SWG News

Our Art Section Is Now Open!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 12 February 2022. Last updated on 12 March 2022.

We are so excited to announce that Silmarillion-based artwork and other visual fanworks can now be posted on the SWG! If you are an artist, we welcome you to archive your Silmarillion art with us. The SWG enjoys almost seventeen years of history as a supportive and welcoming space for writers of Tolkien-based fanfiction, and we look forward in the year to come to welcoming more creators of all types of fanwork into our community.

Getting Started

If you want to share a piece of artwork, use the artwork submission form to upload your work to the site. You can find links to this form on the My Account -> Add New Fanwork menu or on your My Fanworks page. If you want to walk through the form step-by-step, check out our artwork FAQ here.

Artwork on our archive can include multiple images, similar to chapters in stories. You will be able to tag your art and add notes, just like you can with other types of fanwork. You also have the option of adding a custom thumbnail, and if you'd like constructive criticism, you can request feedback specific to art. And of course SWG members can leave you comments, just like they already do on stories and other fanwork types we accept!

Remember that we also welcome creators to archive their older fanworks with us. You will have the option to backdate your work, and if you don't want it to appear on lists of recent fanworks, you can opt out of these as well.

What Is Eligible?

We have always tried to keep our site as open to as many fanworks as possible while remaining a Silmarillion-specific site--part of why we have added artwork to the archive is to meet this goal! Artists should be aware of two requirements for sharing art on our site.

First, work shared on our site must have a significant basis in The Silmarillion or related works, like the History of Middle-earth series. We are liberal in our understanding of what that means: any time period not covered in detail in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings is included, as are multi-age fanworks and crossovers with a significant Silmarillion component. For more information on what we count as Silmarillion-based, check out our "Silmfic" FAQ.

Next, there are some restrictions on content for artwork. Our webhost's Terms of Service does not allow us to use our site to share certain kinds of content. Artwork with graphic depictions of sexual activity, sexualized nudity, or sexual situations involving minors are not allowed on our archive. See our adult content FAQ for more information.

Beyond these two restrictions, all types and genres of art about all characters and relationships are welcome! Artwork is also eligible for our challenges (and we will have a special stamp for the challenge beginning February 15th for any creator who creates artwork as a challenge response).

Finding Artwork on Our Archive

Once artists begin adding work to the site, visitors can find artwork in several ways. First, artwork is included in listings of all fanworks on the site: on our homepage, in the New & Updated Fanworks block on the sidebar, and in the New & Updated Fanworks page. Under the Fanworks menu, you will see that that are also several pages just for art: New & Updated Artwork, an artist directory, and a listing of the artwork types that will link you to artwork of the type you choose. The newest art added to the archive is also shown on the homepage of the site.

The Find a Fanwork page under the Tools menu can help you find any fanwork on our site meeting specific characteristics, including art. Using this tool, you can browse art including or excluding specific characters, pairings, ratings, and warnings, including narrowing down your search to work by a creator or creators. (To include more than one creator in your search, simply separate their names with commas.)

If you enjoy the work of a particular artist, you will find their work collected on their member profile under the Gallery link. Simply click on an artist's name to access their profile and their gallery.

Just like any other fanwork, you can comment on art, and we hope that as artists begin uploading their work, our members take a moment to share their appreciation for artists and artwork that they enjoy.

Also for Artists ...

While we are just opening the art gallery on our archive, we've been working for a while to expand our boundaries to include non-written fanworks. (Astute observers may have noticed, for example, that we've been slowly changing terms on our site like writing and author to fanwork and creator.) On the SWG's Discord, we have a dedicated #art channel for sharing and discussing fanart. We also have an #art-studio channel for artists to create together in real time. SWG members can join our Discord by scrolling to the bottom of this page, where they will find an open invite link in the footer. However, you don't have to be a member of our site to join; simply contact the mods and we'll send you an invite link.

Where to Next?

Even though we are the Silmarillion Writers' Guild, we were not around long before we realized we wanted to keep our group open and friendly to all fanworks' creators working with material from The Silmarillion. It has long been our hope to welcome more than just written fanworks on our archive, and some of our earliest experiments on our original eFiction site were undertaken with this goal in mind. While we were able to add audio and podfic relatively early on, we were less successful with other types of fanworks, including art, though not for lack of trying.

This was part of the motivation in selection a content management system rather than specific fiction archive software for our site rebuild last year. Artwork is the first of several new fanwork types that we will unveil over the next several months. Look out for recommendation lists, playlists, and video fanworks in the months to come, as well as a multimedia option for posting fanworks that include more than one fanwork format.

