Ladies' Big Bang Rules & Guidelines for Creators

[ladiesbigbangmod]

A few things to know about these rules & guidelines:

• Our mod team is very small this year (two of us), and our realms of experience are primarily in picspamming, icon & graphic making, meta, poetry and fiction writing. Especially for the categories in which we don't have expertise, we appreciate any and all clarifying questions, and we are open to all suggestions (though we can't guarantee being able to implement all of them). We are also always looking for volunteers or co-mods, so if you'd like to add you knowledge to our team, we'd love to have you :)
• If you have any questions or comments, of course feel free to comment here or contact us at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com. As a note, all threads on the previous rules post have been screened since most of the discussion was based on old rules that have since been changed.

Ladies' Big Bang Rules & Guidelines for Creators

General:

challenge overview
things we accept at this challenge
things we don't accept at this challenge
participating without signing up
how the panfanwork aspect of this challenge works
complement eligibility
dropping out/extension requests
what counts as a female-centric fanwork
where/how to post your work
content notes
accessibility

By category:

[[ sequential art | 2D art | 3D art | crafts ]]
[[ graphics | icons | picspams | screencaps ]]
[[ recs | resource lists | meta | reviews | primers/promos ]]
[[ poetry | script/screenplay | fiction | audiofic ]]
[[ fanmixes | singing | vids ]]
[[ multicategory | other category ]]
[[ original creation ]]


Challenge overview:

Ladies' Big Bang is a female-centric multimedia big bang challenge that welcomes all types of creators, including but not limited to: artists (3D, 2D and sequential), crafters, graphics creators, iconners, picspammers, screencappers, reccers, resource list creators, primer/promo creators, reviewers, meta writers, poets, script/screenplay writers, fiction writers, audioficcers, fanmixers, singers, and vidders. We also welcome original work in all of the above categories.

In other words, ALL types of creators can sign up to create a big bang entry, not just fiction writers.

For the purposes of this challenge a woman is someone who self-identifies as a woman/as female or someone for whom femaleness/womanness is a component of their identity. This of course includes characters who are trans, intersex or genderqueer. Agender characters whose bodies are perceived as female are also welcome.


Things that we accept at this challenge:

• Signing up with OpenID: You can sign up using OpenID, and you're welcome to post your submissions anywhere on the internet as long as your entry is somewhere publically accessible. Access/friends-locked entries will not be accepted. If you would like a Dreamwidth account, check out dw_codesharing or you can e-mail us at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com and we can send you one.


• Signing up for more than one thing: you may sign up to create, beta, cheerleader and complement in any combination.


• Co-creating: the way to do this will be that one person comments with the sign-up and then any other members of the team comment to the sign-up verifying their participation.


• Turning in more than one big bang entry: You may submit up to two big bang entries, however, you may only sign up for one; the second one you create on your own. Your second big bang will not be eligible for complements (unless we are able to match all other creators with complementers) or other support structure of the challenge. Maximum two entries total. Co-creating is the exception to the sign-up rule; if you are co-creating, you may sign up to co-create as well as sign up for your own individual submission. Two sign-ups max per person, either 1 individual submission + 1 co-created submission or 2 co-creations.


• Expanding a WIP: You are welcome to expand/finish unposted WIPs. We're also not that strict about when you begin creating; you may begin creating before we officially "start."


• Fanwork in any language: Where applicable submissions may be in any language. As long as we can verify that you've met your minimum requirement that's all we need.


• Fanwork about real people: RPF (for this challenge, we use it to stand for "real person fanwork" rather than strictly fiction) is acceptable; anywhere we say "character," that can be a real person/celebrity/public figure.


• Original female characters: OFCs are accepted in all categories where applicable. If you're using someone else's OFC, be sure to ask for permission.


• Mary Sues: we know Mary Sue can mean a lot of different things to different people; whatever it means to you is welcome here.


• Minor female characters: no matter how small her role, if she's somehow in the canon we consider her eligible.


• All genres: AUs/fusions, crossovers, "crack" (we're not super fond of this term but couldn't think of a good alternate -- we welcome suggestions), etc. are all fine.

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Things we don't accept at this challenge:

• Genderbenders: there's a big bang for that here: genderbendbb.

