spn_reversebang | Rules and FAQ for 2014

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Rules and FAQ for 2014

Challenge Overview:

This is a reverse of the usual Bang challenge. Each artist wishing to participate creates at least one piece of art featuring characters from Supernatural or SPN RPF (excluding the real-life children of the actors) that will be posted anonymously to be claimed by an author.

Authors are then expected to write a short fic (minimum of 3,000 words) based on the art they chose.

We expect authors and artists to leave their spn_reversebang stories and artwork accessible and unlocked for at least six months after posting. We also strongly encourage that if you plan to delete or lock your journal after posting, that you consider archiving your work at an additional site such as AO3 or imgur.

You must have a Livejournal account to participate in this challenge, and all participants should join the community to assure that they don't miss important deadlines or updates to the challenge. Some posts (like the art previews) will be members-locked.

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Schedule:

Monday, September 1: Sign-Ups Open
Sunday, October 19: Artist Sign-Ups Close

Monday, October 20: Early Bird Art Submissions Due
Monday, October 27: Art Submissions Due

Thursday, October 30: Art posts go up
Friday, October 31: Writer sign-ups close
Sunday, November 2: Claims Open 10 am EST

Tuesday, November 4: The Big Reveal
Friday, November 7: Posting Schedule Announced

Thursday, November 20-27: Author Check-in (MANDATORY)
Sunday, December 7: Writer Rough Drafts Due

Monday, January 5: Posting Begins

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Rules for Artists:

By the rules of this challenge, each submission should be one (1) piece of new art, and it should be completed. Completed meaning, that it is fit to be a stand-alone piece. (You may still add and make changes to your work after claims, but an author should be able to use it as a prompt as-is).

Your art may NOT have been posted anywhere else previous to this challenge.

Minimum requirements: 400x600 px for 2-dimensional art, or 30 seconds for a vid. There is no maximum, but keep in mind your file sizes so uploading isn't difficult.

Artists may submit up to two (2) separate pieces of art for this challenge, only if they make the Early Bird deadline with the first of them. They may submit only one (1) piece if they miss the Early Bird deadline.

The Early Bird deadline this year will be Tuesday, October 20th. All other art will be due Tuesday, October 27th.

This challenge is open to all pairings and genres, so long as it includes at least one character or actor from Supernatural. Artists may choose to specify what pairings (if any) they envision in the story, maximum rating, squicks, and a short text description of their piece (optional). Please note: the description is not meant to be a story prompt or request!

A complete submissions guide can be found here.

Because of the wonderful wealth of writers we have in the SPN fandom, artists are not allowed to also sign-up as authors. The only exception to this is pinch-hitting, for which everyone can sign up--please visit

spnrbb_pinchhit for details--as long as they are on-schedule with their initial prompt(s).

Also, please don't repost the art to tumblr, DeviantArt, etc. until after it has been united with its fic and officially posted to the comm as a finished product. After that, post all over the place!

Artist signups here

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Rules for the Authors:

Authors must write a fic with a minimum of 3,000 words, based on the art they chose during the Art Claims. Claims will be first come, first serve. Your fic must be related to the art for which it is written, and it cannot have been already posted elsewhere.

Rough drafts will be due Monday, December 7th. They are expected to be at least 2,000 words long, and should include an outline of uncompleted sections. We will be checking, so no fudging.

Also, a certain level of communication with your artist is expected. If you do not meet your deadlines or fail to communicate with your artist, you may receive one or more warnings, after which a pinch-hitter will be assigned.

The fics must be beta read, and we have a post for Fic Beta volunteers available for authors to contact directly. There is also a non-affiliated LJ community at

spn_betas where you can seek a beta reader.

Currently, authors are not allowed to also sign-up as artists, and vice versa. The only exception to this is pinch-hitting, for which everyone can sign up (please visit

spnrbb_pinchhit for details), provided that they are on schedule with their initial prompt(s).

