SPN Reverse Bang: Frequently Asked Questions

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Where am I and what the heck is going on?

This is a reverse of the usual Big Bang challenge - each artist creates at least one piece of art and submits a draft, which is then posted anonymously and claimed by an author. Authors are then expected to write a short fic (minimum of 5,000 words) based on the art they chose.

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Overview | Schedule | For Artists | For Authors | Posting Guidelines | Crossovers and Misc. | Questions and Comments

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Overview: How does this work?

Artist and Author sign-ups open Monday, July 19th. Artists create a draft of a piece of artwork for any pairing or genre, so long as it includes at least one character or actor from Supernatural. Art drafts are due Monday, September 20th and will be posted anonymously, at which point authors can claim a piece. Authors will write a short fic (minimum of 5,000 words) based on the art they chose.

Artist and author reveals will be revealed on Monday, September 27th, and the posting schedule will be revealed on Friday, October 15th.

Posting of the final products will be on a staggered schedule, and will begin on Monday, October 25th.

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What is the schedule?

Monday, July 19th: Artist and Author sign-ups open
Friday, August 20th: Artist sign-ups close

Monday, September 20th: Artists drafts are due
Friday, September 24th: Art claims
Monday, Sept 27th: The Big Reveal

Monday, October 11th: Check in
Friday, October 15th: Posting Schedule goes up

Monday, October 25th: Posting begins

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I'm an artist, what do I do?

You would be expected to create at least one new piece of art: a drawing, digital manip, or fanvid. Art must be at least 400 by 600 pixels in size, videos must be at least one minute in length. You are welcome to create as many pieces of art for this challenge as you wish, but you must submit a draft of at least one piece by the deadline.

Please note: you cannot submit art or fic for this challenge that has already been posted elsewhere.

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 would prefer to accompany their story, as well as clarify whether the art is SPN or RPS.


How many pieces can I submit to the challenge?

Each artist can submit up to three prompts, and each prompt can consist of as many images as you'd like. e.g. You can submit a series of images or other art as a prompt for one story, or three images as three separate prompts for three separate stories. The important thing is to make it clear when you submit your drafts which pieces are for which prompts. We'll have a form in the submission post to make this easier. ;)


What about Betas?

We have a post asking for volunteers for Art Betas up here, although having your artwork looked over by a Beta is not required.

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I'm an author, what do I do?

You will be expected to write a fic with a minimum of 5,000 words, based on the prompt you choose in the Art Claims post on Friday, September 24th. Claims will be first come, first serve.

Please note: your fic must be related to the art for which it is written.

Do fics need to be beta read?

Yes, they do need to be beta read.

Where do I find a beta?

We have a beta-sign up post here where you can find people willing to beta your fic. We will not be assigning betas to people - it's up to you to find a beta.   spn_betas is another great resource to check if you cannot find a willing beta in our sign-up post.

If you are having trouble finding a beta, please let us know and we will try to help you as best we can.

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Great! Where do I sign up?

Artists sign up here
Author sign up here.

Fic Beta and Art Beta volunteers can sign up here.

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Posting Guidelines:

A preview of the art (no larger than 400x400px) should be posted to the community, along with a summary and links to the full version of the art and the accompanying fic. You can link back to your own LJ, DeviantArt, DW, IJ, etc. so long as your post remains unlocked.

We ask that you post with the following information included:

<b>Title:</b> <b>Artist:</b> <b>Author:</b> <b>Pairing(if applicable):</b> <b>Rating:</b> <b>Warnings/Spoilers:</b> Preview your art. Link to the art post. Link to the fic post.



What about crossovers?

Due to the way art claims are set up, it would be difficult to ensure that the author would be familiar with an additional source of canon. In the interest of keeping things simple (and not driving the mods to insanity, please) crossovers are not allowed in this challenge.

Anything else?

Membership to this community is moderated, so we ask that you only join if you want to participate in the challenge. If you're just interested in seeing the art and fic that comes out of the challenge, we recommend that you watch this community.

If you have tried to join this community but have not been added for some reason, please let us know!

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I have a question/concern/complaint!

Please leave a comment here, or email spn.rbang.mod@gmail.com. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Your friendly neighborhood mods are:

ksock, julia_sets, attempt_unique, and bauble

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Comments

[petite-madame.livejournal.com]

You are welcome to create as many pieces of art for this challenge as you wish

Stupid question #7767678 : If I draw for instance 2 or 3 drawings, do I have to draw them for the same prompt/fic or can I draw for instance one Spn illustration and one J2 illustration (that is to say for two different fics and then collaborate with 2 or more authors) ? I don't know if I am very clear. Sorry ^^;;

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Well hang on, because I might get even more confusing. ;)

The way that we see it right now, artists will be able to submit up to 3 different drafts, which will work as 3 different prompts. We want to make sure that artists don't bite off more than they can chew, but if they feel that they can create 3 quality pieces, then the more art, the better! In this way, you could submit a SPN and a J2 as two separate prompts.

