MDZS
Reverse Big Bang

a collaborative fandom event

What is it?

A Reverse Big Bang is a fandom event wherein artists and authors are anonymously paired to create a collaborative work. The artist anonymously provides one or more pieces of art (computer painting, photomanip, watercolor, etc.) and the author writes a story based on that art.This RBB is open to all iterations of the MDZS fandom: novel, donghua, manhua, live action, and more!

Schedule

Interest check, Art creation, & Hanging-out-on-Discord period:
until February 29th
Art Submissions: March 1st - March 14th
Writer Art Claims: March 17th - March 24th
Claims/Pair-ups Announced: no later than April 1st
Fic Rough Draft 50% Check-In: May 1st - May 9th
Fic Rough Draft 75% Check-In: June 1st - June 9th
Complete Rough Draft Check-In and Posting Date Claims: June 23rd - July 1st
Posting Dates Announced: no later than July 8th
Posting Begins: July 15th

Rules
Rules that people commonly missed will be marked in bold.

EXPECTATIONSYou are expected to read, understand, and adhere to the event rules. If you do not understand something, it is your responsibility to ask the moderators for clarification.You will maintain awareness of the event schedule, and manage your own time accordingly.You will meet all check-in points and submit drafts when they are scheduled/requested.You will join the event's Discord server, and regularly check it.
We understand this may be difficult for some people, whether due to social anxiety or technological and/or geographical limitations, however after years of running this event, we find that having a direct line of communication between both moderators and participants makes everything run smoother.You and your event partner(s) will establish an agreed upon level of collaboration and communicate about progress and ideas or desired changes accordingly.You will communicate with your event partner(s) and the moderators in a timely and professional manner. This includes responding within 24 hours to all Discord messages and/or emails.You must have the knowledge and equipment/materials to make your fic or art, and backup plans in place in the case of equipment or software failure.GENERAL RULESIn lieu of a formal sign-up form this year, we have opted instead for an "interest check" form. It is not required for participation, but helpful for the event mods’ planning.All participants must provide a working email address they check regularly. This will be considered a backup communication tool for moderators. Your email will not be shared with anyone else.You must join the Discord server and regularly check it.Starting this year, Discord is the official place for event updates, and some information/updates may not be available or disseminated anywhere else.You must be at least 18 years old to participate in this event, defined as being born on or before March 1st 2006 (due to March 1st 2024 being the day art submissions open).There will be no extensions on check-ins this year. If you cannot make a check-in, you must contact a mod in advance. If you miss a check-in with no forewarning, this will be considered as you automatically dropping out of the event.ANONYMITY AND MATCHINGClaims are anonymous (or as much as they can be for those with distinctive art styles!). Participants may not independently form partnerships prior to claims, and any requests of that type will not be honored by the moderators.Claims are NOT first-come-first-serve. As every year, we will be asking writers to rank their claims in order of preference, and we will be doing our best to match everyone up according to those choices.As is the spirit of these events, you never know who you will be paired with. We ask that you be open and communicative with each other, and work together, as well as coordinate your posting dates preferences to avoid any conflict.This is a collaborative event. There is a certain amount of communication involved in it, and if you feel that you are not able to commit to responding to your partner and event mods in a timely manner, this may not be the event for you. If you find it stressful to occasionally participate in a sizable chat environment, or may not be able to fairly regularly privately talk to someone you may not have known previously, please consider sitting this one out, to save both yourself and your potential event partner the compounding stress of such a situation.During the collaboration process, you may come across topics that make your teammate uncomfortable. We ask that you do your best to compromise on this and communicate your preferences and restrictions, and abide by them, so that both you and your teammate can have a good experience.In the interest of making this event fun for everyone, we'd like to state upfront that portrayals of character bashing and/or ship bashing in event works are heavily discouraged, and very frowned upon.
We know that the definition of "bashing" can be subjective, and that attempting to outline every criteria to qualify it would be difficult and counterproductive, so we hope everyone can use their own best judgment on what would constitute "bashing", especially when deciding to cast characters in negative, antagonistic, or outright villainous roles.
