actually looking at tumblr's manipulative language, it's fair to say I've gone from being ambivalent/slightly amused to being really worried and also disappointed bc honestly, the fuck, tumblr?

My takeaway, right now, is that tumblr is just desperate to monetize in some way so that it can profit from those of us who are left after the 2018 mass exodus and on the one hand, I get it bc it's not free to run a large website, but on the other hand, they could just ask for donations?? I know that I, personally, would happily donate $5 or something if it meant that 1 - tumblr would stop trying to monetize things here and 2 - if it meant money for tumblr to stay online as well as fix some of the issues like the search feature, the porn bot problem, etc.

Tumblr is my "safe space," in that it's the only social media I really use because it's not instagram or facebook or twitter, etc. I like being anonymous. I like connecting with people who are actually interested in what I'm interested in, instead of just scrolling mindlessly through pics of people's pets, kids, and vacations. I have found a voice here, and a community, and an outlet for my Feels. Tumblr functions very well as a fandom space; there's nothing else like it (which is why we're all still here even though on the best days this site is, like, barely held together with a few paperclips and some duct tape).

And to see tumblr actively being misleading with intents to take advantage of its user base so they can try to make a fast buck (it's not going to work anyway!) while also making sure they can toss the users under the bus, when push comes to shove ... is so disheartening.

And also worrisome. If this site tanks, where else are we gonna go? I tried out all the other options, like Dreamwidth, during the porn ban exodus/debacle in 2018. Do not like, at all.

So, yeah, I'd happily donate $5 to help prevent that from happening and I think most people feel the same. We all donate (or spread the word if we can't donate) toward AO3 bc it's so important to us as a haven for fanworks. Why can't tumblr work the same way?

Smh. I hope that this post+ thing just goes away. I hope that my post, and others like it, reach the people they need to reach in order to make a difference in whether or not they proceed with their scammy cash grab. I hope they add a tip jar function or have a fundraising campaign. Or, barring any of that, I hope that we're able to figure out, as a community, alternative options for fandom once tumblr inevitably goes down the toilet.

[worldsentwined]

Tagged by @shoreslip

Name(s): Kira, Kiraly (on AO3, Dreamwidth, Discord) worldsentwined (Tumblr, Twitter)

Fandom(s): So if we go by “has created fanwork for at some point” I have at least twelve under my belt, maybe more if I’ve made some fanart that isn’t on AO3. Currently my brain is pointing at The Queen’s Thief and The Murderbot Diaries, with a side order of DnD, but I can’t quite give up on my unfinished SSSS works. 

Where you post: Fic? AO3, with a rare ficlet on Tumblr. Fanart mainly goes here, when it happens. DnD character backstory is mostly just on Discord for now, I don’t know if it would be worth it to cross-post.

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) this year: Contingency Plan 6186 words, 135 kudos

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) Overall: Borrowed (The YOI fandom was SO good for my self-esteem, this one got like five comments within an hour of posting). 6106 words, 482 kudos

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) this year: Oh hey, I actually did post a chapter of Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic this year! Time is totally fake. 31906 words, 40 kudos, I swear I will not leave you all hanging with the current chapter forever. 

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) Overall: If we’re counting ficlet collections, it’s Vignettes with 8437 words and 145 kudos (technically unfinished, as I will keep dumping Emil/Lalli ficlets here if I have them). If we aren’t, it’s still Before It Was Cool even after all this time - 31899 words, 118 kudos, unfinished and increasingly likely to stay that way I’m so sorry y’all. 

Favorite story you’ve written so far: Oh gosh, I don’t know how to choose! Picking some from this year that aren’t already on the list, I’m so proud of how Seven Summers Ago turned out, Soldier, Poet gives me SO many feels, and it was so much fun writing Dear Mx. Machine Manners with Anrea and KalynaAnne!

Fic you were nervous to post: Ehhh I can’t remember any in particular...I think in general I get nervous posting my first fic for a new fandom, and anything for an exchange because I’m worried my recipient won’t like it. 

How do you choose your titles?: Sometimes I pick a silly title for the draft document and it ends up becoming permanent (looking at you, Every Little Thing etc.) Other times I get to the end and need a title, so I either 1) look through the fic for some good line I can steal from myself, 2) look through the source material or song lyrics to find a good line I can steal from someone else, or 3) whine at my friends until someone suggests something brilliant. Once in a while I come up with a random title out of nowhere, or figure out what I want the permanent title to be before I’ve even started writing...that’s what happened with Contingency Plan, I wanted something that resembled the book titles.

Do you outline?: Not usually? Sometimes for multichapter fic I write down ideas for what will happen in future chapters (I did this for Every Little Thing etc and it helped a LOT) but usually I just wing it.

Complete: 140 on AO3...if we’re counting the ficlet collections as single, complete works, which I am because I am too lazy to count chapters right now.

In-Progress: Uhhh...let’s say three incomplete on AO3, two of which have already been mentioned I’m so sorry and an absolute mountain of WIPs that haven’t been posted yet. The other partially-posted one is Piecing Together An Imperfect Archive, which I wrote for a writing challenge in 2019 and decided to continue. I actually worked on it some this summer, maybe one day I will pick it up again. It is original work and has like NO engagement on AO3 though, so external motivation is not high.

Coming soon/not yet started: Listen I do NOT need more WIPs...the QT Bakery AU has been progressing though, slightly morphed into a cross-town road trip AU. And I was working on a sequel for Waking Up during NaNo but lack of planning got me very lost, haha. There are also some ideas lurking from the Murderbot discord, we’ll see what comes of those.

Prompts?: I will never say no to prompts, but fair warning they might languish in my inbox forever.

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: I am excited for the Bakery/Road Trip AU to be done. Does that mean I’m actually working on it?? Debatable.

Tagging: anyone who wants to do this, I never know who has or hasn’t done these already. ^_^;

[subdee]

Get to Know the Writer Game

I was tagged by @evergreen-dryad, thank you!  I’m really flattered when I’m tagged for writer things, because I don’t really write that often XD. 

Name: subdee is my online name for the last 15 years, it’s short for sub_divided.   Recently people who only know me on tumblr have been shortening this even more to “sub” or “subby” and it’s weird haha. 

Gender/Pronouns: she/her IRL, online I don’t think it matters much.

Star Sign: Technically Capricorn but would prefer to be Aquarius... I don’t like labels so this is the label for people who don’t like labels.  XD.

