I'm relieved at the diversity of sources B2MeM seems to attract, even if it means that my beloved Silmfic doesn't seem to be dominant. :) One of my concerns, once B2MeM moved beyond being an SWG event, was that B2MeM as a Silmfic-only event would stick, despite efforts to communicate the contrary. This is part of why I've advocated for reducing the role of the "sponsoring groups" and slowly removing them: There is a gap of creators--a fairly large one!--who write high-rated LotR/TH fic who might feel like their work isn't welcome if the sponsors were a Silmfic archive and a genfic archive. It seems like at least removing the impression of B2MeM as a Silm fandom event has worked. As for the genfic ... the data is less sure on this. There is probably still work to be done here.
It seems like the Tumblr/AO3 crowd, though, is not really on-board. I think if they were, we'd see more Hobbit fanworks and more woman-centric fanworks. (And probably more higher-rated fanworks as well.)
It would take forever, but it'd be interesting to go through and look at what ratings are actually posted here. I've written a lot of adult-rated stories but nothing I'd remotely consider PWP; I don't think the two really overlap that much, especially among the creators who seem to be attracted to B2MeM. (Largely veteran fans whose interests seem to be more in exploring characters/Middle-earth/the canon than in writing the "porn" that many multifandom people seem to think is the sole purpose of fanfic in every fandom.)
I'm not surprised that drabbles and ficlets are the most common formats; this somewhat confirms the criticism I've heard that B2MeM encourages volumes of shortfic writing while leaving authors who prefer longer formats out in the cold (although we modly people have actively tried to make it easier for participants to use the month to work on one or a few longer/more time consuming pieces).
I may do that arithmetic at some point! :)
Thank you for sharing this! It was the most fun I've had reading a B2MeM entry in a while. (I'm such a data nerd! ^_^)
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Some of my thoughts ...
Thank you for sharing this! It was the most fun I've had reading a B2MeM entry in a while. (I'm such a data nerd! ^_^)