February News
The February Challenge:
The February Challenge will have the theme "Eye of the Beholder". Your story for this challenge will be a story inspired by art from last month's Art Challenge. Elements for the challenge will be one of the submitted art pieces. There were eleven works of art posted, and you may choose the one you wish to use. Since we may have more than eleven authors, you may choose one which has already been "spoken for".
Here are links to the Art Challenge entries behind the cut:
Art: Crickhollow at Twilight by Dreamflower
Art: The Sun-maiden's raiment by Rhapsody the Bard
Art: Tilion's Chase by Rhapsody the Bard
Art: Rauros by Elleth
Art: Arrival by Bethann
Art: Writing to Absent Friends by Bethann
Art: Letters from Home by Bethann
Art: Troth by Nath
Art: Minas Tirith by Ellynn Ithilwen
Art: Sauron and Huan by Huinárë
Art: I Espy with My Great Eye by pandemonium_213
Art: Deep in the Forest by Linda Hoyland
The February challenge stories will be due Tuesday, February 14th, and will be revealed on Thursday, February 16th. Please tag your story "eye of the beholder". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post with the title of the art you chose; I will respond with the code, so that you can embed it with your story if you want to.
If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com, virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com, or celeritassagittae@gmail.com.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our February challenge!
January 2012 Potluck Challenge
We had eighteen stories and sixteen authors participate in this year's potluck challenge! Congratulations and thanks to all who took part!
Back to Middle-earth Month!
March is "Back to Middle-earth Month", and as usual we will be partnering with the Silmarillion Writer's Guild to present a unique set of challenges.
Back to Middle-earth Month is an annual challenge that honors Tolkien's universe and encourages creativity based on it. All Tolkien-based creative work is welcome! This year, in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Hobbit, Bingo Baggins cordially invites you to a party in March to play--what else?--BINGO! Players will choose themed BINGO cards, each block of which contains a different challenge. The first player to complete a row of five challenges wins the game!
Below, you will find the rules for the game, which will begin on March 1 and run through the month. As we prepare for this year's event, however, we are hoping that B2MeM participants will first help us in other ways.
We need your help to create a range of diverse and fun BINGO cards! A form for sending your ideas to us can be found on the Silmarillion Writers Guild archive and will be coming soon to the Many Paths to Tread archive [just as soon as Dawn chases the bugs out of it on that site!].
We need help getting the word out! B2MeM is a challenge for the entire Tolkien fandom. All formats, genres, eras, characters, and ratings are welcome. If you know other writers, artists, or groups that might be interested in the challenge, pass the word along--the more the merrier!
(Please be a good citizen on your group and make sure it's okay to make promotional posts before posting about B2MeM on other groups.)
If you own/moderate a group and would like to become a B2MeM affiliate to help us to host the challenge this year, contact any of the community moderators, and we will send challenge materials to you.
We need graphic artists to help us make participant banners for the challenge! Participants can choose their banners or learn more about making banners here.
We hope that many members at Many Paths to Tread will choose to take part this year!
The MEFAs
We would like to congratulate all the winners and participants in the 2011 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards! Remember you are welcome to post your winning banners along with your stories here at the archive!
Posted by: Dreamflower on 02/04/12 - 12:07 pm(0 Comments)
2012 January Potluck Challenge!
Start the New Year off with a plan to write more fanfic!! It's time for our annual "Potluck" challenge, which consists of the leftover elements from all of the 2011 challenges. Just visit the group's LiveJournal page, select the prompt/prompts you would like to write and post a message for the mods so we can cross your choice off the list. Stories are due in the weekend of the 14th, for a reveal on Jan 16th. Hope to see you there! Questions? Just email a mod or leave a message on the group page or LJ.
Posted by: Cathleen on 12/27/11 - 03:44 pm(0 Comments)
October Challenge: Think Outside the Box!
The October Challenge will have the theme "Think Outside the Box!" Your story for this challenge should be "against your type": if you normally write fluff, write angst; if you normally write Hobbits, try Elves or Dwarves. Or, if you write mostly dialogue, write an entirely descriptive piece. Elements for the challenge will be three random words to be included in the story.
The October challenge stories will be due Friday, October 14th, and will be revealed on Sunday, October 16th. Please tag your story "outside the box". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this Livejournal post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com, virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com, or celeritassagittae@gmail.com.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our October challenge!
Posted by: Celeritas on 08/23/11 - 12:20 pm(0 Comments)
August News
Happy Anniversary to Us!!
