INTRODUCTION
Better late than never in 2026, the SKAM Big Bang event is returning.
The SKAM Big Bang 2026 will celebrate all things SKAM and allow fans another year to express themselves and collaborate.
A FEW THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE SKAM BIG BANG 2026
The SKAM Big Bang 2026 celebrates all things SKAM.
This means that your work needs to be SKAM-centric. It can be an AU or a canon compliant, but it needs to focus on characters from the SKAMverse. You can place SKAM characters in a cross-over world (e.g. situate Fatou and Kieu My in Hogwarts), or retell a story with SKAM characters (e.g. give Isak and Even the story arc of Nick and Charlie from Heartstopper), but you may not have them interact with PRINCIPAL characters (e.g. Hermione Granger), as cool as that may be. You can, however, have characters from one SKAM universe meet characters from another SKAM universe. For example, Mayla meeting up with Crisana is perfectly fine.
All genres, ships, pairings, settings, tropes, and ratings are welcome.
The SKAM Big Bang 2026 celebrates original fan creations.
All works created for the Big Bang must be original and complete. Artists may create as many pieces of art as they like, but writers will only need to write one fic, with a word count between 5000 and 30000 words.
The SKAM Big Bang 2026 celebrates collaboration.
We encourage writers and artists to stay closely involved in each other’s work, as soon as they are paired. Often, this may lead to mutual inspiration, and works may grow and evolve thanks to feedback and suggestions from your partner. Beta readers, too, are often invaluable with insights and interpretations to early drafts. We hope the collaborative spirit of the event will lead to a fun and engaging experience for all. And who knows, you might even end up with a life-long friend and an invitation for a re-watch… at the other side of the world!
Read on under the cut for the timeline, and some more detailed rules and FAQ.
TIMELINE
WRITERS
1. SIGN UP
4 January 2026 - 31 January 2026
Sign ups open on 4 January and will remain open until 31 January. Sign up here Writer Sign Up Form!
2. INITIAL CREATION
4 January 2026 - 26 April 2026
You will write a fic of minimum 5000 and maximum 30000 words.
26 March there will be a brief check-in form to help ensure you are on track. Further check-ins will be in the collaboration portion of the event. At this time we will also be asking for some information about yourself to promote the Big Bang.
3. CLAIMS
26 April you will submit a brief excerpt to help entice and inspire an artist. These will be shared with artists to make matches.
4. COLLABORATION
1 May 2026 - 30 June 2026
In the final months of the event you will finalize your story while working with your artist. During this time expect a check in on 26 May and 26 June. We will also ask you to provide some information about your work and your experience with the Big Bang to promote the event on 26 May.
5. CELEBRATION
July-August 2026
Time to share the finished work and celebrate all things SKAM!
ARTISTS
1. SIGN UP
4 January 2026 - 26 April 2026
Sign ups open on 4 January and will remain open for artists until 26 April. Sign up here Artist Sign Up Form!
2. CLAIMS
As an artist you will be charged with the very important task of reading the story excerpts after they are submitted on 26 April and ranking your choices by 29 April. You will then be matched with a writer.
4. COLLABORATION
1 May 2026 - 30 June 2026
In the final months of the event you will finalize your artwork(s) while working with your writer. During this time expect a check in on 26 May and 26 June. We will also ask you to provide some information about your work and your experience with the Big Bang to promote the event by 15 June.
5. CELEBRATION
July - August 2026
Time to share the finished work and celebrate all things SKAM!
BETA READERS
1. SIGN UP
4 January 2026 - 26 April 2026
Sign ups open on 4 January and will remain open for beta readers until 26 April. Sign up here Beta Sign Up Form!
2. COLLABORATION
26 April 2026 - 30 June 2026
As agreed between you and the author you are paired with, you may be asked to beta read chapter per chapter, or the complete work in one go. Be sure to communicate well to manage expectations on both sides.
3. CELEBRATION
July - August 2026
Time to share the finished work and celebrate all things SKAM!
RULES & FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
GENERAL
What is a Big Bang?
A Big Bang is a fan-centric collaborative event where artists create artworks based on a fics written by fellow fans.
The ‘Big Bang’ type of event can be traced back to the tradition of fanzines, which often combined visual and written fan art.
How can I be part of the Big Bang 2026?
There are three ways to participate: as a writer, as an artist, or as a beta reader.
Writers will create original stories to celebrate SKAM. Artists will then create an artwork inspired by the story. And beta readers will be cheering on the authors, and helping them polish their work.
If you cannot be part of the Big Bang this year, we invite you warmly to enjoy the art and the fics starting in July, and give the finished works your love to keep the fandom alive!
You may join in more than one role, if you’d like… but be sure you can really commit to the tasks expected of you before you do so.