Height: 5′5″

Sexuality: Bi/pan, but the Bi flag has better colors. 

Hogwarts House: So like 10 years ago, I would have said Ravenpuff because I didn’t think I was main character material... Ravenpuff is a safe choice, not too much of a nerd and not too much of a follower.  But recently I feel it's better to be brave so Griffindor :P 

Favourite Animal: I dunno, cats?  Or maybe Ducks, I’m Sonya the Duck kin haha. 

Average Hours of Sleep: It’s 6 on weekdays and 10-12 on weekends. 

Current Time: 3:22pm

Dogs or Cats: Cats obviously, I don’t like telling other people what to do and I’d rather have that same energy with animals.  Fun fact, cats’ emotional processing centers are pretty similar to humans’, that’s why they are so good for memes, if they look frightened they probably are.  XD.

Blankets I Sleep With: Depends on the weather, doesn’t it?  If it’s too cold I can’t sleep, so you always need at least one. 

Dream Job: Teacher, I’m living my dream job right now :D Right now I teach highschool math and engineering, but long-term I think I’d rather teach Physics which is not a tested subject, and has more hands-on projects :D :D :D

When I made my blog: April 5th, 2009!!!!  I’ve been here more than 10 years!!!!

Followers: 262, some of these are old though.  Maybe 180 active followers from the last year when I’ve been more active on this site. 

Why I made a Tumblr:  In 2008 we had strikethrough on livejournal, when there was a mass-deletion of journals because a “focus on the family” type group threatened to go to the advertisers and expose all the immoral content.  Once that happened it was clear that fandom would eventually abandon the platform (as I think we are seeing with tumblr now). But it wasn’t clear yet where people would go, so I actually made a tumblr account, a dreamwidth accout, a twitter account, an AO3 account and a Wordpress blog all around the same time.  Basically, it was just insurance :P I wasn’t very active here, I mostly used Dreamwidth because the commenting culture was similar to livejournal’s, and twitter because that’s where the professional writers were. I came back here last year to follow some writers I liked from AO3, some of them followed me back so I decided to stick around.

Reasons for my url: sub_divided refers to the division between “online” and “real” life.  I was planning on keeping those two things VERY separate, but what’s funny is I no longer care :P if we’re friends IRL we’re probably both nerds anyway.  I’m also just an obvious nerd IRL, for example I don’t talk about fandom stuff at work but I'm a high school robotics coach :P So who am I really fooling anyway.

People I would love to get to know: @wordsbymarcy, @hxhhasmysoul, @davidoodles, and @softpinksoup!  Only if you want to! 

[bobbiejelly]

Link to the list itself, on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25033117/chapters/60630871

 Author’s Note:

Wait, but this isn’t the next chapter of the story, is it!?

Umm, no, not yet. Apologies.

That was all just a teaser for this.

But more on that in the final author’s notes.

Enjoy this!

bobbiejelly

    An Ongoing Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery Fanfiction Location List  

  This is a list so far of places to find MerAdd & meddison content. Contribute in the comments if you know of more. Thanks!

 Chapter 1: July 2, 2020, so far!

  Thank you to many other authors/readers who have made this all possible!

 In no particular order…

Ao3, Archive Of Our Own:

 Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery, sexual/romantic/more tag:

  https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Meredith%20Grey*s*Addison%20Montgomery/works

 Meredith Grey & Addison Montgomery, platonic tag:

  https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Meredith%20Grey%20*a*%20Addison%20Montgomery/works

    Fanfiction:

 Addison Montgomery, Meredith Grey in Grey’s Anatomy, filtered to include both characters and all ratings.

  https://www.fanfiction.net/tv/Grey-s-Anatomy/?&srt=1&r=10&c1=6752&c2=6767

 [Addison Montgomery + Meredith Grey], in Grey’s Anatomy, filtered to include both characters as a pairing with all ratings, and to exclude MerDer as a pairing:

  https://www.fanfiction.net/tv/Grey-s-Anatomy/?&srt=1&r=10&c1=6752&c2=6767&_c1=6758&_c2=6767&pm=1&_pm=1

 Meddison community:

  https://www.fanfiction.net/community/To-all-my-Meredith-Addison-lovers/123438/99/0/1/0/0/0/0/

   Wattpad:

 MerAdd tag:

  https://www.wattpad.com/stories/meradd

 Meddison tag:

  https://www.wattpad.com/stories/meddison/hot

 Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery tag:

  https://www.wattpad.com/search/meredith%20grey%2Faddison%20montgomery

  LiveJournal:

 GA-Fanfic with the Meredith/Addison shipper, from the most recent:

  https://ga-fanfic.livejournal.com/?skip=110&tag=shipper%3A%20addison%2Fmeredith

 GA-Fanfic with the Meredith/Addison shipper, from the oldest:

  https://ga-fanfic.livejournal.com/?skip=110&tag=shipper%3A%20addison%2Fmeredith

 meredithaddison:

  https://meredithaddison.livejournal.com/profile

pp-fic with the Meredith/Addison shipper:

  https://pp-fic.livejournal.com/tag/ship%3A%20addison%2Fmeredith

 Grey’s Girlslash (they don’t have ship tags yet so this is a whole lot of everything):

  https://greysgirlslash.livejournal.com/

 Grey’s 100 (also no ship tags, so good luck…):

  https://greys100.livejournal.com/tag/

   Dreamwidth:

 Okay, so I really didn’t want to shout out individual authors but I don’t know how to navigate this site better than that… So here are a few that I know.

 Scurvyknavery,

  https://scurvyknavery.dreamwidth.org/?tag=ga:+meredith/addison

 Mammothluv:

  https://mammothluv.dreamwidth.org/tag/grey%27s+anatomy

   Tumblr:

 Meddison tag:

  https://www.tumblr.com/search/meddison

 MerAdd tag:

  https://www.tumblr.com/search/meradd

 Meredith x Addison tag:

  https://www.tumblr.com/search/meredith+x+addison

 Addison x Meredith tag:

  https://www.tumblr.com/search/addison+x+meredith

 Umm, so if you use the search bar it’s pretty easy to DIY and you can save tags as favorites, so I’ll leave you all to that one on your own now…

   Ficbook:

 Search Tag: Addison Montgomery

 There’s a MerAdd work on there in Russian I swear.

  https://ficbook.net/pairings/%D0%AD%D0%B4%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%BD%20%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B3%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8

 Or just search it yourself in indexed searching through ficbook fanfiction:

  https://ficbook.net/fanfiction

   Ralst/Passion & Perfection:

 All the GA stories are here, all F/F parirings, and there are a bunch of MerAdds, notably “The Domino Effect” by The Raven.

  http://www.ralst.com/storiesGA.html

   Realm Of The Shadow:

 Umm, okay so there’s actually no current Grey’s Anatomy fanfiction on here heads up. 