Today is the second anniversary of Many Paths to Tread Archive! To celebrate, we are announcing our new Wikis on Fanlore.
There is a Wiki for MPTT, and for our communities, LOTR_GFIC_Community and LOTR Community Challenges!
Check them out:
Many Paths to Tread
Lord of the Rings Community Challenges
LotR_GenFic_Community
We hope you will check our Wikis out, and feel free to add to them if you have pertinent information.
Attention LOTR Big Bang Participants!
Due to a number of unforeseen logistical problems with posting the stories at the LJ Community, the following change has been made:
Authors:
We are asking the authors to upload the stories at the Many Paths to Tread archive. I believe that most of our participants already have accounts there, but if you do not, it is a very simple matter to sign up. If you have any questions about it, please e-mail a mod.
In order to hide the stories until the reveal date, we will temporarily put the participating authors on validation status. This means that any non-Big Bang stories you upload will also be temporarily be hidden. In order to minimize this, we will wait until Thursday night to change the status and ask that you wait until Friday to begin uploading your stories.
We ask you to email a mod once the story is up, giving us the URL of the story. On the reveal date, we will make a master links post to all of the stories here at the LOTR Big Bang Community.
Once the links post is up, you are free to post your stories anywhere else you like.
Since you will be uploading your own stories, here is how to put the illustrations and art in:
How to post your images using the rich-text editor:
- Upload your image to your image host. You will need to copy the image's URL.
- In the Story Text field, find the icon with the green tree. It is located in the second row on the text editor, slightly right of center. Click the icon.
- Paste the image's URL into the Image URL field. Add a brief description of the image in the Image Description field. This will help visitors with screen readers understand what is on your page. Click the green Insert button in the lower-left corner.
The artwork has been added to your story! Fill out the rest of the story form and click Add Story.
Artists:
We ask that you provide your author with the URL for your art, so that she may include it in the story.
We also encourage you to add your art to the archive under your own name. To do that, on the MPTT site, log in and click Add New Story. Choose the "Artwork" Category. Then follow the above steps. In "story summary" put Art Gallery, and just mention which story it is an illustration for. Use the "chapter notes" field to provide a little information about the piece if you want to.
If you need any help with uploading your story or art, please email us.
We are sorry for the change in plans at this late date, and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but after much discussion it was decided that this was the simplest solution to our problems.
Thank you for your patience! We have really been novices at this Big Bang stuff, and have learned a lot.
The August Challenge: Non-Fiction
The August Challenge will have the theme "Nonfiction." You will not receive an element for this challenge; rather, we encourage all members to submit essays, research articles, and other nonfictional works related to Tolkien's mythos.
The August challenge entries will be due Sunday, August 14 and will be revealed on Tuesday, August 16. Please note that this is a change from our former, day-based pattern to a date-based pattern. From now on, all of our challenges will be due on the 14th of the month, and will be revealed on the 16th.
Please tag your essay "nonfiction." Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To indicate your participation, please leave a comment to this post, or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com, virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com, or celeritassagittae@gmail.com.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our August challenge!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 07/26/11 - 07:31 pm(0 Comments)
June News
June News
The June Challenge: A Midsummer Night's Dream
The June Challenge will have the theme "A Midsummer Night’s Dream"; the theme is "dreams", and the starter/element will be a quote from the play. You may use your quotation in any way you like-- it does not have to appear in the story, it can be inspiration, or a title, or part of the summary. Of course, if you wish to use it in the story, you may.
Because this announcement is so late, the challenge stories will be not be due until Thursday, June 30, and will be revealed on Monday, July 4. Please tag your story "midsummer night's dream". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com, virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com, or celeritassagittae@gmail.com.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our June challenge!
The July Challenge: Summertime Blues
We are going ahead and announcing the July challenge now, since we are so late in announcing the June challenge.
Our July Challenge at the LOTR GenFic Community is our ever-popular Fixed-Length-Ficlet Challenge! The Theme will be "Summertime Blues", and you should include "blue" of some kind in the story-- you can use any shade of blue, or simply a blue mood. All the stories will be Fixed-Length Ficlets. The element will be a number between 101 and 400. Interested authors can reply to this announcement and claim a number. No one will be allowed to have a number previously claimed. Whatever number is chosen will be the word count for your ficlet-- if you choose 237 your story must have exactly 237 words!
Stories will be due the weekend of Friday,July 15, and will be revealed on Monday, July 18. Please remember to use the template on the community profile page as a header, to put your story behind a cut, and to put the title of your story and your name as the subject. Tag your story "summertime blues".
