What is the Winterhawk Olympic Bang?Â
Itâs a different kind of Big Bang event that weâre hoping will encourage all the excellent creators in our corner of fandom to write something long or create some fantastic art.
For writers, in addition to the minimum word count that Big Bangs usually have, we also have gold, silver and bronze medals for hitting higher word counts, and awards for anyone who beats their âpersonal bestâ, eg writes something longer than their current longest posted Winterhawk fic or completes a personal writing challenge. We really want to encourage everyone involved to smash their goals, whatever those are.
For artists, we also have different medals for the amount and the intricacy of the art you produce, and a chance to let us know what you consider to be the artistic goal you want to beat as your personal best.
Hold up. I'm new here. What is a Big Bang?Â
A fandom event, usually based around a theme or ship, where a writer writes a fic that meets a minimum word count, then an artist creates art to go alongside the fic. Both are then posted together on a specified date.
The Olympic Bang will be taking place throughout much of 2022, but here are the key dates:
Author sign ups will take place throughout January. We will also take an âinterest surveyâ of artists who think they want to participate - anyone who signs up will be emailed a reminder when Artist Sign Ups open!
There will be check-ins during the writing process in April and June to make sure itâs all going okay
The fics need to be at least 75% complete by July 25th, with a summary of the remainder of the fic if itâs not finished.Â
Artist sign ups from July 24th!
Artist claims starting on August 7th
Fic drafts must be sent to the artist within 48 hours of claims
Mandatory check-in for both writer and artist on 1st October
Final deadline for fic and art completion on 1st November
Posting dates will be from 1st to 30th November - everything must be complete and posted in its entirety by 30th November in order to be included in the Masterposts.
Anyone who wants to write a long fic with Winterhawk as the main pairing, or make art for someone elseâs Winterhawk fic. As long as you think you can meet the requirements within the time frame, come join us!
Is there a theme for writers?Â
No! Stories can be about anything a writer wants, as long as Clint/Bucky is the main pairing and it meets the minimum word count. We welcome AUs, canon-compliant fics, and everything in between! The only thing the fic must do is focus on Clint and Bucky!Â
So my story doesn't have to be about the Olympics?Â
Nope. The Olympic part of the event is simply linked to the fact you can earn Olympic themed awards for your work (see What awards are up for grabs).Â
Can I use a fic that I've already started?Â
As long as you havenât started posting it, you can complete a fic youâve already started for this event.Â
However, please remember that in order to make sure the artist claims are completely anonymous, you will need to keep what youâre writing secret. If youâve already talked extensively about the fic in public, you will want to choose something else to write, or if youâve only mentioned it a bit, you should still take down those posts to keep it as much a secret as possible.
The anonymous nature of claims also means that fic must be standalone - it cannot be recognisably part of an existing series. Â
What qualifies as companion art?Â
The minimum art requirement is one piece per fic. In order to win one of the medals, youâll need to create more pieces or more complex works, as detailed below in What awards are up for grabs.Â
Weâre accepting any kind of digital or traditional art that can be viewed as an image online but because of the way our medal system works, playlists, podfics and other different forms of media are not included, although you may include them as extras if you wish.
Can I collaborate with another author to write a fic?
You may! For the purposes of the Bang, we will allow two authors to collaborate on one work which must meet all the same guidelines as individually-submitted works. Authors may submit one work as an individual and one work as a collaboration. This means authors may have only two works up for claims in total, and only if one is a collaboration with another author.Â
Is there a minimum word count?Â
The minimum total word count for any fic submitted to the Olympic Bang is 15,000 words. As long as a completed story hits that as a minimum, your fic will be part of the bang.
If youâd like to qualify for one of the medals, your fic will need to meet extra wordcount milestones - see below in What awards are up for grabs.
What awards are up for grabs?Â
Bronze, silver and gold awards based on different wordcount achievements: 25,000 for bronze, 50,000 for silver and 75,000 for gold.
Personal Best awards for writing something longer than your longest Winterhawk fic to date or meeting a personalized writing goal you set for yourself such as a canon-compliant or AU fic youâve never done before, writing in a tense youâve never attempted, a POV change - you set your own goal!
There are four routes for gaining bronze, silver and gold awards, as below. Note - artists can combine routes, such as creating classic pieces and a gif; if this is the case, please contact the mods BEFORE posting to clarify the medal award.
