Silmarillion Writers' Guild

We are thrilled to announce the completion of our new website--the first step forward in building a more vibrant and inclusive community for Tolkien fans to enjoy. In celebration of this watershed moment for our group, we will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 24 and 25, featuring a live reading and instadrabbling session! There will be two sessions, timed to welcome as many of our members from around the world as we can.

Saturday, April 24, 23:00/11PM UTC (find this in my timezone)
Sunday, April 25, 15:00/3PM UTC (find this in my timezone)

The celebration will be held on the SWG's Discord server. (Not a member of our Discord server but want to join? See below!)

Live Reading

We'll kick off the event with a tribute and toast to the new site, then hand the mic to our members to share readings of ficlets, poems, and excerpts from Tolkien to mark the occasion.

• If you're reading a poem or ficlet, please read only a work you have authored.

• Selections should focus on the broad themes of renewal and looking toward the future.

• Please choose a selection that can be read in five minutes or less.

If you want to read, complete this form. You can read at one or both sessions. At this time, we're asking for one selection per reader, but if you'd be interested in reading more, let us know in the Notes field on the form. If we have room, we will add you in! Once you've signed up, you'll hear from a moderator within the next week to confirm your reading time.

Just want to listen in? Listeners are more than welcome! Join our Discord server or look for a link on the date of the event to join in. We will also record the reading* so that those unable to attend can listen later.

* Participants can opt out of the recording; just check the appropriate box on the form above.

Instadrabbling

Instadrabbling is a long-running Tolkien fanfiction tradition carried on for at least the better part of two decades. Traditionally, a group gathers on a chat server, one participant offers four words chosen at random from the closest book at hand, and all participants create a perfect drabble using those four words, post their work, and squee and celebrate!

For this event, in an effort to welcome as many participants as we can, our expectations are considerably looser. Prompts will focus on the theme of renewal. Prompts can be anything at all: a quote, an image, a video clip, a song, a passage from Tolkien ... even the traditional four-word prompt! Participants are welcome to bring a prompt or simply create using the prompts offered by others.

All fanworks are welcome. While the tradition is a perfect 100-word drabble, if that's too short? (Too long??) Write something else! Write a poem or a short story. Don't write? Do a sketch using the prompts, work on a cosplay project, make a playlist--any and all creativity is welcome!

Participants are also welcome who don't want to create fanworks of their own but want to enjoy those made by others and join in the conversation. Join our Discord server or look for a link on the date of the event to join in.

How to Join Our Discord Server

If you're an SWG member, log in to the site and scroll to the bottom, where you'll find a link to our Discord server. If you're not a member of our site yet (do you want to be??), contact our mod team or leave a comment here, and we'll send you an invite.

We'll also post invite links on our site and social media that can be used at the time of the events to join in.

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Ribbon image credit: Brett Croft (modified by Dawn Felagund under license terms)

Friendly reminder that the SWG archive will be going to read-only tomorrow and will be going briefly dark sometime in the next few days while we take down the old site and move over the new site.

While we will be forcing all accounts to log out, if you happen to go to the site and discover you can still edit your work, DON'T. We will be going to read-only while we do the final migration of content. Anything added after tonight will not be moved to the new site.

As always, questions are welcome in the comments or at [email protected]. We are very excited to unveil the new site soon!

All, the exciting moment has arrived when we are recruiting beta testers for the new site! We expect to open for beta on Sunday, February 21. Beta testers will have full member access to the site (which will remain in maintenance mode for everyone else) and will be encouraged to try out all of its various features and generally offer us feedback.

You do not need any special experience to do this. In fact, I would very much like the input of people who would not identify themselves as "tech-savvy"; after all, the site is for everyone and better to know now areas where we need to improve on member experience! Beta testers will use the site like it's a live site and provide Russandol and me with feedback about any problems they encounter or suggestions for improvement.

I'm also interested in beta testers who maybe don't want to play with the site yet but have some experience with design. I did my homework on color palettes and typography, but I am emphatically not a designer and can't pretend that an afternoon of reading articles on these subjects can replace actual expertise. The site is, at this point, essentially half-dressed, and I'm not even sure I like what it's wearing. Anyone willing to share their design expertise by giving me some guidance on how to get the site fully dressed is most welcome!

