The Terror Big Bang is a collaborative fanwork creation challenge involving fics of at least 15k words and accompanying artwork. Registered authors will create a new, previously unpublished fic featuring any Terror pairings and characters. Registered artists will then select one of these fics during a blind claims process and create at least one piece of art to accompany it. Following the creation period, each team will be assigned a day on which to post their collaboration.

GENERALPlease read the rules carefully. If anything is unclear, feel free to contact a mod for clarification!Participants must be 18 years of age or older.Works submitted for this challenge must be new and previously unpublished.Participants must meet all deadlines and complete all check-ins/submissions. If you don’t meet a deadline or check-in, we’ll take that as a drop-out. We have a 48-hour contact policy - if you have been unreachable and we attempt to contact you and we receive no response within 48 hours, as a courtesy to your assigned partner, we will have to take it as a dropout and assign a pinch hitter.After claims, any drop-outs or defaults will incur a penalty to the participant of being ineligible to participate in the following year’s Bang.
- A drop-out is regarded as ghosting, missing check-ins, or lack of communication under 48 hours for official deadlines.
- A default is regarded as failure to post fic or art by the submission deadline, failing to link to your team member, or submitting incomplete fic or art by the submission deadline without previously contacting a mod.All pairings and characters are permitted in this challenge. Hate and negativity, whether toward a ship, character, or participant, will not be tolerated.A penalty of being unable to participate in the following years Bang will also be incurred for bad faith behavior. In such instances you will be warned before receiving a penalty.Examples of bad faith behavior include:
- Consistently failing to respond to your partner
- Not notifying your partner or the mods if you remove a fic or art
- We believe that an individual is acting to harm the event, its mods or another participantThe mods genuinely want you to succeed and create some great fic and art for the fandom. If you have any concerns whether it be timings or unhappiness with the direction things are going we encourage you to please reach out to the mods as soon as possible so that we can work with you to find solutions. We genuinely hope not to enact any penalties, and communication with the mods will really help ensure that it is unnecessary.FOR AUTHORSAuthors will create a fic of at least 15,000 words. There is no maximum length.All fics must be new and unpublished.All fics should be complete and able to function as a stand-alone story.Authors must post their fic in its entirety on Ao3 on their assigned posting day.Authors cannot share, preview, or discuss the contents/specifics of their fics in public venues prior to claims. This is to ensure our claims are blind. Authors are welcome and encouraged to use a beta reader, but if they do so prior to claims, they must disclose the beta’s identity to the mods. We do permit post-claims previews.For those wishing to discuss and brainstorm their ideas: remember that we will have a locked channel in our challenge big bang server that will allow you to discuss your fic in detail. Just remember, what happens in the writers' chat stays in the writers' chat. Additionally, writers may have (a) beta reader(s) at any point in the challenge—we only ask that if your beta reader is also participating as an artist, you disclose their identity to the mods so that you will not be paired with themAuthor anonymity prior to claims is an important part of this challenge. We trust the discretion of the authors not to discuss their fic idea during the challenge period prior to claims. However, we do understand that complete anonymity is not always feasible (e.g. use of a prompt or a plot idea that was mentioned previously, rarepairs making anonymity more difficult, background research that necessitates asking specific questions of people outside the author’s group). These scenarios are all acceptable for this challenge.Embedding your partner’s art in your fic is optional—not all artists want their art embedded, and not all authors like embedding art. We encourage you to discuss this with your partner. Whether you choose to do so or not, you must provide a direct link to their work.FOR ARTISTSArtists will create at least one drawing/painting/etc. (digital or traditional) OR at least two edits/gif sets/etc. for the fic they claim. There is no limit on how many pieces of art you may create. If you have questions on what qualifies for this challenge, please contact a mod.All art must be new, unpublished, and created specifically for the artist’s claimed fic.Artists must post their piece(s) in full on the hosting site of their choice, publicly accessible via direct link.Artists cannot share their art in full prior to posting. We do permit post-claims previews.Artists are not required to allow authors to embed art in their fic. Conversely, authors are not required to embed your art, though they will provide a direct link to it; we encourage you to discuss your embedding preferences with your author.