Participating without signing up:

It is not mandatory to sign up for this challenge to participate.

If you're interested in potentially receiving a complement, you may turn in a rough draft by the due date. If we are able to match all signed-up participants with complementers, we will also try to get out pinch hits for those who don't sign up. If you are not interested in potentially receiving a complement, there's no need to turn in a rough draft -- you can just turn in a final draft on the due date.

Basically, if you turn in a final draft by the due date that meets all the requirements in your category you will be able to participate. The only difference is that you will not be eligible for the support structure of signing up -- betas, cheerleading, etc.

How the panfanwork aspect of this challenge works with incentives/complementary fanworks:

In traditional big bang challenges, artists are assigned to fanfiction stories to create a complementary piece of artwork. Our system will be similar to that -- complement creators will be matched to big bang creators -- simply expanded to include other types of media.

The complementary pieces of fanwork, just like submissions, can be any type of media.

For example:

• If I wanted to create a complement for someone's fanart, I could write a fic based on the fanart.
• If I wanted to create a complement for someone's audiofic, I could create a graphic banner/cover for their audiofic recording.
• If I wanted to create a complement for someone's meta, I could write a poem inspired by the meta or related to it somehow.
• Etc.

When folks sign up to create a big bang they can specify whether they want to receive a complement. Due to the panfanwork and panfandom nature of this challenge, it is not guaranteed that everyone who asks for one will be able to receive a complement, and only those who turn in their rough drafts on time will be eligible.

Complement eligibility:

To be eligible to receive a complement, you only need to do one thing: turn in a rough draft by the due date. Check-ins are not mandatory. As for what a "rough draft" means, what you want to keep in mind is two things:

1) meeting the minimum of whatever category you signed up in or at least 90% of the minimum.
2) having enough content for a complementer to work with.

We will try to match people who signed up for the challenge with complementers first; after that, we'll try to match people who didn't sign up with complementers.


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Dropping out/extension requests:

You may drop out at any time; there's no need to inform us unless you'd like to. Basically, the support structure's here for you if you need it, but if you do not you won't be penalized. We completely understand that there are a myriad of reasons for dropping out. There are no penalties for dropping out (i.e., it will not affect any future participation) and there are no penalties for requesting an extension, though depending on timing we can't guarantee being able to grant all extensions.

If you would like to let us know you're dropping out or you need to request an extension for something, you can find more information at the dropping out/extension request post, where comments are screened and there is text that you can copy&paste.


What counts as a female-centric fanwork:

As a general rule (obviously there are nuances to this), you want at least 75% of your content to be female-focused.

Some featuring or discussing male characters in your work is fine but they shouldn't be in the primary role, and when the focus of the work is on a relationship between a female and male character, you'll want to lean more towards her end of the relationship than his.

For visual works, your female character(s) does not need to necessarily appear in the work for it to be about her (for example, you could draw all the things on Character X's nightstand, which would say a lot of things about her as a person), but what you don't want to do is show the woman as seen through a man's eyes for the majority of your content. Use your best judgment and if you have any questions of course feel free to ask.

For female-female relationships you may focus on the relationship or the individual women as you choose; for groups of women you may choose to focus on the group as a whole or the individual women as you choose.

For reccers or resource list creators, it's a little different. You don't need to stress too much about whether or not the content you're linking or reccing exactly fits the 75% guideline because we know that there's only so much you can do with what's available, particularly in certain fandoms. Feel free to make explanatory notes where appropriate, e.g. "this icon set features a lot of other characters but the 20 icons of Female Character X are some of my favorites."


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Where/how to post your work:

You may post your work wherever you please as long as it's publically accessible. That is, no access- or friends-locked posts, and no password-protected links/sites unless those are provided as an alternate to the publically accessible link. For categories where applicable, you must provide at least one publically accessible download link. Providing a streaming alternate or an embedded alternate or not is your choice.

Where appropriate, credit any resources you used, e.g. "promos taken from Gallery X" or "textures from such_and_such comm." You may also just provide a link to the post/profile where you list all your resources.