If you want to help with beta-testing, please comment here or email us at [email protected]. If your SWG username is not immediately apparent from your Dreamwidth username or email address, include this information. (If you don't have an SWG account yet but would like me to set one up for you for beta testing, that's an option as well.) If you're commenting here, include an email address where I can send instructions once the site is open for beta (comments are screened).

Early in the discussion of rebuilding the SWG website, when I was seeking feedback on features that members and guests would like to see added to the new site, one proposed feature was to offer authors and creators the option to specify the type of feedback they would like to receive from readers and viewers. Recognizing that commenting has decreased in recent years, this is an idea that has been discussed more widely in the fandom as a means to increase the comments left on a fanwork. (See, for example, the tumblr longlivefeedback.) As a result, we have decided to add this feature to the new site.

How it will work: When adding a new fanwork to the site, creators will have the option of selecting the feedback they would like to receive from a list with checkboxes. As always, creators will have the option of providing additional information or clarification in the notes on the fanwork. (The new site will have the same options for notes available as the current site: story notes [covers the entire fanwork], chapter notes [appears at the top of a chapter and in the table of contents], and end notes [appears at the end of the chapter and nearest the comment field].)

When the fanwork is displayed, the creator's preferences will appear above the comment form. Here is an example screencap:


[Click the image for full-size.]

(Please note that the site is in very rough draft form as far as its appearance. I am not ready for feedback on how the site looks.)

Some caveats: As noted above, entering comment preferences is not required. This section of the comment form will be simply left off the display if the creator chooses not to enter comment preferences.

Creators can change their comment preferences at any time.

Furthermore, on the new site, creators will have the ability to turn off comments entirely.

Finally, the new Site Etiquette/Terms of Service that was approved by the SWG membership earlier this year will only allow concrit on fanworks where the creator has requested it. This field facilitates enforcing that expectation.

My questions for you: Right now, I am looking for input on what options to include on the list of comment preferences. Based on a discussion of this issue in the #town-hall of the SWG's Discord server, the following three options were proposed:

• I'd like to hear what you enjoyed about my fanwork.


• If you notice a typo or other small error, please let me know.


• I'm open to constructive criticism on this fanwork.

Please note that the wording of the options is not necessarily finalized. I'd like to focus less on wordsmithing what has already been proposed than getting feedback on whether these options meet the needs of our members and guests. Are these options adequate enough? Would you add any? Take any of these away?

As always, feedback is welcome in a comment on this post. If you prefer to communicate with the moderators privately, we can be reached at [email protected].

The "supporting documents" for the site (those linked in the Site Etiquette, FAQs, etc) are now open for public comment. This is not a terribly exciting document, but for anyone willing to wade through, I'd love any feedback they wish to share.

I will also be adding the lists we've been collectively working on (relationships, character groups, and nonfiction topics) to the new site this weekend, so now's the time to get in your final additions! We will be able to add to all of these lists once the site is launched; these will just get us started. (In other words: If you don't get a chance to add that rarepair you adore or that niche topic that you write meta about, it will be very easy to request it later.) If you need access, please email us at [email protected].

Finally, I'd like thoughts on how to "collect" stories on the site. Currently, our site has the ability to create series: collections of multiple fanworks that are related in some way. Series can contain your own fanworks and those of other authors on the site. Fanworks in the series must be archived on the site. I plan to build a series feature on the new site as well.

Eventually, I will also be adding a new type of fanwork: rec lists. These are collections of fanworks, sometimes related in some way (though not necessarily), that the rec list creator would recommend to readers. Like series, they can be one's own fanworks or other creators' or a mix of both. Unlike series, rec lists will be able to contain links to fanworks on the SWG and other sites.

Are there other "fanworks collections" people would like to see? For example, AO3 includes the ability to create events and challenges and have fanworks submitted as part of the event/challenge. Is that something people think they'd want to use on our site? Other ways to collect and group fanworks you'd want to see?