[Table explained in text form: Each column represents a different route to obtain Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals.Â
If you follow the classic metal route, you earn bronze for creating two different artworks for your claimed fic. You earn silver for creating three different artworks for your claimed fic. You earn gold for creating four or more different artworks for your claimed fic.Â
If you follow the complex medal route, you earn bronze for creating one piece of art that contains two characters and has a complex background. You earn silver for creating one piece of art that contains three characters and a complex background. You earn gold in one of two ways. You can create one piece of art that contains four or more characters and a complex background. Or, you can create two pieces of art which each have a complex background and contain at least two characters. (A complex background contains enough detail to determine a specific setting. Animals count as characters.)Â
If you follow the comic medal route, you can earn bronze by creating a comic strip with two panels, featuring at least two different characters. You can earn silver by creating a comic strip with three panels, featuring at least three different characters. You can earn bronze by creating a comic strip with four or more panels, featuring at least three different characters. For any medal, The characters can be shown at any point and need not appear in every panel.]
You can set your own artistic goal as a âpersonal bestâ when signing up, depending on what you want to achieve. Maybe youâve never drawn our dynamic duo in a certain pose, maybe you want to tackle drawing a certain delightful doggo for the first time, maybe you want to nail a complicated background. All goals are welcome!Â
Where will work be posted?Â
All fics should be posted on AO3 and added to the Winterhawk Olympic Bang collection. Art can be embedded in the fic or posted separately and linked as a Related Work. Youâre also more than welcome to post your art on Tumblr, and every fic will have a masterpost on Tumblr with links to the fic and all art associated with it.
You will need to submit links to your artwork to the Bang so that we can include them in the Masterposts at the end of the event - you can use any image hosting service you like, or an AO3 or Tumblr link if thatâs what you prefer.Â
The authors should post their fics to AO3, and make sure to include them in the Winterhawk Olympic Bang collection. You can embed the art in the fic or the artist can make a separate post and mark it as a Related Work.
The WHOB will be making Masterposts for each fic and its related artwork along with a Master List of all works created at the end of the event.
Feel free to make separate Tumblr posts for your works as well!
Weâll be posting the author sign-up post on January 1st, which will be done through a Google form. Youâll have until the end of January to sign up, but you can start writing your fic whenever youâre ready to.
How do artist claims work?Â
One week prior to claims all artists will be sent a link to the fic summaries document, in order to start deciding which fic they would like to claim.
The first round of claims will start on August 7th. Claims will be run using a Google form. Artists will be asked to provide up to 3 selections in case their first choice has already been claimed, and all participants will have viewing access to the results spreadsheet to see the claims in real-time. The Mods will be going through the spreadsheet and highlighting the successful claim for each form submission, as well as marking the slide in the submission document as claimed. If all of your choices are already claimed, you will need to resubmit a form with new choices.
Each fic will be available to be claimed once in the first round of claims, which will end when all fics have been claimed.Â
The second round of claims are an optional round for artists who would like to make art for more than one work. Each work will be limited to 3 artists, and each artist will be limited to 3 claims. Remember, to earn medals, artists can challenge themselves to do multiple pieces of art per claim!Â
More information regarding claims will be available when the time approaches.
What is expected of participants?
As this is a collaboration, we also expect all writers to share their fics with their artists within 48 hours of the claims, and for both writers and artists to keep in touch with each other about their progress and plans. Creating something together is one of the best parts of fandom, and we want to make sure everyone has the time to create their best work.
We want this to be a fun and easy event for everyone, so we will expect all participants to reply to emails and check-ins about the event within a week. Failing to communicate is both extremely frustrating for the mods and wastes a lot of time sending follow-up emails.
Your merry band of mods are Captn-sara-holmes, Kangofu-cb and Flawedamythyst. Itâs better to contact us through the Bang Tumblr or email than on our personal accounts though.
Where can I find support?
So many places! In addition to the Tumblr, weâve set up a Discord for people to cheerlead each other and ask the mods questions, which can be found here. You can also email us at any time at [email protected].
What if I have a problem?Â
Email your friendly neighbourhood mod team at [email protected]. We will do our utmost to try and resolve any problems you have.Â
The mods should be your first port of call if there is an issue. We want this event to be as stress-free and fun for everyone involved and will endeavour to get any problems sorted ASAP.Â
See you at sign ups! đ đ¤Â â¤ď¸ď¸
If you have a question thatâs not answered in this post, please check here for more FAQs we have received in past Bang runs.Â
