SWG News

New Challenge: Zingers

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 15 July 2022. Last updated on 19 August 2022.

I wish I’d said that! We all love a cool comeback, a fierce burn, or a witty insult, particularly when it’s from one of our favorite characters. This month, we’re offering zingers and insults from literature and pop culture as inspiration. You may use the prompt any way you like - it need not be included in the fanwork, only inspire it!

To receive a prompt for this challenge, comment on our Dreamwidth, send us an ask on Tumblr, post the the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, or message us through the SWG site.

In order to receive a creator stamp for this challenge, your response should be posted to the SWG archive on or before August 15, 2022.

Also, a friendly reminder that if you use an SWG challenge prompt as part of a fanwork that you create for another fandom event (e.g., TRSB, Slashy Santa), if the reveal date for your fanwork is after the challenge closes, you can still receive your stamp! Simply post your fanwork to the SWG archive as soon as you are permitted to by the rules of the other event, tag the correct SWG challenge, and alert the mods that you need a stamp for that challenge.

Vote to Name the New Section of Our Site!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 13 July 2022. Last updated on 22 July 2022.

We are in the process of opening a new section of our site for members who post Silmarillion fanworks with us. In this new section, active creators will be able to archive their non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks. You can learn more about this new section of the site here.

But our new section of the site needs a name! We have received a number of suggestions over the past week and voting is now open to choose what the new name will be.

Voting is only open to members who are registered on the SWG site so that we can make sure that we receive only one vote per person. If you're not a member but want to vote, you're welcome to register!

Voting will close on when the clock strikes midnight, UTC, at the end of Wednesday, July 20, so make sure you vote before then! We will announce the new section's name on July 21.

Name the New Section of Our Site!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 6 July 2022. Last updated on 13 July 2022.

When the SWG archive opened in 2007, there were dozens of Tolkien-specific fanworks archives on the Internet. Most specialized in some way, so as a site that accepted only Silmarillion-based fanworks, we were just one of many with a specialization.

Fifteen years later, the fandom landscape looks very different. Very few independent Tolkien-only archives remain. (Longtime SWG member Independence1776 maintains a list of Tolkien archives if you're curious which still remain open.) Outside of the Archive of Our Own, there are few places where all Tolkien fanworks can be preserved.

Our members sometimes tell us that they wish they could archive all of their Tolkien-based fanworks with us. This past December, when we asked our members to let us know what they wanted to see us add to the newly rebuilt site, a section for non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks was a popular choice. We've heard your request! In the next few months, we will be opening a new section of our site, available to SWG members who archive Silmarillion fanworks with us, that will accept all fanworks based on Tolkien's books and adaptations of those books. Keep reading to learn more about this forthcoming new section, but first ...

We Need Your Help!

This new section of our site needs a name, and we'd like the community that behind the SWG to name it! If you'd like to suggest a name (or two, or ...), you can fill out the form here. We will stop accepting suggestions when the clock chimes midnight in UTC time at the end of the day on July 13, 2022. Please note that nominations for the new name are now closed! You can vote here.

Suggested names will be put before the SWG's membership for a vote. (Register here if you want to be a member of our site but aren't already. You do not need to be a member to suggest a name, just to vote on the final name.) Please note that the SWG moderators reserve the right not to include suggestions that do not fit the culture and mission of our site. You can suggest more than one name.

What Will Be Posted in This New Section?

All fanworks based on all of Tolkien's books and the various adaptations of those books—such as films, games, and shows—will be eligible. Since we will very soon be able to accept all kinds of fanworks, we truly mean all fanworks: fiction, artwork, nonfiction/meta, audio/podfic, playlists, poetry, link collections, videos, and multimedia fanworks that use more than one of the listed types.

Who Will Be Eligible to Post in the New Section?

The new section will be open to SWG members who have actively posted Silmarillion-based fanworks to our archive, which we are defining as either five Silmarillion-based fanworks or 10,000 words of Silmarillion-based writing. New creators will be able to earn posting privileges in the new section when they reach one of these thresholds.

No Offense, But I'm Really Just Here for Silmarillion Fanworks ...

We get that, and we are committed to remaining a Silmarillion group. This will truly be a separate section of the site. How we present the Silmarillion-based fanworks on our All Fanworks page, front page, search results, and sidebars will not change. You will be able to access the new site section—or if you truly want a listing of every fanwork posted to the site—on the Fanworks menu, under its own link. If you're not interested in the new section, you need never know it's there.