We are excited to expand what we can offer our members and hope all Silmarillion fanworks creators feel welcome to join us! As always, reach out to moderator team if you have questions or need assistance in getting started with using the site.

Acknowledgements

The SWG moderator team would like to extend our gratitude to our art editor Anérea and beta testers Himring, Gabriel, and Independence1776 for their assistance testing and providing feedback on test versions of the art archive.

Alternate Universe Fanfiction Book Club

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 12 January 2022. Last updated on 2 February 2022.

Have a fic that takes tiny step or a giant leap away from canon? Wrote a fix-it? Changed an outcome? Engaged in a little gender-bending? Decided to fill in the what-happens-in-the-ever-after? Gave Turin a happily-ever-after? Made Miriel Lord (of Angmar)? Created a modern AU where Glorfindel and Legolas are engaged in a merry business war over the largest market share of hair care products (slight edge to the son of Thranduil due to a unique line in beard-grooming products)? Thought of something not listed here? Even better.

The Alternate Universe Book Club will be held Saturday, January 15 and Sunday, January 16. Your hosts for this event are Lilith and Shadow.

Sign-ups for the Alternate Universe Book Club are now closed but all Discord members are welcome to join us to discuss stories in the #fanfiction-book-club and #fanfiction-book-club-nsfw channels!

Schedule

Need to know a time in your timezone? Find a timezone converter here.

Saturday, January 15

Sunday, January 16

To learn more about participating in, attending, or hosting a fanfiction book club, see our book club FAQ.

To join our Discord server: If you are a logged-in member, you will see an invite link in the footer of all pages on the site. If you're not an archive member, you can contact the moderators for an invite link.

New Challenge: New Year's Resolution

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 10 January 2022. Last updated on 24 February 2022.

Every January, we kick off the year with a challenge to nudge us to recommit to our creative lives by creating a fanwork for one of the previous year's challenges. Whether finishing that epic novel for the challenge that ran away or making a sketch or writing a drabble, the idea is to make something fannish during the month of January with one of our challenges as inspiration!

During our annual amnesty challenge, you can complete any of our 2021 challenges. You will receive a stamp on your 2021 collection for any challenges that you complete now*, as well as a stamp for the New Year's Resolution challenge on your 2022 collection. When you post to the SWG archive, please make sure you select the 2021 challenge you're completing and the New Year's Resolution challenge.

*If you choose to complete a challenge older than 2021, we will not be giving out past stamps; you will, however, receive your January 2022 stamp.

For a summary of the 2021 challenges and links to prompts, see the 2022 New Year's Resolution challenge page.

One more thing ... Challenges have traditionally ended on the 10th of the month, with the new challenge announced on the 15th. This gave the moderators five days to update stamp collections, which prior to the site rebuild, were made by hand. Now that stamp collections are automated on the new site, we no longer need those extra days, so challenges will end and begin on the 15th of the month, giving creators five extra days to complete a challenge and claim a stamp.

Holiday Party Challenge Live Reading on Sunday

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 7 January 2022. Last updated on 9 January 2022.

We’re closing out the Holiday Party with a live event on the SWG Discord to give creators a chance to show off works created for the challenge. Artists, we’re also happy to have you show and talk about your work--this isn’t just for the writers. Join us 9 January 2022 at 15:00/3PM UTC to showcase your work. (Find the event time in your timezone.)

Program

Sign-ups are now closed by all are welcome to join our open mic time.

We ask that everyone limit themselves to 5 minutes in the interests of making sure everyone has a chance to share. Please also plan to read or share fanworks that you have created.

To join our Discord server: If you are a logged-in member, you will see an invite link in the footer of all pages on the site. If you're not an archive member, you can contact the moderators for an invite link.

Holiday Party Instadrabbling

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 19 December 2021. Last updated on 10 January 2022.

One of the best parts about the holiday season is gathering with friends, sharing laughter, and raising a glass to the New Year. As part of our Holiday Party challenge, we will do just that by hosting an instadrabbling session using prompts from the Holiday Party challenge. Want to get together with other fanworks creators, make small fanworks, and celebrate each other's work? Join us!

On Sunday, 2 January 2022, we will instadrabble on our Discord server at the following times:

Never instadrabbled before? We gather on the #instadrabbling channel and create and share flash fanworks in response to prompts. You can learn more about how instadrabbling works here.

To join our Discord server: If you are a logged-in member, you will see an invite link in the footer of all pages on the site. If you're not an archive member, you can contact the moderators for an invite link.

Comfort Fanfiction Book Club

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 18 December 2021. Last updated on 1 January 2022.

