Admin Post: June Challenge: Pride

[dawn_felagund]

June is Pride Month, a time to recognize and honor the contributions of LGBTQIA+ people, whose work and identity (or both) have often gone unrecognized in history. This month's challenge will involve a prompt by an LGBTQIA+ person. There are music, art, poetry, and quotation prompts.

Comment here to request your prompt or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. Please specify which type(s) of prompts (music, art, poem, or quote) you would like us to pick from--and it's fine also if you have no preference in this area and wish us to surprise you!

Please note that fanworks do not have to be about LGBTQIA+ characters or topics, although as always, there is a little something extra for those who take on that extra bit of challenge. (Please help out your stamp-delivering mods by specifying in the author's notes if you include LGBTQIA+ characters, if it is not obvious from the summary or notes on the fanwork.)

Challenge entries are due by July 11 in order to receive a stamp. Challenges do not close, so late entries are always welcome; late entries do not receive stamps, however.

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Some Housekeeping Notes: If you have looked at your stamp collection in the past *mumblemumble* months, you know that I am waaay behind. I'll spare the gory details, but this has been a bear of a year. With the school year now over, I will be catching up on collections in the next couple of weeks. My sincerest thanks to everyone for their patience.

Next month's challenge will ask participants to create a fanwork that solves a problem that exists in the canon: areas where the canon is contradictory, unclear, or just downright impossible. Common examples would include the parentage of Gil-galad, the existence of plants before the sun, or the unlikelihood that Maedhros dangled on Thangorodrim for fifty years, like some of the timelines claim.

Please propose canon problems to use as prompts next month! What drives you nuts in the texts? What answers do you wish you had? Comment here or email us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org to suggest prompts. You may suggest as many as you want.

Also, a friendly reminder that, if you use SWG challenge prompts for a long-running event like Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang, you can get stamps even if you post the challenge entry late because of the event deadline. So, for example, if you use a Pride prompt in your TRSB story but the story can't be posted till August, just mark the challenge when you crosspost to the SWG archive and let us know you need the stamp for it.

Comments

[hhimring]

Could I have a poem prompt, please?

[dawn_felagund]

April Rain Song by Langston Hughes

Let me know if this one doesn't work for you for any reason! :)

[hhimring]

Thank you very much!

[fernstrike]

Could I have a poem or quote prompt please? :)

[dawn_felagund]

Let me know if this one doesn't work for whatever reason!

“It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple: one must be a woman manly, or a man womanly.” ~ Virginia Woolf

[starspray]

I would like a poem or quote prompt, please!

[heartofoshun]

I want to try again! I want to do this one. Can you make the prompt as generic as possible--either poem or quotation. I have a hutch full of bunnies who want out. (Or is that illegal to use challenges that way?)

[keiliss]

That is the BEST way to use challenges IMHO!

[zdenka]

May I have an art or music prompt?

[dawn_felagund]

Personally, I am all about finding and using loopholes in the challenges to make them work for you. After all, the whole point of this is getting more fanworks out in the world! :D

Let me know if this is generic enough because I will hunt down the most boring quote I can for you. (Lyra was kind enough to do all the prompts this month and didn't try to make them boring! But this one screams "Silmarillion!!" to me, so we'll see how it works for you.)

“The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal.” ~ E.M. Forster

[dawn_felagund]

Let me know if this one doesn't speak to you for whatever reason! :)

Storm by Wilfred Owen

[dawn_felagund]

If this one doesn't work for you, let me know and I'll pull again! :)

La Primavera by Romaine Brooks

[heartofoshun]

OK. Thank you so much. I will do the best I can.

[heartofoshun]

The world is divided into two types of people. One who loves prompts, challenges, and kick in the seat of the pants to write something. The other who run screaming from any attempt to push their story in one direction or another.

[dawn_felagund]

I'm a little bit of both? I like prompts because I like something to focus my ideas, which are usually sprawling ... AMC is evidence of what happens when I just let myself write without direction. And I really do see part of the process of using a challenge as figuring out how to make that challenge work for you; hence, a lot of our challenges will encourage people to use titles, single lines (or images ... or words!), videos, or even just the feeling created from a prompt.

But any attempt to control my story I resist. So when I signed up for TRSB, I avoided any artists who required a level of collaboration or otherwise appeared to want control over my work (like having too many DNWs around things like character interpretation and the like). The funny thing is that there's a pretty extensive list of people I would collaborate with, but without knowing who the artist was, I dreaded that they would hate my work and try to shape it into something else, at which point I don't think I could write it.

