New Challenge: Bollywood
This month's challenge offers songs, films, and tropes from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry based out of India, as prompts for fanworks.
Challenges have been a part of the SWG since our group was formed in 2005. Before the archive, there were challenges. Before References or any special projects or B2MeM or any of the myriad things we've done over the last decade-plus, there were challenges. Challenges end and a new challenges is posted on the 15th of the month. (Yes, that means there is one thrilling day each month when there are two active challenges!) Participants—both authors and reviewers—will receive a stamp in their challenge stamp collection for their participation. Deadlines apply only if you want your fanwork to receive a stamp.
Every challenge that has ever been offered by the SWG is available for use by creators of fanworks who are looking for inspiration. Even if the deadline for stamps is passed, you are welcome to use the challenges listed on our site. And comments on past challenge fanworks are always welcome and always receive a reward for that month. Want to join us? Click to read the guidelines below!
The world's largest film industry isn't Hollywood, with its stars and scandals and endless sequels but Bollywood, the film industry that originated in Bombay in the late 19th century, more than a decade before Hollywood got its start. This month's challenge celebrates the lively dances, glittering costumes, towering emotions, and music you can't get out of your head of Bollywood.
Prompts this month come from Bollywood films and will be assigned by a moderator. You can request your prompt on Dreamwidth, Tumblr, the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord, or by emailing the mods. You can specify whether you'd like a song, film title, trope, or color palette—or you can let us surprise you! (If you choose a song, let us know if you'd like a song with an English translation available.) As always, you can use any aspect of your prompt to inspire your fanwork.
In some cases, we provide an intentionally brief and vague synopsis of a film or definition of a concept so that creators can get started with a prompt without having to do additional research. However, creators are welcome to dig deeper into a prompt if they want to and use what they learn to inspire a fanwork. For example, you might find that the film in your prompt has a clever subplot you will write a story around, the music video for a song has costumes you will include in a drawing, or a concept has aspects not included in our definition that you wish to use to make a playlist. While this is not required, you should feel free to dig as deeply into the prompts if you want and use anything you find!
Back to Middle-earth Month 2011 featured a daily postcard from a different location in Middle-earth with a creative prompt inspired by that location. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Create a fanwork about storms, whether literal or figurative. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Create a fanwork about seasons in Tolkien's world. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Create a fanwork about a leader from "The Silmarillion" that shows why that character is a leader. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Back to Middle-earth Month 2010 was a collaborative game-style challenge where participants created fanworks in order to progress in their attempt to win the Last Battle. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Use a fanwork to show a character working to achieve freedom. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
A character discovers a long-lost letter and ... your fanwork tells the rest! Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Move beyond the places and times of familiar events to consider what was going on elsewhere in Arda at the same time as a major event covered in The Silmarillion. How--if at all--did the event impact what was transpiring elsewhere at the same time? Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Take a fanon you feel passionately about and turn it on its head, creating a fanwork that goes against the fanon norm. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Back to Middle-earth Month in 2009 offered a daily prompt connecting our personal experiences to our creative work. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Create a fanwork that depicts characters in the act of plotting something. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Take the ending of a story from "The Silmarillion" and use it as the beginning of a fanwork. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Your characters inspire you--but what inspires them? Consider what inspires your characters to act and create. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Choose a festival or tradition observed in the modern world and create a fanwork that includes that festival or tradition as it might have been celebrated in Tolkien's mythological world. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Create a fanwork centered around games and contests. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Every August, we focus on one of the most tumultuous times in Arda's history: the Second Age and the rise and fall of Númenor. Any story that is or might conceivably be part of the Akallabêth is acceptable for this challenge. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Create a fanwork featuring an animal. Show how important a beloved animal is to a character or tell a story through the eyes of an animal. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Pick an existing memorial, adapt a modern (or not so modern!) one, or create your own and make a fanwork about it. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Consider an item or technology and use a fanwork to describe or explain its invention by the people of Arda. Challenge opened in . Read more ...
Try your hand at poetry for National Poetry Month. Challenge opened in . Read more ...