B2MeM 2014 (Yes, Really!)
Nov. 3rd, 2013 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dawn_felagund posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
b2memYes, 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2013-11-03 10:39 pm (UTC)Edit: After reading a comment below, I have to ask. It won't be a fic swap, will it? I'm terrible at those. Otherwise, I like the idea. It will be less exciting maybe, but I understand that this is a lot fo work for the mods.
I wouldn't have anything I wrote printed, but that's just me. =)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-03 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-03 11:07 pm (UTC)I might change my mind as I think about this some more, but my first reaction is: eek, sounds stressful! I should probably sit this one out.
I guess I really liked the daily prompts, which made me feel like it was OK to spend only a few hours on a ficlet before posting it. (With the possibility of polishing it later, of course.) And then, it was exciting to see in nearly-real-time where different people's muses took them! I think it was the energy of the last B2MeM month that convinced me to get back into fandom.
If there are claimable prompts, and longer-term deadlines, and the expectation of perfection, then this becomes Yet Another Fic Exchange. And I find writing for exchanges an isolating experience, not an engaging one.
So, that's my take on it, anyway. I know I am not the most productive member of the community, though, so I am not sure how much it should matter.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-03 11:28 pm (UTC)The idea of making the BTME stories into a book is a good one, but please keep the daily prompts.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-03 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-03 11:55 pm (UTC)The daily prompts make my eyes tear-up just thinking about how horribly stressful they are for me and how negatively they affect me personally. I am very INTO this fandom. And I hate to be left out. But I really feel like the homely stepchild during B2MeM.
I think it is not fair that people push so fucking hard for the daily prompt year-after-year. And that they should give other people a chance to do something they might enjoy. (And not by Not Participating either!!!!) I've done the daily prompts (poorly I admit, but up to my capacity!) for years like a good soldier and complained, yes, (foot soldiers always do complain!). But I really, really tried to keep up with a program that was alien to me and no fun for me at all.
Just one year I would like to feel a part of B2MeM, instead of dragged kicking and screaming through it; or feeling sad and left out. (I start dreading it about December and am not recovered until nearly August!) I'd love to try to write something I liked and that I could be proud of just once for this event. (Also, my B2MeM stories are also the least read of anything I write and people never come back later and read them either--even the people who read every new story I post throughout the rest of the year. Even the few half-decent ones I write during B2MeM are overlooked. Time wise, makes a big bleeding hole in my creativity for the fandom during the course of a year, because of the advance loss of joy and the long recovery.)
I would like to help in some way. I don't think I am a good mod candidate. Too opinionated for constant collaboration and too nearly blind for a lot of daily detail or record-keeping work. But would help with anything else, including publicity or banner-making (now that I finally understand the Rules for graphics).
ETA: I just read Tehta and Linda above and it makes me despair.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:05 am (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:09 am (UTC)Yes. There would be a due date, possibly based on the prompt one chose. (E.g., a prompt that is going to be revealed on March 1 would be due before one scheduled to be revealed on March 31! :)
It won't be a fic swap, will it?
No, definitely not. To use Akallabeth in August as an example, we had a list of events from the Second Age that were prompts. Participants could claim one (more on the second round, if they wanted) and write/draw anything that fit that event.
AinA was obviously centered on a time period, which this likely won't be. (Although one of the mods has proposed a possible approach that would be chronological; the challenge is that B2MeM must cover the Time of the Trees through ???) But the general concept will apply: a list of very open prompts, centered on a theme, that people who want to participate can claim.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:10 am (UTC)How about a Tumblr segment with Hourly Prompts! (this is not a serious suggestion!!!)
Date: 2013-11-04 12:19 am (UTC)I am going to lose one way or another on the daily prompts I just know! Either the daily-promp pushers will win out and I will hate B2MeM again. Or we will go with the compilation suggestion and it will not be a popular one and I will feel like it was all my fault for complaining so much over the years.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:25 am (UTC)In an Artistic Temperament aside: my B2MeM responses weren't so popular either, but I guess the small time commitment makes me feel OK with that. I also don't much care how people respond to fics I write for myself, like the Amarie one -- nobody can take away the amusement I get from that. It's challenge fics that make me get all irrational, because they make me feel like I am writing into the void: not for myself, and (in the absence of feedback) not for others, either.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:30 am (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
no objections to being published in print or artwork as long as I'm happy with what I've produced.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:31 am (UTC)I do feel just the opposite. If I let go of drabbles or ficlets that are something that I could do on a daily basis. I never have the balls to pull them later. They sit there like lumps of mud amidst the work I really labored over. If one of them turned into something I am proud of nobody reads it anyway. So I guess I do like the opportunity to try to write something better and take a little time with it. I do not think I ever write anything entirely for myself. Before I wrote fanfiction, I used to make my boyfriends or husands and my sisters read my stuff!!