Artists are only required to post a final draft of the prompt piece(s) that they submit on the posting date. However, if you get an author that you work very well, it's possible for you to work with them and their story ideas to create more art along that line. Again, we don't want people to take on more than they can handle, but the option is out there.

This is all very tentative. We're sort of flying by the seat of our pants here, and reserve the right to freak out and slightly alter rules as necessary ;)

[morganoconner.livejournal.com]

I'm just curious. Since it looks like there will be more authors than artists signing up, will multiple authors have a chance to claim the same piece of art? Or will it be first come, first serve, and once all the artwork is claimed, the authors who haven't had a chance to claim yet won't be able to participate?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

I believe we will allow multiple authors to claim the same piece of art. We'll probably tally up all the authors who signed up, divide it by the number of art pieces we received, and allow about that many claims per piece. Hopefully each piece of art will get about the same number of authors.

Long story short: if you're late to the claims as an author, there should still be stuff for you to write. :)

[bt-kady.livejournal.com]

I've signed up as an artist. Can I post my art early, or do I have to wait until posting date?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, you have to wait for the posting date to post your final work(s). We want our big reveals to be big!

[noctemus.livejournal.com]

Hi, I have three questions: When can one start sending in the drafts? I know they are due Monday September 20th, but if one have an img done can one send it in earlier? Third question - where do one send it? Is it to the above mentioned email @ gmail?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Wow, you are quick! We haven't discussed this yet, so I might be overruled by my fellow mods.

You will be sending the image to the gmail, but hold off for a bit as we will most likely be setting some guidelines in terms of quality and size, as drafts will be posted anonymously and therefore we will need to upload them all. We will post to the community when those guidelines are set. (Which should be by September 1st if not way earlier.)

[odysseaia.livejournal.com]

Hi! First of all - I *love* the idea of a reverse-BB! I signed up as an artist and now here's my question...is it possible to submit some sort of comic, but without any speech-bubbles, so the authors aren't restricted? For instance just a short comic-strip of three captures showing i.e. running feet, moving up to show the character and picture three in that row shows a monster for instance. So basically a comic that sets the scene but allows the authors to build their story around it? I'm not even sure if I definitely want to do this, but I'm toying with different ideas here :)

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

We're glad you like the idea... it seems to be getting pretty popular!

As to your art question, that sounds like an awesome idea! :D We really want artists to have a lot in the pieces for the authors to work off of, and this'd be awesome for that purpose, to give the piece a sense of movement and plot. For now we're also allowing artists to submit up to 3 different pieces, to be used by different authors, so if you can't decide between the comic idea and more traditional piece, you could try doing both! :)

[geckoholic]

Can I sign up as an author AND and as an artist? I was about to sign up as an artist anyway, and I'm thinking about doing so as an author, too. But if I have to settle for one of it, I'll give it some more thought first.

(To round it up, I'd also beta. *rofl*)

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

We're tentatively allowing people to sign up as both, though we'd prefer (for our own sanity) if they stuck with one or the other. So, you may sign up for both, but please let us know before claims if you think you won't be able to handle that much. Sound good? :)

You're a person of many talents! :D You should post on the Beta Sign-Up page so authors/artists can find you.

[chaosraven.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha, SO EXCITED. Man, I love reverse bangs!

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Yay! We're glad that people seem so excited about the challenge... should be a great time!

[leavemesmiling.livejournal.com]

This is probably a silly question I know, but I saw above that art must be at least 400 by 600 pixels in size. Now I don't believe this would actually count as an art piece but are Icons allowed to be made for authors to use when they post? (if they so choose to use them, of course)

Oh, and This probably doesn't count as art either I suppose but are soundtracks okay as well? I believe I saw you mention somewhere in the comments that you'd like artists to give as much as they can for authors to work off of. (not exactly in those words though but the jist? xD -at least from my understanding- lol)

♥ Cas

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

The prompt your author will be picking you on must be at least 400x600. Once the claims have been made you can make as many additional icons or soundtracks as you'd like. It is just the prompt they will claim that needs to meet the size requirements.

[anja25ive.livejournal.com]

I scanned through all the entries, but couldn't find any clarification.

What about titles on the arts? I tend to put them on my pictures just to show where they would be. Or should we let the picture blank?

I definitely will change my premade title after a story is done. I just would like to know. Thanks in advance. :)

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Do you mean incorporating text into a piece of art? You can use general phrases or quotes (like ) but you can't write the fic for them (like the banners used for this challenge). Let us know if you need further clarification. (http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/creativescreenname/castielheadercopywithtext.jpg)

[reveria.livejournal.com]

can I do both? submit art AND claim a piece to write a fic? I won't claim my own, promise ;)

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the delay in replying! Anyway, we're tentatively allowing people to sign up as both, though we'd prefer (for our own sanity) if they stuck with one or the other. So, you may sign up for both, but please let us know before claims if you think you won't be able to handle that much.

[lizibabes.livejournal.com]

were will the artist post's be for the authors to see and claim?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

The art prompts will be posted in a locked post in this community.