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post with the number you pick! If you have any questions, you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com or celeritassagittae@gmail.com.
I hope that we will have lots of participants for July’s challenge!
LORD OF THE RINGS GENFIC BIG BANG CHALLENGE!!!
Deadline Extension for Big Bang Challenge
Due to the fact that we were late in sending out artist/author match-ups as well as some other factors, the mods have decided on a two-week extension for the rest of the schedule. Therefore the new deadlines are as follows:
Art due: July 4 through July 8 July 18 through July 22
Stories and art due in moderator’s queue: weekend of July 15 July 29
Stories and art revealed: on Monday July 18 August 1
Of course, if you are ahead of schedule, more power to you, and keep on going! If you have been worried about making it on time, you can relax a little!
The 2011 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards (MEFAs)
The 2011 MEFAs are accepting nominations throughout the month of June! Already a number of stories from MPTT have been nominated! If you've read a story that you really like and would like to see it honored, consider nominating it for a MEFA! If you have never participated before, you will find that it is quite different from most fanfiction awards. Stories are awarded points based on reviews that the voters write! The MEFAs are a lot of fun, so check them out!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 06/07/11 - 06:50 am(0 Comments)
April News
The April Challenge: Poetry
The April Challenge will have the theme "Poetry", in honor of the fact that April is National Poetry Month, and we are asking the participants to try their hand at a poem! To receive your element, respond to this post and tell me if you want a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. You will be given one word to use. You may use it in the poem or the title, or just use it as inspiration.
Because we have not done a poetry challenge before, Dreamflower will be making some posts about poetry at the LOTR_Community_GFIC email group. There will be posts about different types of poems and links to sites on writing poetry.
The April challenge poems will be due the weekend of Friday April 15,and will be revealed on Monday, April 18. Please tag your story "poem". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your word, please leave a comment to this post, saying whether you want a noun, verb, adjective or adverb. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com, virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com, or celeritassagittae@gmail.com
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our April challenge!
The 2011 Spring Comment Challenge is Still Going!
This is when we encourage our readers to leave feedback at Many Paths to Tread, the archive of this community and of the LOTR GFIC Community. Last year our spring and summer comment challenges were very popular and a lot of fun! As with those challenges, a banner and icon will be awarded for participants.
Take Five
The challenge this spring is to do five comments at Many Paths to Tread:
(1) Five stories by authors you've never read
(2) Five stories in a genre or form that you don't usually read
(3) Five stories based on sources you don't usually read
(4) Five stories about races you don't usually read
(5) Five stories about characters you've never read about before You can do all five in the same category, or mix the categories up for a total of five. Of course, if you decide you want to do more than five, that's great too! Just read and comment at the archive, and when you have finished your goal, you can leave a comment on this post or at the announcement post on the mailing list, telling which five stories you chose. The ending deadline is May 16, but you may post about your comments at any time between now and then. We hope folks will have lots of fun with the Spring "Take Five" Comment Challenge!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 04/04/11 - 09:47 pm(0 Comments)
March News
The March Challenge: Lion and Lamb
The March Challenge will have the theme "Lion and Lamb". The story should show two sides of a character's personality; the prompts will be two opposite "mood words". The words themselves do not need to be used, but each should be reflected in the story.
The challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, March 18, and will be revealed on Monday, March 21. Please tag your story "lion & lamb". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our March challenge!
2011 Spring Comment Challenge!
This is when we encourage our readers to leave feedback at Many Paths to Tread, the archive of this community and of the LOTR GFIC Community. Last year our spring and summer comment challenges were very popular and a lot of fun! As with those challenges, a banner and icon will be awarded for participants.
Take Five
The challenge this spring is to do five comments at Many Paths to Tread:
(1) Five stories by authors you've never read
(2) Five stories in a genre or form that you don't usually read
(3) Five stories based on sources you don't usually read
(4) Five stories about races you don't usually read
(5) Five stories about characters you've never read about before
You can do all five in the same category, or mix the categories up for a total of five.
Of course, if you decide you want to do more than five, that's great too!
Just read and comment at the archive, and when you have finished your goal, you can leave a comment on this post or at the announcement post on the mailing list, telling which five stories you chose. The ending deadline is May 16, but you may post about your comments at any time between now and then.
