When a high word count bang comes around, I see tweets like “I’m joining this bang to write my first long fic!” and “this is my first bang!”

It's great that you're excited, but not all bangs are worth joining! This is a guide on what bangs are and what I look out for in a bang.

Note that this is targeted towards writers, not artists!

All bangs are stressful on some level, but bang rules affect how stressful they'll be, and whether the eventual pay off will be worth it. If it's your first time, you may not anticipate how rules affect your health,

the reception your fic gets, and your emotional response in the aftermath.

I've participated in 4 bangs over the last 2 years, and I've seen friends become disillusioned and burnt out because of them. I've seen people quit fandoms, or even writing completely over bangs.

WHAT ARE BANGS?

Bangs are collaborative events where artists and writers are paired up to produce fanwork. Several rules distinguish bangs from each other:
- Min word count: this can range anywhere from 1k to over 50k
- Duration: Bangs can last 3 months, 6 months, or even a year

- Posting: Some bangs require you to post the entire fic on posting day, but others allow you to post the 1st chapter on posting day, and the rest on a set schedule afterwards
- Posting deadline: Bangs with by chapter posting may require that all chapters be posted by a set date

- Art requirement: This may take the form of number of pieces, and the detail of pieces (line art, block colored, or full-colored with shading, with background or without)

I don't think this is fully comprehensive, but these are the rules that I usually look out for.

BANG VARIATIONS:
Conventional bang: Writers come in with an idea. Artists choose an idea that appeals to them and makes accompanying art for the fic.

Reverse bang: Artists come in with a sketch/idea. Writers choose one that appeals to them and makes accompanying fic for the art.

Tiered bang: These are bangs in which there are multiple "tiers" or requirements. The first tier may be something like 1k words, or a sketch, while the highest may be 50k words, and require 2-3 fully-colored art pieces.

Open bangs: I think these are now known as fests, weeks, or months, but basically these don't require sign ups (and writers and artists aren't usually paired) and creators simply post during a set period.

For other types of events, look in the reply to this tweet.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR IN A BANG

Ok so this is really about KNOWING YOURSELF and your emotional response. As I've said, I've seen people quit writing after having to drop out of a bang, or having a poor response to a bang fic. Take care of yourself! Other bangs will come around!

(1) WORD COUNT
Low wc bangs are generally safe, but high wc bangs are more risky. These are more stressful, more demoralizing if you have to drop out after sinking several months in, and more crushing if your fic doesn't get hits. If its high wc, PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOLLOWING.

(2) TIMELINE
To understand what kind of impact the timeline (how long you have to write) will have on you, you need to assess:
- What is your writing speed?
- What are your irl commitments?
- IMPT: What will be your emotional response if you have to drop out?

Regarding the last point: It’s seldom as simple as “It’s okay if I can’t complete it. I can drop out!” In my experience. I ALWAYS tell myself that when I join a bang, but it NEVER prepares me for how demoralizing it is to actually drop out. If you drop early, it's less painful.

But in my experience, people usually try to the absolute end, and only right before posting date, when the fic is still not complete, but they've already sunk 50k words and 6 months of tears into it, that they drop. That's when dropping a bang will really crush you.

I’ve seen people quit writing after dropping bangs. It's worse if it’s your first, or you’re disabled/mentally ill. It’s EXTRA demoralizing when you have to drop bc of poor mental/physical health. Dropping out is just the cherry on top when your body and mind are falling apart.

Here are specific rules to look out for!

(a) Overall duration
How long from start to finish? What's the min wc? Factor in procrastination, "real life is kicking my butt", and "oh no this is going to be way longer than the min wc/than I anticipated" allowances.

(b) Checkpoint requirements

Oh it’s a 6 month bang! Great! I have 6 months to write!

Wait! Not so fast! Don't learn this the hard way but sometimes you have weirdass bangs that require like idk 80% of your word count by the halfway mark??

New bangs also seem more often to require that fics are beta-ed. This means their 100% completion checkpoint will be earlier than the end date, so you have time for it to be beta-ed.

TLDR; READ THE FINE PRINT. Check not just the overall duration, but your actual working time!

Remember that short timelines mean that you are more likely to drop out, and that can be distressing! Even if you DON'T drop out, it still affects your stress levels and emotional state DURING the bang. And if you went through a lot to post a fic, poor reception will sting more!

(3) POSTING
Like I said, all bangs are stressful on some level, so when you complete, you usually experience a high. Everyone on server will be celebrating!

But if your fic flops, the crash can be bad. It’s worse bc it comes after the stress, the high, and then— no one reads it?

FIRST OFF. We don’t get financial return for our fics, but we all expect a certain emotional return. You need to figure out:
- What is your emotional return?
- What will be your emotional response when you don’t get that return?

Is your emotional return hits, comments, or just the joy of creating? ALL ANSWERS ARE VALID. Just know that posting rules affect the hits and comments you get, so if stats affect you, watch out for posting rules. And don’t be ashamed if stats affect you. It’s okay! It happens!

Personally, my primary return is the joy of creating and the quality (not quantity) of comments. I created for a fandom that’s pretty much dead for a long time, where my long fics got > 2k hits. I’m quite resilient to poor stats bc of that, BUT poor stats still affect me.