A short list of possible places you can post your work:

The Audio Fic Archive
Photobucket
Tumblr
Deviant Art
Elfwood
Delicious
Dreamwidth
LiveJournal
WordPress
Archive of Our Own
Fanfiction.net
Personal Website

If posting to a blog-type platform, for the categories where applicable you may post all your work(s) into one post or break it up across posts as you please.

If you will be doing multiple posts, you will have up to a week before your official posting date to get your work up. We ask that you access- or friends-lock or the equivalent when possible until your official posting date. If you are doing a single post you will need to wait until your posting date. For media creators, especially fanmixers, picspammers and iconners who have a large amount of content to upload, it's fine to upload as you go.


Content notes:

Where applicable, we ask that you do note spoilers, especially if what you're creating for is currently publishing/airing/etc.

We recommend labeling for the following things:

• NSFW
• Any nudity in visual form/sex in writing for characters 16 or under
• Significant violence
• Dubcon or noncon
• Self-harm/suicide or suicidal thoughts
• Abuse

If you'd prefer not to write content notes we ask that you state that you are refraining from doing so.

For reccers, if the creators write content notes you will not need to, but if they do not, as ask that a) you do note content or b) be clear that they do not.


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Accessibility:

Some of our recommendations to make your work more accessible:

• Providing single-file downloads (in doc, pdf, html, mobi or epub format) for textual creations, like fiction, meta, poetry and screenplay/script.
• Staying aware that not all users have a lot of bandwidth and providing smaller alternate downloads when possible and making liberal use of "click to enlarge" if your images are going to be especially large.
• Using <em> and <strong> tags rather than <i> and <bold>. Read more.
• Noting common physical triggers in visual media such as strobe lights, extremely fast visual shifts, bright lights, etc.
• Captioning/transcribing for video, audio and visual works. You can read more about captioning at access_fandom.
• More links:
  • How to add subtitles and translations to your vids
  • Subtitling vids
  • "Transcribed" tag at AO3.

[[ SEQUENTIAL ART ]]

Minimum size per page: Anything over 100x100 pixels.
Minimum panels per page: None. We leave it up to your discretion to define the sizes that you work best in.
Maximum size: None, but if it's especially large you're encouraged to make use of "click to enlarge."

Splitting the requirement: Your pages may be a single narrative or they may be standalone, or some mixture thereof.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Sequential art may be panel-style, such as komiks, manhwa, manga, manhua, bande dessinée, képregény, historietas, comics, etc.
• It may also be any other style. For the purposes of this challenge, we define "sequential art" in its broadest possible terms.
• It may be the medium of your choice and may be hand-created or computer-created.
• Whether or not you include text or dialogue is your choice.

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[[ 2D ART ]]

Minimum size: Anything over 100x100 pixels.
Maximum size: None, but if it's especially large you're encouraged to make use of "click to enlarge."

Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• The art may be the medium of your choice and may be hand-created or computer-created. For the purposes of this challenge, we define "2D art" in its broadest possible terms.
• It may include text or animation.
• The art may be standalone or linked together thematically or in presentation. For instance, if you painted 7 scenes that had a similar color scheme and you wanted to present them as a single image composed of smaller ones, that could be considered as meeting your minimum although they are presented together.
• With manips we leave it up to creators to decide whether they feel their manips are 2D art or graphics.

[[ 3D ART ]]

Minimum size: Because of the various media it's possible to work in, we won't be specifying minimums at this time and will leave it up to the creators' discretion.
Maximum size: None, but if it's especially large you're encouraged to make use of "click to enlarge."

Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• The art may be the medium of your choice. Clay, paper, wood, metal, sand, glass, etc. For the purposes of this challenge, we define "3D art" in its broadest possible terms -- sculpture, pottery, woodwork (carving, burning, etc.), papier mache, decoupage, origami and other paper arts, masks, basketweaving, glass-blowing, stained glass/mosaics, etc. We realize there's overlap with crafts and since the minimums are the same we leave it up to you to decide which category you prefer your work to fall under (and we won't make an issue of it if you mix them a bit).
• The art may be standalone or linked together thematically or in presentation. For instance, if you wanted to create a scene featuring 7 clay figures, that could be considered as meeting your minimum although they are presented together.

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[[ CRAFTS ]]

Minimum size: Because of the various media it's possible to work in, we won't be specifying minimums at this time and will leave it up to the creators' discretion.
Maximum size: None, but if the pictures you take of the work are especially large you're encouraged to make use of "click to enlarge."

Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Crafts may be anything that falls under the wide umbrella of crafts: any textile arts (e.g., cross-stitch, knitting, sewing, embroidery, wearable art, weaving, crochet, quilting), dollmaking, jewelry, beadwork, floral art, etc. We realize there's overlap with 3D art and since the minimums are the same we leave it up to you to decide which category you prefer your work to fall under (and we won't make an issue of it if you mix them a bit).
• Crafts may include text.
• The crafts may be standalone or linked together thematically or in presentation. For instance, if you wanted to create a quilt that featured at least 7 blocks and each block had a unique aspect such as the depiction of a scene, that could be considered as meeting your minimum although they are presented together.

[[ GRAPHICS ]]

Minimum size: Any size over 100x100 pixels.
Maximum size: None, but if it's especially large you're encouraged to make use of "click to enlarge."

Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Graphics may be anything that falls under the wide umbrella of graphics: banners, backgrounds, headers, etc.
• With manips we leave it up to creators to decide whether they feel their manips are 2D art or graphics.
• They may include text.
• They may text only.
• They may be any genre -- anything from character studies to macros are fine.
• They may be animated, though it's recommended that you post thumbnails and link to the fullsize if your animations are large.
• Recommended file types: .png, .jpg, .gif.
• You don't have to stick to one fandom; you can create from as many different ones as you like.

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[[ ICONS ]]

Minimum size: 100px by 100px. If you are interested in making icons for other forums in a 50px by 50px size, you'd be required to simply double the requirement to 300 icons. If you want to mix sizes drop us an e-mail at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail and we'll tailor a requirement for you.

Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Icons may be bases.
• They may be animated, though if all of your icons will be animated it's recommended that you break up your icons up across posts to reduce load time.
• They may be text-only. For example: featuring quotes from a female character(s); "♥ character x" or "team character x"-type icons; etc.
• They may feature other things related to the female character or celebrity -- for instance, if the focus of your set of icons is a celebrity who's an artist, posting icons of her artwork is acceptable, or things like posting icons of a character's favorite coffee mug are fine.
• You can make icons of your own/other people's fanart of a woman character(s), but if it's someone else's fanart, get permission.
• No more than 20% of your total amount of finished icons should be variations.

[[ PICSPAMS ]]

Minimum size: Anything over 100x100 pixels.
Minimum amount of pictures per picspam post: 5 pictures.
Maximum size: None, but if your pictures are especially large you're encouraged to make use of "click to enlarge."
Maximum amount of pictures per picspam post: None, but you're encouraged to break the pictures up across posts as possible to be considerate of people with less bandwidth.

Splitting the requirement: You may do as many separate picspams as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum with just one picspam.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• May contain screencaps/promos/etc.
• They may have captions/commentary or have none.
• They may have text on the images if you choose to add it. Macros are also okay.
• You can do picspams where you edit separate pictures together into uniform blocks (e.g., taking ten different pictures and making them into a 5x2 block). In cases like that, use your own judgment as to whether each individual picture you've edited into a larger block will count towards your 250 minimum.
• Picspams may not be an entire set of pictures from a promotional event reproduced for this project. For example, if I decided to do Woman Celebrity X and went to a website and saved all the pictures from Promotional Event X and then uploaded them in the same order as I found them, that's the equivalent of picspam copy&pasting. You are signing up to create new picspams.

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[[ SCREENCAPS ]]

Minimum size of screencap: None; we understand that different programs screencap at different resolutions.
Maximum size of screencap: None.

Splitting the requirement: You may do as many separate sets of screencaps as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum screencapping just one thing. No minimum amount of screencaps per set.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Screencaps may be done manually or automatically, but they do need to be primarily of female character(s), so unless your source features 100% women you'll probably need to do at least some weeding afterwards if you do automatic screencapping. If you're doing a source that's mostly women and you feel it fits within the 75% guideline, that's acceptable, but we do ask that you note when posting that there are some pictures of the male character(s) in the set.
• If you do not weed for quality (i.e., there are some caps that are very blurry or feature nothing identifiable), we ask you to note that when posting and to keep in mind that for your minimum we'd prefer that you submit 2,500 usable caps.
• Screencaps may of any quality from HD to YouTube rips. We ask that you include at least one sample cap per set.
• Screencaps may have bordering such as widescreen framing.
• Screencaps may have subtitles.