We hope folks will have lots of fun with the Spring "Take Five" Comment Challenge!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 03/06/11 - 08:00 pm(0 Comments)
January News
January News
The January Challenge: 2011 Potluck
Once again we are having Potluck for the New Year! The themes and unclaimed elements for eight months of 2010 may be found listed at this LiveJournal post. (January and December are not included, as January is always "potluck" and December is always the Exchange, and we had no leftovers in May and June). If you would like to participate in the January Challenge, look through the elements posted, and choose one. Comment to that post with the number of the prompt you have chosen, and we will strike it from the list. For April, simply comment if you wish to submit an essay; for July, you do not need to choose a prompt-- just follow the instructions for that month. This is your chance to take part in a challenge you missed. Also, if you claimed a prompt for any month last year and did not finish your story in time, you may enter that instead.
Stories will be due in the queue the weekend of Friday, January 14, and will be revealed on Monday, January 17. Please tag your story " '11 potluck ".
There were 18 stories for the 2010 Yule Fic Exchange! We had sixteen participants, and everyone turned in their story, and everyone recieved a story! We would like to congratulate all of the authors, and to thank them for their hard work! If you have not read and commented on this years entries, we encourage you to do so!
Several of the participating authors have already uploaded their stories here at MPTT. If you have not done so, it would be most helpful if you will do so soon, so that we may make the challenge series.
Once more, thanks to all our great authors!
The February Challenge: Hearts and Flowers
The February Challenge will have the theme "Hearts and Flowers". Each participating writer will be given three elements: a type of love (puppy,true,etc.), a type of heart (joyful, broken, etc.) and a flower. (The flower will also have its meaning in the language of flowers, but that does not have to be included.)
The February challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, February 11, and will be revealed on Monday, February 14. Please tag your story "hearts & flowers". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
LORD OF THE RINGS GENFIC BIG BANG CHALLENGE!!!
As you have seen, our new community, has opened to great excitement! LOTR GenFic Big Bang has 25 authors signed up to participate!
We still need more betas and cheerleaders to sign up! (Sign up as a beta. Sign up as a cheerleader. And we still are trying to get an idea of how many artists are interested in participating! Artists may comment here.
Back to Middle-earth Month
This year's Back to Middle-earth Month's theme will be Passport to Middle-earth. Each day, we will offer a new challenge to tempt your muses with themes based around favorite locations in Arda. The event will begin on March 1. More details will be coming soon!
LOTR Community Challenges now on Dreamwidth
LOTR Community Challenges is a mirror community on Dreamwidth! If you have a Dreamwidth account and would prefer to post your challenge stories there, you are welcome to do so!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 01/10/11 - 12:38 pm(0 Comments)
October News
The October Challenge: Believe It or Not
The October Challenge will have the theme "Believe It or Not". Stories should contain something supernatural or unbelievable. The prompt for the challenge will be an adjective that will be used in the story. The adjective will be a word conveying a certain mood.
The challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, October 22, and will be revealed on Monday, October 25. Please tag your story "believe it or not". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your prompt, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our challenge!
The Remix
Our 2010 Remix Challenge was a great success! We had sixteen stories!
The September Challenge: Back to School
We had four stories in our September Challenge! If you have not checked those out yet, we hope that you will soon!
The Yule Fic Exchange
Sign-ups for the annual LOTR GenFic will begin with the official announcement sometime during the week of October 18, and last until November 1. Mods will immediately begin to work on and send out assignments. If you plan to participate, please comment to the LOTR_GFIC_Community on Yahoo! or by emailing the mods. We will need to know what sort of fic you are willing to write and what sort of fic you hope to recieve! We will also be in need of volunteers to pinch-hit and volunteers to beta.
The MEFAs
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards are in full swing. Voting closes on December 15th, so if you have not begun to leave your reviews, then now is the time to begin! There are several stories from MPTT nominated!
Artists wanted!
We are pleased to have a few artists posting their work here in our Art Gallery, but we would like to see more! If you know a talented fanartist, please encourage them to post their work here at MPTT! Photographs of all kinds of LOTR related fanart are welcome!
LOTR Community Challenges now on Dreamwidth
LOTR Community Challenges is a mirror community on Dreamwidth! If you have a Dreamwidth account and would prefer to post your challenge stories there, you are welcome to do so!
Create for Life
During the weekend of 12 through 14 November, we invite writers and artists of all stripes to join us for Create for Life, a project designed to promote cancer awareness and raise money toward cancer research. Patterned after Relay for Life, Create for Life participants spend part of the weekend working in their favorite art form. Participants may collect donations from sponsors or use their participation to widen cancer awareness. All art forms--including writing--are welcome, and you do not need to pledge any minimum time or donation to the project to participate. We also welcome National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) participants and encourage them to work on their NaNoWriMo project that weekend as part of Create for Life.
