ds_c6d_bigbang | Rules Post

1. Rules for Primary pieces:

Fic

Stories must have a minimum of 20,000 words. There is no maximum. If you've posted any part of the fic in the past, you will need 20,000 new words. If you are co-authoring, the minimum is 25,000 words.

Stories must be complete and stand-alone (i.e. not just Part One of an ongoing story). If you published an unfinished fic in a previous Big Bang (back when when Part One fics were accepted), you may submit the final part of the story.

Stories must be betaed by at least one person. If your story is not betaed to a reasonable standard, you may be asked to edit it or remove it from the collection.

Art

Art can be one piece or a series of related pieces. We just ask that there be something there that gives a sense of narrative thread, or a scene, or a moment even, in that fandom.

And seriously, art is a VERY broad term, including handmade and digital works. A partial list includes painting, drawing, digital art, sculpture, cross-stitch, wood-working, stained glass, papier-mache… Basically, any medium is acceptable, with the exception of icons and fanmixes. If either of these are your form of creative expression, please sign up to do a complementary piece, because we’d love to have them. If you'd like to make a case for how your icon set will satisfy the amount of time commensurate with a primary piece, we'll totally hear you out on it.

As far knowing if you’ve met the minimum requirement, this is trickier. Our best advice is to base this on an estimate of working 5+ hours a week, 3 weeks a month, for 5 months = 75+ hours, which is the amount of time we roughly estimate an author would put into a fic for this challenge. We’re not saying you have to log your time or anything. This is just to give you an idea of how much work we’re talking about in whatever your preferred medium is. If you have specific questions relating to art requirements, feel free to contact a mod.

Podfic

Podfic must be of a story with a minimum of 20,000 words, or 25,000 for collaborative podfics.

Vids

At least 3 minutes, please.

Other media

Seriously, you can do pretty much anything that will take 75+ hours’ worth of time, including mixed media, knitting, piñata making, etc. Ask if you're not sure, but we are very welcoming of all forms of creative expression.

2. Rules for Complementary pieces:

Fic and Podfic

Fic must be at least 2,000 words. Poetry is allowed and should represent an effort commensurate with a 2,000-word fic. Podfic should be of stories of at least 2,000 words.

Art

Art must be at least one piece, again in any medium. If you want to do icons, a minimum of 20 icons must be submitted.

Vids

1.5 minutes at the minimum.

3. Deadlines

Primary creators can edit/tweak their Primary fanworks right up to the go-live date, but it must be completed and submitted to AO3 by the primary work deadline in order to go on the list of works available to complementary creators. For fic, that means it has a beginning and an ending, with no missing sections or placeholders in between, is a minimum length of 20,000 words, and is polished enough to be published without any further changes, in the mods’ opinion. For art, vid or podfic, it must be finished and suitable for publication without any further changes, in the mods’ opinion. This is to make sure that those working on Complementary pieces have a completed Primary fanwork in the collection to show as their inspiration, and to avoid last-minute no-shows.

If you miss the Primary Work Deadline and want to aim for the Complementary Work Deadline instead, you can do that and still be part of the collection, but you won’t get a complementary creator assigned to you.

Complementary creators are required to check in at the Complementary check-in deadline. Complementary creators who default by no-show at the final Complementary deadline will not be allowed to sign up to future due South/C6D big bangs except by prior agreement with the moderators.

4. Fandoms

This big bang is for due South and Canadian Six Degrees (see a partial list of acceptable fandoms here). Any rating, any pairing (or more, or none) is acceptable. Due South or c6d, both RPF/RPS and crossovers are fair game. If it’s a crossover/fusion with a non-dS/c6d fandom, the dS/c6d fandom should be the fanwork’s main fandom – see the FAQ for more details. If you're not sure, ask a mod. The most likely answer will be YES PLEASE, more C6D fanworks!

5. Your fanwork cannot have appeared anywhere else on the internet. If the story you are writing is a partially-posted WIP, you must stop posting to it until the go-live date and add at least 20,000 new, previously unpublished words. Unposted WIPs are perfectly acceptable.

6. All works must be posted to the challenge’s AO3 collection. Do not post your story anywhere else until two weeks after the go-live date, but DO post the link to it on your blogs. Make sure all your friends know about the awesome new work you’ve created!

7. No bashing of other pairings/characters or other participants. We shouldn't have to say this, but play nice.

8. All participants must be 18+, as fanworks and chats may be unsuitable for younger fans.

9. Please check out the FAQ Page to see if there’s anything else you’re wondering about that isn’t covered here.

Let us know if you have any questions! Comment below, or PM one of your friendly neighbourhood mods, or email us at dsc6dbbmod at gmail dot com.