SWG News

Cultus Dispatches: Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 July 2024. Last updated on 3 August 2024.

Nearly every author knows the feeling: the anticipation when opening your inbox after posting a new story to see if you've received comments. The walking-on-air feeling a kind word can give. And the disappointment that comes when days pass with only silence.

This month's Cultus Dispatches column kicks off our forthcoming exploration of comments on fanworks, looking specifically at Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data to provide one perspective on how authors view comments. We know nearly every author enjoys receiving comments; that is not really at question. But why? What do authors gain from comments? What happens to authors when they don't receive comments? And how do authors feel about one-click feedback like kudos and likes on their work?

You can read this month's column, "Fandom Chocolate … or Authors Love Comments," here.

A Sense of History: Passing Ships

Posted by SWG Moderators on 22 June 2024. Last updated on 10 August 2024.

The arrival and departure of ships across the Great Sea carries mythic significance for the peoples of Middle-earth. The image of ships crossing out of and back into a mysterious West appears as well in Beowulf and is alluded to in Tolkien's tower analogy in his lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics," where the tower allows those who climb it to observe the passage of the ships.

For the past year, Simon J. Cook has been writing a series for our Sense of History column about towers: the tower analogy in the "Monsters and the Critics" essay (which has long fascinating critics and for which he offers a new reading) and the many towers the pepper the landscape of Middle-earth. In his latest installment, he considers the ships we view from the tops of those towers.

You can read Simon's "Passing Ships" here.

Beta-Reader List Now Available

Posted by SWG Moderators on 17 June 2024. Last updated on 18 June 2024.

The beta reader list and profiles are again available on our website!

Betas, please check your profiles to ensure that they are correct. If something looks amiss, comment here or contact us.

The beta directory can be found here.

To add yourself to the beta list or edit an existing profile, check out our beta-reader FAQ here.

Original Post, June 17:

Here on the archive, we have been battling a very annoying bug for months now that occasionally shuts down pages that have /user/ in the URL. We have been able to identify two modules that trigger the bug. One module we have been able to replace entirely with core software, and Dawn has been slowly chipping away at this over the past few months.

Russandol just moved over the configurations needed for the FINAL step in this process from our test site. For the next few days, the beta-reader list and profiles will not be available. Dawn will be moving the data from the old system to the new. We will post here when everything is set and will email all active beta-readers at that time as well so that you can check that your profile is correct.

Whenever we make changes to the live site, do let us know if something seems off. You can comment on this post or email the mods. We test pretty thoroughly before rolling changes over to the live site, but nothing replaces actual use.

New Challenge: Funky '70s

Posted by SWG Moderators on 9 June 2024. Last updated on 20 July 2024.

Break out the lava lamps, we’re getting groovy this month with a trip back in time to the funky 70s!

For this month's challenge, select a prompt or prompts from the '70s-themed lists below. You can use any aspect of the prompt that you want and we encourage creative interpretation of the prompts. Want to dig up a particular episode of a show from the TV list and use that? A favorite book cover for one of the titles on the literature list? A line from the theme song from one of the movies on the Movies list? Go wild, moon child! (Of course, tamer interpretations of the prompts are acceptable too!)

You can find this month's '70s-themed prompts on the Funky '70s challenge page.

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 July 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

Thank you to Grundy for this month's lovely banner and stamps!

Fandom Voices: Commenting and Feedback

Posted by SWG Moderators on 1 June 2024. Last updated on 20 July 2024.

Comments and feedback provoke strong emotions throughout fanworks-centered fandoms. Creators wonder how to increase feedback from their readers/viewers and can assign a lot of meaning to feedback—especially a lack of feedback. On the other side, readers and viewers of fanworks have their own reasons for leaving—or most often, not leaving—feedback on a particular work, which can also generate strong emotions, in part due to social norms around comments and feedback that can leave what is intended as a simple act of appreciation feeling fraught.

Fandom Voices is a project that is a part of our monthly fan studies column, Cultus Dispatches, that seeks to record and collect the experiences of Tolkien fans around a variety of topics. As Cultus Dispatches prepares to dive into commenting and feedback over the next few months, we want to hear from people who create fanworks or read and view them about their experiences giving and receiving comments and feedback. If you create Tolkien-based fanworks or read/view them, you are eligible to participate! Responses will form the basis of an upcoming Cultus Dispatches column and will be collected on our site. You can receive attribution for your response or remain anonymous.

You can contribute a response to our current Fandom Voices collection on commenting and feedback here.

Cultus Dispatches: Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft

Posted by SWG Moderators on 25 May 2024. Last updated on 6 July 2024.

Most Tolkien fanfiction writers will tell you that their craft matters. They work at their writing and try to improve. Fandom institutions like awards, writer's workshops, lists of beta-readers, and selective archives reinforce that this is a fandom that takes its writing seriously.