Can I join together with my friend?
Of course! In past events, there have been teams of writers working together on one fic. We welcome artists to do the same, if they like. In that case, you can join as a team - just let us know the contact data of all team members.
Artists and writers cannot join up as a team. The spirit of the event is to be paired up with someone you might not know before. But we hope you’ll join anyway, and meet new SKAM fans to collaborate with!
Beta readers and writers can team up if they wish to do so, but they will need to sign up separately.
Is the SKAM Big Bang 2026 open to all versions of SKAM and all ships?
YES! All versions of SKAM, all seasons, all ships are allowed. The more the merrier!
How many people will I be paired up with?
The short answer is: at least one.
The slightly longer answer is that we cannot give any exact numbers yet, because we don’t know yet how many people will sign up as artists, as writers, or as beta readers.
A second consideration is that our fandom encompasses many verses, generations, and ships; of which some are very popular and others relatively obscure. The broader the horizon of the art or written work, the more writers will be able to write for it, and the more artists will be able to art for it.
That said, we will try our absolute best to make sure every artist is paired with at least one writer, and vice versa.
Do I have to keep my creations a secret before the posting date?
Yes.
For a SKAM Big Bang event, we will have an anonymous pairing. This means that artists will not know which writers have created which fics when they choose the works that inspire them.
We know writers love to write in chats. However, we ask that you do not share significant parts of your works outside of the event participants. A tease, a snippet, a mention for Six Sentence Sunday, … - these are fine; but we’d like the fandom to enjoy all the new artworks and fics during the posting period of the Big Bang. Let’s make it a true celebration of all things SKAM!
My English is not perfect. Will that be a problem?
Not at all! Most of us aren’t native English speakers, and we all make mistakes. Some of us speak other languages too, so we will find a way to communicate - even if we have to rely on online translators.
What do you mean by ‘checking in’?
During the timeframe of the creation of art or stories, we will check in with you to ensure you are on track to be ready by the end date, to help you find solutions to any problem that may arise, to encourage you during the creative process, and to make sure you are still having fun.
Is this event age restricted?
The SKAM Big Bang is open for fans aged 16 and over. However, if you are under 18, we will ask that both the art and the written work that you and your partner create, will be non-explicit in nature. Beta readers under 18 will only be paired with teams creating non-explicit works.
Will there be a place to hang out while we are creating and posting for the Big Bang event?
Every participant will be invited to a pre-existing lively Discord server with a group of enthusiastic, friendly and helpful SKAM fans. Note that this year there will be no separate Discord server dedicated to the event, but a section of the 21:21 SKAM Fan Content Creators server will be set up to host the SKAM Big Bang 2026. Join the server here!
While we hope you will join the Discord server, there is no obligation to do so.
What will be the main form of communication between participants and mods?
As said, all participants will be invited to join our Discord server full of SKAM fans.
However, should you choose not to, you can reach the Big Bang mods via email, or you can ask your question on the Skam Big Bang Tumblr account.
Where will the art and the stories created for the event be published and shared?
All written works will be posted on Archive Of Our Own (ao3), in a collection dedicated to the Big Bang. The author will include the art, a picture of the art, or link to the art, in their post. Artists may choose to post their art in a separate post on Archive Of Our Own (ao3).
If you want to participate, but have no Archive Of Our Own (ao3) account, we encourage you to request one as soon as you register for the Big Bang. You can ask the mods for help, if needed.
After the works have been posted into the collection, both writers and artists will be free to post their works on any other site, including their social media.
Of course, you will need your partner’s permission to post their work. And obviously you must credit your partner appropriately when posting their work alongside your own!
What if I cannot meet a deadline?
While an event like this relies heavily on everybody involved being accountable, we understand there is this thing called life. If something pops up that makes you have to defer on a deadline, or have to drop out completely, please let us know as soon as possible. We are ready to figure out the best possible solution, but we need to know in order to keep the event moving seamlessly for everybody. Communication is key. Do not hesitate to contact us! Better a solution that's not needed in the end, than a problem snowballing into an experience that leaves someone unhappy.
That said, please take the deadlines and timelines into careful consideration before committing to participating. An event like this can only run smoothly if all the parts run smoothly. With that in mind, exceptions to the deadlines must remain rare exceptions.
Can I use AI?
AI takes many forms nowadays. While many of us use some form of AI as a tool while creating, we want this Big Bang to reflect the many talents of fans and fan-created works. Therefore, we will not allow any art or stories which were created solely by prompting an AI generator, even if you lightly edit or modify the result.
That said, use of AI as a tool can be permitted, provided it is disclosed. Disclosing will allow people not to engage with your work, should they so choose.
To make the difference clear, let’s consider some examples.