But there could be someday, or maybe you like another fandom too, so here goes:

  https://www.realmoftheshadow.com/

   Twitter:

 Searched tag, MerAdd:

  https://twitter.com/search?q=meradd&src=typed_query

 Searched tag, Meddison:

  https://twitter.com/search?q=meddison&src=typed_query

 Searched tag, Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery:

https://twitter.com/search?q=meredith%20grey%2Faddison%20montgomery&src=typed_query

 Okay, so as this is similar to Tumblr, I’m gonna leave you to your own searching now.

 Okay, so that’s all I got for the moment!

 It took me over a year to learn all the intricacies of all these sites and I still have not mastered any, much less all, of them and I’m sure there are more.

 Shoutout in particular to LordOfLezzies and waltzmatildah who I specifically have asked for more sources of MerAdd fanfiction, and whom have been able to help me out over the past little while, and also LarisUSB, Luthorslena, for the Twitter hashtag tweets and ThatWinchesterGirl for some Tumblr chats. Plus a whole bunch of other fanfic authors/writers/comments who have made my day recently! There would be eons of shoutout but I just don’t want to leave people out. So there you have it. If you were tagged in this on Ao3, you’ve personally gotten me into Grey’s/PP femslash and I thank you for that.

 So, dear readers, I hope that was semi-helpful and maybe you learned something!

 If you have more sources please cite them in the comments it would be appreciated!

Potentially more of the “   Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery: A Learning Library” story to come, and potentially also an interview AMA with yours truly, bobbiejelly, in another chapter if you’re interested in that.

 See you around in the comments, folks!

  Have a good one,

Also, yeah I'm still working at Lost & Found , Bubble , and Falling Apart, Barely Breathing, albeit extremely slowly. Oops!

bobbiejelly

  Okay, pps. If you wanted more from me in particular, bobbiejelly, here's my current list of places to read my fanfictions:

 bobbiejelly

 Hello from bobbiejelly :D.

MerAdd. meddison. F/F. Grey's Anatomy Fan !!! Writing mostly for Meredith Grey/Addison Montgomery on Grey's Anatomy & Private Practice, as well as Station 19. Have also written for: Killing Eve, Orange Is The New Black, 13 Reasons Why & Weeds. Taking Prompt Requests :)

 Ao3: bobbiejelly

https://archiveofourown.org/users/bobbiejelly/works

 Wattpad: Bobbiejelly https://www.wattpad.com/user/Bobbiejelly

 Fanfiction. net: bobbiejelly https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7410749/

 Tumblr: bobbiejelly https://bobbiejelly.tumblr.com/

 LiveJournal: bobbiejelly https://bobbiejelly.livejournal.com/profile

 Dreamwidth: bobbiejelly https://bobbiejelly.dreamwidth.org/

 Twitter: bobbiejelly1 https://twitter.com/bobbiejelly1

 Ficbook: bobbiejelly1 https://ficbook.net/authors/4474694

 THANK YOU!

 bobbiejelly

  Alright, well, that's it for now folks!

 As a special request, please if you want to participte, post your 6 of favorite fanfictions in the comments, with an example of the following! Feel free to overlap or not. Or just post as little or as many MerAdd fanfictions as you want so we all feel the meddison joy. The only restriction is that the fanfiction has to actually contain Meredith Grey and Addison Montgomery...

 1. Your favorite "Recent" fanfiction (ie. in the past little while, and the author is still active probly):

 2. Your favorite "Legacy" fanfiction (ie. from any time period especially if you think it's one of those WIP's that will never ever be updated or maybe it's complete):

 3. One of your "Best of All Time's" (ie. if you high-key might have a favorite, or maybe even just a favorite author):

 4. A shoutout because you want to congratulate the author (ie. because we all like to do that!)

 5. If you have any, and if you want to, shamelessly promote your favorite of your own Meredith/Addison works. Because we all wanna read that. And it's fun to see what the author's actual favorite is!

 6. A rare find other people might not have seen yet.

 Have fun with that I can't wait! Another rule is no bashing other people's choices! You can say thanks and chat about favorites all you want, but I don't want this to be about competition or harsh feelings or about complains. We want this to be great!

  Here's bobbiejelly's first crack at it, but I might DIY this again and again in the comments :D.

 1. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, by lespians, on Ao3

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/14151828/chapters/32616750

 2. Sex & Caring in Seattle, by Bluefall, on Ao3:

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/157220/chapters/226527

 3. MerAdd One-Shots by LezBeDaizy, on Wattpad:

 https://www.wattpad.com/story/135562009-meradd-oneshots

 4. A Lot Can Happen In A City, by iamkellylouise, on Fanfiction:

 https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1583315/iamkellylouise

 5. Falling Apart, Barely Breathing, bobbiejelly, on Ao3, Fanfiction, & Wattpad, and first chapter on LiveJournal & Dreamwidth & Tumblr:

 https://archiveofourown.org/works/23434480/chapters/56169448

 6. Not What You Came Here For, by flipflop_diva, for safertohateher, on LiveJournal

 https://flipflop-diva.livejournal.com/25130.html?view=692266#t692266

  See you all in the comments!

 THANK YOU!

 bobbiejelly

[fishylife]

My thoughts on the state of Tumblr

As I said, I’m going to continue using Tumblr but I think that over time I’ll become less and less active. Of course, that is all dependent on the Tumblr community as well, because most of my stuff is just reblogged from others.

I haven’t decided what new platform(s) I’m going to use because frankly, I don’t think there’s a good substitute for Tumblr as of now (for fandom content, anyway, which is mostly what I use Tumblr for). 

Why I’ll miss Tumblr as we know it

(1) The fandom aspect

Tumblr was often my go-to source for fan reactions for movies, TV shows, books, sports, etc. Watch a movie and hardcore ship two characters? Check out Tumblr to see who ships them and what headcanons they have. Saw something happen during a game and want to see it gif’ed? Check out Tumblr to see if anyone else caught it. Finished the end of a TV series and want to speculate what will happen next season? Check out Tumblr to see who has cool theories. 

