Because November and December are typically busy months for people—in addition to the array of seasonal holidays, there are numerous fandom events at this time—we usually offer one challenge that spans both months, ideally with various points of entry to satisfy both the creator who wants a full challenge and the time-stretched creator who wants something quick that can be completed in an afternoon.

This year's November/December challenge, Manwë's Mailbag, was constructed with this goal in mind. Prompts for this challenge will be postcards including both an image and text. The twist, however, is that the intrepid participant is invited to help us create these postcards. You can take whatever approach you want to your postcard. (And based on the chatter on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, those of you flush with ideas for the image but coming up short on what to write for the text can rest assured that the mods will ensure that no postcard goes out without text! Just send the image along and we'll come up with suitable text for it.)

And yes, participants who request a postcard prompt will have the option to have the postcard mailed to them, so your creation could cross the world to inspire the work of another fan.

Because of the extra work involved with mailing prompts, we've opened this challenge early for postcards, so if you'd like to create a postcard, the first round will be going out on the 15th of November. We very much appreciate those who have turned in postcards early so that we have a ready supply for the challenge's opening date! The deadline for postcards is December 1 (postcards received after that point will be used in the digital-only collection for the January amnesty).

Some FAQs we've been seeing:

• No, you do not need to create a postcard to participate. This is a two-part challenge; you can participate in one part (create a postcard or respond to one) or both—your choice!
• The part of the challenge where you request a prompt (a postcard) will open 15 November, per the usual schedule.
• Everyone will get their postcard digitally right away. If you want your postcard mailed, we'll get it out as soon as we can, at which point it will be in the hands of various international postal authorities.

For complete information on the challenge, see the Manwë's Mailbag challenge page.