Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your fanfic drafts folder. These are stories that were unfinished for whatever reason, that authors returned to and completed, and the art that goes with them!

It’s similar to the regular Big Bang, except it’s for artists to finish WIP artwork (either traditional art, digital art, fanvideos, fanmixes or filk) and get a fic in exchange of at least 1000 words.

You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang/reverse bang (we crosspost to Dreamwidth and Tumblr and heavily use our Discord server at the moment), but they are not required to participate. They are just another way to interact with your fellow writers and get updates on important dates You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

No, we only email participants when their WIP has been claimed for art/fic. Please keep this fact in mind when deciding whether you want to participate; it is your responsibility to keep track of the schedule and know when check-ins and other events in the Big Bang/Reverse Bang are taking place.

If you need a reminder about due dates, the FAQ/Schedule is pinned on top of the Tumblr and Dreamwidth blogs and we use the Discord to remind participants of important dates in the Announcements channel. The pinned post on Tumblr is updated as we add links to specific things for the Big Bang/Reverse Bang, and if you join the Discord you can choose to get pinged when we make announcements regarding the events. The Discord is open year-round to both participants and non-participants, and the permanent invite link can be found above under the schedule next to the Mod email.

Unfortunately, no. The collection that we use to collect works each round is not anonymous, and there are the bragging posts that you post on your posting day, which you would have your username on whichever platform you use, and you do have to post bragging rights to complete your participation in the event.

No one is sworn to secrecy once they’ve signed up (aside from posting new parts to fic that’s already up somewhere…we ask that you refrain from doing that until at least August 1st)! You can post snippets to your audience as you write them, and you can talk about the specifics of your WIP wherever you want. When art claims for WIPBB and fic claims for WIPRB come around, you can advertise for your fic or art project by using specific tags for the fandom/characters/ships for your project on Tumblr posts with the links to the claims lists and you can post the link to claims in Discord servers outside of our Discord server or wherever else you can advertise with the specific info for your project.

We also have a Discord server where you can chat with other current and former participants, and we occasionally run writing sprints, where you can add more to a fic in a certain amount of time. We also have a channel for being able vent in, where you can complain or ask for help or whatever else you feel like talking about when it comes to struggling with a fic. Once you sign up (either as someone trying to finish a WIP project or someone making art for WIPBB or writing a fic for WIPRB), you can use the link at the top of this page to join the Discord.

We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either WIPBB authors or WIPRB artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod via the mod email account at wipbigbang@gmail.com. This means that anyone who has signed up to post and picked a date for posting and has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends (January 1st of the following year) will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with, and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.

As of the 2026 round we have expunged the block list, so everyone who may have been banned before is allowed to try again. It will definitely be in effect for the 2027 round, however.

This is a WIP Big Bang; therefore, we ask you to have at least 500 words of your story drafted when you enter. You can have it written out and posted to a fic site of your choice or just have it stashed in a file in your computer, either option is fine as we’re not asking for proof at sign-up. We have also admitted work on an outline before so yes, if your outline is fleshed out enough to cover a 7,500 word+ fic, we’ll allow it.

We absolutely don’t mind multiple sign-ups. We encourage you to sign up for all the fics and art projects you plan on completing before May 21st and then dropping the ones you can’t complete prior to snippets submissions; I know one year someone submitted 50 fics to finish, and got at least half of them done. We just ask that when you sign up with more than one fic/art piece you give each fic/art piece a unique user ID (please do not use the same ID for all your fics/art pieces, it’s important to have different IDs for the check-ins).

Yes, we have no problem with you combining our event with other ones as long as you don’t post new parts before August 1st (or July 1st with mod approval, which we usually give).

Yes, you can switch them out as often as you desire all the way up until snippets are due. By then, we hope your WIPs are at least 80% completion since rough drafts are due not much later.

You do not need to tell the mods about the switch. You only need to let us know if you need to change a check-in ID you used. In that case, just drop an email to the mods at wipbigbang@gmail.com with the new information (title, fandom, etc.) as well as what your old check-in ID is and what you want your new check-in ID to be.

We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! You must drop out via sending an email to wipbigbang@gmail.com with your check-in ID, your WIP fandom and title if your project is still up for pinch-hitting, whatever posting date you’ve been assigned if you have one, and whether you are participating in WIPBB or WIPRB (so I know which spreadsheet you’re on). We would prefer you drop by before art/fic claims start if you initially planned to get art/fic for yoru WIP or by August 14th otherwise. Realstically, though, we take drop outs all the way to December 31st.