[moorishflower.livejournal.com]

I sent you an email about not being able to participate anymore...I was just wondering if you received it?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to hear that, but I hope you'll stick around to enjoy all the great and and fic that's on it's way! Thanks for letting us know.

[becc-j.livejournal.com]

hi, just wanted to clarify something - is it okay to send in completed art by the 20th Sep. or do you only want to see drafts? Also can I sign my work? Sorry just seem to recall something about postings being anonymous, of course now I can't find where i read that :D
Thanks for your time.

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

It's totally okay to send complete art by the 20th, we want to make sure we had at *least* a draft by the author claims and then give the artists a bit more time to work on their pieces before the posting started. If you're done already, that's awesome!

We're trying to do the author claims anonymously - each prompt will be identified by a number and no artist name will be attached until after the claims are complete. So we'd prefer if you didn't sign your work just yet. If you're concerned about us hosting your unsigned work, I can make a note to take your pieces down as soon as claiming is done. Would that work for you?

[raths-kitten.livejournal.com]

I have a question about claiming tomorrow. What about the fics that are listed in the RPS thread and the SPN ones, those with the 1000 numbers. Where do I claim them? In the RPS post or in the other two? They're listed on both, and the way I understood, we should claim in the respective art post and not in a new claim post tomorrow?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

You can claim them in either post - that's why they all have unique numbers, so even though they're listed twice, they can only be claimed once.

[little-jenny25.livejournal.com]

If the mods are online, please check the email account of the challenge...

[tabaqui]

I asked elsewhere, but i'll ask again here, just in case.....

A lot of the art has a detailed 'description' that goes something like 'Dean is shirtless, he just got out of the shower, and Sam is fresh from Hell and he's evil! and he and Dean are going to go have dinner and they get into a fight over who is going to eat the last piece of pie.....'

I was under the impression that the art itself was the prompt, not something that the artist decided to attach to the image? Please correct me if i'm wrong.....

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

The art itself is the prompt, the descriptions are meant to clarify or give potential authors an idea about what's going on in the prompt. Some artists have chosen to be more specific and some have left it very open ended. Just like the regular Big Bang challenges, we expect that levels of collaboration will vary among the author/artist pairs.

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

I'll make a note that you're away for Wincon ( :) have fun!) so when we make the schedule we can take that into account. You're definitely not the only one with this concern.

[bree-black.livejournal.com]

Hey there mods. Thanks for all your hard work; I'm excited to get started!

Just a quick question re: claims. Since we're all super excited, it's plausible that a bunch of us might unwittingly claim the same prompt in the first few moments after the post opening.

Would you prefer we do this, then make a new comment if we see our choice was taken OR list our top three(?) in our original comment and get whichever is free?

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

I'll change the instructions on the claims posts in a bit, but listing your top three choices sounds like it might be slightly less hectic for everyone.

[unatral-kreatur.livejournal.com]

Just wondering if you have any guidelines around affiliation. I'd ask about pimpage (advertising) but I can see that posts are mod!update oriented, so just wanted to know about if you have considered affiliating with other comms?

<3 Maxx

[bauble]

We have no hard and fast guidelines around affiliation other than that we (the mods) will decide on whether to affiliate with a given community on a case by case basis.

Did you have a particular community in mind?

[katsuyakaiba69.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks again for putting this together! I just have a quick question: After our posting date, are we allowed to cross-post our completed project to other communities?

[attempt-unique.livejournal.com]

Yes! Just not before.

[flawlessglitch.livejournal.com]

This isn't really a question but as my email is completely failing I need to leave it here instead:

This has been one of the greatest things I've gotten to be a part of on LJ. I've had so much fun and you can consider this comment me begging you guys to keep running them. Because I would love to do it all over again (and again, and again, and again...)

Thank y'all!

[spn-rbang-mod.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you so much! It is really nice to hear that you had a good time with this challenge :D

-Bauble

[smash86.livejournal.com]

Firstly I just wanted to say to all the mods...thanx so much for all your hard work...this has been my first proper challenge and I'll be back next year for sure!!

I have posted on my journal but I wasn't sure if/when I could post my fic to other comms??...I guess to be honest I was a little disappointed that I didn't get even 1 review but thems the breaks!!

*hugz* and well done!!...I hope you guys will be doing this again!

[deadflowers5.livejournal.com]

Hi,
I'd like to affiliates with your community!
http://community.livejournal.com/pre_post_spnbb

[boggiecat.livejournal.com]

hey
i've just found your site, and think it looks a great idea. i'm just getting into writing spn fic and looking for places to get inspiration from. i'm wondering, will there be another reverse big bang challenge, or what it a one off that finished last year?
i haven't tried to join the community, as if you won't be doing another challenge, there wouldn't seem much point

please would you let me know if another one will be coming along and, if so, ill apply to join the community.

many thanks

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Hey, is there gonna be a reverse bang for 2011? Just wondering, so I can leave room in my schedule, if need be! Looks like great fun. :D

[deadflowers5.livejournal.com]

It would be so great! *cross fingers*