With the troubling rise of negativity in this fandom, we just wanted to make it clear that we hold the view that fanworks created for the purpose of bashing specific ships or characters that you dislike, or which have a polarising reputation in the fandom, are not welcome in this event.At no point may you drop your team member and choose a new one on your own. If you are having trouble with your partner, please contact the moderators, and we will try to look for a solution, up to and including reassigning your work.RULES FOR ARTISTSALL FORMS OF AI ART ARE FORBIDDEN in this event. This includes adding elements to art "created" by AI or editing it, or incorporating AI elements into original pieces.Artists will create at least one (1) piece of new art featuring canon MDZS or CQL characters. Modern AU’s and photomanips using the CQL actors' other photographs are acceptable; RPF (real person fiction) is not.Artists may submit up to three (3) separate pieces (which means you will collaborate with three different authors). All art submissions must be completed (to your definition of it) when you send them in. We will not accept preliminary sketches or yet-to-be-colored lineart for claims. This applies even to the final submission of artists with multiple submissions.You don't need to let us know in advance if you plan to submit more than one piece of art - however many submissions we receive, that's how many we will match with writers.Claims are anonymous. Therefore, the final art you submit may not be publicly displayed before posting. To avoid bias during claims, we ask that artists also not discuss their art in public, or with any authors in the chat, prior to after the claims pair-ups are announced.
Art submissions must contain no signatures, watermarks, or other marks that identify you as the artist. You may use a generic watermark that does not identify you as the artist, for example: "For use only in the MDZS RBB". This is only for anonymity during claims - artists may use watermarks etc. when posting their art publicly on their assigned posting date.Artists will submit their completed art through a provided form. Art will go through an anonymous claims process in which authors will claim a piece of art to use as the basis for a fic. Therefore, although you may continue to make changes to your work after claims, the author must be able to write a fic based on the art as it was presented during claims. Any changes you make should not significantly alter the subject (unless you and your author expressly agree on this).Communicate with your author, according to your agreed upon collaboration needs. We ask that artists who choose a low/minimal collaboration level on their part and give most/all of the decision-making power to the author do not "ghost" the author for the event duration and stop responding to messages. Any extended period of lack of contact may be considered to mean you're dropping out of the event.Along with their art, artists may include a list of restrictions on fic content (eg. no major character death, no infidelity, etc.) that authors must adhere to. You may also include a suggested prompt, or details/tropes you’d like to see in the fic.While authors must adhere to the "Do Not Want" lists, please keep in mind that the prompt and other requests are suggestions rather than a cemented plot, and that your author may not be able to fill the prompt to your exact specifications.
You are not requesting a commission - you are collaborating on a project together. If what you want is for someone to write a fic step-by-step exactly how you want it, and you want to leave little to no room for the author to apply their own creativity or interpretation - this may not be the event for you.Your art must be publicly available for at least 12 consecutive months after the end of the MDZS Reverse Bang posting period.All visual art forms are welcome, whether digital or traditional, 2-D or 3-D. (Please note however that photo-based art must be significantly altered in order to create a unique image. It must be more than just you using an automated filter, or putting on a text overlay on it.)Art should be at least 500px wide (height may vary) for 2-dimensional art and photos of crafts or other traditional art, or 30 seconds long for a video. There is no maximum size, but please be mindful of final file sizes with regards to uploading and downloading. The file format is up to you, but please try to keep it to the most common and accessible file formats.All characters visually depicted in explicit sexual situations need to be (or can be assumed to be) 18 years old, or older.RULES FOR AUTHORSAuthors will write a complete fic at least 5,000 words long based on the art they’ve claimed. Authors have approximately three months to write their story, and should consider this timeline when making a claim. Please be conscious of the short writing period and do not claim something you cannot do justice to in that window.Authors must respect restrictions specified by the artist during claims (such as tropes or themes that cannot be included in the fic).Your fic is not expected to be a word-for-word rendition of the art prompt but it must be related to the art for which it is written, and it cannot have been already posted elsewhere.Authors may not wildly deviate their fic from the art or an already agreed upon plot, unless your artist has expressly permitted this. Progress and changes must be communicated to your artist according to your agreed upon collaborations needs.Authors may not alter the art or demand changes to the art to fit the fic, unless your artist has expressly permitted this.Authors may not commission additional art for the fic created as