If you are dropping your project and you have been assigned an artist/author, it is your responsibility to inform your partner that you are dropping your project.

If you are a WIPBB artist, WIPRB author, or a pinch hitter and you just can’t complete your project by December 31st, let us know immediately and also inform your project partner as well, as that is your responsibility.

Yes. 7,500 words for each finished fic, but the sky’s the limit, right?

No. You can add as much or as little as you need to finish the story, but we do expect at least 1,000 or so new words if your WIP already meets the word count.

If your WIP is under 7,500 when you finish, you can drop out of the main Big Bang and, if you would like, post it during the Mini Bang in January/February. In this case, your WIP will not get art/fic.

It’s okay if you have posted a few chapters of your fic already (you never know when the muse deserts you, after all), we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. All we ask is that you not post any public updates to the fic until August 1st (or July 1st with the mod’s okay). We don’t want you to lose kudos and comments so don’t worry about pulling the fic down, just hold off on updates for now.

Yes, you can! As with individual fic sign-ups, your series must be at least 7,500 words total and be completed by the end of the event. If your series is currently at 7,000+ words, the new fic(s) you write must add 1,000+ words to the overall total word count. There is no word count minimum for the individual fics within the series if you’re signing up with a series.

Absolutely! When you sign up, just use one primary email address and pick one check-in ID to be used by both of you for the event. They will be used every time you fill out a form requiring them, and you will only fill out one form per fic/art. If you have to contact us via mod email you can use either authors’ emails as long as you include the check-in ID so I can look up your info by check-in ID.

We’re trusting if you co-author a fic together that you will talk to each other regularly, so we don’t need both/all authors’ emails, but if you want to give them to us I can make a note of it in the spreadsheet. That said, please do let us know you are co-authoring a fic so we can let your artist be aware they will be communicating with multiple authors instead of one when we get to that point; you can give an artist specific info when you both contact each other.

I think revising a fic for posting would work, as long as you have at least 500 words done, will have 7,500 words at a minimum when it’s done, and are planning to add more to the fic. Simply rewriting what you have would be a gray area, but if you’re going to take stuff out and add new scenes, either in the old scenes place or on its own, you should be fine.

We’ll allow an outline of what you want to create or a rough sketch if you have it for digital/traditional art, and at least 15 seconds of fanvideos or filk (fic songs) recorded, or an outline and notes. Fanmixes can be partially finished with either some of the music picked or some of the art made/a combination of the above.

Art must be fully drawn and at least shaded, if not fully colored. Filk and fanvideos must be at least one minute long and fully finished to the fanartist’s vision. Fanmixes must have a front and back cover and at least 8 songs picked out, and there must be an available playlist on Spotify, YouTube or for download.

Absolutely! We will try our best to accommodate you as long as they are discussed with the mods via wipbigbang@gmail.com. Extensions when it comes to submitting snippets is a little tricky, as there’s just about a week of turnaround time from when we stop accepting snippet submissions to when we put the first round of claims up; however, if you contact us via the mod email, we can accept your summary without having your snippets sent at the same time, and sometimes we can take the information after the snippets submission form has closed as well (though this is much rarer and must be done sooner rather than later).

We can definitely offer extensions when it comes to posting dates, and the entire month of December is available for emergency posting or posting if you missed your assigned date in September, October or November. Just let us know through the mod email if you need to change your date (you can also choose to post in December directly in the posting dates sign-up form).

There is no need to have extensions on our four check-ins, as they’re all optional.

Content-wise, no. Problematic fandoms are fine. RPS/RPF is fine. Incest and underage pairings are fine. Graphic violence is fine. Non-con/dubcon is fine. We’re pro-ship and just ask that things be tagged properly with any content warnings you would deem fit and be given the appropriate rating for the level of sex/violence there is in the fic.

That said, we absolutely do not allow AI generated writing or art for either bang; it will result in a permanent ban if you are caught using AI in any capacity.

It’s not something we discourage at all, but be forewarned when it comes to the art/fic claims, your artist/writer may not be able to incorporate the OCs into your art/fic. Not everyone makes art of a hand-drawn or digitally drawn nature, so it helps if you have people for face claims ahead of art submissions, and you and your artist communicate regularly. You can also end up with art not featuring the OCs at all, just the canon characters, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Your other options are to bring in an artist/writer you trust with your vision of your OC or to make your own art or fic (we do allow that, we just need to be told during the check-in before claims that you’re bringing in your own artist/writer if you go that route or that you’re doing your own, in which case there is no need to submit snippets or fill out the claims form), or to opt-out of art/fic claims entirely.