Fans of comfort, fluff, fix-its, eucatastrophes, hurt-comfort, and happily-ever-afters (I see you, Sam Gamgee), your moment has arrived. The Comfort Fanfiction Book Club is here! After the last couple of years, who couldn’t do with a little comfort, a fix-it or ten, eucatastrophe (Turin is definitely in for that one), and a happily-ever-after?

The Comfort Fanfiction Book Club will be held on Sunday, 26 December 2021 on our Discord server. Your hosts for this event are Lilith and Aipilosse.

Submissions must meet the SWG criteria for a Silmarillion fanwork. Stories, dribbles, standalone excerpts, and poetry are all eligible for this book club, though we suggest an upper limit of around 5,000 words. Please sign up only your own work. We will close the sign-up at midnight UTC on the 22nd and post the schedule by the 23rd.

You can sign up for the Comfort Fanfiction Book Club here.

We’ll start by limiting sign-ups to one work per person, but depending on demand, we may open it up to additional submissions at a later date. There are no restrictions on rating, but NSFW fanworks will be discussed in a separate channel.

If you sign up, please plan on attending to discuss the work of a couple other authors. If you’d like to participate without submitting your own work, we’d love to have you!

To learn more about participating in, attending, or hosting a fanfiction book club, see our book club FAQ.

To join our Discord server: If you are a logged-in member, you will see an invite link in the footer of all pages on the site. If you're not an archive member, you can contact the moderators for an invite link.

Pick Your Present!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 5 December 2021. Last updated on 17 December 2021.

Our rebuilt archive has been up and running for about nine months now--uneventfully for the most part!--and we are looking to what features we would like to add next. One reason we switched software was so that we could more easily expand the kinds of fanworks we accept and other features our members might find useful.

If you are a member of the SWG archive, please let us know what new features you would like to see us focus on first by taking our brief survey.

The survey is open for one week, so please respond no later than Sunday, 12 December 2021.

Image by Sven Lachmann from Pixabay. Image is in the public domain.

Site Updates and Fixes

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 1 December 2021. Last updated on 3 December 2021.

We have a few small site updates and fixes to share:

- We received multiple requests to define the warning tags we use on the site, and we've finally done it! You can find them here. Thanks to the inclusivity committee for their input here.

- I've written an FAQ on notifications for comments and comment replies.

- The broken links in the Comments column on the My Fanworks page is finally fixed! I thought it'd be easy! It was not ... but at last I got it figured out.

A few reminders:

- We're still looking for volunteers to help with several areas of managing the site and producing content for the site.

- If you are a creator on our archive and want to receive comment notifications, please check your comment settings under My Account, then click the Edit tab. (There's a handy FAQ on how to do this!) A recent bug in one of our modules may have caused your notifications to switch off. If you want to check to see if you've missed comments, you can find all of your comments on the My Comments page.

Update! I've also fixed the issue where, if you saved a draft fanwork by unchecking the Published tickbox at the bottom of the submission form, that draft was not listed anywhere on the site. If you didn't save a link, you were out of luck. Now, if you go to you My Fanworks page and scroll to the bottom, you should see your draft fanworks listed there.

Make a Wishlist!

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 17 November 2021. Last updated on 10 January 2022.

Holiday traditions around the world involve the giving of gifts, and no challenge worthy of the name Holiday Party would be complete without the chance to shower your fellow fans with acts of kindness. We first debuted wishlists during our Block Party challenge, held during the covid lockdowns of April 2020, and we're bringing them back for this holiday season.

Wishlists are simple: You can ask for up to three things related to Tolkien fandom and fanworks. And you can grant as many wishes as you want. What can you ask for? Fanworks, comments, playlists, recommendations, art--if it's related to Tolkien and Tolkien fanworks, you can ask for it!

Please note that wishlists are not a swap or exchange. We ask that people who make a wishlist do their best to fill at least one wish for another person, but this certainly isn't required. And while we hope that everyone that grants a wish also has one of their wishes granted, we can't guarantee that.

What do you need to get started? You can get started granting wishes here. And don't forget to create a wishlist for yourself.

Banner image created by Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan (public domain).

New Challenge: Holiday Party

Posted by Dawn Felagund on 14 November 2021. Last updated on 10 January 2022.

No matter if you're in the Northern or Southern hemisphere, it's a time of year to think about holidays. Whether you're bundling up in blankets or slipping a swimsuit into your suitcase, we invite you to an SWG holiday party!

Don't be overwhelmed - this challenge can be as low key as you choose to make it. You only need to complete one of the many prompts to collect your stamp. Prompts may also be completed at any time during the challenge, not just the day it is assigned.

See our Holiday Party challenge for the complete list of prompts and events!