This year I will be hosting a My Hero Academia Bang to celebrate my birthday! The theme of The Bang is Heartache//Slash, for both the readers and the characters. This is a slash event so all ships will be M/M or F/F (Nonbinary/Nonbinary, NB/M, and NB/F are also accepted!) This event will focus on the more gut-wrenching themes and tropes that usually require some form of content warning on Ao3. The event will be running for an entire year (May 30th, 2025 - May 30th, 2026) with the ability to finish early and the possibility of extensions up to six months (November 30th, 2026). If you're ready for that kind of commitment, boy oh BOY do I have more information for you!
Some common and widely known tropes relating to the theme would be:
- Hurt/No Comfort
- Trauma (physical/emotional)
- Major Character Death (does not have to be permanent)
- Violence (extreme or canon typical)
- Angst
- Enemies to Lovers
- Experimentation
- Villain au
- Dead Dove Do Not Eat
And more! There will be a list of other examples to choose from further down to get your blood pumping and creative juices flowing.
The only content strictly not allowed is Rape/Non-con. Past references to it are fine.
In the spirit of
the original Big Bang, this will be a collaborative event where authors will write a fanfic with a required minimum word count and an artist will be paired with them to create an illustration based on the fanfic. Beta Reading is also offered! If you would like to participate as both an author and artist you will not be allowed to create art for your own fanfic for the event- but doing it on your own time is absolutely fine! It goes without saying that you cannot Beta Read your own fic, as you are the one writing it, but you can Beta Read fics you're making art for.
The event will be divided into a Mini Bang! a Big Bang! and an Epic Bang! Each with different word count requirements.
The Mini Bang will have a minimum word count of 15k.
The Big Bang will have a minimum word count of 35k.
The Epic Bang will have a minimum word count of 100k.
There is no maximum word count for any of the Bangs.
Each Bang has a different allowance for qualifications.
The Mini Bang allows 1k words for wiggle room. (Min. 14k)
The Big Bang allows 5k words for wiggle room. (Min. 30k)
The Epic Bang allows 15k words for wiggle room. (Min. 85k)
If your final word count is too small to qualify for any of the Bangs it can be included as a Spark! Sparks have no minimum word count but still follow the theme of the main event. No fanart will be created to accompany Sparks, as they are not long form fiction.
All Bangs will run simultaneously on the same schedule. If you finish your fanfic before the event ends you are welcome (and encouraged) to pitch another idea and begin a new story. You are welcome to participate in multiple Bangs, but if you are an author I would highly recommend just focusing on one large fic or a few smaller stories. It will be more manageable to participate in multiple Bangs as an artist.
All fanfics written for this event must be included in the Ao3 collections for this event.
There is a parent collection for the entire event, with four sub-collections, one for each Bang! and Sparks. The links to the collections will be posted on the Discord server and on our strawpage once the event begins. There will be instructions on how to post to an Ao3 collection for those unfamiliar with that feature on Ao3.
Here is the schedule for Fanfic Authors:
Sign-Ups are open from April 5th to May 29th.
Pitches will be submitted through the sign-up form.
The Bang! officially kicks off on May 30th, 2025.
Pitches will be approved by June 1st.
First Check-Ins will be August 31st.
Second Check-Ins will be November 30th
Third Check-Ins will be February 28th.
Last Check-Ins will be April 18th.
Final Submissions will be due May 30th, 2026.
All deadlines are at 11:59pm EST.
Extensions will be allowed on a case-by-case basis, with a maximum extension of 6 months.
During the event, you will be able to contact me at any time over Discord to send progress updates between Check-Ins. There is no word count requirement or percentage of fic completed needed, as Check-Ins are a time for me to make sure you feel supported and inspired to keep going or offer a chance to drop out if you need to leave the event for any reason.
Check-Ins also present an opportunity to pitch another fanfic idea (once the first fic is complete) if you would like to write more than one story for the event.
You are allowed to finish your fic early and submit it at any time. Once your first fic is completed you are allowed to pitch a new idea to me at any time.
You are allowed to work on more than one fanfic at once (with a maximum of three), but I strongly encourage you to focus your efforts on one at a time.
Throughout the duration of the event you are allowed to post your fanfic as you are writing it. This mostly applies to chaptered fanfics. You can post each chapter as you finish it, so long as it is posted to the Ao3 Collection for the event. Each Bang! collection will remain open for the duration of the event.
I would recommend waiting until you have a few chapters finished and edited before you begin posting, but I find it very encouraging to get kudos and comments while needing the extra motivation to push through writing the tough spots. And you will be getting comments and kudos. From me. On every chapter >:^)))
Once your fanfic is completed it will be handed off to an artist for them to begin reading and planning an illustration. You will be communicating with the artist through the process in a private channel on the Discord server and can offer input on which scenes you feel have the emotional significance to be immortalized in digital art. Artists hold the right to make the final call on which scene they are drawing, however it must be approved by me before they begin.
Hopefully, you've got a good idea of what the event is all about and are feeling pumped and ready to dive in headfirst! But before we get to the good stuff (filling out the form)...
Here are the rules and requirements:
- All participants must be over 15. If you are found to be lying about your age you will be kicked from the event. I can elaborate on this if needed.
- All participants must be willing to commit to the event with the understanding that it will span an entire year and require a good deal of effort.
- All participants have Discord and agree to communicate primarily over Discord on the event server. There will be private channels to communicate with me directly instead of using DMs.
- NSFW content is allowed in fanfiction written by those 18+ but not required.
- No NSFW is allowed in fanart at all.
- No Rape/Non-con is allowed in any fanart or fanfiction.
- Any slash ship from MHA is allowed.
- Bullying of any kind will not be tolerated. And I mean any kind.
- All participants agree to post their work publicly to the Ao3 collection once it is completed.
With all of that out of the way... may the form-filling begin~!
