The main page generates the idea of an organized community-focused event with the result of producing a batch of creative works. It uses the following logic:
Will the event have an anonymous period?
Many events in fandom tend to be "anonymous" in some way - that is, works are initially revealed to the public anonymously. This practice tends to help with community bonding and formulating friendships, as works can be browsed largely indiscriminately, and foster an element of curiosity. Fans can also make friends this way, if they are impressed by each other's works.
Some anonymous events have a formal guessing period as well, where fans try to guess the others' works. This challenge encourages fans to create more experimentally, and operates like as a casual game.
The anonymous period usually lasts no longer than a week to ten days. Anonymous events have two reveal periods: first the works, then the creators. Anonymous zines may have works uncredited in the zine, but creators can post them on their personal accounts.
Of course, non-anonymous events are possible as well - just a one and done submission to reveal. It depends on your intention and scope of the event. Anonymity has a 50% chance of appearing on each new prompt.
What kind of creative work is to be made and submitted?
- fanfiction
- artwork
- fanwork
No others are listed because I would assume anyone who would like to make a podfic/video etc. sort of event would already have that in mind. Writing and art are the most popular forms of fanwork, particularly in the digital space. "Fanwork" is broader and includes things such as comics, games, podfic, videos, edits, and cosplay.
How will the participants engage in the event?
- gift exchange - arguably the most common type, gift exchanges are where participants sign up to get matched and create for another participant
- prompt fest - an event that first allows a wider audience to provide prompts of works they'd like to see, and then a signup and claiming period for any interested participants for those provided prompts
- fan week - a dedicated real-time week where each day is assigned a prompt. Moderators of the fanweek event will release the list early to allow participants time to create, and then share works of each prompt on corresponding days until the event week is over.
- zine - an organized collection of works for digital or physical publication, incorporating other stylistic decisions such as layouting, covers, branding, organized design, and sequence of works.
- bang/reverse bang - intentionally scaled events that prompt writers to create a story for the event, and later get assigned an accompanying artist to create additional works for their story, formulating a complete work of prose and art altogether. Reverse bangs are the opposite, wherein artists create the art first for writers to later claim and write a story to. Big bangs are the most commonly known 'bang', though smaller bangs have cropped up here and there. This is only listed as "bangs" to be inclusive of the user's preferences. It also does not have to be fanfiction/fanart exclusive if you do not wish it to be.
- team competition - a large organized event that separates signed up participants into teams (whether self-selected or assigned), and then has them compete for points through the creation of works. Examples include Kpop Olymfics and Homestuck Shipping World Cup.
I selected these types because they are easily situationally transferrable and tend to be one-time events, though of course they can be run again.
Fandom event types I didn't include due to how specific or how much long-term commitment they may require are: kinkmemes, bingos, stocking exchanges, and auctions/raffles. If you'd like to run one of those, you can always generate something and pretend that the event type is what you intend it to be instead.
What is the event centered around?
Fandom events need to have a subject at the center, to give them purpose, to give participants direction, and to distinguish them from other fandom events in some way. The breadth of this is up to you. I've included options for plurality if multi-fandom events are more your thing.
All subjects will have an adjective in front of them in case you would like a subject but are struggling to come up with one. These can be used in multi-fandom ways as well, ex. an event centered around underrated characters in any fandom at the participants' discretion (though it would be wise to add a prompt here as well for a clearer sense of direction).
- well-known ("popular")
- underrated ("rare" or "not popular", depending on how you would like to interpret it)
- any/your (in lieu of no adjective. 'Your' is for you (the event moderator) more than the participant, while 'any' can be used as a "limitation" for participants.)
Subjects have a plurality option to account for multi-fandom events. The only exception to this is "broader fandom," as it is inherently multi-fandom in conceit.
- broader fandom - an umbrella group that encompasses multiple fandoms, such as Sports Anime, MXTX, Shoujo, RPF, Sports RPF, Boy Bands, Books, Movies, K-Pop etc.
- fandom - a specific title or media contained in one narrative world (though what this means is up to you)
- ship - a relationship between two or more characters, often romantic/sexual in nature
- character - a character. Just a guy (gender neutral).
- trope - a recognizable theme, plot device, or storytelling technique that you might like enough to run an entire event around. The event moderator might really like fake dating, or accidental marriages, or competitive AUs, or omegaverse.
What other restrictions are on the works to make them more creative or unique?
Each new prompt has a 50% chance of having an additional limitation for the submitted works as another challenge or restriction to encourage participants' creativity. Sometimes these do not fit perfectly with combinations of other generated elements; your mileage may vary.
- [a trope] - must incorporate a specific trope of the generator's choosing (or, if you don't like it, then your own choosing)
- [a movie] - participants must choose a movie to take inspiration from in terms of story
- [a song/music video] - event moderators may provide music, song, or music videos (ex. Taylor Swift songs, a playlist, a specific album); or participants must choose a piece of music, song, or music video to draw inspiration from
- [some form of media] - in a way, a combination of the music and movie result; participants must choose a form of entertainment or media to draw inspiration from, or event moderators may assign, provide a list, or designate a single media-based prompt for all participants
- crossover - must be a crossover in some way, as determined by the event moderators
- provided prompt - must follow a prompt as provided by the event moderators, such as an image, text, quote, something canon-specific, central idea, or anything else
- work size - must be no bigger than a relatively small size or no smaller than a relatively big size. For fiction, I would say that a "small size" would be 5,000 words maximum, while "big size" may be equivalent to a big bang size (whatever that means to you).
- remix - must be a remix of another work or fanwork; remix exchanges are the most common