B2MeM 2014 (Yes, Really!)

[dawn_felagund]

Yes, my comods and I have really started talking about 2014's Back to Middle-earth Month. However, there is a good reason behind this! (Normally, the mods start discussion in December, with the members being brought on board by January or February.) There are two important things that we wanted to bring up to B2MeM participants for feedback.

First is the event for 2014. We have done daily-prompt challenges for the past three B2MeMs. These are always popular and are pretty easy to do (so long as BINGO cards aren't involved ... ;), but when we started running B2MeM, it was not necessarily a daily-prompt challenge, and while daily prompts are usually well-liked, we have also had requests to try a different format. So we wanted to propose an idea and see how the community felt about it.

Instead of a daily prompt, we have considered putting together a compilation this year. Those of you who have been SWG members for a few years know that we have done compilations there in the past. (Akallabêth in August is probably the best example of this.) The idea is that participants claim a prompt or prompts well before the event itself. Each participant then sets out to create a story, poem, or artwork based on that prompt, only instead of trying to get something created quickly to be ready for the next day's prompt, the participant has time to make the piece the best it can be. During the month of the event, one or a few of these pieces are "released" each day. By the end of the month, there is a compilation of stories, poetry, and art based around a theme.

Our idea is to put together such a compilation for this year's B2MeM, based around a theme that encompasses the diversity that our community has to offer, i.e., whether you write First Age or Fourth, Hobbits or Noldor, there will be a place for you. The pieces will be revealed over the course of March. At the end of the month, we would also like to offer an e-book or print-on-demand book of the compilation (for writers and artists who want to be included--this would NOT be mandatory). Ideally, there would be the opportunity for writers and artists to pair up to do illustrated stories, and we would offer beta assistance and other for authors who want it.

So what say you all? Are we willing to give the daily prompt a break for this year? Does a compilation seem like something we'd like to try for this year's B2MeM? Please remember that this community exists to promote a fandom holiday that will help bring the various corners of the Tolkien fandom together, so we need to know if our participants think an idea will work for them or not. In short: please be honest in your feedback! :)

The second point concerns moderators. B2MeM started as an alliance of Tolkien fandom groups that wanted to offer a month-long "holiday" in which Tolkien-based transformative works are celebrated. As a result of this basic structure, it was always assumed that the mods of the groups that participated would be the mods of B2MeM. In actuality, this doesn't work that well. For one, group mods already have significant responsibilities in running their groups. In many cases, they cannot also run B2MeM. Secondly, this keeps those who have ideas about B2MeM, time to volunteer, and who would make excellent moderators from actually serving as moderators.

As a result, we will be opening up moderation of B2MeM to more than just the mods of the groups that sponsor it. Moderators help plan out B2MeM events and get them ready for March. They help run things behind the scenes before and during the event. They help to answer questions from participants and cheer participants on. We tend to work closely together on planning and then divide up responsibilities for actually running the event, based on the talents and interests of each mod.

Please comment here, message me, or email me at DawnFelagund@gmail.com if you'd like to be a mod for this year's B2MeM. You should expect to be available beginning in December through early April. (Obviously, everyone needs time off, and we cover for each other when needed, but this is our "busy season," so to speak.) I will make sure to begin including anyone who is interested in moderator correspondence going forward.

Comments

[zdenka]

I kind of like the frenetic energy of the daily prompts! I understand having something posted daily is a lot of work for the mods, though, so I'd understand if it has to be modified in some way.

I'm afraid that having a prompt which you have to sign up for in advance would not work well for me at all. One good thing about B2MeM as it's been done the last few years (I wasn't aware of it before that) is that the prompt structure is flexible enough to accommodate both people who want to write drabbles and quick ficlets and people who want to work on one thing the whole time -- or people who want to alternate between the two! I also love the freedom of being able to decide each day what I want to work on. Writing inspiration and the ability to concentrate can be very fickle for me, so having to commit to something a month in advance would make the whole thing very stressful and sounds like a sure recipe for writer's block in my fuzzy brain. Also, it's not like we have to post at the end of each day. I've been known to come back to and finish B2MeM stuff years later. :) If people want to continue chipping away at something, I assure you, they will. :) And the good thing about people posting each day, or whenever they feel ready, is that we can react to, encourage, and inspire each other. If all the pieces were finished in advance, the ongoing interactive aspect would be lost, and that's one of the things that makes B2MeM fun for me.