[[ RECS ]]

• You may rec all types of fanwork, including other rec sets.
• Your recs do not need to be connected in any way; i.e. they don't have to share a fandom, theme/trope, character or in any way be linked together except for the fact that your works feature a female character(s). If you want to do sets, you may do multiple sets. No minimum amount of recs per set.
• Because of the nature of sites like Delicious or AO3 where it's possible to use the bookmarking feature as a way to store recs for later (or if you have made link roundup-style posts to your journal or certain communities), if you are reusing those recs that's fine. Reusing recs you have posted to DW/LJ/WordPress/etc. is fine as well as long as you're actually creating new posts for this challenge; linking to old recs blog posts is not acceptable.
• If you're going to be using a site like Delicious or AO3 to post your recs for this challenge, you may begin bookmarking as soon as the creation period begins; whether you keep the bookmarks public or private is your choice.

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[[ RESOURCE LISTS ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may do as many separate resource lists as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum with just one resource list.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Resource lists may focus on a fandom universe ("Women of the X Franchise"), a fandom ("Women Characters in Fandom X"), on a character ("Fanwork about Character X") or on a group/pairing of characters.
• Resource lists may be all-inclusive (such as an all-inclusive list of fanworks about a certain character(s)) or they may be a partial list.
• If you are creating a resource list for a fandom/topic that is female-centric by default, it's okay if you include a small percentage of links that aren't strictly female-focused. For example, Women's Murder Club is a television series that has four female protagonists and the majority of the links you collected would be centered around them, but if there were one or two communities that focused on the minor male characters it'd be okay if you included them in your list for the sake of completeness. Just keep the 75% guideline in mind.
• Resource lists may also focus on broader topics, such as where to find female-centric content related to a certain theme (for example, rounding up links to websites, articles etc. about women in science fiction) or where to find female-centric content on a certain website/area of the web.
• Resource lists may include links to sites such as Wikipedia, IMDB, etc.
• A few examples that show what resource lists are: newbieguide; a Dreamwidth roundup by wistfuljane and fandom newsletter/recsletter/noticeboard communities by wistfuljane; animanga communities on Dreamwidth by old_man_of_hoy; an all-inclusive list of Threshold fanworks by tracendenza. These are just a few possible examples -- if you have some other good ones, we'd love to include more links here, so please feel free to send them our way.

[[ META ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may write as many pieces of meta as you like; no minimum wordcount per piece of meta.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Any meta that focuses on a female character(s) or the larger experience of womanhood or femaleness and perceptions thereof is acceptable; "meta," for the purposes of this challenge, is going with a broad definition of meta.
• Meta can include screencaps/clips/etc. (Where applicable, be sure to include credit for where you got these things like "caps taken from x and y gallery.")
• Meta about original female characters (OFCs).
• Character discussion, backstory speculation.
• Discussion of thematic links between characters across multiple sources.
• Discussion of archetypes across sources.
• Discussion of a character's presentation in the source and how that relates to larger societal patterns.
• Discussion of a character's presentation/interpretation/perception in fandom.
• We caution against meta that becomes more about the source itself than the woman character(s). If a lot of your sentences can begin with "the creator(s) of this show/book/movie must have been thinking [x]" or "another issues [x source] has" or "if only [x source] had gone in this direction" you will want to consider what the actual focus of your discussion is.
• Anything veers off into character or relationship-bashing territory is unacceptable. Critique/discussing your issues with a character/relationship is fine.
• Communities of interest: hooked_on_heroines, fem_thoughts.