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 10/18/10 - 04:42 pm(0 Comments)
September News
The Remix
The Remix Challenge is due this month! Participants are asked to use the header provided in this post and to follow those directions when posting their stories to the Live Journal Challenge Community. We look forward to seeing everyone's remixes!
The September Challenge
The September Challenge will have the theme "Back to School". Stories should deal in some way with education, whether in a formal or informal manner. Elements for the challenge will be a subject of study, such as reading, arithmetic, history, music, etc., and participants should include at least a mention of their element within the story.
The September challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, September 17, and will be revealed on Monday, September 20. Please tag your story "Back to School". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line. To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our September challenge!
Odd (but Harmless!) Site Bug
It has come to our attention that there is a rather odd bug on the MPTT site. Luckily, it is also a harmless one! When you enter a new story and click "Preview," the preview pane will show your story belonging to the most recently added series on the site. This is just a glitch; your story will not actually be added to that series, and when you click to post your story, the series field should display correctly.
Hobbit Ficathon
hobbit_ficathon is a LiveJournal community for hobbit-centric fic challenges! The challenge for September is to write a ficlet featuring a gift or gifts.
The MEFAs
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards are in full swing. Nominations are closed, and now's the time to begin Reading and Reviewing! There are several stories from MPTT nominated!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 09/09/10 - 09:57 pm(0 Comments)
August News
On July 27, 2009 Many Paths to Tread ...
Went online. In that time, we have grown to 89 members and more than 1,000 stories! The mods, Cathleen, Dawn Felagund, Dreamflower and Pearl Took would like to thank all of our members for their enthusiasm and support! We hope that our archive will continue to grow and thrive over the years, and that we will have many more stories to share with the world.
To celebrate, we have added a few new features to our archive. You will notice that we now have a counter on our home page, as well as a feature that will show which members are online at any given time. We have also expanded the Most Recent stories sidebar, and have added a third skin choice for your viewing of the archive. In addition to that, we have also added a new category: Art Gallery! That's right! You may now display photos of your fan art here at Many Paths to Tread! You are still allowed to post images within the body of your stories as illustrations. But now you may display other art that you have created, including, but not limited to, drawings, paintings, photomanips, needlework, sculpture, collage, mixed media, and other created items!
We do have a few specific rules regarding the artwork, most importantly the ratings, which will be confined to G and PG, unlike fanfic, which may go up to an R. For more explanation of this and other guidelines specific to the Art Gallery, please see our ratings page.
Take a few minutes to explore our new "bells and whistles"!
Changing Skins
MPTT offers three different skins--or layouts--for members to choose from. Changing skins is easy! Click on Account and choose Edit Preferences. At the bottom of the page, you will find a drop-down box with the options for skins listed. Select the skin that you want and click "Submit." When you click onto the next page, the site will display using the new skin you've selected.
Arda is the default skin for the site. Ainulindalë is a "low bandwidth" skin that uses few graphics. Thror's Map is our newest skin, added in honor of our first birthday, and is patterned after the map found in The Hobbit.
The July Challenge: Fixed-Length Ficlets
We had a total of 16 stories in the July Challenge! Authors, if you have not already done so, you may want to take a minute to upload your story! We mods will see to it soon if you do not, but it would save us the trouble, and you would be able to make sure that all the characters, genres, etc. are the ones you want.
The August Challenge
The August Challenge will have the theme "Two Sides to Everything". Stories should include and argument, debate or disagreement between two characters. The element for the challenge will be the topic of the debate. (The mods would like to thank Nautika for her suggestion). We invite other community members to suggest future challenges.)
The August challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, August 13, and will be revealed on Monday, August 16. Please tag your story "two sides". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this LiveJournal post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com.
The Summer Comment Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
The Summer Comment Challenge is nearly ended! If you have been participating, and have not already done so, feel free to make a post telling of the items you found, and in which stories you found them, either in an email to our Yahoo!Community, or to this post on the LiveJournal Community or both.
The visit our Challenge Banner Page and choose your banner/icon set!
If you locate six of the items, you are a sharp-eyed Ranger.
If you locate eight of the items, you are an expert Elven archer.
If you locate ten of the items, you must be looking through a palantir.
If you locate all twelve of the items, you are proclaimed to be a Lord of the Eagles!
But if you are not quite finished yet, you have until July 31!