Maybe this is a weird way to put it, but Tumblr has a high amount of people who have the same “fan perspective” as I do. You can take anything as seriously as you want to. If you want to go in depth and do character analyses, there is also an audience for that, but this is also something you can get on other sites (in fact, I find more serious discussions of this kind on Reddit). For fanfiction, we have AO3 (which honest is such a godsent. That website is totally free and I can’t express how much I appreciate the staff there). If you want to make a dumb joke, start an incorrect quotes blog, or talk about a headcanon that popped into your mind, there will be people who are also into that. This less serious, “supplemental” stuff is what I’ll struggle to find outside of Tumblr. 

I think part of this is attributed to the fact that you can make different kinds of posts on Tumblr. You can have image posts, long introspective pieces, videos, short rants, one-line jokes, etc. Tumblr is pretty all-encompassing when it comes to fan content. This is sort of related to my next point.

(2) The community aspect

The reason why people can make all sorts of posts and it still works is that people’s posts are tied to their personal blogs. Contrast this with Reddit, where most posts are tied to subreddits, so if you want to make a short post with a joke or something it has to pass the rules of the subreddit, which might not be possible. 

However, on Tumblr, you can make a post just shouting into the void. I’ve made posts about obscure stuff (e.g. about a TV show that no one I know has watched), and months later someone likes it. It’s easier for people to shout into the void to look for people with similar interests without having to make it as formal as having to set up a subcommunity. For example, if I just wanted to check out some magic AU headcanons, maybe on Reddit I might have to look for a magic AU subreddit, which is pretty damn specific so there’s a near zero chance of finding something like that. I’d probably look for a magic subreddit (not sure if that exists) or the worldbuilding subreddit, but that’s way too broad to find magic AU. Meanwhile, on Tumblr, I can just look for a tag and anything related will pop up. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a lot easier to look for people who have the same specific interests as you. 

I may have mentioned this before, but Tumblr was the first place where I actually got o participate in fandom. I was a lurker on Livejournal and I scarcely commented on fanfiction, and almost never posted original content. On the other hand, Tumblr offered baby steps for me to participate in fandom. It started with lurking and liking posts. Then it grew to reblogging. Then it grew to commenting in the tags, and eventually I felt more comfortable making my own posts about my own thoughts (and writing fanfiction).

I’m also just going to miss having a personal blog. My blog is a mix of all of my interests, and the mix of interests is what makes it unique to me. I like that my blog is a mix of hockey, soccer, Sailor Moon, Bleach, dolls, movie reviews, and a ton of other stuff. At the same time, other people’s blogs are going to be a mix of things they like, and that’s the beauty of being able to build a personal blog. 

(3) Types of posts

This ties back to my earlier point about how people can make all sorts of posts. Text posts, images, videos, audio, etc. A lot of people have discussed what platforms they’ll be moving to. The popular ones I’ve seen are Twitter, Instagram, Pixiv, Pillowfort, etc. 

I haven’t used Pillowfort before, but from what I hear it’s similar to Tumblr. I hear it’s still in Beta though (and currently has a one-time fee) so I probably won’t be using it for the time being.

In the past, I’ve tried using Twitter but honestly, I don’t like the interface at all. It’s hard to use, it’s a pain to look for old stuff, etc. The biggest thing is that it only allows for short posts. And I’m the kind of person who hates those multi-part tweets. If what you need to say is more than 3 tweets long, you should really be writing a blog post. That’s my opinion. But clearly that platform isn’t the best for longer type posts, like fanfiction, fan theories, character analysis, etc.

Instagram and Pixiv are image-focused. So they’re great for fanart, photography, aesthetic blogs, etc. But it cuts out a lot of other stuff. I suppose you can fit in short witty jokes and stuff in the description parts, but you can’t fit an essay or anything longer than, say, a paragraph. Not to mention these platforms are really more about the visuals. 

Livejournal would have offered the freedom to make all sorts of posts, but fandom is pretty dead there. Also, I hear that it had a similar breakdown on adult content.

Why Tumblr will change

I realize I haven’t addressed the actual reason why this is happening though. As I understand it, Tumblr is enforcing stricter rules on adult content. 

For the past while, I’m sure a lot of people have been dealing with pornbots. The other problem that I haven’t had contact with is child pornography. However, Tumblr hasn’t been able to effectively handle these issues. They attempted to take down inappropriate and illegal content but as a result, a lot of normal blogs were being taken down.

I don’t post much nsfw content here so I can’t comment much, but there will be many people who are disappointed because they do post nsfw but inoffensive content. I just think it’s unfortunate that Tumblr hasn’t been able to come up with a solution to address the specific problem. They’ve tried to come up with a blanket solution. Although the blanket solution might address the problem, it’s also affecting the ability of a lot of normal users to carry out their usual activities. I know nothing about the sorts of algorithms used to combat these issues but I think it’s just unfortunate that a solution can’t be found.

Next steps

Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ve always been late to fandoms, so I’ll be waiting and seeing where fandoms move. Maybe when Pillowfort is officially released, I might check it out (if it ever becomes free). Maybe I’ll go back to Livejournal. Maybe I’ll lurk on Instagram. Or finally check out Dreamwidth. I really don’t know. 

But I have a post with some of my contact info outside of Tumblr. Please feel free to ask me for contact info. I’ve never made internet friends before Tumblr, and honestly I think I’m going to miss how easy it is to talk to others purely on the basis of sharing similar interests. 

[madamebadger]

I’ve been seeing another spate of rumbling about the death of Tumblr/exodus from Tumblr. I’ve got no idea whether it’s likely to happen for my fandoms in the near term (I mean, I know it will eventually--no platform lasts forever--but I have no idea whether we’re talking six months or three years, say). But I wanted to share a bit of advice as a Fandom Semi-Old.

The thing about fannish migrations is that they aren’t organized. Any given fandom larger than about ten people is a herd of cats; we cannot readily be organized. Friends may coordinate; comparatively small and cohesive groups may coordinate (LJ RPers made a pretty impressively coordinated jump to Dreamwidth some years ago now); but fandoms are cat herds. Individuals saunter away when they feel like it and make a new home. Pretty much nobody who I knew in the LJ days wanted to go to Tumblr--and yet here we are, because fandom is not something you organize; it is an emergent property of people plus communication technologies. It happens, and God only knows where it will happen next.

