Bangs

Process/Schedule
A big bang usually proceeds as follows: For Reverse Bangs, the schedule is generally the same, except the roles of the artists and writers are swapped.
 * The big bang is announced, with all details about focus, themes, schedule, rules, etc available to participants.
 * Lead-up: Mods use the lead-up period, which may be a few days to a few weeks, to promote the big bang.
 * Sign-up period: Some bangs require participants to sign-up in advance, but many don’t: it’s up to the mods. Generally, bangs that require sign-ups will need to have a longer lead-up period to allow for more promotion of the bang in advance. The sign-up period is usually at least a week.
 * Writing period: After sign-ups (if required), writers are given several weeks to several months to write a draft work. The time frame will vary depending on the minimum word count of the bang: a 5k bang may only have a 6 week writing period, while a 25k bang may have several months. During this time, mods will cheer on the participants and encourage them to cheer on each other. If advance sign-ups were not required, mods will also continue to promote the big bang to encourage more writers to give it a shot.
 * Artist sign-up period: Some bangs will require that artists sign up at a point during the writing period, rather than during the initial sign-up period at the beginning of the bang.
 * Drafts due: At the end of the writing period, writers submit their WIP drafts, along with a summary and other claims info, to the bang mods. If sign-ups were not required in advance, then submission of the draft/summary/contact info at this point is considered signing up. Nearly all bangs require that drafts be at least 50% complete; many require more, such as 80% complete.
 * Claims previews: Mods will post a full list of all summaries (and possibly other information, such as tags or warnings) to their host site. If artists were not required to sign up in advance, then this list must be publically viewable. Traditionally, the summaries are kept anonymously so that nobody knows who the writers are. Claims previews generally last a few days to give all artists a fair chance to evaluate which summaries they’d like to try to claim.
 * Claims: Claims open at a specified date and time. Each artist indicates which work they’d like to create art for. Traditionally, claims are first-come first-serve, so checking timezones for claims opening is important.
 * By the end of the claims process, bang mods will have confirmed to each artist and author who they will be working with.
 * The big bang then enters the arting/finishing period: Paired writers and artists will contact one another and the writer will send the artist their current draft. Writers will complete the draft and artists will create a new piece of art specifically for the story. Usually, a minimum of several weeks (sometimes months) is allowed for this period.
 * Posting date claims: At a specific time and date, mods will begin to accept posting date claims. A member of each writer/artist team must claim the date on which they want to post.
 * Posting: Over a pre-set period (generally a few weeks), participants post their works. Members of a team should post on the same day and should clearly link to each other’s work.
 * Round-up: At the end of the posting period, the mods should post a list of all works created for the bang.

Claims: the tricky bit of bangs
Bangs vary on whether they allow artists to claim multiple summaries, and whether multiple artists will be allowed to claim one summary. Most successful bangs operate by having multiple ‘rounds’ of claims: in the first round, each artist gets to claim one fic, and a fic can only be claimed once. In subsequent rounds, if there are more artists than fics, a fic may be claimed by a second artist; if there are more fics than artists, artists may claim more than one fic.

It is heavily advised that you do not allow fics to receive multiple claims until all fics have been claimed at least once.