The Remix Challenge
There has been a gratifying interest in our Remix Challenge! If you have not already done so, please let us know as soon as possible whether you wish to participate, as we are going to start matching people up very soon! We will probably be sending out assignments in the next few days.
- Each writer will be assigned an author and you may choose from any of her stories for your remix. We are considering giving particiapnts the choice to request an edited list of the assigned author's work if you feel looking at a large number of stories would prove overwhelming.
NOTE: Authors may choose to designate any of her stories as "Safe Stories", meaning those stories are not up for the remix. - The length is still being discussed, but that is also much like the fic exchanges we do. The story should be longer than a drabble or one-page ficlet. More details on this with the official announcement.
- Each participant will indicate what types of stories/genres she is willing to write. This will help us in matching people to an appropriate author. Again, this is like the Yule exchange. If you have a preference, please state this, and conversely, please let us know if there are genres you will not be willing to write. This will assist us in matching authors up appropriately.
- The ratings will follow the GFIC main group standards which allow ratings G - PG13 only!
- We will announce the challenge on July 27th and immediately match up participants and hand out the assignments so you will have almost 8 weeks to finish by the September 22nd due date, which of course, coincides with another important birthday!
- It would help us immensely if everyone who is definitely decided about participating would drop us a line. That way, we'd be able to start the matching process in advance of the announcement.
- Participants will not be told who has been assigned to remix their story! The posting will be anonymous for a few days just for the fun of guessing who wrote what. In this spirit, we also ask that you not share the information with others regarding which author you are remixing!
NOTE: We will need some volunteers to "pinch hit" in case of unforeseen circumstances in which someone is unable to finish the assignment. We do ask that you consider the time commitment of taking on this challenge and be prepared to finish it in time. It functions much like a Fic Exchange, in which another person is expecting to receive a story in turn for the one she is writing, so please consider this when deciding whether or not to join in!
Volunteers still wanted!
Would anyone care to make banners and icons for the group challenges? We would like to develop a pool of volunteers to draw from. We currently have just one person helping us with this and it would be of great benefit to have more people on board. We will provide details about what kinds of things we need as soon as we come up with helpers. Just email one of the mods if you would like to try your hand at it! For an example of the kind of thing we need, see the Challenge Banner page and the Commenter Banner page.
Odd (but Harmless!) Site Bug
It has come to our attention that there is a rather odd bug on the MPTT site. Luckily, it is also a harmless one! When you enter a new story and click "Preview," the preview pane will show your story belonging to the most recently added series on the site. This is just a glitch; your story will not actually be added to that series, and when you click to post your story, the series field should display correctly.
Hobbit Ficathon
hobbit_ficathon is a LiveJournal community for hobbit-centric fic challenges! The community has been in existence since 2004, but had become inactive. It is now under new management and we are hoping to once more begin announcing challenges there!
The MEFAs
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards are in full swing. Nominations are closed, and now's the time to begin Reading and Reviewing! There are several stories from MPTT nominated!
And also, a very Happy Fifth Anniversary to the Silmarillion Writers Guild, which just happens to share our birthday! SWG is hosting a birthday event, beginning August 10 and welcomes all Silmarillion writers and artists. Please see the website for more information on how to participate!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 07/27/10 - 07:20 am(0 Comments)
Notes from Your Webmaster!
Challenge Banners
For participants in July's "Short and Sweet" challenge, GamgeeFest has made an adorable set of icons and banners that you can use to show off your accomplishments. You can find the banners and the HTML codes to display them on our Challenge Banners page!
Archive Bugs
A couple of bugs have crawled out from under the rug in the past month that may affect authors' use of the Many Paths to Tread archive in minor ways. One is completely harmless, just slightly pesky, and the other I am in the process of correcting on another site and will apply similiar changes to the MPTT site as well.
Story preview and series. Currently, when you add a new story and click the "Preview" button, the preview pane will show that your story belongs to the most recent series added to the archive. Don't fret, though--your story isn't actually being added to any series, and when you click to add the story, the series will display correctly.
Adding multiple subseries to a parent series. Currently, authors are only able to add one subseries to a parent series. This is a bug--you should be able to add as many subseries to a parent series as you would like--generating from an error in how our database is set up. I am working with another webmaster on another site to resolve the problem and will correct the problem here as well as soon as we confirm that our fix works. In the meantime, unfortunately, authors are limited to adding only one subseries to a parent series.
Thank you to the members who have reported bugs! Please remember that if you encounter any problems with the site, no matter how small, to report them to me at websmith@lotrgfic.com so that I can fix them.