(And yes, I include mail in ‘communication technologies.’ I am too young for the age of zines, but I am aware of them.)

So what I am saying is, if/when your particular fandom starts to decamp from Tumblr (if they have not done so already, and if they are on Tumblr at all--some fandoms never did come to roost here), the members of the fandom will probably not go at the same time, or to the same place. They will saunter away like cats and wander around for a bit and some will end up in one place and some in another and maybe there will come to be a collective consensus that Here Is Where This Fandom Is, but maybe there won’t; and even if there is, it might take a long time to happen. I remember when mailing lists and Usenet gave way to bboards, and thence to various blogging platforms and LJ, and then to DW and Tumblr, and also Twitter--and there were always people who just... didn’t, some fandoms never jumped from bboards to Livejournal, some still thrive on mailing lists, some went to Dreamwidth rather than Tumblr, some are mostly on Twitter, at least one of my favorite nostalgia fandoms is still mostly doing ZINES (although admittedly most of them are now webzines rather than mailed zines), and on and on and on. And a lot of them splinter, too.

So here is what I will tell you, as a veteran of many jumps. The most important thing is to figure out who you don’t want to lose touch with and find a way to keep in touch with them. I usually use email, because I am an Old, but it works. Texts, too. Various chat apps. Comments on AO3. Twitter, if you use it--I have tl;dr stamped on my forehead so Twitter is not for me (who can say anything in less than three paragraphs, I want to know???), but it works great for a lot of people. But something. That way, you can keep in touch with the people you care about, the people who make fandom fun for you, the people who enrich your life, even if a given platform dries up and blows away.

I was heavily involved in LJ back in its heyday. And because I reached out to them, I still email on a regular basis with some of my old LJ friends. And... the ones I didn’t, I don’t know where they are. 

So yeah. Redundancy. When a platform is in flux, that’s the best way to make sure you don’t lose what you love about your fandoms.

[mild-lunacy]

Much like most personal writing, such as a memoir, it is important for a blog to have a theme or focus, which will be of interest to a larger audience, instead of just those who know you and are interested in your personal musings.

I've been thinking about this, trying to figure out if this is a journal or a blog by that definition. On the one hand, it's personal musings, but on the other, I sort of have a theme. It's sometimes interesting to others, it seems. But given my general likes/comments number below five, I'm guessing most people think my posts are closer to a rambly memoir than a happening blog, especially since it's not very fandom-relevant anymore. Alas. I've always been like this, though. I mean, I've always just rambled on in whatever direction seemed interesting. Though I used to reply to other people's posts more, which is something you don't really do in a 'journal', particularly a paper journal.

Regardless, I can't help but wonder what other people think is going on here, or how my Tumblr compares to others and/or other blogs on the internets. It's been a while since I've really browsed. I know back in the old days, there were personal websites galore with all sorts of posts on them. They were a reflection of the interests and thoughts of the person who had the website. In my case, I talk about stories a lot, but that's mostly 'cause I think about stories a lot. I'm not really interested in cat videos or what the random homeless signs are saying (at least enough to spend effort documenting). Writing is easy, but reading is easier. I'd rather read, so writing requires some kind of extra motivation and interest. In my case, by interest I suppose I often mean 'annoyance'. This is a blog of things that annoy me in my recreational readings enough that I want to get it off my chest. So it's 'personal musings' about things at least some people may also have experience with (if I'm lucky).

I've noticed that most informative themed blogs that had their own space on the web have gone by the wayside, or devolved into elaborate ads (same trajectory as on Instagram, except that's easier to monetize). Tumblr blogs differ in that they allow you to say very little or nothing, and just reblog while therefore 'saying' something. The perfect scenario, for many fandom folks. It's also theoretically easier to build on others' ideas in general than on a regular blog or even LiveJournal. It's most relevant to fandom, as it seems to devolve into name-calling and shouting past each other if that semi-intellectual interest isn't there to encourage rational debate (although obviously that still isn't the likely result or the default regardless). Anyway, it seems most people aren't into rambling for its own sake like I am, inside but especially outside of fandom. Do most of these folks just prefer to journal privately, because public blogs are just... too public, in the end? The article seems to imply this, indirectly.

Maybe it just that places like LiveJournal haven't found a good monetization model, so it's impossible to draw real conclusions about people's actual preferences. I'm not sure how Dreamwidth is doing in terms of relative usage within the blogging world, but it's obviously very niche. I think part of the issue is that a lot of the stuff people wanted blogs for is now cannibalized by narrowly focused sites like Pinterest, or behemoths that try to do everything social media-related like Facebook and/or Twitter. I started my first diary/weblog to keep my bookmarks with notes, for example. Now Chrome shares all my tabs and bookmarks and Google remembers everywhere I go for me anyway. I started LiveJournal to keep track of authors' releases via the friends feed, but now I can just subscribe to the author's page on AO3 or Amazon. A lot of the easy things are automated, and the hard things are effort even for me, forget AI. No one likes effort. We call that 'friction' in terms of website usage. It's all been efficiently minimized to the point where any effort seems almost... unreasonable somehow.

I'm still around and probably always will be, 'cause it's more effort to write longhand than on my phone, where my keyboard predicts my next words for me. Less friction, you see. Possibly unlike most people, I like the *idea* of having an audience rather than actual extensive interaction with strangers, so this works for me. And I certainly can't just focus on interacting directly, like on Facebook, particularly with people who don't share my interests. That just sounds boring. And so, here I am: still doing blogging wrong, I guess.

[wipbigbang]

2022 Schedule + FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 1st Sign-ups Close- April 21st Check In #1- April 22nd Check In #2- May 15th Snippets Due- June 1st to June 17th Art Claims Begin- June 21st Check In #3- June 22nd Check In #4- July 6th Rough Drafts Due- July 15th Posting Claims Begin- July 23rd Posting Claims Ends- August 1st Final Drafts/Art Due- August 7th Posting Starts- August 8th]

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your fanfic drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

How many fics can we sign up for? We absolutely don’t mind multiple sign-ups. I know one year someone submitted 50 fics to finish, and got at least half of them done. We just ask that when you sign up with more than one fic you give each fic a unique user ID (please do not use the same ID for all your fics...it’s important to have different IDs for the check-ins).

Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter.

