2020 Rough Draft Submission Guidelines
Hello! I hope everyone is doing well, and your writing and creating is coming along! These are the Rough Draft Submission Guidelines, and I will be accepting rough drafts between July 1st-July 8th, Wednesday-Wednesday. Please make sure to read everything!
Rough draft submission is only for the Traditional Author track. If you have chosen Solo Author or Tandem Author, do not submit a rough draft! This is only for the authors wishing to be paired with a fanworker, and are not already working with a fanworker. =D
If you signed up as an undecided author, now is the time to choose if you will continue as a Solo author, Traditional author, or if you have paired up with an already, Tandem author. I will only be sending emails out to those that signed up as undecided and have yet to let me know which path they've chosen, however, if you need to switch please get in contact with me, either on Discord or email dcubang@gmail.com. Now is also the time to switch down from the 10k Big Bang to the 5k Mini-Bang if you need to!
Here's a helpful post for writing summaries!
Beta readers are not required this year, but if you are wanting a beta reader, here is a resource post for finding one: Beta Reader Resource Post. Please note that these might be outdated!
Summaries will be posted for preview on Friday, July 10th. Please look your summary over when it is posted for preview to check for any errors and contact me ASAP to make corrections. Author information will be removed as claims are done blind. It’s okay if you’ve talked about your project already, just refrain from telling people which number your summary is once it is live!
Story Requirements
I am only looking for rough drafts, so it is okay if your story is still very rough at this point. I'm just checking for length and completion, which means your story does not need to be completely finished or polished, but around 60% of it needs to be done. This means that an author signed up for the 10k Traditional Bang must submit at least 6,000 words, and a 5k Mini-Bang author must submit at least 3,000 words.
If you are writing a story that will be significantly longer than the 5k/10k minimum, try to get as close to 60% finished as you can before submitting your rough draft, but I do understand that it may not be possible for a really long story! Please use your best judgement and decide for yourself if you can get your story finished by October, should you choose to work with a fanworker.
If you are submitting an incomplete draft, please be aware that it needs to have all the scenes at least outlined, including the ending. Your fanworker needs at least a few scenes to choose from so they can create their fanwork, after all! It will also be really important to communicate with your fanworker, in the case of a major story change!!!
Please read this carefully, as this is about the consequences of not being able to finish on time.
In previous years, once an author submitted a rough draft, they were required to finish or were subject to being banned from the Bang for the next year, and fanworkers, once they claimed a story had to create an accompanying fanwork, or they would be banned. This year, Tradition Path authors and artists will have a grace period to drop out, without consequence, after claims have passed. The final drop out date for Traditional groups is Saturday, August 1st. Participants that drop out after this date are subject to being banned. (If something major comes up in your life, just get in contact with me so we can discuss things together!)
If an artist drops out, I will arrange for a pinch hit artist for the author, should they wish to continue with an artist, or they can choose to go Solo. If an author drops out, artists are welcome to continue on as Solo, or they can claim a different story, if they so choose.
The final posting date is Sunday, November 30th, and any Traditional author/artist pair that does not post is subject to being banned from DCU Bang 2021. There is no penalty for dropping out before rough draft submissions or during the grace period, nor is there a penalty for switching to Solo Author prior to claims and being unable to finish. Tandem teams can drop out together at any time with no consequence. Once you are paired with an artist, please make sure that you can finish, as it is unfair to the artist if you cannot finish. This works the other way too! It's not fair to an author if the artist cannot finish!
If you are worried you cannot finish, or do not already have around 60% complete, but still want to continue writing, consider switching to the Solo Author track! Even if you don't complete your story by November 30th, there are no consequences. =D This way, you still get to share your story with the communities and have your story listed on the masterlists.
How to Submit Your Rough Draft:
Email your fic files to dcubang@gmail.com.
I can accept the following file types: .doc, .docx, .rtf, and Google Docs. If submitting a Google Doc, share with dcubang@gmail.com with editing capabilities, otherwise I cannot verify the word count. If none of these file types work for you, contact me ASAP on Discord, or send an email to dcubang@gmail.com! Do not send a different file type without first contacting me!
The subject line should say: Username ROUGH DRAFT - and include the username you used to sign up!
In the body of the email, copy and paste the information below and fill it out, keeping the HTML tags. This is so I can quickly post summaries without having to format everyone's submission! Also, if submitting via Google Docs, you still have to email me with the following information filled out. If you need help with the HTML, please contact me. If it's not done correctly, I will ask you to redo it.
Username: (your username here)
Completed Percentage:
Title:
Word Count: (At least 3k or 6k)
Genre: (Action/Adventure, PWP, Fluff, etc)
Fandom/Universe:
Characters/Pairings: (Major characters/pairings only)
Warnings: (e.g.: non con, mpreg, etc)
Rating: (PG, NC-17, etc)
Summary: (3-5 paragraphs)
Take your time with your summary! This is what artists are going to use to make a determination in their claims. Make sure to give enough information for potential artists to make decisions, but don't write so much that it is overwhelming. Here's a helpful post for writing artist summaries! Also keep in mind that this is a summary for attracting an artist, so the information you give might be very different from what you would want to give to a potential reader. The artist summary does not need to be the same one you use for your story later on!
