We've been running challenges on the SWG since September 2005. The timing and format has varied widely across the years, but the central concept has remained the same: We want to see more people engaging creatively with The Silmarillion and its related works, and we hope that challenges will do just that by inspiring fanworks, building community, and encouraging comments. We on the moderator team always get a lot of questions about our challenges, so if you've been wanting to jump in but not quite sure where to start, here is a quick rundown of how challenges work.

Who: Anyone with an SWG account. Register here if you don't have one yet. You can, of course, post your responses to our challenges anywhere (so you don't have to have an account, really), but if you want a stamp, you need to post to the archive. (More on stamps below!)

What: Any Silmarillion-based fanwork is eligible. We accept all fanwork types on our archive. (Not sure what counts as "Silmarillion-based"? Check out our Silmworks FAQ.)

Where: All challenge fanworks must be posted to the SWG archive to receive a stamp. Beyond that ... it's your work, so you can post it wherever you please, whenever you please.

If you came up with something so wildly unique as your response that you don't think it can be posted to the archive, contact the mods and we'll help you figure out how to post it to get your stamp.

When: New challenges come out on the 15th of the month. The previous challenge also ends at the end of the day on the 15th. (If it is still the 15th somewhere in the world, you are still good, even if it is the 16th where you are.) Yes, that means that there is one day each month with two active challenges. Go wild.

Challenges are generally monthly but there are exceptions to that rule. For example, we generally do a two-month November/December challenge because stressing our creators out with One More Thing to Do at the Holidays is not on our agenda.

Note that due dates apply only to stamps for creating fanworks. You can post a fanwork for a challenge any time. We have hundreds of them by now, so if you are having a creative block, our Challenge page can be a place to start to break it down. (Don't forget we have a Random Silmfic Prompt Generator too.)

There is no due date for comment stamps, but we ask that if you've commented on a fanwork from a challenge more than two months old and want the stamp, please contact us to let us know.

So ... Stamps? Yes. Challenge participants (which includes commenters) receive a postage stamp graphic each month on their profile. We always offer stamps for creating a fanwork for the challenge or commenting on a challenge fanwork. Sometimes, we award additional stamps as well for special events or achievements.

Due Dates: Are pretty firm most of the time. (Remember, though, that they only apply to stamps!) There are some exceptions.

If you have created a fanwork for another challenge or event outside the SWG using an SWG challenge prompt, but your fanwork will not be revealed before the challenge due date, we will still award your stamp. Just let us know when the work is posted on our archive.

Of course, please contact us if you would have met the deadline but extenuating circumstances prevented it. We're not keen on penalizing people for family emergencies, sick pets, power outages, natural disasters, and so on.

We accept works in progress, so if the issue is that you can't tame the fanwork that you thought would be a ficlet but is somehow now a novella with accompanying art and a soundtrack, all you need to do is post a bit of it to get your stamp. If you really can't stand the thought of not posting the whole thing at once (or just didn't get a chance to finish/start for whatever reason), every January is an amnesty month when we award stamps for all the previous year's challenges (plus a special amnesty month stamp!) that are posted that month.

The Prompts: Vary from month to month. We try to offer a variety of formats. Yes, we are open to suggestions for challenge ideas. In fact, we love suggestions for challenge ideas.

We get asked from time to time if people can use our prompts for non-Silmarillion Tolkien stories, other fandoms, original fiction, writing groups, etc. Absolutely! Just keep in mind that the only works eligible for stamps are Silmarillion-based fanworks posted to our archive. We appreciate credit with a link back to our site if you post our prompts somewhere else online but we're also not going to hunt you down if you don't. If you're having fun and being creative, keep on keeping on.

Full challenge guidelines can always be found on the Challenges page. All the information here was rounded up from our FAQ page. We have a really unique new challenge scheduled for one week from now, so we're hoping that anyone thinking of joining us who hasn't yet might give that one a try!