Can an outline count towards those first 500 words that are needed at sign up? We have admitted work on an outline before so yes, if your outline is fleshed out enough to cover a 7,500 word+ fic, we’ll allow it.

Are multi-chapter fics allowed? Yes, multi-chapter fics are allowed and even more so encouraged if your fic is lengthy.

What about fics that are already posted on ao3 in part? Do those qualify for the bang? It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. All we ask is that you not post any public updates to the fic until August 1st (or July 1st with the mod’s okay). We don’t want you to lose kudos and comments so don’t worry about pulling the fic down, just hold off on updates for now.

Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words for each finished fic, but the sky's the limit, right?

I see that the fic minimum is 7500 words and that published WIPs are acceptable - but what if the WIP I’m considering is already more than 7500 words? Is the expectation to add an additional 7500 to it? No. You can add as much or as little as you need to finish the story, though we do expect at least 1,000 or so new words if your WIP already meets the word count.

What happens if an author finishes the fic they signed up with but it’s less than 7,500 words? The intent was to go over the minimum but once they got into it the story was shorter than they thought and stretching it out would make it less good. Do they have to drop out at that point? By all means, we want your stories to feel as natural as possible, and if it’s under 7,500 words you may have two options:

1 - Drop the fic for the main BB event, post it now, and wait to post it to our AO3 collection in February when we run our International Fanworks Day celebration of finishing fics that are less than 7,500 words when finished. There’s no art for the fic, but bragging rights are posted to the communities for a week.

2 - If there are enough fics that fit that category, we can do a special day of posting the fics, but you’ll have to forgo art for the fic. I, as a mod, would probably pick September 30th for the posting day, as it’s the last day of posting for the bang and I don’t think anyone will mind more than one fic that day. You can post bragging rights to the community and share the fic with everyone.

Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. RPS/RPF is fine. Incest pairings are fine. Things like that I know have been hinted at in questions asked and as long as you tag for them, we’ll allow it. Also, canon settings with mostly OCs is allowed. We just ask that it be tagged properly with any content warnings you would deem fit and be given the appropriate rating for the level of sex/violence there is in the fic.

Original Work was not originally part of this Bang, but as there are not any current Original Fiction Big Bangs running (that we are aware of), we may revisit that next year.

I have a fic I wrote a few years ago, but only the first couple chapters are posted on AO3 because I was never happy with the rest of it and knew it needed major revision. Is that something I could use for WIP Big Bang? The entire fic has been posted, but only on one platform, and it would be rewritten for AO3 and WIPBB.

I think revising a fic for posting would work, as long as you have at least 500 words done, will have 7,500 words at a minimum when it’s done, and are planning to add more to the fic. Simply rewriting what you have would be a gray area, but if you’re going to take stuff out and add new scenes, either in the old scenes place or on your own, you should be fine.

What's the etiquette around OC-centric stories? Ones that are set in a well known fandom and use several characters, but still lean a lot on original characters? Are they discouraged, or fine?

Based on my own personal experience making art for a story that had a heavy OC presence, it’s not something we discourage at all, but be forewarned when it comes to the art accompanying your fic your artist may not be able to incorporate the OCs into your art. Not everyone makes art of a hand-drawn or digitally drawn nature, so it helps if you have people for face claims ahead of art submissions, and you and your artist communicate regularly. You can also end up with art not featuring the OCs at all, just the canon characters, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Your other options are to bring in an artist you trust with your vision of your OC/make your own art (we do allow that, we just need to be told during the check-in before art that you’re bringing in your own artist if you go that route, or that you’re doing your own art…there will not be a need to sign up in the artist’s sign up, however) or to opt-out of art entirely. So there’s plenty of options to call on when it comes time for art.

What are 'check-ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. Basically a form is posted that you fill out with your user ID (unique for each fic) and a checkbox to let us know you’re still participating, plus a section for any notes for the mods.

They’re usually up for about a week, so don’t worry if you can’t check-in immediately once the forms go live.

How are the check in IDs used? They are solely for the mods organizational purposes. Each ID being for a separate story allows us to keep all the information you submit during check-ins and for snippets in one line on our spreadsheet. You don’t have to share your check in IDs with anyone else if you don’t want to.

How much progress should authors be making between each checkpoint? (Percentage-wise from our estimated total wc, I guess?) Ideally, with each check-in, you should be at least 25% closer to finishing. The end word count only really matters in that the fic needs to be at least 7,500 words when done, so it’s more your progress towards finishing that should be measured, not so much the word count.

What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. If you are having trouble finding a beta, try this post.

Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

What does posting look like? Do we have to post the whole thing on the day, or can we stretch it out between when posting starts and our date? I’ve had a few longfics get killed by big bangs forcing posting to happen on a given day, and would prefer to avoid that if possible. For most fics, posting to AO3/FF.net/other places will be allowed to start in August and you can stretch it out as many posts as you want as long as the complete fic is up by your posting date (and posting dates go from August 8th to September 15th with two weeks for emergency posting). However, you can send us an ask/e-mail about posting as early as July if you have an extremely long fic/something with a long posting schedule. Mostly what we want is the fic to be completely up on the website of your choice by your posting date, and I know some people don’t want to overwhelm their readers. So we want to work with writers to give them ample time to post the story up to their posting date.

Now, as for posting to the communities, you get to choose which day your link to the story and bragging rights are posted, and as I said, we have a range of dates from August 8th to September 15th with two to three stories posting a day. If for some reason you miss your posting date, you have until September 30th to post to the community, during the two weeks of emergency posting. So hopefully there should be plenty of time to get a longfic up and posted to the website of your choice and our BB.

Will the three snippets per story we have to send in be the ones we want the artist to make art for? Or can it just be random snippets and then later the artist and I can check together to see which scenes would work best for art? So ideally, you and the artist will be communicating once you’re each sent each other’s contact information, and you’ll give your artist a chance to read all that you’ve written at that point. That’s what happens in most cases. If your fic gets picked by an artist and they don’t work with you, then the snippets you sent will be what the artwork will be based on. It’s a good idea to know that, while most of the time the artists work closely with the authors, there are a few exceptions to that.

How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be four fics, plus art, posting per day between August 8th and September 30th. The post with date claims will go up on July 23rd and you'll have to choose your date by August 1st.

