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!
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.
If the 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.
All Bangs will run simultaneously on the same schedule. You are welcome to participate in multiple Bangs as an Artist, Author, and/or Beta Reader, but if you are an author I would highly recommend focusing on writing one large fic or a few smaller stories. It will be more manageable to participate in multiple Bangs as an Artist and/or Beta Reader.
As a Beta Reader, you will be assigned fanfics based on your interests. You can take on one to three fanfics at a time, but I would strongly encourage you to start with one or two.
There will be private channels for Authors and their official Beta Readers to converse on the server so DMs don't get cluttered and important info does not get lost.
Beta readers do not have official deadlines, but Mods will check in on the private channels after a week has passed with no updates.
There is no one specific way to Beta Read a fanfic. In fact, the term Beta Reader has a matching term, known as an Alpha Reader. Alpha readers focus on earlier drafts and help with 'bigger picture' critiques, such as plot holes, organizing scenes, character growth and development (arcs) through the story, and other more abstract aspects of the story. Beta readers are given the more polished drafts and help with smaller details such as grammar, readability, word choice, clarity, and pacing. Most people don't know the difference between the two so they get lumped together as Beta Reading.
Both Beta and Alpha reading will be offered for this event, and it will be clarified which one you are providing/offering when taking on a new fic.
Some common ways to Beta Read include:
- Grammar and Spellchecking
- Advice on plot points
- Opinions on the flow of the story
- Critique on whether or not the vibe matches what the author wants.
- Suggestions on ways to improve descriptions and flowery language.
- Advice on writing specific characters
- Opinions on what tense to write the story/certain scenes in (past/present)
- General encouragement
- Funny feral reactions to the big moments (building hype)
Insulting someone's work is not constructive criticism, you're just being an asshole.
When an author asks to have their work reviewed and Beta Read it is your responsibility as a Beta Reader to ask what kind of Beta Reading they want for their fic. Some people love harsh critique, and other people are like soft shelled crabs and need extra hype with very gentle advice. Make sure you're treating the author and their story how they wish for it to be treated, but always, always with kindness.
A few more things I'd like to clear up:
- You are allowed to Beta Read multiple fanfics at once.
- You are allowed to Beta Read for multiple Bangs! at once.
- You can Beta Read for the same author, or as many other authors as you'd like.
- Each fanfic is allowed to have as many Beta Readers as the author would like.
- You can drop a fanfic if you don't have the time to continue Beta Reading it.
- You can offer to Beta Read unofficially. This will be done on your own time and you will not have any formal check-ins or be notified of updates by mods.
- Beta and Alpha Readers are there to uplift Authors. Be kind.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I think that's everything! If you have any comments, questions, or concerns please feel free to ask them at the end of the form!
And may the form filling begin!! >:^))
