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

[hhimring]

Not much to say that hasn't already been said except perhaps--the BINGO was an amazing high, but by the end most of us were exhausted, I suspect, and so there was perhaps a certain lack of closure--although maybe closure is not the right word and too difficult a thing to ask of such a type of event anyway.
I thought the opportunity to include reviews and various sorts of meta stuff was a very good move and so was the creation of the LJ community as a focus.
(I enjoyed the passport project, too, although I participated less intensely.)
The origins suggestion, I think, will have to be handled with care--if you've only just started writing, re-visiting your roots is not all that attractive, so it offers less to newbies, unless you offer them a different way of doing it.

[dawn_felagund]

A lot of the lack of closure (which I agree was an issue) came from me being out of the country through the first week of March and then have real life slam upon me--all the stuff I'd been putting off for bingo! :D Bingo was amazingly successful from a numbers perspective--88 participants signed up and over 1,000 (1,000!!) works were posted to the community (which means the number is actually much higher, since I still see B2MeM pieces being posted for the first time, and there's always a few people who aren't ready to share their work at all)--but it was also a big jump from prior year's participation, and I think we learned a lot from the experience. I know that I did. :)

The origins suggestion, I think, will have to be handled with care--if you've only just started writing, re-visiting your roots is not all that attractive, so it offers less to newbies, unless you offer them a different way of doing it.

I think the original idea envisioned a series of prompts or challenges focused on origins; revisiting one's first story would only be one of those. Since we often get participants who are writing their very first fanfic, I share your concern, and if we go with origins, this option will be one of many to choose from.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

*blush* I finally posted a few of my Bingo ficlets on my journal, and still have a folder of pieces I need to clean up and polish off. Just never seem to have time to get back to them, and I'll bet I'm not alone. SoWD, here I come!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

*looks at her folder and notebook* Nopes! You're not the only one.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Yes, your first paragraph hits the nail on the head, IMO. When I look back on that month, I was on a writing high for the first half of it and wrote so very much, and then suddenly I could barely deal with it.

I wonder if somehow the format could be wrought such that it accommodates the high energy and enthusiasm people tend to have at the start of the month, and slowly tapers off to fewer prompts/options as the month progresses...leaving people some time to breathe/edit their work/finish WIPs that have resulted from prompts/read others' work/etc.

[dawn_felagund]

What if we reserved the last week as a Reading Week? For finishing, posting, and of course, reading. :)

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Part of me really likes that idea, although it also might seem a bit of a let-down not to have anything at all to write for the final week. I'm not sure what strictly drabblers would make of that.

I'd be behind the idea if we rounded it out with some kind of fun/silly little writing party with an appropriately themed prompt on the 31st.

[dawn_felagund]

Good point. Dare I suggest a Reading Week for the first week of April? :^O

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I think that depends on whether something is put together that doesn't leave most of us as drained as last year...which it sounds like most everybody is in favor of, anyway!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Yes please, and I actually mean that seriously. XD

*is not at all looking at all the Bingo scraps, nope, never* Only because I really don't need to look at them, they are already haunting my every step. ;)