b2mem | Back to Middle-earth Month 2016: Memories (Reply)

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow-flowers and butterflies
in summers that have been;

[…]

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
Bilbo’s Song, The Fellowship of the Ring

As we begin our second decade of Back to Middle-earth Month, we're looking back and celebrating our first ten years.

Back to Middle-earth Month started in 2006 with an anonymous announcement in

middleearthnews that encouraged people to pick a day of the week and post something Tolkien-related on it during March.

there_n_back jumped on board with prompts in both 2006 and 2007. The Silmarillion Writers’ Guild encouraged people to participate in 2006 and began holding events of its own in 2007. In 2009, Many Paths To Tread and SWG coordinated for the first time. In 2012, Arda Inspired on DeviantArt joined in and this LJ community was created. B2MeM has been hosted here ever since.

To celebrate our tenth anniversary, we’re using all of the prompts from all previous years. (The

there_n_back mods have kindly given us permission to use theirs.) In other words: if there’s a prompt or event you wish you could have used or been a part of, here’s your chance!

This year is simple: if you see a prompt from a previous B2MeM event you like, you can create a fanwork with it. There are no sign-ups, no claims, and no deadlines.

B2MeM 2011 and 2012 involved volunteers stamping passports and bingo cards to mark participants' progress through the challenge. There will be no stamping of passports or bingo cards this year for participants using those challenges.

Banners and icons for this year’s event will be available shortly.

~ For those who wish to begin creating early, links to all of the prompts can be found at the end of this post.

~ For those who want a daily challenge, we will post daily the prompts from the years that had a daily prompt component (March 4 prompts on March 4, etc.).

Also as part of our celebration of the first ten years, we will have retrospective posts in March focusing on past B2MeM events.

General Questions

Who can participate?

Anyone! It doesn’t matter if this is your first time in the fandom or your fiftieth year; everyone is welcome.

How can I participate if I don’t have a LiveJournal account?

If you wish to leave reviews on fanworks posted here, you may use an anonymous comment. However, we do require anon comments to be signed. (For example, if your AO3 username is Frodofan1, please sign your comment Frodofan1.) Anonymous comments are automatically screened before they appear in the community, and unsigned comments will not be unscreened.

We welcome participation on other platforms if you do not wish to post fanworks here. We welcome links pointing to them.

If you do wish to post fanworks here or link to fanworks posted elsewhere, you will need a LiveJournal account. You can sign up for one here. There is also a version of OpenID available that allows log-in through Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Dreamwidth.

What sort of things do you consider to be fanwork?

It’s simple: if you consider it fanwork, so do we. We’ve had stories, artwork, cosplay, crafts, rec lists, and more. We welcome everything.

We only require that responses have a significant basis in Tolkien’s works. Crossovers and AUs are welcome, as is the movieverse.

Is there a minimum amount of words, time spent, etc. in order to qualify?

No! We want people to be as free to create as possible, whether this means writing a haiku or working on an epic novel, creating a single icon or a batch of a hundred, or whatever else you wish to work on.

Do I need to create for all ten years or all 31 days?

No! There is no minimum or maximum number of prompts you can use. If you only want to use a single prompt, that's perfectly fine. Of course, if you want to challenge yourself to use one or more prompts from each year or create something daily, that is also fine.

Can we combine prompts in a single work?

Absolutely.

Can we use works begun in previous years or other Works in Progress?

Yes! WIPs of all sorts are welcome to be continued with one or more B2MeM prompts. They do not have to be previous B2MeM works.

Some years had prompt or card claims. Are those prompts available to use?

Yes! You can use any prompt from any year. There is no claiming or buying necessary.

I have prompts claimed from previous years. Do I have to use them or can I choose different ones?

You are not bound by any previous year. You may choose whatever prompts you wish to work with.

If I use a prompt from a specific community (for example, there_n_back), do I also have to post to that community?

No. This is a Back to Middle-earth Month event and is based here. (For reference, there_n_back has not been active since December 2010.) Crossposting to whatever platforms you normally use, however, is encouraged.

Do I have to post my work in March?

No. While the community quiets down after March, people are welcome to post here throughout the year. In fact, you never have to post your work at all if you do not wish to.

We only ask that if your work for this year is completed before March 1 that you wait to post until then, as that is when the event begins.

What if I want to collaborate with someone (for podfic, illustration, writing a story based on art, etc.)?

Please sign up on this post. We cannot guarantee that someone will ask you. If you already have someone to work with, you do not need to sign up there.

Do you have an AO3 collection?

Yes! It can be found here.

Does SWG have B2MeM 2016 listed in its challenge list?

Yes, it does.

Do you have a support community?

Yes! It’s

b2memsupport. Feel free to use it to squee, vent, find betas, etc. But please note that it is an unofficial community and is not run by the B2MeM mods.

Questions Specific to Previous Events

Does this mean you’re running the 2012 bingo again?

Sort of. The bingo number posted will be the one already called for that day back in 2012; new numbers will not be drawn. If you want to play, pick one or more cards. Remember, there is no card stamping nor any prizes for completing rows or cards. Nor will we create individualized card pages.

Can I use a prompt from a bingo card even if that prompt’s number was not called in 2012?

Yes! All prompts on all bingo cards are available to use.

Can we create new bingo cards or leave new prompts in the 2015 market stalls?

No. While we appreciate your enthusiasm, this year we are working with the prompts that have already been created.

Will works created for the 2014 compilation prompts be put in the ebook compilation?

No. When the ebook is available, the creations in it will come solely from those 2014 participants who agreed to be included.

Are you running the 2010 RPG?

No. The prompts are available for use, but we are not playing the game.

I want to do something involving the 2008 “The Circles of the World” event. As it was reflections and excerpts based on thirteen topics that had to be sent in ahead of time, how would I do that this year?

You can create one or more fanworks using the topics OR you can use them to write reflections/meta about previous fanworks you’ve done based on those topics, how those topics are important to you or to Tolkien's world generally, rec lists or discussions of fanworks by other creators based on those topics, etc.