These are a way for us to see what you’ve been up to and for you to make sure you’re still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. Basically a form is posted that you fill out with your check-in ID (unique for each fic) and a checkbox to let us know you’re still participating, plus a section for any notes for the mods.

Ideally, with each check-in, you should be at least 25% closer to finishing. The end word count for fic only really matters in that the fic needs to be at least 7,500 words when done, so it’s more your progress towards finishing that should be measured, not so much the word count.

Nothing happens. Check-ins are optional.

For the WIP Big Bang, we require you to supply one to three snippets from your fic (preferably three), between 500 – 1,500 words each. The snippets will be sent to the artist privately after they have claimed your story.

WIP Reverse Bang snippets is the art (at whatever level of completion you are at) uploaded to an image hosting site/YouTube/an audio steaming site and you only need to upload one piece of it. We’ll link to the site in the claiming post that you use so art will be thumbnailed/snippets of video or audio will be used. If you’re submitting a fanmix, we ask for at least the back cover graphic with the song listing.

Snippets are meant to help the artist match your story for artwork the best way they possibly can. It’s helpful to choose scenes or parts of scenes that you feel best represent your fic, but don’t feel like they have to be perfect to be submitted. Along with the snippets, we will send your artist the basic fic info and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

Ideally, you and the artist will be communicating once you’re each sent each other’s contact information, and you’ll give your artist a chance to read all that you’ve written at that point. That’s what happens in most cases. If your fic gets picked by an artist and they don’t work with you, then the snippets you sent will be what the artwork will be based on. It’s a good idea to know that, while most of the time the artists work closely with the authors, there are a few exceptions to that.

Absolutely! Fic that has been written prior to entering WIPBB is always allowed for snippets.

You can submit snippets from either the new fics you wrote or the ones you already finished, and then you and your artist can decide whether you want art just for the new fics or the project as a whole.

Yes, if you want to go that route instead of uploading fic snippets directly to the form or linking directly to your art you may! We only ask you make the link public and viewable to all before you submit it for claims consideration. If you do not, we will give you until the end of Round 1 of claiming to fix the issue before your summary is removed and you will then not receive art for your WIPBB project or fic for your WIPRB project.

As snippets are 500 - 1,500 words each and there are one to three of them submitted per fic, the sheer amount of participants precludes us from posting them directly onto the claims form for space/organizing issues. Furthermore, some snippets submitted include explicit scenes and scenes of graphic violence, and we respect the fact that our participants may not want them posted publicly outside of where they’re posting their fic.

The claims are when anonymous summaries of the WIPs go up for artists/writers to choose from. Artist sign-ups and art claims are the same thing, as are author sign-ups and fic claims for WIPRB. Based on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, artists/writers may choose up to three potential WIPs, in case their first choice is unavailable. If there are more stories than artists, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with, and on until we have completed four full rounds (we have changed the process we use as of the 2026 round and no longer have a pinch-hitting period in order to streamline the schedule). Same goes for fic claims; we’ll do multiple claiming periods until all four rounds of claims are done. You are more than welcome to bring in an artist/fic author of your own (in which case, there is no need for a claims form, just let us know in advance), and we also encourage sharing the links to the summaries outside of Tumblr (which is the only platform we do advertising one right now for fic/art claims) to get more people potentially interested in claiming it.

Previously, we were able to guarantee art for every fic that signed up for one. However, as the event has expanded much more than we ever could have dreamed when we started, we can no longer guarantee every WIP will get a piece of art or fic. Mod Ragna will usually try and claim at least one project from every participant in the WIPBB for art, but that is not always feasible.

If a fic or piece of art up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some authors and artists may be uncomfortable working with underage artists or authors on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

No, absolutely not! If you don’t want art at all or want to make your own art, all you hae to do is ignore the snippet submission portion of the event.

There is no strict minimum, but we do ask artists to remember that the authors are writing a minimum of 7,500 words and your artwork should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including banners, wallpapers, icons, mixes, vids, gif sets, picspams, moodboards, etc. Suggested guidelines for art are 500x500px (or equivalent of smaller pieces like banner + spacers, cover + icons, etc.) for traditional art, digital art, and manips; 2 minutes for vids; 8 songs + cover art for mixes; and 6 images for gif sets and picspams. Since moodboards are usually less labor intensive than hand-drawn/digital art and other stuff we allow like gifsets and filk, there should be two moodboards of at least nine images or three moodboards of six images for each fic you claim.