[zdenka]

Thanks! Ooh, I like it!

[greatandgrey]

Love this idea! <3 Please may I have either an art, music, or quote prompt? <3

[lferion]

I’ll attempt to give this a go! Art prompt please :-)

[dawn_felagund]

Music isn't getting a lot of love, so we'll try that first?

Indigo Girls - Blood and Fire Video | Lyrics

But let me know if this one doesn't speak to you! I'll try again. :D

[dawn_felagund]

Let's try this one:

Craig in Cornwall by Gluck

If it ends up not working, just let me know, and I'll send another! :)

[greatandgrey]

Sounds great! :D

[narya_flame]

Could I have a poem or art prompt please?

[hrymfaxe]

I would also like a prompt - anything but art. :D Thank you!

[fernstrike]

Oooh you couldn't have picked a better prompt! :D at the risk of overshare, I came out to my family and friends as genderqueer this month, so this is right up my alley

[dawn_felagund]

Hooray! Glad I chose well! :D And no overshare at all ... congrats and I hope all is going well. <3

[dawn_felagund]

Let's try this one:

A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde

Should it not work for any reason, let me know, and I will choose again! :D

[dawn_felagund]

What, no art prompt to inspire art?? :D

Let's try a song. Let me know if it doesn't speak to you, and I'll pull another!

Conchita Wurst - Rise like a Phoenix (video | lyrics

[narya_flame]

Oh YES, thank you, this is perfect <3

[heartofoshun]

Thanks! I'll take your word for it!

[heartofoshun]

The worst place for that is the annual Yuletide event. People will write a laundry list of do not wants. I think the problem there is that it is huge and one is interacting with total strangers because of the rare-choice nature of the challenge.

That was probably why I flounced from a certain writers group years ago. People tried to change the direction of my stories and change my mind about my own interests and favorite types of stories.

[dawn_felagund]

:D I hear that! That is part of why I don't use a beta ... also that I have so little time for writing that the thought of adding steps the process is unthinkable. I'd probably get nothing posted. I very much rely on the momentum of having just finished and being excited about a story to make myself go through that process.

I looked into Yuletide once and the rules made it really clear it is not a great fit for me.

[hrymfaxe]

I actually feel a little bad about this, but I would like to have another prompt. I'm just not getting any ideas for this one....

[dawn_felagund]

No feeling bad! :D Let's try a quote this time? Let me know if I swing and miss again!

“I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong.” ~ Vita Sackville-West

[hrymfaxe]

Thank you! This one is generating some sparks. :)

[kayleearafinwiel]

oooh, I'm leaving it late...prompt please? I don't care what kind so much

Kaylee Arafinwiel

[gabriel_seven]

I know this is quite late, but could I bother you for a prompt, please.

Nothing in particular. Just surprise me. Thank you.

[dawn_felagund]

You're not too late at all! :D Let me know if it doesn't work for you for any reason.

Juhlat maalla (Party in the Countryside) by Tove Jansson

[oloriel]

No worries, there are still ten days left!
Let's try a music prompt, then:
Elton John - I'm Still Standing Video | Lyrics

If this doesn't inspire you, let us know and we'll try again!

[elwinfortuna]

I know I’ve left it really late — it’s not even June anymore, but I’d love a prompt, any prompt.

[dawn_felagund]

You are never too late! :) If this one doesn't work for whatever reason, let me know and I'll pull again:

Bülent Ersoy - Ümit hırsızı (Thief of Hope) Video | Lyrics and translation

[nienna324]

I’m definitely not going to use it in time (unless it gets worked into my TRSB piece) but I would like a song and a poem if possible.

[dawn_felagund]

Here's a song:

Queen - I Want To Break FreeVideo | Lyrics

And here's a poem:

The Shield of Achilles by W.H.Auden

If either/both doesn't suit, just let me know, and I'll swap for another!

Also, if you do end up using a Pride prompt in your TRSB story, please let me know so I can give you your stamps. ^_^

[nienna324]

These are wonderful, thank you!

[lferion]

Hi!

I have attempted to upload 'By the Sea' for this prompt. Hopefully I did it correctly.

[dawn_felagund]

You did! Everything looks perfect! :)