Posting of chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post) generally starts August 1st, but you can post earlier (as early as July 1st) if you let us know you have a long story. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post your bragging rights to the communities on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked or you can email us your bragging rights and we can post by proxy for you. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

What am I posting to the Livejournal/Dreamwidth/Tumblr community if I’m posting the fic elsewhere? You’ll be posting what we call bragging rights. It’s a small form you fill out and post to the community with a link to your fic (we’ll enable moderated posting to the Tumblr, Livejournal and Dreamwidth communities for members on August 8th). We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. Artists sign-ups and art claims are the same thing; we use one form for both things, and that way the authors don’t have to sign up for an event they may not end up participating in. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. And on until all stories are claimed for art.

If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by June 13th.

Can I swap out a fic if my muse abandons it again? When you sign up, you give us the information on the potential fic(s) you want to write. If, say, one fic isn’t working but one you didn’t sign up for is, you can switch them out while letting the mods know if you need to change a user ID you used. It is absolutely okay to switch fics all the way up until snippets are due. By then, we hope you’ll have however many fics you plan on doing to at least 80% completion since rough drafts are due not much later. Just drop an email to the mods at wipbigbang@gmail.com with the new information (title, fandom, etc) and if you want a new sign in ID or plan to use the same one for the fic you’re replacing it with.

Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by July 13th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.

Are we allowed to participate without joining the Discord? Absolutely! The Discord server is optional, as just another way to interact with your fellow writers and get updates on important dates. It’s not mandatory you join, however.

I was just wondering if there’s any way to enter the bang anonymously? Like would it be okay to put our work in an anonymous collection on ao3 or something? Unfortunately, I can’t think of a way for that to work. The collection that we use is moderated but it’s not anonymous, and there are the bragging posts that you post on your posting day, which you would have your username on whichever platform you use.

I was just wondering whether I'm sworn to secrecy on which fics I'll be finishing up, or if I can shout it out to the world? No one is sworn to secrecy once they’ve signed up (aside from posting new parts to fic that’s already up somewhere…we ask that you refrain from doing that until at least July 1st)! We will be running Word Wars, where you can add more to a fic in a certain amount of time, and Whine Bars, where you can complain or ask for help or whatever else you feel like talking about when it comes to struggling with a fic, all after sign-ups end on a weekly basis, plus there’s the Discord server for chatting with your fellow authors and artists.

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[wipbigbang]

2021 Schedule + FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- April 1st

Sign-ups Close- April 15th

Check In #1- April 22nd

Check In #2- May 15th

Snippets Due- June 1st

Art Claims Begin- June 17th

Check In #3- June 22nd

Check In #4- July 6th

Rough Drafts Due- July 15th

Posting Claims Begin- July 23rd

Posting Claims Ends- August 1st

Final Drafts/Art Due- August 7th

Posting Starts- August 8th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words, but the sky's the limit, right?

What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here.

Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. Just bear in mind that original work is only allowed on AO3 if it has a fannish connection and might make it hard for artists to work with. But we'll make a dedicated post for that if there will be any.

What are 'Check Ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory.

What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. If you are having trouble finding a beta, try this post.

Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Also, we've enabled moderated posting to the comm (Livejournal and Dreamwidth) for members. We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be four fics, plus art, posting per day between August 8th and September 30th. The post with date claims will go up on July 23rd and you'll have to choose your date by August 1st.

If you want to post your story in chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post), you may do so starting August 1st. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. And on until all stories are claimed for art.

If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by June 13th.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by July 13th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.</lj-cut>

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[wipbigbang]

2020 Schedule + FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm CST. Convert time zones.

We also have a Google calendar you can subscribe to with the schedule.

Sign-ups Begin- April 30th Sign-ups Close- May 9th Check In #1- May 16th Check In #2- May 30th Snippets Due- June 13th Art Claims Begin- June 17th Check In #3- June 27th Check In #4- July 11th Rough Drafts Due- July 25th Posting Claims Begin- July 29th Check In #5- August 1st Posting Claims Ends- August 8th Final Drafts/Art Due- August 15th Posting Starts- August 15th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them! Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID. Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails. However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly. Is there a minimum word count? 7,500 words, but the sky's the limit, right? What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. Just bear in mind that original work is only allowed on AO3 if it has a fannish connection and might make it hard for artists to work with. But we'll make a dedicated post for that if there will be any. What are 'Check Ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like. What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap. What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Also, we've enabled moderated posting to the comm (Livejournal and Dreamwidth) for members. We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date. If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue. How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be three fics, plus art, posting per day between August 15th and September 30th. The post with date claims will go up on July 29th and you'll have to choose your date by August 8th. If you want to post your story in chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post), you may do so starting August 8th. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm. Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt! What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. And on until all stories are claimed for art. If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system. Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by June 13th. What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang! If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you. Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by June 13th (if at all possible). Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you. Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang. I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[wipbigbang]

2019 Schedule + FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm CST. Convert time zones.

This year we also have a Google calendar you can subscribe to with the schedule.

Sign-ups Begin- March 23rd Sign-ups Close- April 13th Check In #1- April 20th Check In #2- May 11th Snippets Due- May 25th Art Claims Begin- May 29th Check In #3- June 8th Check In #4- June 22nd Rough Drafts Due- July 6th Posting Claims Begin- July 10th Check In #5- July 13th Posting Claims Ends- July 20th Final Drafts/Art Due- July 27th Posting- July 27th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang?

Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate?

No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

Will I get emails about the bang?

We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

Is there a minimum word count?

7,500 words, but the sky's the limit, right?

What do you mean by minimum word count to enter?

This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here.

Is there anything not allowed?

As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. Just bear in mind that original work is only allowed on AO3 if it has a fannish connection and might make it hard for artists to work with. But we'll make a dedicated post for that if there will be any.

What are 'Check Ins’?

These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory.

What are the snippets requirements?

In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can.

What are the rough drafts requirements?

For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta?

A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting.

Where can I post my fic/art?

Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal,Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Also, we've enabled posting to the comm (Livejournal and Dreamwidth) for members. We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

How do I know when to post?

Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be two fics, plus art, posting per day between July 27th and August 24th. The post with date claims will go up on June 10th and you'll have to choose your date by July 20th.

If you want to post your story in chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post), you may do so starting July 20th. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art?

There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'art claims'?

The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. In the event that there are more artists than stories, the remaining artists may choose a story to work with and those stories will have two artists working independently of each other.

If a fic up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors may be uncomfortable working with underage artists on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

Can I get an extension?

Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by May 25th.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist?

Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods and this will be dealt with immediately so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang!