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 decide to use an "author chooses not to warn" label later. Artists need to know what they are signing up for, after all, and we don't want artists, nor authors, unhappy with the match. Please warn for: noncon, dubcon, excessive or graphic violence, underage sex, incest, character death, and anything else that might be potentially problematic for a reader! Do not warn for slash, femslash, or het.
Once I receive your submission, I will be sending a confirmation email in return. If you do not get a confirmation email within 24 hours, please get in contact with me at either the DCU Discord server, emailing me at dcubang@gmail.com. If you have any other concerns or questions, please be sure to get in contact with me through any of those means as well!
The deadline to submit a rough draft is 23:59 MDT, Wednesday, July 8th!
Rough draft submission is only for the Traditional Author track. If you have chosen Solo Author or Tandem Author, do not submit a rough draft! This is only for the authors wishing to be paired with a fanworker, and are not already working with a fanworker. =D
If you signed up as an undecided author, now is the time to choose if you will continue as a Solo author, Traditional author, or if you have paired up with an already, Tandem author. I will only be sending emails out to those that signed up as undecided and have yet to let me know which path they've chosen, however, if you need to switch please get in contact with me, either on Discord or email dcubang@gmail.com. Now is also the time to switch down from the 10k Big Bang to the 5k Mini-Bang if you need to!
Here's a helpful post for writing summaries!
Beta readers are not required this year, but if you are wanting a beta reader, here is a resource post for finding one: Beta Reader Resource Post. Please note that these might be outdated!
Summaries will be posted for preview on Friday, July 10th. Please look your summary over when it is posted for preview to check for any errors and contact me ASAP to make corrections. Author information will be removed as claims are done blind. It’s okay if you’ve talked about your project already, just refrain from telling people which number your summary is once it is live!
Story Requirements
I am only looking for rough drafts, so it is okay if your story is still very rough at this point. I'm just checking for length and completion, which means your story does not need to be completely finished or polished, but around 60% of it needs to be done. This means that an author signed up for the 10k Traditional Bang must submit at least 6,000 words, and a 5k Mini-Bang author must submit at least 3,000 words.
If you are writing a story that will be significantly longer than the 5k/10k minimum, try to get as close to 60% finished as you can before submitting your rough draft, but I do understand that it may not be possible for a really long story! Please use your best judgement and decide for yourself if you can get your story finished by October, should you choose to work with a fanworker.
If you are submitting an incomplete draft, please be aware that it needs to have all the scenes at least outlined, including the ending. Your fanworker needs at least a few scenes to choose from so they can create their fanwork, after all! It will also be really important to communicate with your fanworker, in the case of a major story change!!!
Please read this carefully, as this is about the consequences of not being able to finish on time.
In previous years, once an author submitted a rough draft, they were required to finish or were subject to being banned from the Bang for the next year, and fanworkers, once they claimed a story had to create an accompanying fanwork, or they would be banned. This year, Tradition Path authors and artists will have a grace period to drop out, without consequence, after claims have passed. The final drop out date for Traditional groups is Saturday, August 1st. Participants that drop out after this date are subject to being banned. (If something major comes up in your life, just get in contact with me so we can discuss things together!)
If an artist drops out, I will arrange for a pinch hit artist for the author, should they wish to continue with an artist, or they can choose to go Solo. If an author drops out, artists are welcome to continue on as Solo, or they can claim a different story, if they so choose.
The final posting date is Sunday, November 30th, and any Traditional author/artist pair that does not post is subject to being banned from DCU Bang 2021. There is no penalty for dropping out before rough draft submissions or during the grace period, nor is there a penalty for switching to Solo Author prior to claims and being unable to finish. Tandem teams can drop out together at any time with no consequence. Once you are paired with an artist, please make sure that you can finish, as it is unfair to the artist if you cannot finish. This works the other way too! It's not fair to an author if the artist cannot finish!
If you are worried you cannot finish, or do not already have around 60% complete, but still want to continue writing, consider switching to the Solo Author track! Even if you don't complete your story by November 30th, there are no consequences. =D This way, you still get to share your story with the communities and have your story listed on the masterlists.
How to Submit Your Rough Draft:
Username: (your username here)
Completed Percentage:
Title:
Word Count: (At least 3k or 6k)
Genre: (Action/Adventure, PWP, Fluff, etc)
Fandom/Universe:
Characters/Pairings: (Major characters/pairings only)
Warnings: (e.g.: non con, mpreg, etc)
Rating: (PG, NC-17, etc)
Summary: (3-5 paragraphs)
Once I receive your submission, I will be sending a confirmation email in return. If you do not get a confirmation email within 24 hours, please get in contact with me at either the DCU Discord server, emailing me at dcubang@gmail.com. If you have any other concerns or questions, please be sure to get in contact with me through any of those means as well!
The deadline to submit a rough draft is 23:59 MDT, Wednesday, July 8th!