part of this event, even if your artist permits it.Additionally, you may not illustrate your own fic, or ask artistic friends to make art for you as a gift, at any point within at least 12 months after the end of the MDZS Reverse Bang posting period.Fics written for the event must be in English. If you are multilingual and would like to also publish the fic in other languages as well, you're welcome to do so. However, a translation of a pre-existing fic would not qualify for the event. (An example of this, because we got questions last year: writing a 5k fic called "Summer in Gusu", and then also translating "Summer in Gusu" into Spanish would be very cool! Translating a fic you already published back in 2019 named "Winter in Lotus Pier" from Spanish into English, because it could fit the art you claimed, would not be cool.)Rough drafts submitted at the respective check-in dates must be at least 50 and 75% completed based on your estimated total word count (do your best to determine this), with the remaining scenes outlined.Please don't share too many details about your fic publicly until your posting date. Teasing your fic is encouraged, including "WIP Wednesday"-type posts, but posting giant excerpts of it is not.Your fic should be created exclusively for this event, and as a response to the art. Accordingly, it can be part of a series only if no previous knowledge of the series is necessary to understand or enjoy it. It can also be the start of a series, but only if the fic itself is complete, and can be read as a standalone piece.Your fic should be complete and edited, free from most spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes. Beta readers are heavily encouraged. We will not be conducting beta-matching, but there are a number of people on the event's Discord who have marked themselves as available to Beta, and will be happy to help you.Your story must be posted to AO3, and included in the official collection for the Reverse Bang. You are expected to include a link from the fic to your artist’s post. We encourage you to embed the art if your artist allows it!Your fic must be complete and posted in its entirety on your scheduled posting date. Serial posting (posting pieces or chapters over the space of several days) is prohibited during the Reverse Bang posting period.You must tag for all of AO3’s major archive warnings If they are present in your work. In case you're unaware, these are: "Major Character Death", "Graphic Depictions of Violence", "Rape/Non-con", and "Underage". If you do not wish to tag for these specific warnings despite them being present in your fic, you may use the "Creator Chose Not to Warn" option, but the artist whose art you've claimed must be aware of all the warnings present in your fic.Your published fic must be publicly available for at least 12 consecutive months after the end of the MDZS Reverse Bang posting period. However, you are allowed to lock the access to the fic to be restricted only to logged-in AO3 users. If you opt for doing this, please make sure your artist has an AO3 account, and if they don't, you must provide them with an alternative copy of the finalized work (for example, a pdf or epub file downloaded from AO3 itself).CLAIMSClaims are anonymous. Authors will have a chance to view all the available art during claims, but they will not know the identity of the artist.To avoid bias during claims, we ask artists not to discuss their art in public or with any authors in the chat prior to claims. This includes discussing or previewing your art in private groups that include people who are not participants in this event. Art submissions must contain no signatures, watermarks, or other artist-identifying marks. This is only for anonymity during claims - artists may use watermarks etc. when posting their art publicly on their assigned posting date.Authors will be emailed a link to the claims form and be directed to the art gallery when claims open. Authors will have a 7-day window to submit their claims.The form will ask for the author's top ten art selections. Although there will be space for ten art claims, authors will be required to list only five.Claiming at least five (5) art pieces is mandatory. The same selection cannot repeat multiple times. Listing fewer than five unique claims will automatically disqualify you from participation.Authors are required to read all information provided for an art piece before adding it to their claims list.By listing an art piece as a claim you are stating that you have read the art's info, including any restrictions and desired rating, and that you are prepared to write a fic for it. Keep in mind that authors must adhere to any "Do Not Want" lists provided by the artists.This applies to any art on your list, whether it is #1 or #10.YOU ARE NOT GUARANTEED TO GET THE CLAIM YOU LISTED AS #1. We try to do our best, but it's not always possible. If you list 10 pieces, you could be assigned your #10 claim. Keep this in mind.Do not claim art you do not wish to write for, or if you won't be excited to write it because it wasn't your #1.We will do our best to match all the art submissions with authors as soon as possible. Any art which remains unmatched or proves to be difficult to match after most pieces are accounted for will be sent to authors who signed up as pinch-hitters. As soon as all art submissions have been matched (or on April 1st, even if a pinch-hit remains), we will publish the claims pair-ups.

