Remembering 10 Years of Back to Middle-earth Month: Discussion Post 2012

[dreamflower]

Discussion post for 2012

The theme for Back to Middle-earth Month 2012 was Bingo Baggins' BINGO Bash:

2012's B2MeM was the largest hosted to date, with 88 participants signed on to play. The Silmarillion Writers' Guild and Many Paths to Tread were also joined by Arda Inspired as a sponsoring community. Participants in the 2012 challenge selected from over 100 different BINGO cards, also created by participants. Cards were themed and included challenges in the card spaces. A new BINGO number was called daily, and participants had two days to complete and report any challenges. When participants completed and reported a challenge, they received a stamp on the relevant card.

For the first time, a reviewer challenge was added. Those who reviewed works were encouraged to keep track and reported them to the comm, and were able to get banners and icons for participating as a reviewer.

This was also the first year that the b2mem LiveJournal community was used, in order for creators from all the participating groups to gather in one location. Stories and art were either posted at the new comm, or were linked there, making them easier to find.

Did you participate in the 2012 BINGO 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]

I wrote a total of 26 stories for b2mem 2012; 25 of them were for various card numbers (posted at SoA as Back to Middle Earth BINGO), and one of them was written as a teaser to promote the event (Uncle Bingo Baggins' Bingo Bash, which was a tongue-in-cheek explanation of the existence of BINGO in Arda.

I also made two cards for the event, "Canon Couples" and "Shirish".

My favorite cards to write for were "Canon Couples" and the two "Crossover" cards. I had two stories I started for the crossovers, and finally completed one of them for another challenge; the other remains a stalled WIP on my hard drive, though I do hope to get it done one of these days.

I think the Bingo was one of the most fun years we did, and I know it was popular. I went back to the "Canon Couples" card this year, and did a poem for every couple that I did not do in 2012.

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

I wrote fifteen stories for the challenge. I took only one card. I chose to center them all on Gandalf, and they can be found in my "Through the Eyes of Maia and Wizard" collection on Many Paths to Tread, FanFiction.net, TolkienFanFiction.com, and StoriesOfArda.com. Definitely a satisfying challenge.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I loved this one. I created several cards. I recall they were Aragorn, Faramir, Tolkien's Trees and Female characters amongst others. I then chose about 20 cards and wrote something each day. Having so many cards helped as I would end up with something like Arwen, White Tree, red, swallow.

I wish some other Group would run a Bingo like this as it was such fun!

I've just looked back in my journal and at the end I wrote "I have written 34,535 words (76 pages in Word), answered about 250 prompts and claimed around 240 stamps. The only ones I missed were 2 due to a copy/paste error, a drabble I fell asleep before I could write and claim and several prompts on the "Waters" card, which were over 500 words long, but I managed somehow, to answer every prompt!

I've written 23 Ficlets, 15 short stories and 16 drabbles or double drabbles."

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Aaah, the Bingo Bash. The challenge this icon was made for. After the "Last Battle" RPG I had thought no B2MeM could ever be this exciting (and taxing) again, and then the Bingo Bash came along! I grabbed a lot of cards because there were just too many delightful prompts to just choose one or two. As a result, I now have a WiP folder full of more or less well-thought out snippets! Some of them have been incorporated into other fics, some have been finished on their own, and others are still languishing and waiting for their chance. One of them ended up being turned into o-fic, and I seriously hope I'll manage to finish and publish it one day.
And there are so many uncalled numbers left...
It was especially satisfying as, after the birth of my first child, I had for a long time lacked the inspiration (and guilt-free time) for writing. I deliberately made the time for one month - it's only one month after all - and was relieved to find that the muses were willing to cooperate, and that I still enjoyed writing as much as I ever had.

Aside from writing, I also helped out in stamping some other people's Bingo cards. The daily rush of catching up with everything in the comments to the number posts was really something else! All in all, it was quite an exhilarating experience!

[moetushie]

This was the best one! Also my first one, so maybe I'm biased. ;)

The prompts -- combining the prompts -- were very inspiring.

Most of my fills ended up here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/357890

[hhimring]

Compared to some, I guess I was sort of moderate, but it felt plenty crazy to me! But some participants were simply amazing!
That was when B2MeM support was founded, for card addicts.

I drew up the texts for one card (Snippets of Verse). [ETA: it looks as if I actually drew up the Talents and Skills card myself, too. I had forgotten that!]
I picked comparatively few cards: seven, I think, and was quite careful about my choices: the card I had drawn up myself, one card for characters I wanted to write (Women of the Silmarillion), three for background cues (Weather, Landscape, Talents and Skills), one for a formal challenge (Poetic Forms) and the review card.
I did not keep up with every single one of my prompts that was called and in the end I never got a confirmed BINGO, but I wrote quite a few pieces for ongoing WIP projects, as planned, and quite a number of spontaneous stand-alones. I also did most of the reviewing for the review prompts. And I picked up some ideas for future fics.
Here's the summary I drew up at the end of the month in my journal:
http://hhimring.livejournal.com/13505.html.

It was actually a very difficult month for me in RL. Part of me was wondering all the time what I was doing, immersing myself into B2MeM when all those things were going on in my life. But I think the B2MeM craziness actually helped, by being so entirely unrelated to my other problems.

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

I don't quite know what it was in the 2012 format that worked for me, but it was my most successful B2MeM (so far...). That year had a creative energy (and madness) about it that made it a hard act to follow.

In 2012 I wrote about 9000 words and did a bunch of artwork as well, which is a lot if you're a slow writer like me. I've been able to sort of tap into the energy and work on my ongoing writing to good effect in March since, but for whatever reason the prompts themselves didn't quite hit the spot for me.

[zdenka]

It was fun and crazy! It was great having everything together in one place in the LJ comm and the support community-- it was easier to get to know people, and I made some good fandom friends. I remember keeping track of all my prompts in a huge spreadsheet! Hopefully I can finish all those 2012 WIPs someday. :)

[nialoke]

This was the first time I became aware there was such a thing as B2MeM - that was firmly in my lurker days and I would never have dared to attempt to participate ;P
I remember staring at all the pretty cards and icons and banners a little longingly though, and imagining which cards I would pick. I was so thrilled when I found out this years prompt was all about looking through old prompts for inspiration!