And with our NINETIETH sign-up, enrollment in this challenge is CLOSED. Keep an eye out for the signups for other slash and het pairings sign-ups beginning this week! Those will be handled quite a bit differently than these, so make sure you watch our community closely.

Welcome to the sign-ups for the (second) Stargate: Atlantis Big Bang Challenge! This is long! It's really long! But I believe that with patience and determination, you can read everything here. *salutes crisply*

What we're doing: The SGA Big Bang is going to be a joint effort between writers and artists. Writers write a story, and a fannish artist or vidder will read your story and create something based on it (we already have a list of artists and vidders who will be participating! They're all fantastic!) Regrettably, we couldn't ask all the artists in the community because it'd just get too complicated to have too many.

Then everything will go live all on one day (uh, most LIKELY one day, depending on how many stories finish), resulting in you going blind from trying to read all these huge stories and checking out all the fantastic artwork and vids.

SEE, FUNNESS. *grins*

This challenge is open to any writer who wishes to participate, but you must read through rules 1-7 here and make sure you qualify and are interested in following the set parameters.



Participation for Writers

1) Stories are to be 40,000 words, minimally.

1a) You must adhere to these coding guidelines. I am telling you about them now so that you can do them as you go along.

2) You must have your story beta read. By at least two people. There is a list of betas ready and willing to help you! Prospective betas, please note that I ask you not to beta for more than one (or possibly two) participants in this challenge.

3) In order for a writer to sign up for this challenge, you have to have completed a story of 10,000 words in any previous fandom. (Or original fic.)

4) Stories must be either Gen or have John/Rodney as the primary pairing of the story. Side pairings are fine, but the key word? Yeah, that would be *side*. Your pairing can get together over the course of the story; they don't have to have been together before.

** Please note that I won't appreciate any comments about 'why wasn't this pairing' included. (Yes, this is one of those, if you don't like it, don't participate/form your own challenge/whatever statements. We are actually working on adding a couple of additional pairings, but we'll see how that organization goes. :D )

5) You have a choice of one of the following prompts (some of you didn't want prompts. The majority of you did. If you can't make something work out of one of these prompts? I worry about you.)

Prompts Options:

A) Pick one:

* The Wraith make it to Earth. (AND THEN WHAT.)
* Encounters with Alternate Realities. (for example, Atlantis vs. The Ori.) For the purposes of this challenge, note the word *realities*, not *timelines*. Think more...parallel universes.
* Stargate Program declassified/Someone finds out about Atlantis.
* The Stargate Program never happened. (Or happened, and someone -- A BADDIE? -- took it away only someone/people remember...somehow.)
* Sequel/Prequel to another story the author has already written (ETA: NO FURTHER SIGN UPS FOR THIS PROMPT PERMITTED. ONLY IF YOU FINISHED A BIG BANG LAST YEAR MAY YOU STILL SIGN UP FOR THIS), including last year's Big Bang stories.
* Conflicts between Earth and Pegasus politics.
* John is more Ancient than anyone realizes.

B) A story set post-S4 of SGA.

C) Forks in the Road. Pick one of the following moments and write what happens:

* Adrift - Elizabeth has the nanites, but is never captured by the Replicators.
* Be All My Sins Remember'd - Elizabeth comes back at the end or we see more of what happened.
* Common Ground – Todd doesn’t give John his life back. Or gives too little life. Or gives too much life. (I know, I don't know what that last one means either. You decide!)
* Doppleganger - The Alien hitches a ride in a different team member.
* Epiphany - Rodney goes through the portal, not John or John and Rodney go through the portal together.
* First Strike - There is no "first strike."
* McKay and Mrs Miller - AU Sheppard won the toss, not Rod.
* Missing - Teyla was on new Athos when the Athosians were abducted.
* Outcast - John's brother Dave somehow becomes involved with the Replicators.
* Outcast - Rodney goes back to Earth with John instead of (or in addition to) Ronon.
* Quarantine - Mix up the pairings that were trapped.
* Reunion - Ronon goes with the Satedans.
* Reunion- Sam isn't the one that gets chosen as leader.
* Sunday - That thing with the exploding tumor? That last one doesn't actually go off.
* Tabula Rasa - They don't get all of their memories back.
* Tao of Rodney - John's the one accidentally caught in the machine.
* The Seer - John sees the future.
* This Mortal Coil - The copies of Weir and the team aren't killed.
* This Mortal Coil - That WAS the original team, captured and modified.
* Travelers - Larrin doesn't let Sheppard leave.
* Trio - John, Rodney, and Carter instead.

6) Your story cannot have appeared anywhere on the net already. If you already have a couple thousand of words of it up, we won't count that, but you must take it off the internet completely for the duration of the challenge. You also really should not have started your story yet. (Again, 2000 words, we won't count. Honor system, people! *eyes*)

7) Do not post your story anywhere online until one week after the challenge website goes live.

Deadlines:
March 10th: Writer sign-ups close.
May 12th: I will ask you on the community if you have 15,000 words yet. There are no consequences if you don't, but you are highly encouraged to have them done.
July 14th: COMPLETED story drafts are due. You will have a beginning, a middle, an ending. It will be completed to the point where, if posted online, you would not die of humiliation. You would only perhaps want to take a wee vacation in Bermuda. These will be sent swiftly to your artists. You may not blind your artists in other words. *g* All that should really be left is tweaking, slight plot point shifts, the like; adding the glossy finish to a beautifully crafted desk! No exceptions will be made - if your stories don't get submitted on this date, you won't get assigned an artist.
July 25th: Final copy of story is to be submitted into the story database. No exceptions will be made.
August 7th: Art, vids due.
August 12th or 13th: Site goes live.

REGARDING CROSSOVERS: Crossovers with SG-1 are permitted, but obviously, SGA personnel, again, your focus. No other crossovers are permitted.

REGARDING COLLABORATIONS: Yes, they are permitted, so long as all authors can commit to rules 1-7.

FINALLY. HOW TO COMMENT AND SIGN UP.

If you wish to write for this challenge, and can commit to rules 1-7, just comment below with:

a) Just paste this (if it is true.): I have read rules 1-7! I have written 10,000 words of another completed story somewhere in my past fannish life!
b) what you think you'll be writing - Gen or Sheppard/McKay (you may change your mind later.)
c) give me your e-mail address.
d) Then go to join sgabigbang AND friend the community. You *must* join and friend for updates; it's a requirement to participate in this challenge.

Participation for Non-Writers

To participate in other ways, the following areas WANT YOU. /Uncle Sam voice.

Beta reader - Please comment on this post to volunteer!

Cheering - Sometimes people just need someone to read through their story and maybe help brainstorm a bit, give them a push or some encouragement. If this is something you'd like to do and can make yourself available for, comment on that post.

Skin Designer - You must be able to do both CSS and skin graphics if you'd like to help us out. Our fabulous website team of lauralaitaine and lim are returning for more, so they'll tell you what to do! You may sign up for that in this post; please comment with your e-mail.

Coding help - Basically, you'd help coding the stories and help in any other way the Web Designers needs you. You may sign up for that in this post; please comment with your e-mail.

Every month, there will be at least one check-in post and one group SGA Big Bang chat for fun. We will poll on the community to figure out a time that will work for the most people.

I think that covers anything! Any questions, let me know. Otherwise, well.

Sign up, already!

(You can check out our first year's challenge here. You can find a bunch of banners and linkback buttons and icons here!)