WITHDRAWING FROM THE BANGThere is no penalty for dropping out before claims. If you're an artist and you already submitted your art, we request that you let us know so we can pull that art and not match you.If you have already gone through claims and need to drop out, contact us immediately so we can arrange for a pinch hitter as needed. You must also* communicate with your author or artist directly.Dropping out after claims have been published carries a penalty of a 1 year event ban. (That is, you will not be able to participate in the following year, not the one you dropped out in.)
Ghosting after claims carries a penalty of a permanent event ban.
...So, it is much better to drop out and tell us immediately than it is to just vanish!In the event of an emergency, get in touch with us as soon as it is reasonably possible and safe for you to do so. We will work with you as well as we can while still enforcing the rules of the event.Mods may be willing to waive penalties for dropping out in emergency circumstances; however, "emergencies" are defined as "sudden, unforeseeable, and inescapable." Hurricanes, hospitalizations, and sudden employment changes are all potentially emergencies; schoolwork of any variety explicitly is not. You do not need to share your circumstances with the moderators, but doing so will allow them to help you. Anything discussed with the moderators stays with the moderators.In the event that an author drops out of the challenge before posting occurs, the moderator team will work to find a pinch-hit author for their artist. If an artist drops out, the author will be offered the opportunity to post their fic on their original posting date, and we'll attempt to find an artist potentially willing to pinch hit an artwork (but we can't promise success, given the "reverse" nature of the event).Please do not use social media to announce you're dropping out before communicating with everyone involved, since we don’t want your artist or author finding out that way. Similarly, please don't shame people for dropping out - it's harassment, especially if you don't know their circumstances. Just don’t.PENALTIESThere is no penalty if you notify the moderators that you need to drop out before claims finish.If you miss a check-in point or fail to submit a draft without prior approval from the moderators, you will be automatically dropped from the bang.If you lie to the moderators or to your partner, or if you break the rules about posting, the anonymity of claims, or commissions, you will be dropped from the bang. Depending on the infraction, you may be barred from participation in future editions of the Reverse Bang and its affiliates.Breaking the event rules and other actions not specifically outlined here will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The moderators’ decision is final.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I sign up?
We do not have a formal sign-up this year. Instead we have an Interest Check form, linked below. Artists may join at any time before March 14th. Authors may join up to March 24th. Betas and Pinch-hit authors may join at any time.Can I publish my chapters over several days?
No. We understand that some authors find it frustrating to post all chapters of their fic on the same day; however, given the number of participants last year, if we allowed WIPs we would absolutely be dominating the tag, which isn't fair to other MDZS authors. It has always been the policy of the MDZS RBB that fics be published complete.Why don't you allow under-18-year-olds in anymore?? I could do it before!
Every time we've allowed under-18's in, we've had problems with minors entering adults-only sections. (It also makes the moderation much more complicated.) We're sorry if this disqualifies someone who would otherwise have participated, but this decision was made for the overall sustainability of the Bang.Does the story have to be stand-alone?
The story must be created for the event, as a response to the art, and must be complete. It can be part of a series, provided only that no previous knowledge of the series is necessary to understand or enjoy it. It can be the start of a series as long as the fic itself is complete.How do I submit my art?
Art submissions will be open from March 1st to March 14th. We'll be using an Airtable form to manage art submissions. (Yes, we'll issue instructions on that when the time comes.)I wanna be a pinch hitter!
Fabulous! Complete an author sign-up and join the Discord, where you can select the Pinch-hitter role to be notified when we are in need of a pinch-hit.I can't finish by my posting date...
Contact us on the Discord as soon as you know.I don't have/want a beta.
Fics are required to be complete and free of basic spelling and grammatical errors. A beta helps ensure that this is the case, so they are required for this bang. We have a beta-requesting channel on the Discord server for those who don't already have a beta for their writing.Do artists and authors both have to post to AO3?
Both the art and the fic must be findable on AO3. If the artist would prefer to embed their post in the fic rather than having separate posts for fic and art, that's allowed. Ultimately, since it affects the feedback they get, the artist gets to make the decision regarding embedding or not.What if I want to post to some other site?
That is allowed, as long as it's in addition to posting on AO3.Do I have to read my author's fic?
Yes. This is a collaborative event, and you can't have collaboration without looking at each other's stuff!Can I make my artist change their art?
No. In this event, the art comes first, and then authors choose the art, so pick something you're comfortable working with. (However, if you're talking about the collaborative work and the artist says, "Oh, you did X? I can do Y in response!" that's fine. And pretty cool!)Is RPF/CP allowed?
No, RPF is not allowed in this event. However, modern AU's and no-power AU's are. For that reason, photomanips featuring the actors in modern garb are perfectly welcome.I don't want fic based on a certain adaptation.
Please note this when you submit your art.I love my author's fic, and I'd like to make additional art for it! Is that allowed?
Yes. Also, your author probably loves you now!I'm having some problems with my/another author/artist...
Contact us via discord and we'll sort it out.Do I have to use Discord?
Yes. Artist-author matching and posting dates will be sent out via email; all other official communication will be posted to the Discord. For that reason, we do ask that you have a Discord account and check it periodically. If you need help navigating it at all, you are welcome to ask a mod. (And don't worry—it's free!)

Interest Check

Artists may join at any time before March 14th.
Authors may join up to March 24th.
Betas and Pinch-hit authors may join at any time.Click Here to Submit