Dream big! While I can't make guarantees, having now worked intensely with it for two months, there really is very little you can't build in Drupal, and if there is interest in something, I will certainly try my best!

I am continuing to make good progress on the site rebuild. Because our new software will be much more flexible than our old software, I can build several "wishlist" items that people have asked for. As I work on this, there are a few tasks with which others can be of assistance:

• We will be adding two Relationships fields: Major Relationships and Minor Relationships. These will include both romantic/sexual pairings and platonic relationships. Authors will be able to tag their fanworks with the relationships that feature and occur in the background, and readers will be able to find fanworks with those relationships. I have started a list of relationships to add to the initial list on the site. (You will be able to request a relationship that is not on the list--and through a much easier process than our current process to have new characters added!) If you'd like access to add to this list, please comment here or email us at [email protected].



• Likewise, we currently have some character groups on our Character list, e.g., the Valar or the Noldor. However, this list is far from complete. If you'd like access to this list as we continue to build it--same instructions as above.



• We have always accepted fanworks in languages other than English. However, this is not prominently expressed on our current site, and we'd like to change that. On the new site, you will be able to choose the language your fanwork is written in. If you want to post in a language not on the list, you will be able to add it. However, I'd like to start with a pre-populated list. I currently have received requests for Polish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. If there is a language you'd like to see that is not on the list, let me know by commenting here or emailing. Please note that we are looking for real-world languages, not Tolkien's languages. (There will be a separate way to identify fanworks that work with Tolkien's languages.)



• As before, we will have our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service translated into as many languages as we can. Since we just rewrote it, unfortunately, our existing translations are no more good, so we have to start from scratch. If you're interested in translating, again, comment here or email. We already have translations in the works for French, Spanish, and Portuguese but all other languages are still available.



• Finally, our inclusivity focus group is always open for new members from marginalized groups who would like to contribute to making the SWG as inclusive a place as possible. We're about to start working through our FAQs and other supporting documents on the site. Let me know if you'd like to join this work and other inclusivity discussions moving forward.

As many of you know, we are actively rebuilding our website/archive. The software we currently use for the archive (eFiction) stopped being updated years ago, and we have been casually batting around alternatives to eFiction for the past few years. Then, last year, our webhost made some upgrades that broke parts of the site, and it became clear that we couldn't be "casual" about it any longer. If we were going to keep the site up, we needed to switch to something other than eFiction.

Russandol is currently working on getting our server set up for the new site, and I am working on building it using Drupal, an open-source content management system. We don't have a timeline yet for when it will be complete, but my hope is that we can begin using it within the next few months. The new site will let us introduce features that people have been asking for for a while: threaded comments, the option to display all chapters on a single page, a mobile-friendly display, and the addition of fanwork types other than writing and audio. We will be able to replicate most--if not all--of the features we have in eFiction. And most importantly, because Drupal is one of the biggest open-source projects in the world and very actively maintained, we should not find ourselves in the same situation ten years down the road, needing to rebuild from scratch or face obsolescence.

In addition to the software of the site itself, many of our policies and documents have fallen out of date, so we are working on revising those too. Over the next few months, as we undertake this work, we will be soliciting feedback on policy updates and site-building decisions from our members on matters where we believe input beyond the mod team is essential. While we cannot operate this group fully democratically--we have to, for example, consider the impact of decisions on the mods and volunteers who run the site--we will take this feedback into account to the greatest extent possible as we make decisions. The first document we sought to revise was our Site Etiquette/Terms of Service. Initially written when the site was built in 2007 (and based on policies and decisions from the SWG's founding in 2005), it not surprisingly needs some revisions to make it relevant to the Tolkien fanfic fandom in 2020.

Site Etiquette Change Regarding Constructive Criticism

When the SWG was founded 15 years ago, it was intended as a writer's workshop. Furthermore, there was an assumption in many parts of the fandom that people wrote fanfiction to improve as writers and should, therefore, always be open to constructive criticism (concrit) on their work. Our Site Etiquette was written with the expectation in mind that concrit would always be permitted on the archive. Here is the current language:

This group was designed as a place where authors could get help and feedback on their writing. As such, you should expect constructive criticism on the work that you share here. If you are seeking only praise for your work, then this is probably not the best place to share it.