And lastly, authors may NOT alter the art prompt without the artist's permission and approval.

Author signups here.

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Betas:

Beta signups here.

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The Claims Process:

Art claims will officially begin on Monday, November 2nd, although the post will be up a couple of days beforehand so that writers may take a look at all the art before the actual claiming starts. The art posts will contain thumbnail previews of all the art (the thumbnails will link to the full size version of the art), accompanied by an optional text description of the subject, maximum rating, etc.. All art will be posted anonymously, and claims will be first come, first serve.

During the first round of claims every writer is allowed to make just one claim, and claiming of a prompt by multiple writers will NOT be allowed.

The specific time of claims will be announced at least a week in advance so everyone will be able to make plans to be there.

Claiming via proxy will be allowed again this year. The details on how to do that will be provided when the art preview post goes up.

The Art Post(s) will be members-locked, so please be sure to join and watch the community in order to participate.

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What about crossovers?

This year, crossovers are not allowed. In the past, there has been considerable difficulty finding authors and pinch-hitters for those pieces. This is a SPN and SPN-RPF focused event, so art should focus on the characters or actors from Supernatural.

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Contact:

If you have any questions, please comment here, send an email to spnreversemod@gmail.com or send a PM to

spnreversemod.

The mods for this round are

amber1960,

lightthesparks,

quickreaver and

sophiap (We do ask that you not contact them directly with questions about the challenge).

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yay! I am so glad this is running again. Thank you all, mods.

Thank YOU! We're excited. :D

Oh yay! How exciting. Last year was my first time doing this challenge and it was so. much. fun! Roll on September 1st. :)

Does the "no crossovers" rule mean that we can't do a fusion, where the SPN RPF characters would be put into the situation of another universe, but no prior knowledge of the fusion universe would be needed to write a story? Sort of a "this prompt was inspired by X but it's not a crossover since none of the X universe's characters will appear"?

Do you mean as an author or artist? All I can vouch for (quickreaver, here) is that crossovers are horribly hard to find authors for, not to mention pinch-hitters, should the author bounce. That's why we nixxed the crossover idea this year. Even though the alternate universe characters might not be appearing, would it be vital to understand the other universe's setting? If you're talking the SPN actors in just a generic fantasy setting, that would be fine. But if you're talking the SPN actors interacting with the universe of Battlestar Galatica, for instance, that would probably be just as tough. Could you give us a little more of an idea what you're planning? :)

I'm sorry, I meant as an artist. I wanted to put SPN actors and their families in a "Flowers in the Attic"-like situation, with that basic story. Like, you'd recognize the prompt as being from that book, but many liberties would be taken to AU our gang into that story (like when someone writes Jensen as a gang boss and Jared as a bartender, it would be similar to that, just with the FITA storyline).

Well, we don't want to shoe-horn a writer into retelling FitA for you; that would still require them to be very familiar with the original novels (or movie.) But if your image could impart the notion of the actors being held captive in an attic, and in a couple very brief sentences you could say something like "Jensen, along with Jared, is held captive by his creepy stepmom," or something to that effect for the 'short description of the art' (when it comes time to turn it in to us), that would be okay. But I don't think it would be fair to ask your author to follow FitA's plot. Once an author claims your image, you two can talk about details and plan whatever you'd like. At that point you can tell them you were inspired by FitA and together, you can hash it all out. Your author may need a little more freedom, though, or have been inspired in a different, but equally awesome, direction.

Does that make sense? We just want to give you the widest opportunity to get claimed and end up with a fic! :)

(PS...

spn_cinema next year might be an awesome alternative, if your concept doesn't work out for the RBB!)

I wasn't planning on forcing the writer to write a story with the exact same plot points as FitA, just wanted to use it as a jumping off point. And ask that there be sex. ;)

I'd love to write my own version for

spn_cinema, but the writing time period they allow is always way too short for me. I'd pretty much have to write the story ahead of time if I was to take part.