Let’s say your art has a background consisting of a repeated pattern. It might be fine to do that manually, but if you want, you could also use some form of AI to create a repetition of something you created. Or, if you want to draw a female figure in a certain position but have difficulty finding a good reference, you could ask AI to create one for you, as long as you then draw the final artwork yourself.
For writers, you might like to ask a chatbot to suggest some names of fantasy lands if you draw a blank. Or maybe you can prompt an AI story generator to describe the atmosphere of a Mediterranean marketplace, which you then use as inspiration to enhance one short paragraph of your story.
The examples above are meant to illustrate that minor uses of AI to help create a work of art or a story, where the AI generated part is either a minor detail of the final product and/or used as reference or inspiration without it ending up in the final product, will be permitted for this Big Bang.
To be abundantly clear: Art or stories which were, at their core, created by generative AI based on a prompt by a human, will not be permitted for this event.
You didn’t answer my question!
Oh no! We’re sorry, and we invite you to please contact us through email at [email protected]. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
WRITERS
Do I have to write in English?
No. However, writing in another language might make collaboration with your artist more difficult. If you want to write in another language, but feel unsure, please contact us. We are happy to try to come up with a solution together!
Will I get to choose which artist to collaborate with?
No and yes.
During the ‘claims’ period of the Big Bang, your excerpt/summary will be provided to artists. Within that submission we will allow you provide some guidelines about what you would like to see or not see in the fic associated with your work.
Does my submission need to be finished by April 26th, 2026?
Not at all! What we need at that time from you, is something you are happy to share with the artistss and which represents you and your work, so they can choose what fic inspires them to create an artwork to accompany it.
Since the Big Bang is in essence a collaborative event, we expect that your fic might evolve as you talk more with the artist you are paired with - but if you want to have your final submission ready by March, then that’s fine too! The main point is for you to have fun, and for the fandom to get to enjoy your creations.
What if I want to write more or less than the specified word count?
While we like to read long epic stories as much as the next fan, we want to ensure first and foremost that this event is fun for everyone. That means that we don’t want you to burn out, feel stressed or pressured, or even have to drop out of the event. Hence the maximum word count.
On the flip side, the minimum word count is to establish a baseline and to encourage more collaboration with your artist and beta. While you may feel that 5 000 words is a significant number, we really hope you will give it a chance. Working together with an artist and being part of a collective creative challenge might make it a lot easier to reach the word count before you know it!
However, we can definitely discuss the minimum word count if you want to create some other form of written work, rather than a story. If you feel more at ease writing poetry, for example, or maybe a comic combining words and pictures, or a social media fic, feel free to contact us so we can work out the details!
Is the use of a beta reader mandatory?
No, but it is encouraged. You are not obliged to use a beta reader at all, or you may use a beta reader who is not affiliated with the Big Bang; but if you like, we can get you in contact with some eager beta readers. If you do use a beta reader, please be clear about your expectations, needs, and wants; and agree with your beta reader on a time frame.
What is the policy about tagging my work?
All works on Archive Of Our Own (ao3) must use the main tags (i.e. Graphic depictions of violence, Major character death, Rape/Non-con, Underage sex) if present in the work. All other tags are discretionary, but please tag for major triggers and/or include them in the author’s notes.
ARTISTS
So, what do you mean by ‘art’ or ‘artwork’?
Basically, anything can be art! Most often, artists choose to create some form of visual art, but it can also be a piece of music or a song, if you feel so inclined! Visual art can be analog or digital, and it can mean many things: feel free to create a drawing, cartoon, painting, mood board, banner, gifset, video, photo manip, collage… Or create art that exists in the physical world: hand-lettering, paper art, knitted art, sculpted art, carved art, … You could even create a nicely formatted playlist, social media page, an item of clothing, a game - you name it! As long as it features the SKAM multiverse and inspires a writer, you’re set.
What if I do not want to make art for certain types of stories?
As an artist, we will allow you to list a limited number of themes, tropes or triggers you would rather not see featured in the works associated with your art. These guidelines will also be within the writer's claim submission so you know what you’re getting into when you rank your choices.
BETA READERS
What is the job of a beta reader?
Depending on what your author needs, you can be asked to read through an author’s first (or second, third, …) draft to help them point out plot holes, continuity errors, or factual mistakes. Some authors only ask their beta readers to do a spelling, grammar and punctuation check. Sometimes, a beta reader is a cheerleader, or sometimes they help an author brainstorm narrative points, or they can provide tips for a better story flow.
You can let us know what you are willing to do when signing up, and we will try to match you with an author suited to your strengths.
Will I get to choose who I work with?
Yes and no.
You can definitely join the event together with a writer you’ve worked with before; but you can also ask to be paired randomly. In that case, we will check what your limits are in terms of story triggers, story lengths, etc. before pairing you up.
