c_im_bigbang | BB 2018 - Guidelines for Writers

Guidelines for Writers

Remember to read through our General Event Policies and Big Bang Guidelines for All Participants, as well as the writer's guidelines outlined below.

Completed stories must be a minimum of 25,000 words. There is no upper limit, but fic can’t be a work-in-progress at the time of posting.

Your fic must be an self-contained story written specifically and exclusively for the Cap-IronMan Big Bang and can't therefore be a sequel to an existing fic or a part of an existing WIP that has been posted online. If you have an unposted WIP that has not been shared (in full or in part) anywhere and that you think would be perfect for this Big Bang, then it's eligible as a Big Bang entry.

You can sign up alone or as part of an author team (minimum word count remains the same).

To enter the 2018 Big Bang, you must submit a draft of at least 20,000 words prior to sign-ups closing on September 26th.

Submitted drafts must be mostly complete by the sign-up date, including an outlined ending and expected wordcount, so that your artist has a clear idea after claiming of where you’re taking the story in the following few weeks.

Fics need to be complete by the beginning of November and ready for posting by your team’s posting date.

Even if you finish early, do not post your story or any portion of it anywhere before the posting date. Doing so will disqualify you from the Bang.

There is no penalty-free dropping out after your summary has been claimed by an artist. When you send in a draft be sure that you’ll be able to finish in time to post.

To participate, authors are required to have an Ao3 account and will be responsible for posting their own fics to our Ao3 collection upon their posting date. If you don’t have an account, you can request one here. If for any reason you do not receive an invitation through the queue and it’s already close to your posting date, please contact us and we will try and provide you with an invite code.

Detailed posting instructions will be e-mailed closer to the deadline.

If you don’t have an idea for a story to work on yet, you might want to check out our prompt post and browse the ideas that people would like to see in fic.

Because writing a long fic can be daunting business, we invite you to make use of our Creator's Workshop posts!

As you're working on your story, please keep in mind that summaries are posted anonymously during claims (see the Claiming Process section) and we urge you to be tactful during the pre-claim period.

Draft Requirements and Submissions

To officially enter the 2018 Big Bang, you must submit a draft. Submitted drafts must be mostly complete by the sign up date, including an outlined ending, so that your artist has a clear idea after claiming of where you're taking the story in the next weeks. When you send in a draft we need you to be sure that you will be able to finish and post your story at a posting date in November, because from this point on you are collaborating with someone. As a rough guideline you should have about 80% of your drafted story written by then, but the important thing is that you feel confident you can finish the story in time.

Drafts need to be at least 20k of the required 25k word count. Drafts of less than 20k will not be accepted. It is okay if you have skeleton scenes or bits that still exist in outline form or are not more than a sentence in your outline that is nothing but a placeholder for a scene yet, but the majority of your draft needs to be prose. Remember, your artist will read and work from your draft, along with your input and needs something to go on.

Drafts are due on September 26th. You can send in a draft at any time from now until submission closes.

Because this is a collaborative event, there is no penalty-free dropping out after your fic has been claimed. You sign up to finish the story. If you run into trouble let us know as soon as possible. We'll see what we can do. If you need to drop out, you must do so before September 29 (the claiming date); dropping out after your work has been claimed will be considered defaulting on the challenge and will result in a ban.

The draft does not have to be beta read at this stage. We only expect a rough draft that you are still working on. We do encourage authors to have their stories beta read before posting though, so it might be a good time to check out our list of active beta readers.

You do not need a title at this time. Titles won't be used in the claiming process.

To submit your draft, email us at cap.im.events@gmail.com and write "BB 2018 ROUGH DRAFT" and the username you want to sign up with into the subject line. Don't forget to attach your draft file. We prefer .ODT, .DOC, .DOCX, .GDOC and .RTF format, but we can handle just about anything. Please also name your draft file to include your username.

In the body of your e-mail, include the following information:

Please keep the length of your summary to 200 words or less. It can be as detailed or spoilery as you like. Be honest and straightforward; artist claims will be based entirely on summaries. If you're unsure how to write a good summary for the matching, we have a How to Write A Big Bang Summary Guide.

Make sure to be clear and thorough about trigger warnings so that artists will know what they are signing up for. You must put any and all warnings in this version of your summary, even if you choose to use an "author chooses not to warn" label later. We don't want anyone to be unhappy with the match, so please warn for common triggers like noncon, dubcon, excessive or graphic violence, underage sex, incest, character death, or anything else that might be potentially problematic for a reader.

Claiming Process

After you submit your draft and it's been approved by the mods, it will be available for claims on September 29th. Claims are done anonymously. Artists will be claiming stories based solely on the summary and details you provide for your fic. Out of fairness to all participant and stories, please don't advertise which story you wrote.

We don’t allow pre-formed teams, and we expect all participants to be open to working with new people. We also can’t guarantee that a particular author and artist be paired together as there will be a random element to the claiming process.

If claims go quickly, a second round of claims will be opened to give more artists a chance to participate. This means that your BB story will potentially be 'double claimed' — claimed by two artists — and you'll be coordinating with two partners/teams. If you'd like to opt out of having your work double claimed, please let the mods know when you submit your draft.

Creation Period and Posting

Once your work has been claimed and you've been teamed up with an artist, all that's left is to finish your BB fic! The posting period begins in November and mods will send out an email to all participants when the posting period starts.

For long term accessibility reasons, we require the finished fic to be hosted in our event collection on AO3 when posting dates come in November. If you need to make an Ao3 account, please request an invite here and keep in mind that it might take a few days for you to get it and be able to create the account.

FAQ

What kind of fics do qualify?

This challenge is run by the

cap_ironman community and this is a Steve/Tony fest, so we’re looking for fics with a focus on the relationship between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark in any context and in any setting or continuity you can think of.

In pre-slash fics, secondary pairings should be kept to the background and the focus should be clearly on Steve and Tony and their interactions, relationship, friendship, etc.

If there is romance, then the focus should be clearly on the Steve/Tony relationship. Relationships that feature a character who is neither Steve or Tony are not allowed to be the main focus of your work. For example, Steve/Tony/Tony is allowed to be the main dynamic in your work, but secondary pairings, a relationship that features Steve or Tony, or Steve/Tony/other character are not allowed. If other pairings are included, they should also be in the background.

Other Steve- and/or Tony-pairings can all feature in the background or during the set-up of the story, but should not be the focus of the story’s main plot. The Steve/Tony content and the Steve/Tony pairing/pre-slash/gen relationship should be the main point of your story and the “endgame” relationship.

What does "endgame" mean?

Does it mean they have to be together at the end? Not exactly. If Steve and Tony's relationship is the only dynamic explored in your Big Bang story, then they do not have to be "together" at the end of your work. However, if your fic features multiple relationships, then the endgame or "goal" of your story should be exclusively Steve/Tony.

For example, the following type of story would not be allowed in the Cap-IronMan Big Bang:
A story where the first 90% is Steve/Tony and their breaking up, only for them to end up with other characters as their true loves.
A story where the main relationship at the end is Steve/Tony/other character.

The following types of story would be allowed in the Cap-IronMan Big Bang:
A story where 100% of the story concerns Steve/Tony and their breaking up and subsequent unhappy ending.
A story that ends with Steve or Tony dying, and the other is left to pine and grieve for his one true love and regret missed chances.
A love triangle where Steve and Tony finally realize they are the only ones for each other and the romantic trouble gets resolved as Steve/Tony, with Steve and Tony's relationship at the forefront of the fic.

If you have any questions, they may already be answered in our General Event Policies page. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact the BB mods at cap.im.events@gmail.com!