Today, the Silmarillion Writers' Guild is centered on its website and archive, but when the group started seventeen years ago, it began on social media: on Yahoo! Groups and LiveJournal. It took more than two years to open the website and archive, which arose only because of the thriving community that existed on Y!Groups and LJ.
The SWG continues to maintain accounts on Dreamwidth and Tumblr, mostly for posting announcements (though it's worth mentioning that fanworks are welcome in both places too!) However, by far our most active social account these days is our Discord. Initially used mostly by the gaming community, Discord allows text, voice, and video chatting. Our Discord server for the SWG ("servers" are simply what Discord calls the communities it hosts) is mostly text-based, though we do occasionally host live readings in the voice channel. Put plainly, on our Discord server, you can text chat with other Tolkien fans in real time.
We usually splash links to our site and socials everywhere, but we're a little more reserved with links to our Discord, which creates something of an aura of mystery like it's the SWG's secret clubhouse that requires a special handshake to get into. This couldn't be further from the truth. Because a troll can rampage much faster through a live chat server than through a blog, we don't tend to post public invites to our Discord unless we know we have the moderator presence to stop any shenanigans (yes, learned that one that hard way), but our Discord is open all Tolkien fans who are willing to follow the server's rules, and we welcome new members at any time with absolutely no special requirements to join.
What can you find there? We maintain multiple channels for discussing Tolkien and for different types of fanworks based on the legendarium. We have channels for asking questions, signal boosting events, and sharing links to your fanworks. There are channels always open for organizing "write ins" and "draw ins" with other writers and artists, and we regularly host events on our server too: live readings, instadrabbling, and fanfiction book clubs. In fact, we have a book club for explicit fanfiction next weekend happening on our Discord.
So how do you find this mysterious place? If you'd like to check it out now, here's an invite that's good for the next week. Feel free to share with others.
Logged-in members of the SWG archive can find a Discord invite link in the site footer. If you're not a member of our site, contact our moderators to receive an invite. Again, these links can be freely shared with other fans who might enjoy our server.
To those fans who remember the heady days of the early-mid aughts—of coming home to dozens of new emails from your Tolkien Yahoo! lists, daily updates on your favorite LJ comms, and meeting friends on AIM and YIM—our Discord server continues that legacy of gathering with other fans to discuss Tolkien and make fanworks together. Let's demystify the Discord! We welcome all to join us, no special handshakes required!
SWG News
New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.
Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New Fanworks
Is it raining with you? by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
In the last days of Númenor, two very different men meet in Umbar and fall in love.
(Please note that while this work is heavily inspired by Disco Elysium, no knowledge of the game is necessary to read the fic!)
Read more ...Wrensong and Roses by Isilme_among_the_stars [Writing]
Concerned by his responses to the paraphernalia of healing, Fingon steals Maedhros from his room for an impromptu garden excursion. Maedhros battles with dark thoughts.
Read more ...Bon(e)fire by Fuin [Writing]
On the night before the battle, Caranthir and his ally share thoughts about their peoples' traditions:
Burning bones ward off evil.
Read more ...McShady by Babblecat [Writing]
Melkor has himself a bad time in the Void.
Read more ...
Updated Fanworks
A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray [Writing]
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
Read more ...Nasyalossë by Lovimmy3365 [Writing]
Erestor lay up against a tree, brown washed to black in the wet of the snow. The black disc of the new moon sailed across the dark sky. Erestor wished it were gone. He had no need to look into dark eyes any longer.
He was dying.
(AKA Erestor unwittingly travels back in time to the days between the Dagor Bragollach and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, meets the sons of Feanor, Thingol and his ilk, many Laiquendi, many Dwarves, and Men besides, and THEN decides to solve the drowning of Beleriand himself. This has nothing to do with his personal problems. Nope. Not at all. Erestor is having regular feelings.)
Read more ...Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna [Writing]
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
Read more ...From That Rubble by StarSpray [Writing]
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.”
“It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?”
“It’s not as though I have much else to do. I need to build something new there,” he said after a few moments. “To do that, I must first clear away the old and broken things.”
Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Read more ...The Mirror Crack'd by AdmirableMonster [Writing]
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new life and finds he has a queer connection with Maedhros, Himring's lord. As their intimacy grows, however, so do the dangers surrounding them, both without and within. What secrets are hidden inside the depths of Anniavas's lost memories--and how will those with whom he is forging and deepening bonds react, when those secrets are at last revealed?
Read more ...Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael [Writing]
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously thought on the matter who the Ainur are, who Eru is, how he matches our own religious pantheon, and this has been conducted after serious research of many esoteric teachings of our own planet's heritage.
Read more ...Around the World and Web
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
This Tumblr event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
Tolkien Gen Week 2026
Tolkien Gen Week will run from July 6-12, 2026 to appreciate all of the incredible characters and relationships within Tolkien’s legendarium that fall under the broad category of “gen.”