Be a little brave, write a little story, and be comfortable while you do it. Each quarter, you’ll have a new theme to explore with a minimum word count of 5,000. At the end of the quarter, you’ll post links to your work(s), and we’ll create a page showcasing the entries for each theme.
The Big Moxie is a personal goals challenge for those who find traditional big bang environments stressful or who find Rough Trade intriguing from a thematic point of view, but find the challenge itself daunting. Thus, we have chosen themes that proved popular on RT in the past to start the challenge off.
Signing up is part of the motivation process, but we don’t need to be informed if you come to a point where you can no longer participate.
There will be a Discord discussion channel on Just Write for participants. But you may feel free to ask questions on this page as well using the comment form.
The Rules:
- Minimum 5,000 words count (no maximum)
- Any fandom (no RPF)
- No limit on the number of stories
- Only previously unpublished works qualify
Challenge Info-2024
Q1 – January – March 2024
Posting Date: March 1—March 31, 2024
Theme: Marriage of Convenience
Q2 – April – June 2024
Posting Date: June 1—June 30, 2024
Theme: Fusion/Crossover
Q3 – July – September 2024
Posting Date: September 1—September 30, 2024
Theme: Found Family
Q4 – October – December 2024
Posting Date: December 1—December 31, 2024
Theme: Alternate Universe
Sign Ups Open
Sign Ups
Qt1-2024 ~ Marriage of Convenience (sign-ups: 12/14/23 – 1/31/24)
Qt2-2024 ~ Fusion/Crossover (sign-ups: 3/1/24 – 3/31/24)
Qt3-2024 ~ Found Family (sign-ups: 6/1/24 – 6/30/24)
Qt4-2024 ~ Alternate Universe (sign-ups: 9/1/24 – 9/30/24)
Google Forms Are Pending
FAQ
Q. When can I post?
A. Any time during the posting period listed with each quarterly challenge. You cannot post the assigned theme outside of the quarter to count towards the Big Moxie challenge. For instance, you can’t post quarter one’s theme in quarter four to be included in the challenge list.
Q. Can I post a work in progress?
A. No. Only completed works will be accepted during the posting period.
Q. Can I use a work already published?
A. No.
Q. Can I use a work I’ve written for a different challenge if it meets the requirements and posting dates?
A. We don’t care. Organizers of other challenges might so be careful with that. If your Big Moxie story happens to fit one of your Just Write Bingo squares, lucky you! Carry on and double up.
Q. Can I use a Rough Trade project (past, present, or future)?
A. If you’ve posted any part of it, the answer is no. If you created a project file but never participated in the challenge then that would be fine regarding past works. Obviously, you couldn’t use present content or ideas you might have for future RT challenges since that would violate the rules of Rough Trade.
Q. Can I write more than one story?
A. Yes.
Q. Why are the themes confined to a single quarter?
A. To provide structure and discipline for those who need it.
Q. Can I post my work before the posting period of each quarter?
A. Not if you want to be included in our list of successful participants.
Q. If I have a work in progress that has never been published that fits the theme, can I use that?
A. Absolutely, look at you already owning the hell out of this challenge.
Q. What are the options on the Fusion/The Sentinel theme?
A. You can write a fusion of two (or more fandoms), a fusion with The Sentinel, or a story set entirely in The Sentinel fandom.
Q. What if I signed up and can’t finish?
A. That’s fine, life happens. We don’t need to be informed.
Q. Will there be an AO3 collection?
A. Yes. We’ll provide a link to the collection as the posting window approaches.
Q. Can I discuss my fics publicly?
A. Do what is comfortable for you. You might find that you don’t want those kinds of expectations from others or whatever. The choice is yours.
Q. Do I have to sign up for all four themes?
A. No, but there is no penalty for not participating after the fact. Each form will have check boxes so you can pick and chose between the the themes during the sign up window. Signing up for all four, just in case you end up wanting to write all of the themes, is better than skipping them and regretting it later.