Do I need a twitter or tumblr to participate?Nope! Authors are required to post on Ao3, but other than that, the only requirement is that you have an email address you check regularly, as all official communication will be handled that way. We do encourage you to keep an eye on our discord or one of our challenge pages, though!If I talked about a fic idea before, can I use it for the bang?Tentatively, yes. Ideas discussed more than a few months ago or in private are fair game. We will leave the use of more publicly discussed concepts to your discretion. We just ask that you not tell anyone (outside the writers' discord channels) what you are writing for the bang during the event period.Can I register as more than one role?Yes, you’re welcome to sign up as any combination of the listed roles. We only ask that those signing up as author and artist ensure they’re up to the challenge and can adhere to the deadlines. And for any artists signing up as beta readers, you will not be permitted to claim any fics you have beta’d.Can I drop out before claims?There are no penalties to authors dropping out prior to claims or artists signing up and neglecting to claim a fic. Though it would be helpful to let the mods know if you choose to do this for organisational purposes and emails.What is a pinch hitter?The pinch hitter role is there in case someone drops out. In the event that an artist or author is unable to finish in time, becomes uncommunicative, etc., we’ll reach out to those registered as pinch hitters to see if anyone would be willing to swoop in. Those signing up as pinch hitters should be confident in their ability to create art/fic quickly, as their schedule will likely be compressed.Are author collaborations allowed?Yes, you can collaborate with another person for your fic. The same rules apply as for one author. Please only fill out one sign-up form, but include both authors' information—the same goes for all follow-up forms and submissions, including check-ins and claims information. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact a mod.How will you be in contact with us?All official information—check-in forms, major updates, etc.—will be communicated via email. Updates and information will also be posted in our discord server, for those interested.I’ve never participated in one of these challenges before.No worries! We’d love to have you try it out. This challenge is open to any and all participants, and our mods are more than happy to help you along the way. Feel free to reach out with any questions!Who is running this challenge?Our mods this year are: @solomontoaster, @leofitzgender, and capsicle (on Discord).

SIGN-UPSSign-ups will last for one month each for authors, artists, and beta readers.Signing up does not commit you to completing the challenge and/or claiming a fic; you may drop out at any time by contacting one of the mods, but dropping out after claims is frowned upon. Please also be aware that, though we will make every effort to ensure all our fics are claimed, signing up does not guarantee you’ll be partnered.AUTHOR CHECK-INAuthors will fill out a brief google form updating the mods on their progress. This isn’t meant to be stressful, just to ensure you’re working on your draft (and to remind you of the impending deadline!)CLAIMSThe claims process is blind/anonymous, which means artists won’t know whose fic is whose. Their author will be revealed to them after they’ve claimed a fic. Our first round of claims will last for 48 hours and operate under an optimized pairing system; that means we will be doing our best to ensure as many artists are awarded their first choices as possible. In the event that multiple artists have prioritized the same fic, we will take form submission time into consideration.By July 4th, authors must confirm they’ve reached 60% completion of their fic and submit information about it to the mods. The fic information you provide will include a detailed summary, pairings and sidepairings, rating, current/planned wordcount, major archive warnings and trigger warnings, and any tropes or visual elements that may be of interest to your artist. For authors unfamiliar with preparing for claims, we’ve compiled a little crash course that can be found here.On July 5th, artists will receive a link to a private gallery displaying all available fics. They will have three days to peruse the gallery and decide which fics they are interested in claiming. Artists will also receive a link to the google form they will use to submit their claims when the day comes—this form will ask for the ID numbers of their top five choices. Artists aren’t required to list more than one fic, but the more fics you list, the greater your chances of matching.Claims open on July 7th. If all of an artist’s top five choices are taken, a mod will reach out and ask for their next five choices. On or before July 12th, a mod will send an introductory email with your partner’s identity and contact information.If there are any unclaimed fics, we will open a second round of claims. All registered artists are welcome to claim a second fic as long as they feel confident in their ability to finish the required art in time. This second round will be operating on a first-come-first-served basis.If there are any unclaimed fics after the second round of claims, the gallery may be made public.TEAM CHECK-INSOnly one member of each team needs to complete each check-in.The first check-in will confirm that team members have been in communication with each other and whether the author has shared their most up-to-date draft with the artist.The second check-in will ensure teams are on track for completion.POSTINGBy August 18th, authors (and artists, if they plan to post to Ao3) will post their work to Ao3 (please add the fic/art to our Ao3 collection—this collection is unrevealed, so your work will not show up publicly until the mods reveal it on your posting day), and artists will post their work to the hosting site of their choice (accessible only by direct link).Teams will be assigned a posting day sometime between the end of August and the beginning of September, depending on the number of teams. On the assigned posting day, mods will reveal the team’s fic (and art, if applicable) in the Ao3 collection, and artists may post their artwork publicly. Also on the assigned posting day, team members are encouraged to post and promote their work as they prefer. If do you do create a promotional post, we ask that you do the following so we can easily find it and reblog/retweet: On tumblr, tag @theterrorbigbang and use #theterrorbigbang. On twitter, tag @terrorbigbang.