Posted by: Dawn on 07/11/10 - 10:15 am(0 Comments)
July News
The July Challenge: Fixed-Length Ficlets
Since it was so popular last year, for the July Challenge at the LOTR GenFic Community we are repeating our Fixed-Length-Ficlet Challenge! the Theme will be "Short and Sweet", and all the stories will be Fixed-Length Ficlets. The element will be a number between 101 and 400. Interested authors can reply to this announcement and claim a number. No one will be allowed to have a number previously claimed. Whatever number is chosen will be the word count for your ficlet-- if you choose 237 your story must have exactly 237 words!
Stories will be due the weekend of Friday,July 16, and will be revealed on Monday, July 19. Please remember to use the template on the community profile page as a header, to put your story behind a cut, and to put the title of your story and your name as the subject. Tag your story "short and sweet".
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post with the number you pick! If you have any questions, you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
I hope that we will have lots of participants for July’s challenge!
The June Challenge
We had six stories posted to the June challenge; we may have some late stories added to the challenge as well. Thank you to all the authors who participated.
The Summer Comment Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
We had so much fun with our Spring Comment Challenge that we are trying it again! This time there's a little twist!
The Mods at Many Paths to Tread (this community's archive) would like to announce our Summer Comment Challenge. This comment challenge will be a scavenger hunt! You find a story with one of the following elements in it. You then leave a comment for the author at Many Paths to Tread , and when you have found your items, you then post to the group. Do comment on the story, and not just on the item you find! You may set your own goals of finding 6, 8, 10 or 12 of the items on the followng list:
- A harp
- A ring that is NOT a Ring of Power
- A goblet
- A scabbard
- A ribbon
- A boot
- A pan (or a pot)
- A book (or scroll)
- A stone
- A baby
- A horse (or pony) mentioned by name
- Clouds
If you locate six of the items, you are a sharp-eyed Ranger.
If you locate eight of the items, you are an expert Elven archer.
If you locate ten of the items, you must be looking through a palantir.
If you locate all twelve of the items, you are proclaimed to be a Lord of the Eagles!
Those who reach their goals will get a special banner!
The challenge begins now, and will run until July 31! We hope everyone will have fun trying this out!
Volunteers wanted!
Would anyone care to make banners and icons for the group challenges? We would like to develop a pool of volunteers to draw from. We currently have just one person helping us with this and it would be of great benefit to have more people on board. We will provide details about what kinds of things we need as soon as we come up with helpers. Just email one of the mods if you would like to try your hand at it! For an example of the kind of thing we need, see the Challenge Banner page and the Commenter Banner page.
Many Paths to Tread First Anniversary Coming Up!
July 27 will mark one year since we started Many Paths to Tread! We have some special things planned to celebrate, including some new features! We'd also like to see 1,000 stories posted by that date, so keep up the good work with uploading your stories!
Odd (but Harmless!) Site Bug
It has come to our attention that there is a rather odd bug on the MPTT site. Luckily, it is also a harmless one! When you enter a new story and click "Preview," the preview pane will show your story belonging to the most recently added series on the site. This is just a glitch; your story will not actually be added to that series, and when you click to post your story, the series field should display correctly.
The MEFAs
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards are in full swing. Nominations are closed, and now's the time to begin Reading and Reviewing! There are several stories from MPTT nominated!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 06/25/10 - 08:11 pm(0 Comments)
June News
The June Challenge
The June Challenge will have the theme "White Tree". Stories should incorporate one of Arda's White Trees. Elements for the challenge will be a story starter.
The June challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, June 18, and will be revealed on Monday June 21. Please tag your story "white tree". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our June challenge!
The May Challenge
We had eight stories posted to the May challenge; we may have some late stories added to the challenge as well. Thank you to all the authors who participated.
MPTT Anniversary
July will be the first anniversary of Many Paths to Tread, and we have some special things in mind to celebrate. Keep your eyes open for future announcements.
Shire Kitchen
The winner of the apron in the 2010 Shire Kitchen Recipe!Fic challenge was our own Pearl Took!
The MEFAs
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards are in full swing. Nominations are still being accepted until June 15, and nominated authors have until June 21 to fill out their information. We encourage folks to take part in these awards; they are a lot of fun, and it's a great place to find new fic!
Silmarillion Writers' Guild
The SWG shares a birthday with MPTT and will be turning five at the end of this July! We are gearing up for our birthday celebration and welcome ideas from members and friends about how we should celebrate. We'd love to hear your ideas on how to commemorate SWG's fifth birthday!
