Every now and then I like to use this space in the newsletter to highlight some of our less-expected fanwork types on the SWG archive, especially since so many new members have joined us in the last year. In the long arc of fanfiction archive history, the first fanfiction archives in the early 2000s were hand-coded, meaning that the webmaster had to code and upload each story by hand, with a smattering of automated archives built using custom code where authors could upload their own stories. In 2003, eFiction was released, which let webmasters quickly and easily set up an automated fic archive without needing to know how to code. eFiction archives proliferated, and when AO3 opened in 2008, it operated a lot like the eFiction archives people had become accustomed to.

The unifying thread in this history is stories and fiction. There were practical reasons why fanworks archives were nearly always fanfiction archives, but it did shape our tendency to hear "fanworks archive" and assume it will be mostly or all writing-based fanworks.

The SWG used to be an eFiction archive, and it was challenging (though not impossible) to modify the code to post fanworks other than fanfiction or text-based fanworks. When eFiction stopped being updated and we discussed migrating to a different software, Drupal won out in part because it was not as text-centric as other options like Wordpress, which let us build other fanwork types into the archive.

Art was the obvious and big one that we added, but some of our lesser-known fanwork types may be useful for sharing fanworks you've made that (because of the eFiction/AO3 bias toward fanfiction) you never considered appropriate for archiving. Link collections are a big one. If you have a collection of references about a topic or character, a list of fanworks that are essential reading/viewing on a topic or character, or a collection of songs, art, poetry, or whatever inspires you to create Tolkien fanworks, a link collection lets you preserve and share these lists.

Playlists are similar but are collections of audio like music or podcasts that connect in some way to Tolkien's world or fanworks. Maybe you have playlists that act as a soundtrack for a chapter or a fanwork you created. Maybe you have a list of songs that put you in the mood for making Tolkien-inspired art or other fanworks. All are welcome!

Series are probably the most familiar, having been a part of the eFiction software and that, like many eFiction features, were later echoed as well on AO3. Series limit you to collecting works that are posted on the SWG and are most often used to collect your fanworks that belong to a single story arc or other collection. However, you are not limited to just your fanworks in a series, making them a good choice if you create collaboratively with other writers and arists or for putting together collections of notable fanworks archived on the SWG.

If you're not sure how to get started adding one of these unexpected fanworks to our archive, just reply to this email, and our site moderators will point you in the right direction!