It's good to circle back and remember that the purpose of this section of the site is to offer members who are already participating as creators on our site the opportunity to archive their non-Silmarillion Tolkien fanworks somewhere other than a large multifandom archive. As places to archive Tolkien fanworks dwindle, that's increasingly difficult to do, and while we have nothing against AO3 and Fanfiction.net, we also know that many of you feel your work is safer if archived in multiple places.

Have More Questions?

The comment section is open below, or you can always email us if you'd prefer to communicate privately.

Character of the Month: Bór

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 1 July 2022. Last updated on 5 August 2022.

Bór is one of those characters in the legendarium who feels like a work in progress. He's also one of those characters barely mentioned (just four times!) but whose role, according to this month's biography author Himring, "has some importance within the Legendarium for its implications and the questions it raises."

Bór, along with his sons, is one of the loyal Easterlings who followed Maedhros and died fighting the (disloyal) Easterlings led by Ulfang. This month's biography not only details what the texts tell us of his life and the Easterlings overall but those larger implications: namely, the role of free will and choice and the expansion of the world of Middle-earth from its Beleriandic focus.

The latter, of course, introduces the issue of race, with the Easterlings often held up as one more example of Tolkien's tendency to correlate melanism and a susceptibility to evil. Himring calls Bór and his sons "at first sight a very welcome counterexample," but as always with Tolkien, a more thorough unpacking of Bór and the Easterlings uncovers complexity.

You can read this month's biography of Bór here.

Video and Multimedia Fanwork Types Are Coming

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 18 June 2022. Last updated on 18 June 2022.

As we prepare to add our final two fanwork types to the SWG archive, we are looking for feedback from creators interested in using these types of fanwork!

Video is pretty self-explanatory. Video would have to be hosted elsewhere (YouTube or Vimeo) because the files are so large I'd worry about performance on our server. The usual fields would be available (character, relataionship, etc); I'm thinking we'd use the same genre list as for the Writing fanwork type, and if you select Nonfiction/Meta, it will open up the second field to select the topic.

Multimedia is the final fanwork type. This is for fanworks that combine multiple of the other types into a single fanwork. Examples would include:

- a story with an accompanying work of art
- a playlist that accompanies a story
- a podcast with a written transcript
- a work of meta with a matching link collection

This one has been a bit trickier because I thought I had it figured out and then discovered that the two modules I was using do not actually work together. Boooo.

The solution I've come up with is to post the pieces as separate fanworks. The creator would have a choice if they show up as individual fanworks as well or just in the multimedia piece (or a mix of both). For example, I have a story on the archive. I make a podfic of it and want to post them together, so I add the podfic and mark it so that it won't show up as a separate fanwork. I then add a Multimedia fanwork, add the story and the podfic to it, and the two display together as a single fanwork.

Multimedia fanworks can have unlimited individual fanworks as a part of them, and you can include more than two types. So you could go really wild: write a story, make a short film of the story, include just the audio, add a soundtrack as a playlist and an accompanying work of art, and add a link collection of the resources you used to research the piece.

Obviously, this one will be complex to build. At this point, if you're someone who would create Video or Multimedia fanworks, I'd love to hear what would work (or not) from my plan so far and what options you'd like to see that I haven't mentioned. Feel free to comment here, join the conversation on the #town-hall channel on our Discord, comment on our Dreamwidth, or email us!

Cultus Dispatches: Cauldron of Fanfic

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 18 June 2022. Last updated on 30 July 2022.

The third in a series of articles looking at how the films impacted the Tolkien fandom, this month's Cultus Dispatches column looks at how fans use the films in their fanfiction.

As previous articles have detailed, the Tolkien fanfiction community remains heavily book-based, with a nearly indetectable minority of authors using only the films to write their stories. Yet, at the same time, the films remain an indisputable influence. How do fans negotiate details from the books and the films to produce stories about the legendarium? As the article shows, the films' influence is diverse. Fans take details from the films, attempt to reconcile the films and books, and critique and correct the Jackson team's choices, sometimes within a single story. And as shown in earlier articles, the films drive fans increasingly toward the books.

You can read this month's article here: Cauldron of Fanfic: The Use of Jackson's Films in Constructing Tolkien-Based Fanfiction.

Remember, Cultus Dispatches is always looking for contributors to our column about Tolkien fandom history and culture. Find out more about writing for this column here.

New Challenge: Also Appearing

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 15 June 2022. Last updated on 15 July 2022.

There's something about fanworks that invites putting our favorite characters and storylines into completely unexpected settings. Alternate universe (AU) is one of fandom's most storied genres, with hundreds of characters meeting at coffee shops, college dorms, or out in space.

Below, you will find sixty AU setting prompts and sixty AU genre prompts. You can select your one or more prompts from the list below. As always, we encourage creative interpretation and use of the prompts we provide.