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[[ REVIEWS ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may do as many separate reviews as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum reviewing just one thing. No minimum amount of words per review.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• You may review books, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, plays, concerts, albums, recordings, readings, performances, etc.
• If you're reviewing something that's serial, you may review by part (for example, by episode) or by larger section (for example, reviewing a trilogy of books as a whole rather than by individual book).
• For the purposes of this challenge, we're looking for you to review things that feature female character(s) or creative works or performances by women that prominently feature the woman (for instance, reviewing albums/concerts). So reviewing a book written by a female author but featuring a male protagonist would not be acceptable if your review mostly focuses on the male protagonist. If you focus mainly on the female author's writing technique/style/whatnot, that's fine. Reviewing an album sung by a female artist would be, even if not all of the lyrics are female-centric. It's also fine if you review something that features both men and women and you focus on the women; focusing on minor female characters or the treatment of female characters in a source is also fine. If you have any doubts, feel free to e-mail us at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com to discuss.

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[[ PRIMERS/PROMOS ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may do as many separate primers/promos as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum by creating only one.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Primers/promos may focus on a fandom universe ("Introduction to the Women of the X Franchise"), a fandom ("The Women Characters in Fandom X"), on a character ("Character X 101") or on a group/pairing of characters.
• They may be of any type. That is, you primer/promo can feature any of the following: factual introduction to your subject, analysis, squee, attempts to lure people into your fandom/character/pairing/etc. of choice.
• Primers may also be a gathering of information about a character. A good example of this is the The Ultimate Sophie Devereaux Meta and Canon Guide - Season One where havocthecat recorded all canon facts regarding the character of Sophie.
• Transcripts of the dialogue of female character(s) are also acceptable. Whether you choose to write commentary on the dialogue or not is your choice.
• They may also focus on broader topics, for example things like "Writing Femslash Sex Scenes 101."
• They may include meta, reviews, recs, resource lists, pictures, embedded video or audio, and just about anything else you'd like to include.
• They may include links to sites such as reference sites like Wikipedia, IMDB, etc.
• Some examples of what primers/promos are: halfamoon primers/promos, smallfandomfest primers/promos, whyilikethisship, whyilikethischaracter, ship_manifesto, crack_van RPF primers/promos and fandom primers/promos, primer+picspam tag on delicious (not to imply that primers must have pictures in them, but adding in the picspam tag helps filter out nonfannish primers). These are just a small sample of what a primer or promo could look like; for the purpose of this challenge, we go with the broad definition of what a primer or promo could be.

How to calculate your custom minimum

The way we calculate minimums for multicategory projects like primers/promos is we take a percentage of whatever the original requirement is, so for example 50% of 2,500 words requirement for meta is 1,250 words. After calculating the minimums from the original requirements, the percentages are added up with the goal of reaching 100%.

For example, a hypothetical breakdown could look like this:
50% - Meta: 1,250 words
30% - Picspam: 75 pictures
20% - Recs: 8 recs
=
100%

And the process to reach those percentages look as follows:

2,500 words [meta minimum] x [multiplied by] .5 [50 percent] = 1,250 words
250 pictures [picspam minimum] x [multiplied by] .3 [30 percent] = 75 pictures
40 recs [recs minimum] x [multiplied by] .2 [20 percent] = 8 recs
50% + 30% + 20% = 100%

You may calculate your minimum on your own and submit it with your sign-up (we will double check it for you and let you know if it's approved), or if you'd rather not do it yourself you can e-mail us at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com and we can generate a set of minimums for you.


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[[ POETRY ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may write as many separate poems as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum by writing only one.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Poems may be any form or genre of your choice. (The forms and styles listed at those links obviously aren't all the available ones out there, we just wanted to link to a small list of possibilities.) You may mix forms and styles, you may create completely new forms or style, etc., it's all good.
• If you are planning to sign up as a fannish creator, your poetry should in some way be fannish -- inspired by a certain fandom, character, group or pairing. If you'd rather write original female-centric poetry you may sign up as an original creator.

[[ SCRIPT/SCREENPLAY ]]

• Scripts/screenplays may contain multiple episodes/scenes/etc. You may write serial narratives, for example writing five short episodes that follow each other sequentially.
• You may provide a .doc or .pdf download of your work.
• In the past we have accepted WIPs and will on a limited basis consider accepting them in the future. Preferably WIPs that end at some sort of logical stopping point, for example, if you post the first part of a three-part series. However WIPs that end on cliffhangers or cut off suddenly we will very likely turn down. In general we prefer if you turn in completed works.

