Ultimate guide to bang etiquette

This post
is based on my experiences participating in over a dozen bangs in the
Supernatural fandom as either a writer or an artist, on my experience as a bang
moderator, and on bang experiences shared with me by acquaintances.
Despite the
title, this guide isn’t definitive, but it should give you an idea as either a
writer or an artist on how not to be a bad bang (or fest) participant, and whether
bangs are for you.
The
basics
For those
of you who don’t know:
Bangs
are fan creation events where writers and artists work together.
For most
bangs, a writer (or a pair of writers) will write a fanfic, create a
summary of that fanfic, and then the fanfic is claimed by an artist who has
read this summary, who will then create art related to that fanfic after having
read a copy of the fanfic.
In
reverse bangs, the process is different, with the artist creating a piece of
art first, which is then claimed by a writer who writes a story based on the
artist’s art.
And some
bangs are in fact collaborative from almost the start, with author and artist
paired early, and working together in tandem to create a story and art.
How long
stories should be and how many pieces of art should be created are set down in
a bang’s rules.
What kind
of content is permitted will also be described in the bang’s rules, as well as
required ages for participants.
The finished
fanfic and art are posted on websites like AO3, Tumblr, LiveJournal or
Dreamwidth (where’s okay to post and how, is normally described in bang rules,
as well as follow up emails/blog posts).
All of
this is normally co-ordinated by a bang’s moderators. These volunteers will
keep things running in terms of maintaining the schedule, enabling claims and
arranging posting dates, potentially enabling promotions of fanfic before posting, as well as distributing (not submitting) what is a
masterpost that links to both the finished story and art. They will also weigh
in on any disputes that may arise, or help find another artist (or writer in
reverse bangs) when one side drops out.
So far,
so good - right?
Okay, now
buckle up. We got a lot more to get through and I ain’t sugar coating this.
What
follows looks at regular bangs and reverse bangs, and discusses etiquette for writers and artists.