Along the same lines, if you choose to reply to your reviewers, please do so politely. Not everyone will like every aspect of your work. You are welcome—and encouraged—to contact your reviewers for clarification when necessary, not to strike up arguments or berate the reviewer because s/he did not like certain aspects of your work.

In the instance that you feel that a review is inappropriately harsh, please contact a moderator. There is Reviewer Etiquette here as well! Please do not reply to the review. We will gladly handle the situation for you.

. . .

SWG was founded as a place for authors to get feedback and help with their writing. As such, constructive criticism is welcomed here. However, diplomacy is required. Reviewers are expected to be courteous and respectful of all authors and stories that they choose to review. If you are not familiar with the concept of diplomatic reviews, then I highly recommend that you read our diplomacy guidelines before beginning to submit reviews. These are the standards to which all reviewers will be held on this site.

Obviously, the purpose of the group has changed. We are not a writer's workshop. Perhaps more importantly, the fandom has evolved in its understanding of the purpose of fanfiction and the appropriateness of unsolicited constructive criticism. Not every fanfic writer wants to improve--and that's fine!--and each author has their own revision process that doesn't necessarily include unsolicited critical feedback on an archive. Our current Site Etiquette is not aligned with current fandom norms; in fact, considering that we aim above all to be a space that is welcoming to all Tolkien fans, telling writers that they must accept concrit on their stories, no matter its value to them, in order to post with us potentially creates situations that are the exact opposite of the welcoming atmosphere we hope to create.

As a result, we are proposing to eliminate this part of our Site Etiquette. However, recognizing that some authors do in fact want and value concrit from their readers, we are proposing the following:

• The story submission form will include a short checklist of kinds of feedback the author would like to receive. Constructive criticism will be one option.


• Readers who choose to comment will be expected to abide by the author's wishes for constructive criticism, i.e., if the author has not asked for concrit, the commenter should not include concrit in their comment. In the event that they do, the author can request that the comment be edited or deleted; repeated violations by a commenter could result in suspension of the commenter's account, in line with our "three strikes" policy.


• If an author asks for concrit, the commenter is still expected to abide by the SWG's diplomacy guidelines.


• Authors do not have to select an option. (In other words, this is not one more requirement to angst over! :) If authors do not choose what kinds of feedback they'd like to receive, concrit is not permitted.


• Authors can change their preferences for feedback on a story at any time, e.g., if an author posts a new story on which she'd like feedback and later revises the story and considers it finished, she can remove concrit from the list of feedback she'd like to receive.

Because this is almost a 180 from our current policy on concrit, we do want to hear from members who might have concerns about the change, as well as from members about the proposed revision/feedback checklist option on the story submission form. Please comment here with questions, suggestions, or concerns, or email us at [email protected] if you'd rather register your comments privately.

Inclusivity Focus Group

In recognition that fandom has actively and implicitly excluded fans from certain groups, we are working on an inclusivity statement for the SWG as part of our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service. We would like this statement to be shaped by the input of fans who are part of groups that have been marginalized in fandom, such as BIPOC fans, fans with disabilities, LGBTQ+ fans, and fans who are members of minority religions. In addition, we are seeking specific input on site policies as we undertake revisions. If you feel that you belong to a marginalized group and would like to shape the SWG's goals and policies around inclusivity, we would love your input!

The inclusivity discussion will take place on a dedicated channel on our Discord server. If you are interested in being a part of the discussion, please let one of the server mods (Dawn, Grundy, or Suzelle) know so that we can add you to the channel. (Again, commenting here is fine, as is emailing [email protected]; just let me know your Discord name if it doesn't match your username here!) If you'd like to join our Discord server, comment here or email us for an invite.

If Discord is not accessible to you but you'd like to be a part of the inclusivity discussion, email me at [email protected] so that we can figure out accommodations.

We will be taking comments on both issues for the next week, so please share any thoughts you have before next Wednesday, August 12.