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[[ FICTION ]]

• Serial drabbles (i.e., drabbles that link together to tell a story) or any other type of fiction as long as it ends up being 10,000 words and somehow unified.
• In the past we have accepted WIPs and will on a limited basis consider accepting them in the future. Preferably WIPs that end at some sort of logical stopping point, for example, if you post the first part of a three-part series. However WIPs that end on cliffhangers or cut off suddenly we will very likely turn down. In general we prefer if you turn in completed works.

Serial drabbles (i.e., drabbles that link together to tell a story) or any other type of fiction as long as it ends up being 10,000 words and somehow unified.

[[ AUDIOFIC ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may record as many separate audiofics as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum by doing only one. No minimum wordcount per fic.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

Maximum: None, but if your recording is especially large file you're encouraged to do lower-quality/compressed alternate downloads for those who might not have as much bandwidth, or perhaps split the recording up into parts/chapters.

• Your audiofic may feature no music, or it may feature music at the beginning and/or end.
• If you're going to have music throughout the entire recording, we ask that for consideration purposes, you provide a version without music as well.
• You do need to get permission from the author to audiofic their story. See this post for authors have given permissions specifically for this challenge.
• When you post, you will need to credit the author and include a link to the fic itself (unless the fic is access-locked at the time of posting, which is okay as long as you obtained permission to record it).
• You are welcome to audiofic your own fic.

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[[ FANMIXES ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may create as many separate fanmixes as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum by doing only one. No minimum amount of songs per mix.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Fanmixes require some form of cover art that include the fanmix title and the song list. It's also encouraged that you provide some form of additional supporting explanation for song choices. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways including but not limited to:
  • Quotations of lyrics from each song that exemplify the reason the song was chosen.
  • Small graphics such as icons or small banners, e.g. using screencaps of canon scenes being narrated by the fanmix.
  • Drabbles or small interconnected ficlets that tell the story being narrated by the fanmix.
  • Small notations on the reasons for each song choice.
• Fanmixes that provide a soundtrack for canon events that center around a female character(s).
• Fanmixes may:
  • tell a story outside of canon, such as a missing scene, AU, etc. that has a central female character(s).
  • compile theme song choices for a variety of female character(s) from the same fandom, or for female character(s) from multiple fandoms that have something in common.
  • explore one aspect of a female character's life, e.g. songs about her internal struggle with anger.
• Whether you choose to include a disclaimer (i.e., recommending that downloaders keep music for no longer than 24 hours to review it, and then purchase it legally if they like it) is your choice.
• Whether or not you include single song downloads in addition to a .zip file containing all songs is your choice. Whether you include cover art of any additional materials in the .zip file is your choice.
• We recommend using a service like anonym.to for your download links.
• You are welcome to create additional complementary items for the fanmixes, such as full-length writing, icons, etc., but they do not count towards your minimum unless you are completing a pre-approved multicategory submission. A ficmix would also count as a multicategory submission. If you're interested in finding out more about multicategory submissions, read here.

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[[ SINGING ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may sing as many songs as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum by doing only one. No minimum amount of time per song.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

• Types of singing that are acceptable:
  • Filk.
  • Covers.
  • Covers where you modify lyrics -- for example, you take a song that has lyrics about a man and change them to be lyrics about a woman, or modifying lyrics to be about a character(s) or fandom(s) of your choice.
  • Mashups where you take lyrics from multiple songs and mash them up into one.
  • All genres are acceptable, from musical to opera to parody.
  • Original songs you've written. You may also sing poetry, yours or others'. If you're going to be singing someone's fanpoetry be sure to get permission.
  • A cappella.
  • Singing accompanied by music, anything from karaoke-style to you accompanying yourself on an instrument.
• Your songs may center around a certain fandom, a certain character, group or pair of characters, or around womanhood/femaleness more generally.

[[ VIDS ]]

Splitting the requirement: You may create as many separate vids as you like; you don't need to fulfill the minimum by doing only one. No minimum length per vid.
Creating from various fandoms: You can create from as many different fandoms as you like.

Maximum: None, but if your vid is an especially large file you're encouraged to do lower-quality/compressed alternate downloads for those who might not have as much bandwidth, or perhaps split the vid up into parts.

