What Actually Is Big Bang And How Does It Work?
So what is it?
A Big Bang is a fandom event that involves the collaboration between authors, artists, and betas. Typically, each work has 1 author who writes a fic, an artist who creates a corresponding piece of art for that fic, and a beta who will help edit the fic. Authors will provide a summary of their work, and artists and betas will pick an author to work with based on that summary. After this, everyone works together to create a fic with accompanying artwork. The idea is to create more fanworks, as well as build connections and collaborations with people you wouldn’t normally.
What is produced:
For authors, there is a minimum word count to hit for their fic. The first ever Big Bang had a minimum word count of 50,000, but minimums today range anywhere from 3,000 to over 100,000 words. Don’t worry, this bang will be on the smaller end of that range, although we haven’t set an official minimum word count yet. There is no maximum word count. Artists produce a piece of art to accompany the fic that they have chosen. However, the piece of art does not have to be drawn fan art (although that is welcome). Art can be anything from moodboards to animatics to music. Basically, so long as it’s not written word, it’s welcome as art! Betas will mainly assist as editors for the fic, but they can also help artists if they need it. Betas really help bring together the team, and make sure the finished product is as polished as possible, and something everyone will be proud of.
How does this work?
After the interest check, sign ups will open. There, you will be able to sign up as a writer, artist, beta or pinch hitter (I’ll explain what those are later). You can also sign up for multiple roles, as long as you’ll be able to handle it. Typically, author sign ups close first, because that role needs to provide summaries for the artists and betas. After writer sign-ups close, the writers will be asked to provide a summary of their planned works. These will be then shown to the artists and betas, anonymously. The artists and betas will be able to select the stories they would like to work with the most. It's a sort of complicated process but essentially artists and betas will get to pick the fics they want to work on without knowing who the writer is. After the selection, the teams will get in contact with each other, and will begin working together to produce their final products. Throughout this entire process, there will be check-ins for all of the members. The main purpose of these check-ins is to ensure that everything is going smoothly, and to offer help if it’s needed. The goal to make sure that everyone has fun and is able to create something. If at some point someone needs to drop out for any reason, that’s where the pinch hitters come in. Pinch hitters are artists, and betas who are willing to step in and take over for someone who dropped out. This whole process lasts months (exact timeline to be announced), with lots of check-ins and support throughout the whole thing. I am very excited to do this, and can’t wait to get started!
