Remembering 10 Years of Back to Middle-earth Month: Discussion Post 2009

[dreamflower]

(My apologies for missing the date for this post. I will be posting 2010 on schedule.)



Discussion post for 2009

This is the first year groups coordinated for the Silmarillion Writers Guild back to Middle-earth Month 2009

For 2009's B2MeM, SWG and MPTT challenged our authors and artists with a daily prompt to take their creativity in new directions:

Often, as creators of Tolkien-based writing and artwork, when we are asked to consider what influences us, we think first of favorite characters, favorite scenes, or the quote that--the first time we read it--made our hearts lurch and imaginations begin to whirl. Each day through the month of March, we will post a prompt on our homepage, LiveJournal community, and Yahoo! group--but we are changing directions a bit from the usual fiction and art challenge. This time, we will start with our lives and experiences as writers or artists and create a Tolkien-themed work based on these.

The goal is not to create full stories or even complete works but rather to explore how our writing and artwork is influenced by the experiences, opinions, and emotions that we bring with us from our non-fannish lives. We encourage all of our fellow Tolkien fans to join us in expanding our creative horizons this month!

Did you participate in the SWG's Creativity Challenge? Did you make posts or write stories for it? If you did, please share your experience with us here in the comments. Give us links, share your anecdotes and memories.

Did you miss out on it, but find yourself curious about it? Check out the comments and ask questions and join in the discussions! And if you check out previous works, be sure to let the creator know how you liked them.

Comments

[dreamflower]

Once again, I was out of the loop for the SWG's challenge most of the month. However, I did participate by following the previous years middleearthnews challenge directions. I posted a quotation from various books about Tolkien through the month.

I did do one story based on one of the prompts: Trust in the Right.

You can find all my entries for 2009 B2MeM at my journal using the tag "b2mem 2009".

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

This was the first B2MeM that I took in regularly (although that doesn't mean much; I produced six fanworks for it. Eh well. One of them made a Honorable Mention at the 2009 MEFAs, and one formed the basis for a scene in The Tempered Steel, so that's something. And it was fun; that's the most important thing. B2MeM 2009 alerted me to the fact that this B2MeM thingy kept coming around every year, and that it might be a good idea to include that in my plans for March. (Just in time before 2010 brought the time-consuming and incredibly awesome RPG with it...)

[hhimring]

This was the one with the "learning to start a fire" prompt, wasn't it? I remember reading your take on that before I registered with the SWG. (I don't think I ever went back and commented, sorry!)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It was! (Unless I got the challenges mixed up.) And awww, you've commented on so many of my stories (and single chapters, too!) that you really don't need to apologise for missing one. Seriously, without the faithful comments of you and Marie, The Tempered Steel probably still wouldn't be finished! *hugs*

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

I took part in this challenge, writing a series of drabbles based on cues offered, as I'm doing this year. They are posted in a collection called "Only a Second or Two" on the sites where I posted at the time. They can be found here:

http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterlistview.asp?SID=6164

I've been rereading them as I write to the same prompts, mostly to try to make certain I don't rewrite what I did before. A few that I've not written to as yet I'm not certain how I could do as well as I did the first time.

[independence1776]

This was the first B2MeM I participated in. I had a lot of fun with it-- I completed all the daily prompts-- and met a ton of people. It was pretty much the starting point for my interacting with LJ-based Tolkien fandom and will always have a special place in my heart due to that.