We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. a wallpaper, book cover, etc.). The art is your work, but having ideas doesn’t hurt!

Yes, you may put your art up for art claims even if you have art previously made, as there’s a good chance new art will be including the newer stuff you’ve written.

Respectfully, if you plan on making your own art we ask that you do not put your fic up for art claims, in fairness to people who are unable to make their own art and are up for art claims. Each fic gets one artist, and if you make your own art and request art from someone else, that would mean you have two artists, which is unfair to the other participants.

If your fic is not in English and you are not offering an English translation as well, please contact the mods via the mod email so Mod Ragna can make a cover and maybe a graphic/chapter covers while working with you on pictures of characters and English translations of snippets (you would just email the translated snippets directly to her and wouldn’t submit snippets for art).

If you are including an English translation, submit snippets in English for art claims, and feel free to post both the English and non-English fics to the AO3 collection as well as provide a link to both in the Tumblr/Dreamwidth bragging rights.

Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email the mods at wipbigbang@gmail.com and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

For the rough drafts, stories or art should be at least 75% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

Posting claims are when you choose which day the link to your WIP and bragging rights are posted. Posting will be tiered; you’ll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together, and we have a range of dates from September 8th to November 30th with five stories and art projects posting a day between both WIPBB and WIPRB participants. The post with date claims will go up on August 23rd, and you’ll have to choose your date by September 1st.

Posting of chapters on AO3 or your own blog (or wherever you usually post) generally starts August 1st, but if you have a long story, update schedule, etc., you can post as early as July 1st with mod approval.

Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever else you like as long as it’s publicly accessible. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting. Please do not add your project to the WIPBB/WIPRB AO3 collection until the project posting is completely finished!

If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

As long as you have your fic completely posted by your posting date (by which we mean the last chapter is posted), you can start posting as early as August 1st. If you have an long fic or posting schedule, you can send us an email (wipbigbang@gmail.com) for approval to start posting as early as July 1st. Mostly, what we want is the fic to be completely up on the website of your choice by your posting date, and I know some people don’t want to overwhelm their readers. So we want to work with writers to give them ample time to post the story up to their posting date.

Art for WIPBB and fics for WIPRB will be due on the chosen posting date as well so be sure to communciate with your artist/writer before you claim a posting date.

Yes, you are allowed to archive lock your WIPBB/WIPRB projects.

If you are wanting to change your posting date to a non-emergency date (before December), then check to see which dates still have dates have openings for postings and email us at wipbigbang@gmail.com to make the change.

If for some reason you miss your posting date, you have the month of emergency dates (from December 1st to December 31st) to post to the community. So hopefully there should be plenty of time to get a longfic up and posted to the website of your choice and our BB.

You’ll be posting what we call Bragging Rights. It’s a small form or list of questions that you fill out and post to the community (Tumblr or Dreamwidth) with a link to your fic. On your claimed posting date, you will make a post to Tumblr or Dreamwidth using the Bragging Rights form. If you are posting your Bragging Rights to Tumblr, you can submit the Tumblr post to our blog before your posting date, or post to your own Tumblr and tag the WIP Big Bang blog by adding wipbigbang in the body of the post. Either way works for us. If you are posting to Dreamwidth, the post will be queued until you chosen posting date.

We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date. Once your Bragging Rights have been posted, you will take the link to that post and submit it into the final check-in form to signify you finished your project before posting ends at midnight PST on January 1st.

Yes, Bragging Rights are mandatory for WIPBB authors and WIPRB artists, who had agreed in the posting dates claim to post their fic/art by December 31st. The Bragging Rights posted to Tumblr or Dreamwidth are how we know you completed your fic/art, and that’s why the link is supposed to be to your Bragging Rights, not just the fic art. If you do not submit a link to your Bragging Rights, you will be banned from being a WIPBB author/WIPRB artist for one round.

Bragging Rights are not mandatory for WIPBB artists and WIPRB authors, as they did not sign the agreement to post by December 31st. We love having them, post Bragging Rights but as they did not sign the agreement when posting dates were chosen, they are not required to post them and don’t have to post anything to the final check-in form.

If for some reason you can’t post your Bragging Rights to Tumblr or Dreamwidth, you can email them to the mod email at wipbigbang@gmail.com and we will post them on your behalf to both Tumblr and Dreamwidth and send you the links.