Sounds good! (I remember reading FitA in...high school, I think? Jr. high, maybe? I've forgotten most of it by now...) As long as you're flexible, I don't think there should be a problem! :D

So excited that this is happening again this year.

Us too!

Yay, it's back! I did it last year as a writer, this time I wanna draw something! Thanks for doing this again, mods!

Yay!! I'm so psyched to do this again - last year was my first time and it was awesome. Plus, this year my thesis should be out of the way, so I'll have more time to write! Thanks so much to the mods for organizing this!

So excited for this to start! :D

I'm really excited to participate again this year! I hope I can get some of my artist friends to join in too :D

My first and second RBB, I hadn't be able to contact my artist. The artist was just dissapeared and it makes me sad because i was very excited. Yes, somehow i claimed the same artist two years in a row.

That's why this year, my third RBB I've decided to submit art instead. Since writers must communicate with their artist or they'll be dropped, then I hope I won't be abandoned.

But I'm not loosing hope. I still want to sign up as an author also if the mods allow.

What's a pinch hitter as it pertains to this event? How does that work? If it's what I think it is, I'd like to add my name to the list.
I'm a fairly experienced writer, although for the SPN fandom I've only written a few pieces, all one shots. I have, however, written
more than a million words for another fandom. If pinch hitting means you pick up a story that's not completed or write to a prompt
or pic that's unclaimed, I'd feel comfortable doing that. Thanks... Lisa

Edited 2014-09-02 02:15 (UTC)

Pinch hitting in this challenge means that if an author for some reason drops out, disappears or doesn't check in on the necessary deadlines, that art prompt is put up for grabs by a pinch hitter that then writes the story for that prompt, so, pretty much what you thought it was.

There will be a separate sign up post for pinch hitters soon, so keep an eye out for that! :D

Hi there,

Please forgive me if this is a novice question. I see the rules regarding the claiming process. I see the bit about art being posted in thumbnail view with a larger view available via link, and some information regarding the art, etc. I also see the rule about only claiming one piece of art in round one.

I guess I'm just not exactly clear on how the actual claiming itself works - the actual "where do I click or write down what I want to claim" technical bit of it.

Is there only going to be one chance to claim each piece, so that once I click a box or a thumbnail, no other person can click on it after I claimed it? Or is there something else, like we are supposed to just leave a comment and the first person to claim it via comments wins that art?

Just making sure I'm as prepared as I can be for what's coming up next week. I'm getting really excited!!! Can't wait to see all the art!

Thanks for your help. Appreciate it. :)

No worries! It is a little confusing at first.

In two-ish days, we will post a preview of all the art submitted for the event, so you can write down the identification numbers of the pieces you like. On Claims Day, November 2nd (10:00 am EST), we will open a separate post where potential authors will respond with their top five (5) selections. It goes VERY fast. (And it's very exciting!) Hopefully, you will get one of your top five selections. If you don't happen to get one of your top five, you must make another comment with your next five options. A mod will respond to your comment and let you know which piece of art you won!

Closer to Claims Day, we will put up 'how-to' posts.

Hopefully this helps! If not, ping us again. :)

That's exactly what I needed! I thought that might be how it works. Thanks so much for the quick response! Really looking forward to next week!

Oops I did just think of one more question:

I think you've mentioned that you had more writers sign up than you have artists. So...it makes sense to me then that if a writer doesn't claim a piece of art in time, and there is no art left to claim but you have leftover writers, then those writers without art can't participate in this year's Reverse Bang. Is that the way it works?

Also...how long after writers submit their top five art choices do you anticipate that we might receive a yes or no response on our choices? Is it fairly immediate, or does it take some time to process? I figure if there are a lot of writers and you guys have to sort through all those choices, it might take some time, but I also want to be ready with the next five choices pretty fast if we get an answer back right away. :)

Thanks a lot for your help answering my questions. I appreciate it! :)

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Rules and FAQ for 2014

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Claiming Process Question

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