Writers Sign-Up Guide

So you want to sign up as a writer for the Spideypool Big Bang? Here’s what you need to know about filling in the Form!

## Drafts

Writers need to turn in a draft that consists of 40% of the planned final story, with the remainder outlined in full. It is important to remember that we are asking for 40% of your overall plot, not necessarily the final word count, although this can be a useful indicator of how much is completed i.e. if you calculate that the plot of your story will come to approximately 10 000 words, then you will need to submit a draft of 4000 words, plus an outline to cover the remaining 6000 words. The 40% does not need to be chronological, or even the start of the story: for example, it could be 20% of the beginning, 5% of the middle, and 15% of the end. The remainder of the story will need to be outlined: this can be a list of scenes, as vague as, “They go on a few dates and then there’s a wedding,” or fully fleshed out. Remember, drafts do not need to be polished pieces! The purpose of the draft and outline is to be certain that you know what you’re going to write and have an ending in mind. This also gives Artists enough material to work with for creating art once claims have been completed and team introductions have been emailed out. Once you receive your teammate’s contact information, you will be responsible for contacting your artist and providing them with this draft. The mods will not be sending it to your artist for you.

Please note, the mods do check submissions quite thoroughly on sign-ups to determine that minimum requirements are met. If we do not feel the submission meets minimum requirements, we will contact a writer with recommendations and a request to re-submit.

## Summaries

The summaries we are asking for now are intended for artists to make decisions about which stories they would like to make art for. This is not the same as a promotional summary, which we will request at a later check-in. Your goal here should be to create the most enticing and informative summary you can so that artists know what they are getting into when they claim your story. We encourage you to spoil as much of the story as you are comfortable with. Try to keep the summary to a reasonable length of no longer than 500 words, and remember Artists will be reading 30+ of these.

**Examples of Artists Claims Summaries:**

**Example 1:** Wade is beyond proud to have been chosen as the personal bodyguard for Prime Minister Jean-Paul Beaubier, Canada’s first openly gay head of state. He will do anything to protect the PM. What he doesn’t expect is a tipsy FSOTUS stumbling into his orbit and flirting his way into Wade’s heart.

Peter is just trying to get through his graduate program without an ulcer, but being the President’s son isn’t helping matters. He’s too busy to have a mental breakdown. He needs to destress STAT. But the president is requiring him to attend the State Dinner welcoming the new PM of Canada and his family into international politics, and you don’t say no to the person paying your enormous grad school bills. So his plan for the dinner is to stay as out of the public eye as possible and drink as much champagne as someone will put in his hand. He doesn’t expect the PM’s bodyguard to be hot. It’s not his fault two champagnes make it impossible for him to keep his mouth shut about it.

After they spend an ill-advised night together, feelings take over. But is Wade willing to risk ruining the re-election of his country’s first openly gay PM for love? And will Peter be able to figure out his own feelings long enough to let him? And do either of them have a choice when they’re coming up with more and more unrealistic reasons to see each other and spending more and more time in coat closets and bathroom stalls than any FSOTUS and foreign bodyguard should?

**Example 2:** Much to Peter’s chagrin, Wade has been asked to join the Avengers, and the two are forced to work together. Wade loves it. Peter does not. Lots of bickering, culminating in Peter webbing Wade to the side of a building and making out with him mid-fight with a Big Bad. They both get yelled at by the other Avengers, kill the Big Bad, then run off to the nearest safe house. Lots of down and dirty smut.

## Warnings

In these summaries you must include the standard major AO3 warnings: rape/non-con, underage, and graphic violence.

Additionally, you must include the specific iteration of Spiderman/Deadpool you are using (if you have a specific one in mind. If you don’t have a specific one in mind, you can ignore this section) - e.g. Tom Holland!Spidey, Into the Spiderverse Peter B. Parker, Comic!Wade, etc.

We recommend being open about any major themes in your stories, and anything that might potentially be a squick/trigger because we know that everyone is different, and something you find totally acceptable may not be for someone else. Since artists are unable to nope out of a story once they have claimed it (unlike reading something on AO3) without being disqualified from participation in the event for the next year, we want to make sure everyone is comfortable with the material they agree to work on.

Here are some additional tags which have previously been requested by artists of the event:

* A/B/O
* Non-Human Anatomy
* Mpreg
* Cheating
* Unhappy Ending
* Additional Pairings
* Unscarred/Pre-Weapon X/Conventionally Attractive!Wade
* Crazy/Jealous/Rival Ex/Friend Trope (i.e. Harry is Peter’s ex, but he keeps butting in because he wants to get back together with Peter)
* Body Horror/Vore/Cannibalism/Bodily Fluid Play
* Kink(s) (i.e if your story has kinks, please list these individually)

## Visual Components

The purpose of Visual Components is to give your potential artist an idea of the atmosphere of your story and/or what types of scenes they might draw inspiration from. The more visually stimulating you can make your descriptions, the better.

**Examples of Visual Components:**

**Example 1:** Roof-top make-outs, Big Bad that looks like a sentient bowl of curdled milk dyed Halloween colors and shoots globs of cottage-cheese like acid at enemies, Peter wears the Spider-punk suit, Wade gets an arm burned off with acid and uses his amputated hand to slap a Hydra agent in the face, Peter’s messy room in Avengers tower, Peter has a lot of old computer parts lying around

**Example 2:** Spaceship, zero gravity, think Firefly not Star Trek, lots of rusted metal, engine room with a contained neutron star in the center, lots of snarky messages sent via instant messenger, Wade in all-black tactical gear, Peter wears a lot of baggy sweaters and sits in places not meant for adult humans to sit, like the backs of desk chairs and the top of bookshelves, Wade heavily scarred, but in a battle-hardened way and not a Weapon X way

If you would like some additional information, here is a link to a comprehensive document created by artists who have participated in claims before. This was NOT created by artists from the Spideypool Big Bang, but the information they provide is applicable to any Big Bang event. It details what artists look for and why they choose certain fics.

1. ↑ *All banner edits*
courtesy of Nimohtar.