OVERVIEWDuring the claims process, artists will choose fics they’re interested in creating for. They’ll do so based on a google sheet containing information about each fic: summary, main pairings, secondary pairings, wordcount, warnings, tags, and visual elements. This information will be provided by the authors on or before the July 4th deadline, and the sheet will be provided to artists on July 5th. Claims open on July 7th, and introductory emails will go out on or before July 12th.We will have a 48 hour window for claims, after which we will optimize pairing to ensure all parties are most satisfied with their choices. Claim timing will only factor in if multiple authors have the same priority order for the same fic, but generally fics will go to whoever has them highest on their priority list.FOR ARTISTSThe mods will email all registered artists the google sheet link along with the link to the google form they’ll use to submit their top five choices when claims open. Artists can submit as few as one choice should they prefer, but the more choices an artist provides, the greater their chances of being matched. Should we be unable to make a pairing for you, we will contact you before the second round of claims to ask for additional choices.If any fics remain unclaimed, we’ll open a second round of claims. This round will operate on a first-come-first-served basis. All registered artists are welcome to submit a second form should they wish to claim a second fic, as long as they feel confident they can complete the required artwork in time.FOR AUTHORSThe mods will email all registered artists a link to the google form for check-ins. In addition to confirming you’ve reached 60% completion, we’ll be asking for your summary, pairings & side-pairings, projected wordcount, archive & trigger warnings, tags, and visual elements. These will be what the artists will use to choose a fic, so the more accurate and complete this information is, the better.NOTE: Please limit each response to 300 words or under.Summary: There are a number of ways to approach the summary, but it’s important to remember that you’re trying to give the artists enough information about your fic that they’ll feel comfortable and knowledgeable enough to choose it. Vague, poetic summaries may be great for Ao3, but they can be too generic or mysterious to give the artists a concrete idea of your fic. However you decide to write it, your summary must give artists a detailed idea of what your fic is about. You can include spoilers or not, but in general, the more information an artist has, the more confident they’ll feel choosing your fic, and the easier they’ll be able to identify fics that are to their taste. That being said, we suggest you try to be as concise and to-the-point as possible. Must be 300 words or under.Pairings: You must include all pairings in your fic. Feel free to identify which pairings are implied, which are mentioned, etc., but there should be no surprises after claims.Projected Wordcount: It’s okay if you’re not sure—just give us your closest estimate. Some artists may prefer 10k over 50k, or vice versa.Warnings: Please be as thorough as possible. From Major Archive Warnings to trigger warnings to smaller warnings, you want to make sure your artist knows just what kind of content your fic will include. We suggest you provide anything that may squick or trigger—kinks, body horror, canon-typical violence, homophobia, etc. Feel free to give a little more information, such as which character dies or how exactly the tag appears in the story and how integral it is—is it mentioned in passing or a major element etc. You absolutely don’t want to avoid tagging something in case it scares away an artist; give as much clarification as you need, but you don’t want to trick an artist into choosing your story if it contains content they’re not comfortable with.Tags: Just like on Ao3, tags are another great way to give artists a feel for your fic. Include anything that you think helps convey its tone, content, or would help entice an artist! These can include genre, tropes, setting, etc.Visual Elements: Like the summary, you can approach this in a number of ways. Some artists prefer broader strokes: is it a modern fic set in a big city? a canon fic set on the ships? a post-canon fix-it in a small cottage in the country? Others may prefer some more specific information: you may want to list some noteworthy scenes or moments (like two characters sharing their first kiss up on the frosty deck under the stars), recurring props or objects, important locations, etc. In general, you want to be specific and evocative enough to tempt an artist, but don’t go overboard—this isn’t a list of prompts, just another way to give artists a feel for your story. Feel free to use some brief quotes from your fic or paraphrase! Must be 300 words or under.A small note: It’s important to remember that artists choose fics based on their personal and artistic taste. Not everyone likes NSFW content or MCD. One artist may love drawing the elaborate costumes required for your masquerade setting and another might be looking for something a little grittier. Also, challenges like this frequently see many more writer sign-ups than artists, and not matching with an artist immediately does not ever mean your fic is not good.

Author Sign-ups for the 2023 round will be opening soon!