B2MeM 2013 Is Coming!

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, that time of year is almost here again: time for our annual Back to Middle-earth Month event! Once again, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, Many Paths to Tread, and Arda Inspired will be teaming up to bring the Tolkien fandom a month of fun, creativity, and community.

We are currently in the planning phases for this year's challenge, and we need help and feedback from our community to help us decide the challenge we want to run this year. If you have an idea for an event, please do share it in a comment here! (If you want to see what kinds of events we've run in the past, we have links to them all on the SWG site here: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/specialprojects.php.)

Even if you don't have a specific idea for an event, if there's a past event that you loved (or a past event that you'd rather not see something similar to this year), please comment and let us know.

We have only one requirement for B2MeM events: They should be open to the entire Tolkien fan-writing and -art communities. Ideally, this should also allow people to participate whether they have one or thirty-one days free to work on challenges.

We look forward to hearing everyone's ideas and getting this year's event ready to roll!

Comments

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

If I say "Bingo", I strongly suspect half the mod team and community will start screaming, the other half will feed me to Sauron's werewolves... and not even Finrod made it out alive of a situation like that. So, even if it's tempting because last year was one of the most fun B2MeM projects (it comes as a tie with the RP) for me, I'll not ask for another round of Bingo. Helping with the cards alone was fairly time-consuming, I can't even pretend to imagine what the organizational effort must have been like behind the scenes. Another good reason not to ask.

How about a multi-directional round-robin thing? It could branch anywhere, and ideally there would be space for all and any replies which then in turn could spawn their own. The downside being that it'd probably require a lot of reading to stay up-to-date with story events especially later during the month, and that it might be fairly easy to lose track.

Origins? Since the Hobbit just happened (and that's the earliest published Middle-earth book), how about a low-key set of prompts based on that? That could take any number of shapes, from in-universe things like the Awakening of the Elves or the creation of the Dwarves or the coming of Men, to meta ideas like revisiting (possibly rewriting) an author's earliest Tolkien fic, or something of the sort.

Just brainstorming, though - I'm curious to see other suggestions! :)

[dawn_felagund]

I would still like to run Bingo again, not as part of B2MeM but as a just because, but with some caveats with respect to cards claims so that it doesn't take the people-power to run again. And I actually have an idea for something similar to the RP (that will probably also not be a B2MeM project but a regular SWG thing) that I only have to get to a point in my life where I have the time to run it, and I will propose it to my comods. So that's encouraging, I hope! :) I liked both of those challenges too.

Thank you for the ideas! :D I figure the mod-types will figure out what's feasible to run (everything you suggested fits that bill, at least at a glance) and will probably put up for the community to choose from.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

That sounds wonderful, I'm flailing with glee a little - and a lower-key Bingo definitely would be better for everyone's sanity, so no complaints from me on that count. XD (I still haven't written/finished half of the prompts from last year, and want to so much!) The same with the RP - I miss RPing (after doing it for years in the gondolin_rpg), but on the other hand the end of that took away one immensely satisfying creative outlet that made me focus on fic again much more productively so I'm in two minds about that one. Doesn't make it any less of a great idea. :)

And you're welcome! I just linked the planning post on my tumblr as well, so there will hopefully a lot of ideas from people who don't usually participate! :)

[dawn_felagund]

Yay! Thank you! We're always looking for fresh blood ... erm, I mean, new participants. ;)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

to meta ideas like revisiting (possibly rewriting) an author's earliest Tolkien fic, or something of the sort

That made me laugh! I think I am too vain! Maybe not, mine is pretty funny (unfinished Legomance anyone?).

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'll raise you a horridly sappy Éowyn/Elladan fic that I wrote because of my rampant Faramir dislike back then! XD

[dawn_felagund]

Wow! Okay, I would actually like to read that! :D

My first fanwork was that Feanorian play I posted years ago on LJ, which I dread to reread much less ever do anything to again! :D

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I love it! Those stories sound like a match made in heaven!

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

I'd read it. :P

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Hah! That actually sounds like an amusing idea. Mine is even more bitter than most of what I write now, however. Pointlessly violent elves , mainly. Although I suppose the horrifying spelling/grammar could be amusing, kind of. But nothing beats a good old Legomance!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Pointlessly violent elves with really bad spelling and grammar party.

Hey, link me to it! I sometimes even read Harry Potter dark!fic (talk about spelling and grammar and pointless violence)! I wouldn't dream of writing it. But that is the beauty of fanfic.

[zdenka]

How about finishing earlier Tolkien fic? Maybe it's just me who still has an intimidating pile of unfinished beginnings from last year . . . *slinks off*

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

That is always a good idea. I have five chapters of six-chaptered fic that I started for the SWG 5th anniversary (how many years ago now??).

[ladybrooke]

It's not just you. My pile is several hundred fics high. If I leave it for too long, it respawns on it's own and I come back to new plot bunnies lurking in the stories. ;P

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

I can't even remember the plot (if there was any) of my very earliest Tolkien fan fic, written in 1970. Just that it involved semi-bad boy Boromir somehow.

Therefore, if I were to revisit my "earliest" fic, it would be Trinity. Don't know what the hell I'd do there.

Also don't know why the hell I'm posting this, buried in a gazillion comments, when I might as well just send you an email!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Therefore, if I were to revisit my "earliest" fic, it would be Trinity. Don't know what the hell I'd do there.

No sympathy here. That one is a bit like Athena bursting from the head of Zeus full-grown and powerful. I guess I might have done better--I did know how to write, if not fiction--if I had tried a short story first instead I had the hubris to try a novel and also the stupidity to court the fandom instead of flying into its face. (I was trying to sell a YA novel--cough, cough, Legomance!--instead of writing from the heart.) So, yeah, my effort is mortifying. After that, it took me nearly year to find my feet.

[tarion-anarore.livejournal.com]

It can't be worse than my classic kid Faramir and mean Denethor fic! Hey, I thought I was bucking the trend by making Denethor a bastard but NOT abusive... ;)

Now you all may forget you ever heard anything about this...

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

my classic kid Faramir and mean Denethor fic

Oh, I remember those! Not yours, but the genre!

[moetushie]

revisiting (possibly rewriting) an author's earliest Tolkien fic

I like this idea, and the whole theme of beginnings.

[dawn_felagund]

Thanks for commenting on this! :) It'll definitely be an idea we discuss and, if it seems feasible (and I don't see why it wouldn't be) put forth to the community as a possible challenge.

[grey_gazania]

I like the origins idea!

[ladybrooke]

I want to rewrite my earliest Tolkien fic! Except in prose, not poetry.

...and this time, I will not lose my ground and stand up to people about it. (Because I still like the characterization in it.) In other words, I'm probably running away with this idea regardless of B2MeM.

[dawn_felagund]

Yes! I am proud of you for the standing up to people bit! :D Embrace your inner heretic, Brooke. ;)

Icon included as a reminder of what happens when you poke the heretic.

[independence1776]

I just thought of something relating to the round robin: what about multiple ones? One Hobbit-centric, Rivendell-centric, Gondor-centric, First Age, etc.

Of course, that still runs into keeping up with the one you're writing with, and turnover time may be too difficult because some people write faster than others. And, depending on how many people are interested in one particular story, there may only be the possibility to write once or twice.

I think I just talked myself out of thinking this was a good idea…

[dawn_felagund]

I've wanted to try a round-robin, although I agree it would be difficult to manage for B2MeM. But maybe after B2MeM, we can get a few going on the SWG archive? The archive is set up to allow round robins; we even tried it once, but it lacked direction and fizzled pretty fast! :)