Posting Information
Note: When posting dates arrive there will be a page dedicated to the collection of links. Wait for instructions, which will come well ahead of the posting window. Links and story information should not be posted on this page.
Title:
Author:
Challenge:
Fandom:
Relationship:
Warnings:
Word Count:
Summary:
Link:
If you would like to post on the Wild Hare Project (not required, and not encouraged if you already post to AO3), and don’t already have an account, you must notify us of that when you are signing up so we can prepare you for posting in that environment.
Ooh, shiny! 🙂 I’m definitely intrigued and this might just be the thing to get me writing again (fingers crossed!), but would I have to write something for each quarter? One theme just doesn’t do it for me, not even as a reader, and I’d rather skip it than force myself into something that I’m feeling “meh” about at best …
No, there will be 2 forms and you can sign up for one or both themes on each form. You can just do one quarter or all four for the challenge if that suits you.
Cool, thanks! prepares to kick Idiot!Muse™ back into action
Squeee!
This looks right up my alley.
This sounds like something I need and totally intrigues me!
Canon Divergence covers a lot of territory, but I’ve wanted to try a challenge like QB or RT for a while now. Let’s see what happens.
We like to keep the challenges itself as broad as possible to allow writers as much room to work in the challenge as possible. It’s also why I rarely restrict a writing challenge I’m running to a single fandom.
This is my first go at this ever. Been too chicken to jump in before so I’m not used to things like the sign up forms/posting forms, guidelines, etc. Is there a way to know if my sign up went through correctly? I was a little confused on the multiple user name/email fields since they seemed to just be a repeat. I’d hate to find out too late that I messed something up and didn’t get registered. Thanks in advance, this is a GREAT site.
We got you. You’ve signed up for both quarter themes.
Also, thank you! I didn’t realize the form wasn’t sending responders a confirmation. 🙂
This is to make sure my story keeps to the parameters of “paranormal.”challenge. But I wanted to ask about the theme: paranormal. I didn’t see anywhere else on here, and sorry if it has been explained before, but I wanted to know what would define paranormal as oppose to supernatural. This is to make sure my story keeps to the parameters of “paranormal.” Thank you for any feedback.
We don’t make a distinction between paranormal and supernatural in the challenge. I realize that some people confine paranormal to be more mystical in nature (magic, ESP, ghosts, etc.) while supernatural is more nature based, (beings, cryptids, creatures, etc), more often than not, they’re both synonymous terms meaning “beyond the explanation of science.” We’re not interested in splitting hairs at that level, so I’m sure you’ll be fine with what you’re writing.
Great! I was worried because I had a project I wanted to work on that involves that paranormal/supernatural and I am super excited about it. Thank you for the feedback.
Is fusion defined simply as two fandoms together? I’m thinking of using my “fem!Stiles is a CSU/lab tech in the Law & Order SVU universe” fic idea.
A fusion is two fandoms that are basically married to each other and impact one another wholesale.
A crossover is basically a fandom one night stand.
So, in a SVU universe — all of the characters from Teen Wolf would be transported into that world so all the lore and basic world mechanics of Teen Wolf wouldn’t exist. Even if you never mention the other characters.
To me this would be a no werewolves situation, but the depth of your fusion is up to you.
Is there a new AO3 collection for 2023 or should we just use the ” The Big Moxie – 2022 (bigmoxie2022)” collection tag?
There will be a new collection for this year: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/bigmoxie2023/
can I ask what happened? did the big moxie stop? If it did that is totally vallid. I am not trying to be a nag.
Nah, I’m just exhausted from a chronic condition and haven’t updated the page yet.
We’re about to start this quarter’s submissions.
I’m going to be participating in Q1 2024 for the first time – the prompt gave me an idea that’s definitely going to be pretty long. Is it necessary to have the entire fic finished by the posting deadline?
Yes, we only list completed fics.