Can I drop out?

We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know via this link by May 25th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned?

We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here.

If you need help you can always contact a mod (@voldiebuns or @biffelderberry) and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[wipbigbang]

2018 Schedule and FAQ

Schedule

All times are by 8:59pm CST. Convert time zones. Sign-ups Begin - March 30th Sign-ups Close - April 14th Check Point #1 - April 21st Check Point #2 - May 5th Snippets Due - May 19th Art Claims Begin - May 23rd Check Point #3 - June 2nd Check Point #4 - June 16th Rough Drafts Due - June 23rd Posting Claims Begin - June 27th Check Point #5 - June 30th Posting Claims Ends - July 4th Final Drafts/Art Due - July 11th Posting Begins - July 11th

FAQ

What is the WIP Big Bang?

Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them! Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Livejournal, Dreamwidth, Tumblr, and Twitter), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID. Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for snippets and art claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails. However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly. Is there a minimum word count? 7500 words, but the sky's the limit, right? What do you mean by minimum word count to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. It's okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. Is there anything not allowed? As long as you wrote it and you want to finish it, you're welcome to participate. Just bear in mind that original fic generally can't be posted to AO3 and might make it hard for artists to work with. But we'll make a dedicated post for that if there will be any. What are 'Check Points'? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it but they are not compulsory. What are the snippets requirements? In order to allow the artists to make art for the story they claimed, we require you to supply three snippets from your fic, between 500 – 1500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist after they have claimed your story. They're to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way he or she possibly can. What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, stories should be at least 80% complete. You will not have to turn them into us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap. What is, and do I need, a beta? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal,Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 names, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Also, we've enabled posting to the comm for members. We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date. How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered, you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be two fics, plus art, posting per day between July 11th and August 31st. The post with date claims will go up on June 27th and you'll have to choose your date by July 4th. If you want to post your story in chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post), you may do so starting July 4th. However, posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this story was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked. Either way works for us. Art will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm. Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my art? There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 10 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt! What are 'art claims'? The claims are when anonymous summaries of the story go up for artists to choose from. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential stories (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with. In the event that there are more artists than stories, the remaining artists may choose a story to work with and those stories will have two artists working independently of each other. Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your story in time, please let us know by May 19th. What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please PM or email the mods and this will be dealt with immediately so that everyone has a chance to have fun at WIP Big Bang! Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by May 19th (if at all possible). Is it possible to be banned? As was announced last year, we are enacting a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you. Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang. I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help you can always contact a mod (@voldiebuns or @biffelderberry) and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished.

[bobbiejelly]

An ongoing list of general Grey's Anatomy Fanfiction sources:

Standard disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.

Disclaimer copied from LJ for reference.

This post is designed for people to share places to access and interact with Grey's Anatomy fanfiction. For simplicity's sake, these links are all related to the main GA-Canon and links for it's derivative shows fanfiction sites (for Private Practice, Station 19, B-Team, RPF etc. might be made later in the comments).

The rationale for posting this is that fanfiction is one way to interact with a series especially during times where Canon is not airing such as now, or if one wants more, or something slight's Alternate Universe (AU), or wants to ship (imagine a pairing together) that is not seen together in canon (the show as it airs).

This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement of any or all of these sites; I'm just the messenger here sharing what I know to be places people can read fanfiction if they so choose.

Heads up, these sites often contain spoilers in the summaries of works, they might have M/F, F/F, M/M, Gen, or Friendship pairings. They might contain weird things or things that require content warnings. They also might contain excellent stories that are as great as some published books. Some fanfics often do have explicit content, which is generally shown in the ratings - heads up!

Any and all of the above things happen on fanfiction, and this is a way to explore a fandom with like-minded fans like Reddit in another way alongside this - though I know I'm risking something here by posting this because when I bring up fanfiction in posts it often gets very downvoted. Huh?

I have the utmost respect for the story authors. Authors put A LOT of work into creating and publishing and archiving for free, and generally all they ask for in return are some kind words of encouragement in the comments, and/or 'likes,' and at least not negative comments or 'flames'.

I'd ask as a personal request for all authors that if this post is not allowed please a mod can contact me I'm okay with that! But it is and users interact with it, feel free to suggest fics you like, even self-promote your own. But please I ask not to criticize or add negative comments about a particular work here. That kind of thing is very hurtful- someone worked hard and put themselves out there by publishing! If you don't like fanfiction, don't read it, or stop when you've reached your limit.

Fanfiction sites generally do have age requirements, so I hereby advise everyone to follow those.

Leap forth at your own will:

***

ONTO THE LIST AS I KNOW IT, Feel free to comment with more ideas:

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Grey's%20Anatomy/works

FF dot net: https://www.fanfiction.net/tv/Grey-s-Anatomy/?&srt=1&r=10

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/search/grey's%20anatomy

LiveJournal, GA-Fic: https://ga-fanfic.livejournal.com/tag/

LJ, GA Fic Recs: https://ga-ficrecs.livejournal.com/

Dreamwidth: https://www.dreamwidth.org/interests?int=grey%27s+anatomy

DevientArt: https://www.deviantart.com/search?q=Grey%27s%20Anatomy

Ralst (all F/F femslash): http://www.ralst.com/storiesGA.html

Spirit Fanfiction (mostly in portuguese/spanish, some english): https://www.spiritfanfiction.com/categorias/greys-anatomy

Ficbook (Russian only): https://ficbook.net/fanfiction/movies_and_tv_series/grey_s_anatomy

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/search/grey's+anatomy+fanfiction

Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=grey%27s%20anatomy%20fanfiction&src=typed_query

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/

Realm Of The Shadow, which currently has no GA fics right now but other femslash:

https://www.realmoftheshadow.com/

Anyway, that's all I know right now about general GA Fanfiction, there's also more sources on LJ too. And also, if you google GA fanfiction some might pop up on some people's private blogs or sites too!

Take care everyone, and there's also a Fanlore page about Grey's Anatomy here:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/Grey%27s_Anatomy

***

Good luck readers and writers, and enjoy your fanfiction journeys :)

- A Grey's Anatomy Enthusiast

- Yes, I am a Fanfiction author in my own right and I also love reading, commenting on, and engaging with fanfictional works but I'm not going to link my own profile here.

- Let's see how this post does, I have no idea. I'll try to keep it up as long as it's permitted no matter how popular or unpopular it becomes :D.