I also don't see any advantage at all to the writers/artists/etc. in having to submit their work in advance, not be able to edit it, and then have it released gradually. For myself, I would be fretting and worrying about people's reactions to it -- once I get up the nerve to post something, I want it to be visible right away so I can get feedback and tell whether what I was trying to do worked at all. And as a perfectionist, I always find myself wanting to make changes at the last minute. It would drive me a little crazy to have it locked away in limbo. :)

Basically, what you're suggesting is not a thing that is compatible with the way I'm able to write. I'd still cheer everyone on, but I'd have to sit this one out.

Oh, and I would make a very poor mod, but I'm happy to keep helping with the comm tagging or icon-making or whatever.

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

I think that you are right about the posting. It would be easier on the mods if people just posted their own works.

[zdenka]

Yes, that too. :) I would think? But some comms do it that way, so there might be advantages to it from the mods' side that I'm missing.

[silver-trails.livejournal.com]

Well, the original idea can be always be perfected. :)

[dawn_felagund]

I just commented to Oshun that I am the Gumby of writers because I understand the appeal of the daily prompts but also understand people who want to really work on something and polish it to perfection.

Writing inspiration and the ability to concentrate can be very fickle for me, so having to commit to something a month in advance would make the whole thing very stressful and sounds like a sure recipe for writer's block in my fuzzy brain.

I definitely understand that. But if I can offer a nudge of encouragement (assuming this idea happens, which is certainly not a definite yet), if the prompts are anything like similar challenges that we've run on the SWG, then they are very open-ended. So it's not like a ficswap prompt: "I want angsty Elrond at the seaside on the eighty-eighth day of the Second Age musing about Elros with bonus points if he's wearing purple and feeding seagulls.) Akallabeth in August (which is probably the closest example of what I'm thinking of with this idea) simply gave an event from the Second Age, and writers could do what they wanted with it, whether that be a drabble or a novella, a traditional retelling of the event or something way out there; the piece just had to take place somewhere on Arda during that time period. We had a mixture of it all, which is part of what (in my opinion) made it work in the end.

I also don't see any advantage at all to the writers/artists/etc. in having to submit their work in advance, not be able to edit it

The only reason that we'd have to have due dates for this would be because, speaking from experience, people are horrible about turning things in on time. So if we counted on people to post things the day they were due, probably half of what was due would actually get posted. Sorry if that sounds cynical! :) The way it has worked well in the past is to have the due date the week before the reveal date. Then people have space to be late and also time to tinker and edit (because they'd post their own work to this LJ comm, it would just be set on moderation and would be revealed by a mod on the day it was due.)

Oh, and I would make a very poor mod, but I'm happy to keep helping with the comm tagging or icon-making or whatever.

Thank you! :) And thank you for your feedback too!

[zdenka]

I don't want to seem recalcitrant, but the open-endedness of prompts wouldn't help. The issue is having to commit in advance. There's no rational reason why it should be a problem, but . . . for me, it is?

I honestly think that the pressure would make me more likely to bail on the whole thing -- sorry! I've managed deadlines-in-advance on AO3, because the story is still there and accessible to me and I can futz with it to my heart's content, but LJ comms just don't work the same way as far as I know.

Thanks for listening. I know it's very difficult, if not impossible, to make everyone happy with something like this. If I wind up not doing B2MeM this year, it won't be "I'm mad so I quit!!" it would honestly be "My brain is not capable of doing this thing, even though I can't explain why."

[dawn_felagund]

You don't seem recalcitrant at all! (Sorry ... you were seeing teacher!Dawn who is an endless cheerleader and encourager! :) That's a perfectly fair reaction. It's certainly not possible to explain why writing one way works well for one person and doesn't work at all for another. For the longest time, if I wrote down anything of a story before writing the story itself--even a very bare-bones outline--then I was no longer interested in writing the story. It was like it was out of my head and so now didn't need to be told again. It was illogical and I could not explain it. It was just the way that I was. And I worked that into how I completed projects. There is something to be said for pushing one's comfort zone but also something to be said for self-awareness of what works and what doesn't work for one as a writer.

I'm pretty sure you're right that you cannot edit a post submitted to a queue in an LJ comm. However, if multiple versions were submitted (with edits) then we would take the most recent and delete the others, hopefully allowing writers to meet the deadline and then satisfy the urge to endlessly tinker while waiting for the reveal. (Which a lot of us do. I have to sit on my hands when rereading old stories not to edit them again.)

The good news, if this is the project we end up doing, is that B2MeM is supposed to be something different every year, so hopefully future years would be something you'd be more comfortable with. :) And you've been such an amazing volunteer for our community that I definitely want you to keep being around! :)