Is AU not your thing? In honor of our two new fanwork types, new link collections or playlists added to the archive before the challenge deadline will receive special stamps. (Please do not select the Also Appearing challenge for playlists and link collections unless your fanwork is an AU playlist or link collection!)

In honor of Pride Month, there will also be a special stamp for fanworks that feature LGBTQIA+ characters.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 July 2022. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

You can find the Also Appearing challenge prompts here.

Link Collections and Playlists Are Here!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 11 June 2022. Last updated on 15 July 2022.

When we built the new site, one of our reasons and goals was to eventually be able to host just about every type of fanwork that could be created. Although we are the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, we've long recognized and sought to honor the fact that our members create much more than just written fanworks, and we wanted to build an archive where they could host all of their Silmarillion-based fanworks.

Today, we are pleased to take two steps closer to that goal. The SWG archive can now host link collections and playlists. Link collections allow you to compile lists of links both within and outside the SWG and are ideal for rec lists or resource collections. Playlists let you collect songs and other audio around a fannish theme and can be used to share fan-made soundtracks, podcast collections, and other audio compilations. If you'd like to learn more about these fanwork types, we have an FAQ on link collections and an FAQ on playlists. Ready to start sharing your work? You can add a link collection or add a playlist here.

As always, if you have questions about link collections, playlists, or anything at all, contact our mod team.

Series vs. Link Collections vs. Bookmarks vs. Favorites

One question we anticipate is when members should create a series or create a link collection. (Or use the site's bookmarks and favorites!)

Series have been a part of our site since the archive opened in 2007. Series allow you to collect multiple fanworks posted to the SWG archive into a single fanwork. While series can be used in myriad ways, they have traditionally been used to show the connection between related fanworks.

Link collections, on the other hand, allow you to gather links both within the SWG (similar to a series) and outside the SWG. Link collections can be used for a wide variety of purposes: organizing all of your related fanworks (regardless of where they are posted), resource collections, recommendation lists, collections of art or music that you use to inspire fanworks—and other ways we haven't even dreamed of yet!

Our archive also offers bookmarks and favorites. Bookmarks are stored in a private list of fanworks hosted on the SWG. Favorites are a public list of fanworks and creators whom you have marked as a favorite. Favorites can be found on your profile and are not listed as a fanwork. If you want your list of favorite fanworks to be searchable among the fanworks on the site, use a link collection or series instead. You can learn more about bookmarks and favorites here.

So What's Next?

So far in 2022, we've added artwork, link collections, and playlists to the site. Before the year's end, we hope that our site can host just about every imaginable fanwork.

And we are drawing close to meeting that goal. In the months to come, we will add one final fanwork type: video. Finally, we will create a means to share "multimedia" fanworks: fanworks that use more than one of the fanwork types in conjunction with each other. Examples of multimedia fanworks include a radio play that includes both a written script and recorded performance, artwork that accompanies a story, a video that accompanies a work of meta, or a playlist created as a companion to a novella.

As we develop these fanwork types, we will first solicit feedback from our members and then beta-test the new fanwork types on our test site. If you're interested in one or both of these roles, watch this space and our social media for more information. (A reminder that you can subscribe to our newsletter to get these announcements delivered right to your email inbox.)

Finally, thanks to Ettelenë and Himring, who served as beta testers for the new fanwork types, and the many people who provided input during the development process of the new fanwork types.

Character of the Month: Elemmakil

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 3 June 2022. Last updated on 2 July 2022.

Tolkien peppered his work with minor characters whose brief appearances help create the illusion of depth for which the legendarium is renowned. Elemmakil is one such character. The guardian of the Gates of Gondolin who leads forth Tuor upon his arrival, Elemmakil was written into the legendarium relatively late in its history, playing a small but important role.

This month's character biography, authored by Narya, explores what the legendarium has to say about Elemmakil. While there is little to go on in the canon, Narya observes that Elemmakil plays the role of a "threshold guardian" and connects with many of Tolkien's other uses of surveillance and light.

You can read Elemmakil's biography here.

New Challenge: Vintage

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 15 May 2022. Last updated on 18 June 2022.

Back in the day… It’s not just fashion that changes with the times, literary and artistic trends do also. But it’s nice to take a stroll along memory lane from time to time, and so we present Vintage.

This month's challenge will offer bingo cards with vintage literary, artistic, and fandom concepts as prompts. You may pick your card(s), and use one prompt, complete rows or lines on the cards, or fill an entire card. If you choose multiple prompts, you can incorporate them into one or multiple fanworks.

You can find the Vintage bingo cards (and text prompts) here.

Fanworks should be posted to the archive no later than June 15 in order to be eligible for a stamp.