But this is not a universal, and while authors who approach their stories differently are in a minority, there is some evidence to suggest they are a growing group. This month's Cultus Dispatches column considers fanfiction and writer's craft according to data from the Tolkien Fanfiction Surveys of 2015 and 2020, focusing on the authors who didn't agree that they took their writing seriously. While a small group, they doubled in number between the two surveys and show some intriguing demographic and motive-related data.

To learn more, check out Dawn's article Fanfiction and the Serious Business of Writer's Craft.

New Challenge: Crossroads of the Fallen King

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 May 2024. Last updated on 15 June 2024.

The Nirnaeth is fought by superheroes. Elven history becomes a telenovela. Túrin rages through the five acts of a Shakespearean tragedy. Tolkien characters fall into favorite films and shows, and classic literature mixes with zombies … or Balrogs. Elves in space and Maglor in history—Tolkien crossovers that are nearly genres in their own right.

Crossover fanworks have a vibrant history in the Tolkien fandom, and the crossroads are fertile ground for new and unexpected creative endeavors. This month's challenge asks participants to create a crossover fanwork. The second text and how exactly you cross the two is entirely up to you!

Crossovers are fanworks that use elements from two or more fandoms or texts to create a fanwork. Crossovers can use characters, settings, and other elements from the second text. In the Tolkien fanfiction fandom, crossovers have also included fanworks that combine Tolkien's world with folklore, myth, and real-world history. As always, we encourage participants to get creative in how they interpret this month's challenge.

You can find a list of crossover texts already added to our site here. If you need a tag added to the Crossover Text list, you can let us know now or request it when you post your fanwork using the Moderator Request field on the fanwork submission form.

Note that, on the SWG, Silmarillion-based fanworks that use The Rings of Power show (and other media adaptations) are considered crossovers. Likewise, fanworks that cross The Silmarillion with any of Tolkien's non-Middle-earth works are counted as crossovers.

Many thanks to Independence1776 for this month's lovely banner and stamps!

In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 June 2024. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

A Sense of History: Thálatta! Thálatta!

Posted by SWG Moderators on 11 May 2024. Last updated on 29 June 2024.

In this month's A Sense of History column, Simon J. Cook continues his series on towers in Tolkien's works, both Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics and his Middle-earth legendarium. Specifically, this month, we step with Frodo through a high window and into a view facilitated by Galadriel's mirror. Although Frodo's glance in Galadriel's mirror may seem anticlimactic by design—after all, Galadriel refuses the Ring and consents to fade from the story—Simon makes the case that the view Frodo sees and the actions it inspires are in fact a key turning point within the legendarium.

You can read Simon's article "Thálatta! Thálatta!" here.

Choose a Name for Our New Column!

Posted by SWG Moderators on 1 May 2024. Last updated on 11 May 2024.

Note that the new column's name has been chosen: Lay of the Land, a name suggested by Anérea! Thanks to all who voted! We will have more information on the new column very soon.

In 2009, we began an unambitious project to feature a character, along with a brief biography, each month. Under the leadership of Oshun, our lead biography writer, this small project quickly burgeoned into our Character of the Month column, which is now almost complete and in its sunset phase.

The newsletter committee is in the process of developing new columns for the newsletter. In the spirit of Character of the Month is our (temporarily titled) "location bio" column. This column will focus on the places of Middle-earth, providing a one-stop compilation of information from the major canon sources, as well as analysis from a variety of approaches.

We need your help naming the column! The newsletter committee has chosen its five favorite titles. You can vote for your favorite title for the column here!

Also a friendly reminder that anyone can join the newsletter committee, and there is no minimum participation requirement to do so. If you are on our Discord, let us know your username, and we will add you.

Watch this space for a call for contributions for the new column!

New Challenge: Tengwar

Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 April 2024. Last updated on 15 June 2024.

The Tengwar are one of the delights of visiting Middle-earth as a fan of Tolkien's work. Whether a serious student of the letters; dabbling with them, Appendix open, on a lazy afternoon; or simply admiring the way they flow across a title page (or the One Ring …), most Tolkien fans find them beautiful and packed with meaning beyond what it seems should be contained within a single letter.

This month (and a bit beyond!), we will feature a prompt per day taken from the Tengwar chart. The prompt will include a graphic of the tengwa and its name in Quenya and English. You can use any part of the prompt: the tengwa itself, the name, the English translation, the graphic, or some other creative interpretation we haven't even dreamed up yet! You may do as many or as few of the daily prompts as you would like. One prompt is worth as much as challenging yourself to do them all, so work at the level and pace that is comfortable for you. (However, there may be a special reward for anyone ambitious enough to try them all!) Tengwar prompts can be found here.

Prompts will be posted daily at midnight UTC on our website, Tumblr, Dreamwidth, and the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord. You do not need to do the prompt on the day it was posted; you can go back and do prompts you missed or do them out of order.

In honor of Poetry Month, we will have a special stamp for fanworks that are or include poetry. In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 June 2024. Note that the deadline is a month later than usual since the challenge runs longer than usual. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.

Thank you to Cuarthol and Anérea for the gorgeous banners and stamps this month!