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:37 am (UTC)Can one writer take more tan one prompt? That way those who like to write shorter pieces can do it, while those who like to write at a slower pace can take just one and be happy with it?
One more thing, wouldn't it be easier if the writers post their fics themselves?
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:42 am (UTC)On the other hand, I hate the thought of forcing someone to read my stuff, and praise it, which is the fic exchange way. With a challenge like this, I would worry that, if I claim a prompt and then do something weird with it (which, let's face it, I would almost certainly do) then I am depriving others of the chance to write/read something more to their taste.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:46 am (UTC)Only the huge difference this time will be that on daily basis, people will look forward to the fandom's contributions of that day. Your piece gets the chance to stand out and shine (very different in my experience than fandom exchanges where your story will be listed amongst many others revealed on one day only and it is very likely that only the person who will receive it will read it), the chances are very high that your piece will be read, and even after March has passed since it might end up in a compilation!
The only caveat I can think off is that once it is revealed, we (those who will do the page coding) won't go back and alter typo's. It is the same energy, only different.
Maybe you didn't consider that everyone who wants to play still can go to the community and share their progress made, ask for help or get encouragement. It is not that you write for one person and you can't talk about it (I have read Dawn's text above a few times over and I don't see words like keeping it secret there).
It is entirely up to the individual, also on how much time you want to spent on it! Want to crash out that ficlet: go ahead! If you want to write a longer story... that's fine as well! You, the participant, gets to decide how much energy/time you want to invest in it.
I remember writing for Akallabêth in August where I simply chatted about my progress being made, but I decided to keep the basic plot line to myself and looked forward to the day my piece would be made public for everyone to see. If you don't think your piece is perfect, you can always decide not to have it included in the compilation for example. Yet you still can put it up at an archive, link to B2MEM 2014 and tinker to your hearts desire. Just think about it a bit more... please :)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:47 am (UTC)It's not exactly a fic exchange with a very specific prompt made by someone else. Prompts would most likely be extremely open-ended (because we have a very diverse community here in terms of writing interests). But I do see your point. This ...
And I find writing for exchanges an isolating experience, not an engaging one.
... is my biggest concern with the idea because, in theory, with a story or two being released every day, people can engage around those stories. A criticism of B2MeM has been (rightfully, imo) made that there isn't much opportunity for reading and commenting, so this would address that. But perhaps this is wishful thinking; people tend to get stuck in their ruts in terms of reading, and what I don't want to see B2MeM become is another excuse for people to gather in the same groups they already gather in, e.g., Silmfolk with other Silmfolk, gen!Hobbit writers with other gen!Hobbit writers, etc.
I have some ideas that I hope would make it more engaging. I don't want to put them out there now since I haven't even mentioned them to the other mods yet. But I very much don't want this to become 1) pick a prompt, 2) write a prompt, 3) receive two comments, 4) the end.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:52 am (UTC)I just replied to Tehta that, if we were to do the compilation, I have some ideas to make the event more engaging on a daily basis; I just don't want to put those ideas out there yet, since they haven't even been discussed with the mods yet. But I don't want this to become just an exercise in writing a story and seeing it put up on LJ with maybe a comment or two in response. I want to consider ways to continue to make it special and engaging without necessarily having to do a daily prompt every year (which not all writers like or can do, which is why we try to mix it up so that everyone feels they can play along at least some of the time! :)
Thanks again for your feedback; last I checked, we were about 50:50 in favor and against, although I think a few more comments have come in since then ...
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 12:58 am (UTC)I'm not sure yet. We'll have to see the level of interest for one! :) When we did AinA, we let everyone claim one prompt to start. Once those initial claims were done, then everyone could claim additional prompts from what was left over. I don't know if that's how it would work here, but that did work before! :)
One more thing, wouldn't it be easier if the writers post their fics themselves?
I'm fairly confident in saying that, if we decide to go with this idea, then we will switch the posts on this LJ to moderated so that everyone can post their own stories, art, etc. Then, on the release date, a mod will approve the stories for that day. No way do I want to have to post 31+ stories! :D