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

[dawn_felagund]

It's definitely going to be more low-key. We have less mod availability than last year (including me, as I will probably be taking two grad classes again next semester, and while they will have just started and so will likely not require papers or presentations at that point, will still be more than I had on my plate last year), and three of the B2MeM mods (me, Russa, and Dreamflower) are also ToME stewards, so we'll be dividing our time there as well. Having read all of the comments here, I think the consensus at this point is something less labor-intensive (from mod and participant perspectives) than bingo last year and something that lets those who want a regular challenge to keep them motivated and those who want to use the month as an excuse to write/finish on or two longer pieces to both feel like they're involved.

It's a tough balance to strike, but my brain is already churning on some ideas based on what's been discussed here. :)

I will definitely run bingo again, probably as a stand-alone challenge (which is why I'm saying, at this point, that *I* will run it and not committing the SWG or any other groups lest my comods come after me with a blunt object! :D) with more limits imposed from last time to make it easier from the admin side. Big involved challenges like the RP and bingo are always learning experiences, and I think, at least, limiting the number of card claims will both reduce the workload on the mods and limit the feeling among participants that they have to create something for 30 prompts a day or feel like they've failed. It's little details like the time it takes to load a page with 15 cards on it in Photoshop on my aging laptop so that I can add one stamp that slip under the radar when planning something like bingo for the first time but that I now know for future reference! :D (And I have a new laptop, which would seriously half the time I spent last year, but even half of last year's commitment is more than I am prepared to make at this point.)

Anyway, on bingo and the RP, we don't generally repeat challenges for B2MeM, although we may use elements that people liked (a challenge a day, game format, daily "prizes"); both of these I will probably run independently again, at a later date, either on my own, or if my comods don't have any blunt objects nearby, with the SWG. ;)

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

I think bingo could be done again, and it's a load of fun, but you've just said the magic words: "limiting the number of card claims". FTPing all those cards with my slow internet connection was a PITA. Plus I had to get creative to claim some prompts using a longer fic, because there was no way I could try to write something every day.

And yes, sigh, the TOMEs. I've been working on the javascript word counter for the review form. I'll test it tomorrow night. fingers crossed...