Anniversary Contest

On 15 September 1977, a culmination of the fictional histories and mythologies that had been J.R.R. Tolkien's life work was published as The Silmarillion. In the thirty years since, this essential and challenging work has captivated readers … and inspired its share of writers as well!

At SWG, our interests in the history of Arda are as broad and varied as the stories of The Silmarillion itself, but we are all united by a love and fascination for this book that has sparked creativity and forged friendships around the globe. As we celebrate thirty years of The Silmarillion, we at SWG thought that there was no better way to honor The Silmarillion's publication anniversary than by doing what we love: reading and writing stories inspired by our favorite book.

Over the next few weeks, we challenge SWG members and the Tolkien community as a whole to share their Silmarillion-inspired creativity and to acknowledge and encourage that of others. Write a story, poem, drabble, or essay--whatever inspires you!--that is based on The Silmarillion. Post them here under our Anniversary Contest, and the piece with the most words worth of reviews at the end of the contest will receive honor, prestige, and of course, a shiny banner.

Likewise, for the non-writers among us, the reader who writes the most words of reviews about contest entries will also receive honor, prestige, and a shiny banner (as well as the appreciation of the authors that she or he has reviewed, of course).

Other Important Stuff

• So what is eligible for the contest? Anything that meets our site requirements--that is, it is based on or concerned with The Silmarillion or related works--is eligible. Within that constraint, any subject is fine. Any format--story, drabble, poem, essay--is acceptable, as is any genre, as are alternate-universe (AU) entries. All ratings are fine so long as they are clearly marked according to our site requirements.
  
  It's always been our group's policy to define "Silmarillion writing" liberally. Nonetheless, if you still have a question, please don't hesitate to contact us at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org and ask!
• We do ask that your entry be a new piece of writing. Obviously, it is impractical to visit every Tolkien site on the Web--nor will we be raiding your hard drives--to verify this, so we ask participants to be honest and honorable.
• For each piece of writing entered, we are asking authors to write at least one review of a contest entry as well.
• Therefore, you are welcome to enter as many pieces of writing as you'd like! Just don't forget to write at least that many reviews …
• What are the deadlines? The deadline for writing (and posting) your entry is 1 October 2007. By 2 October, the challenge will be marked as closed, and we will not accept further entries.
  
  The deadline for reviewing entries is 15 October 2007. On 16 October, we will count the reviews entered and award some shiny banners!
• Like authors, reviewers must still follow our site policies and must be diplomatic in their reviews. Yes, this means that constructive criticism is acceptable (and will be counted toward word-count totals). No, you may not act like Orcs or any other minions of Morgoth.
• Only original, relevant, and on-point review content will be counted. This means that quotes (from the story or from anywhere else) will not count toward the totals. Rambling for 2,000 words about your day does not count toward the totals. The SWG moderators and administrators reserve the right to make this decision. In the instance that we feel that content is not on-point enough to be counted, we will attempt to contact the reviewer and give him or her the option to edit the review to add relevant content, if s/he wishes.
• No, you may not review your own entries. Well, actually, you may (the software allows it), but we will not count these reviews toward your total.
• If you have any questions--no matter how silly they may seem--please do not hesitate to contact our friendly mods at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org. We're always happy to help!

The Technical Details

How do you participate?

First and foremost, you must have an account with the SWG archive. They're free … so to sign up, please visit us here.

If you are entering a piece in the contest, add the story to the archive as you usually would using My Account --> Add New New Writing. On the "Add New Writing" screen, you will have the option to choose any challenges that the story satisfies. Choose "Anniversary Contest" here, and this will add you to the challenge group with the other entries.

If you have any trouble with this, simply designate in your summary that it is a contest entry, and an administrator will add your story for you. Or drop us a line at moderator@silmarillionwritersguild.org and let us know that you'd like your story added.

If you are reviewing entries in the contest, you may view all entries by visiting the Anniversary Contest page. From there, simply review as usual; we'll take care of the rest!

Happy writing and reading and, of course, a happy anniversary, Silmarillion!

This challenge opened in September 2007 .