But when I’ve poured 200 hrs into a 80k word fic, I promise you stats like hits and number of comments still affect me, especially when it’s in a bang. Factor in the comparison effect. In a bang, you will probably find yourself comparing your stats with other participants.

Be honest and realistic with yourself about this assessment! Long fics take A LOT of time. Even experienced writers quit writing after a long fic flops! It’s not “shameful” to be affected by the reception your fic gets, no matter what fandom likes to tell you.

SECOND. What fandom are you in? How large is it? What platform is it hosted on?

If it’s a big fandom that’s hosted on Twitter, you are more likely to get buried due to posting rules than if you’re in a small fandom hosted on creator communities like LJ or DW. Know your fandom!

(A) Posting all at once vs. by chapter

The first thing I look out for in a bang! Imo, if you’re:

(1) a small or new author
(2) in a big fandom
(3) that's hosted on Twitter

... you REALLY need to watch out for bangs that require you to post all at once.

Anecdotally, I’ve noticed in big Twitter fandoms, there’s a “stratifying” effect where big authors get noticed but small authors don’t. Bangs that post all at once amplify the disparity in such fandoms, while by chapter postings give more chance for small authors to be noticed.

The full explanation won’t fit within Twitter character limits, so read the screenshots if you want to know more. But in summary:

- On Twitter, you compete with higher volume of content (including news), meaning it’s easier to be buried

- Big authors have “safety nets” (followers, friends, ao3 subscribers) when fics get buried in feed, but small authors don’t.

- The algorithm favors big authors on the tl

- People gravitate to things that are familiar

- Seeing a fic multiple times on the feed increases the chance that you'll click on it when it's complete

- If fics only appear once, people choose fics by "familiar" authors, aka, big authors

(4) CONTENT RESTRICTIONS

This is actually super important to me, because I have very, VERY strong views on censorship as someone who lives in an authoritarian country.

Some bangs are run by antis, and they will have content restrictions on things like dub/noncon, age gap ships,

incest or "pseudo-incest" ships, or ships that include characters that are underage.

Check what the content restrictions are. You may not even be able to write the pairing or content that you prefer. The anti/pro-ship slant of the mods also affects moderation in the bang server.

(5) COMMUNITY

Some bangs have a Discord server or group chat of some kind, and others don't. (I should have included this way up top.) For high wc bangs I usually only join those with servers, or else writing can get really lonely. I typically join bangs for community anyway.

WHY JOIN BANGS

I've said multiple times that bangs are stressful and can burn you out of writing, so why join bangs?

- Deadlines motivate you to write
- Meeting new people
- Getting exposure through bang promotion
- Getting art or exposure through art

Phew. IMO!! You should not be joining bangs for the last 2 reasons.

Bang promotion is usually VERY minimal (they retweet your fic link when you first start posting), and bang twitters don't usually have many followers. Less than 1k. Often less than 500. Don't get your hopes up.

Wrt art... I've known people who join bangs hoping they will be picked up by a big artist, and it'll propel them to "big name" status. Firstly... don't use artists like this. Secondly, your chances of getting a big artist are close to none. Bangs are populated by small artists.

Thirdly, I'll be honest and say that I get a lot of drop outs. 50% of the time, my artist ghosted or dropped out. In the end, I still got art because you usually get a pinch-hitter assigned to you (someone who produces art for your fic in a "pinch").

But for one bang, I didn't even get a pinch-hitter, so I actually didn't get art! In the end, my beta drew for me.

Anyway, be prepared for drop outs. On my first bang, my artist dropped out, and it really hurt. Don't be upset or think it's your fault! It's quite common!

Bangs can be really fulfilling and I've had a lot of fun! But again, all bangs are stressful on some level, and you may actually come out of it feeling like it wasn't worth it. It's esp bad when you don't look closely at the rules going in, or the rules are not clearly stated

and you have to argue with mods about posting rules and scheduling once the event is underway. Remember that mods aren't always writers. Sometimes they are artists or just readers. Sometimes they are also first-timers, and may not understand how the rules will affect your fic.

Anyway, if you know someone who needs to see this, please link them this thread! I hope that was helpful. Remember to pace yourself, manage your expectations, and know what you're getting into! If you're in a big Twitter fandom, REMEMBER THAT NEW BANGS WILL ALWAYS COME AROUND.

Oh shoot. I forgot something REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT GUYS. There was a second part to the "POSTING" section that I didn't paste over.

(B) POSTING PERIODS

OK SO THE BANG ALLOWS POSTING BY CHAPTERS. GREAT!!

No! Not so fast! I had to learn this the REALLY HARD WAY but--

watch out if the bang has a deadline by which all chapters must be posted! This determines how often you must post!

In some bangs, it's 16 weeks or indefinite, but others have 8 weeks or less. In my last bang, we had a 40k word requirement, but only 8 weeks to post!

People who exceeded 40k (I had 80k) and had like 20 chapters had to update 3 times a week! This creates high volume on the feed and buries your work!

Assess the posting period in relation to the wc and no. of participants. In big fandoms, short posting periods will be a problem!

Okay I'm done now I'm sorry the thread is so long and probably flooded all your timelines!!!