• Whether you set your vid to music or not is your choice.
• Vids may also be set to a mixture of music/original dialogue.
• Vids may feature manip-type editing of different sources (for example, editing in explicit sex scenes into a source that does not contain explicit sex scenes).
• You may add text/effects to your vids.
• All genres are acceptable -- drama, humor, explicit, dark, romance, angst, etc.
• Picture slideshows do not count as vids. If you're interested in creating those, please read more about our policy on other categories.

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[[ MULTICATEGORY CREATION ]]

Multicategory creation is something we both allow and encourage! Multicategory creation means creating from more than one of our primary categories (or, if you'd like to create from multiple categories that we do not currently have structure for at this time, read more here).

Officially, however, you do not need to sign up as a multicategory creator unless you will NOT be meeting any of our existing minimums. So, for example, let's say you sign up to write poetry and you are able to meet 700 word minimum. There'd be no need for you to sign up as multicategory even if you add a bunch of other things into your project (for example, making graphics/icons to accompany your poetry, or singing/audioficcing it). We have no issues with people adding in however many extras they want to their projects. The multicategory creation sign-up exists for those who cannot meet a minimum in any single category.

How to calculate your custom minimum

The way we calculate minimums for multicategory projects is we take a percentage of whatever the original requirement is, so for example 10% of 20 graphics requirement for the graphics category is 2 graphics. After calculating the minimums from the original requirements, the percentages are added up with the goal of reaching 100%.

For example, a hypothetical breakdown could look like this:
40% - Fiction: 4,000 words
30% - Vid: 3 minutes
20% - 3D Art: 2 pieces [rounded up]
10% - Graphics: 2 graphics
=
100%

And the process to reach those percentages look as follows:

40% - Fiction: 4,000 words
30% - Vid: 3 minutes
20% - 3D Art: 2 pieces [rounded up]
10% - Graphics: 2 graphics

10,000 words [fic minimum] x [multiplied by] .4 [40 percent] = 4,000 words
10 minutes [vid minimum] x [multiplied by] .3 [30 percent] = 3 minutes
7 pieces [3D art minimum] x [multiplied by] .2 [20 percent] = 1.4 rounded up to 2 pieces 20 graphics [graphics minimum] x [multiplied by] .1 [10 percent] = 2 graphics

40% + 30% + 20% + 10% = 100%

With rounding up, if it's .4 or over we recommend you round up. If it's .3 or under, for example 1.2, it's your choice whether you round up or down.

You may calculate your minimum on your own and submit it with your sign-up (we will double check it for you and let you know if it's approved), or if you'd rather not do it yourself you can e-mail us at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com and we can generate a set of minimums for you.

[[ OTHER CATEGORY CREATION ]]

We are very open to participants working in categories other than our primary ones. There are many more categories we've considered adding and we're happy to let people work in almost whatever medium or area of expression that suits them best.

If you want do a different type of creative project drop an e-mail at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail and let's discuss it.


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[[ ORIGINAL CREATION ]]

We accept original submissions in all the same categories that we accept fannish creation.

The guidelines for creating original works are the same (where applicable) as the guidelines for fan creators. Read the guidelines for whichever section is applicable to the category you're choosing and if you have any further questions let us know at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com.

As with fan creators, if you are interested in doing something multicategory, please e-mail ladiesbigbang[at]gmail.com and it will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Also, if you are interested in mixing original and fan content, you need to e-mail us at ladiesbigbang[at]gmail to discuss it. The official sign-ups will be separating original and fan work for the ease of matching up betas/cheerleaders/etc.

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Comments

[aphrodite_mine]

Maybe I am mis-reading or mis-interpreting, but... say you sign up for fiction. 10k of fic, that's clear. Because of the multi-category sign up, I interpreted this as being able to write, say, 7k of fic and 3k of fic. Still equals 10k of writing. Is this allowed?

[trascendenza]

That wouldn't be allowed. Multicategory sign-up means that you're signing up to create in more than one category -- so, for instance, mixing fiction and poetry is fine, or mixing fiction with some graphics etc., but if you're only creating with fiction then the minimum is 10,000 words. All we require, however, is that people present one unified project at the end, so doing something like writing three pieces that are linked together (e.g. they're sequential stories, they're all in the same universe, use the same characters or are somehow otherwise thematically linked) would be acceptable.