silwritersguild | March Is Back to Middle-earth Month!

March is Back to Middle-earth Month and, in keeping with tradition, the SWG annually hosts an event for the month. B2MeM was originally designed to keep the momentum going after the release of the third movie and, while we're never short on enthusiasm in the SWG, we participate in B2MeM each year as an opportunity to create and share our work and discover the work of new writers and artists.

This year, our event is a creative challenge. Each day for the month of March, we will post a new prompt and invite writers and artists from across the Tolkien fandom to respond to it. Prompts will be posted here on LJ, on our Yahoo! mailing list, and on our website.

Event guidelines are up on the website: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/index.php
They also follow here, below the LJ cut.

Other groups that might be interested in participating are welcome to do so! Please contact me at DawnFelagund@gmail.com and I will get you a list of the daily prompts. Please also pass the word to other writers, artists, and fan groups that might be interested in playing along.

March Is Back to Middle-earth Month!

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!

Guidelines for the project are as follows:

Any response to the prompts is acceptable: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, visual art, or any other creative response that you can dream up! Because it is a daily challenge, most responses will be small: a drabble, haiku, or a quick sketch. Participants may combine multiple prompts into a single longer work, if they would like. For example, each day's response could form part of a character study. Three related prompts might be worked into a short story or a comic strip.
Works do not have to be complete.
All participants will have their choice of banners to commemorate their efforts, as well as an icon for each day's prompt. Participants who write something for every prompt will receive a banner honoring this achievement as well.
Because this is a Back to Middle-earth Month project, for responses to count for credit, they must relate to Tolkien's works in some way. We will take your word that a response is Tolkien-related because ...
We are not going to judge, analyze, cross-examine, and interrogate responses. It is up to you to decide what counts for "credit." If the day's prompt inspires a four-line poem, that is just as acceptable as a 4,000-word story. Responses will necessarily be very different. We're not going to decide for you whether your response matches closely enough to the day's prompt to count for credit. We'll trust participants to make that decision for themselves.
You do not have to do the prompt on the day that it's posted. Some participants may want to take time to think about a prompt before writing for it. Others may not be able to find time to get online or write each day. We'll allow until 14 April to get responses completed for the project.
Sometimes, the challenges ask you to write briefly about an experience from your own life before creating your story, poem, or artwork. If you choose to share your work, you do not have to share this pre-writing unless your are comfortable and willing to do so.
Of course, this means that participants must show us or tell us that they've done the day's prompt. We'll be keeping an eye on the various groups affiliated with the SWG, but if you've posted your work outside of the SWG, please let us know. If you don't want to share your response publicly, simply drop us an email letting us know that you completed the day's prompt (no, you don't even have to show your work!) and we'll see that you get credit.

Now, if you want to share your work, where can you do so?

We will post each days prompt on both our LiveJournal community and our Yahoo! mailing list. We welcome participants to post or link to all Tolkien-based entries as a reply to the original post. (Yes, this means that you can share work based on The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings here as well.) Silmarillion-based work may be posted as a separate entry, if you prefer.

Silmarillion-based writing is welcome on our archive. Please add your story to the B2MeM 2009 challenge on the story form. If you need help with this, just let us know!

As always, please direct all questions to us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org.