Posted by: MPTT Mods on 05/31/10 - 03:42 pm(0 Comments)
News Updates
The March Challenge
We had a total of eight stories for the March "Mad as a March Hare" challenge! A big thank-you to all the participating authors!
April's Non-fiction Challenge!
In a recent discussion, several members indicated they would welcome a non-fiction challenge. And since thoughtful non-fiction essays and research on all things Tolkien are always to be welcomed, we would like to invite you to submit a non-fiction piece as your entry to the April Challenge.
We will assign no theme or element-- write your essay or research or informative article on whatever topic you choose. We ask only that it be focused on Tolkien or his world, and not merely a rant of likes or dislikes.
The April challenge essays will be due the weekend of Friday, April 16, and will be revealed on Monday, April 18. Please tag your piece "non-fiction". There will be a special header for the non-fiction challenge, please use it instead of the usual one.
You do not need to request an element, but please leave a comment to this post if you think you would like to participate, or if you have any questions.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our April challenge!
The Shire Kitchen: Sixth Annual Recipe!Fic Challenge!
The LJ Community shire_kitchen would like to announce its Sixth Annual Recipe Fic Challenge. This is a chance to find a creative way to share your very favorite dishes as well as have the fun of writing a story! The theme for this year’s challenge will be: Special Ingredient!. (Interpret the phrase any way you want!)
THIS year there will be a special incentive to enter the Challenge. All authors who enter are eligible to have their name randomly drawn, to win this apron!
Yes, one lucky person will get this one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art! To see more details of the apron and how it was made, look here!
If you are interested in winning the apron, here are the rules and guidelines for the Shire Kitchen Recipe!Fic Challenge 2010!
We hope we'll have lots of participants this year!
Posted by: Dreamflower on 03/22/10 - 01:25 pm(0 Comments)
March News
The First Comment Challenge
Was a great success! We hope everyone will continue to comment on the great stories posted here! Look forward to a new comment challenge in the future!
The March Challenge
The March Challenge will have the theme "Mad as a March Hare". Stories should include a character who seems "mad" or is acting strangely or out-of-character-- for a reason! Your element will be a type of weather, which you will include in the story. The March challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, March 12, and will be revealed on Monday, March 15. Please tag your story "mad as a march hare". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your name in the subject line. To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our March challenge!
From The Silmarillion Writers Guild
Back to Middle-earth Month 2010: The Final Battle
Imagine yourself far in the future from your favorite age of Arda. The Elves have long passed into the West. The Age of Men began millennia ago. Only in legend, largely forgotten, do the people of Middle-earth recall the Ring War, the ascension of King Aragorn, the last ship to depart from the Grey Havens. The world has again begun to change. The waves break on new lands, and a new threat passes its dark hand across the tired face of the Sun. Perhaps in the deepest and long-forgotten lore the people of Arda can find the secrets to overcome this new threat?In this year's B2MeM challenge, you will write or draw your way to triumph for the people of Arda! The event incorporates a writing/art challenge with a quest game. You may play on your own or with a team, and all Tolkien-based writing and artwork is accepted! You do not need to be an SWG member to participate. For more information, please see the B2MeM 2010 website.
From WendWriter at Archives of Excellence
The Golden Quill Awards has opened for business. Nominations can be made today by replying to the relevant posts on the site blog. There's one for each genre. Nominations are open till the end of May.
Genres
Action/adventure
Angst
Drama
Family
Horror
Hurt/comfort
Parody/comedy
Poetry
Romance
Science Fiction
Spiritual/supernatural
Thriller
Rules
- Fanfiction stories from every fandom are eligible to participate, but they should be nominated according to genre.
- Stories that are not of the genre nominated for will be disqualified.
- The same story cannot be nominated in subsequent years.
- Only complete stories are eligible.
- Authors cannot be nominated more than twice in the same category.
- Categories will be subdivided by story length: Drabble; 100 - 5000 words; 5000 - 20,000 words; 20,000 +.
- Nominees should be informed that they are being nominated, and invited to participate.
- Nominees need to email us on admin@archives-of-excellence.9f.com to have their stories added to the poll. Nominees who do not acknowledge their nominations will not have their stories added to the poll.
- Writers are welcome to nominate their own stories.
- There is a limit of twenty nominations for this year's Awards per person. This may change next year.
- Stories of a rating of NC17 or higher are not acceptable for these awards.
- Polls will be used to determine the winner. Polls close on 31st August 2010.
What I do is contact the nominee and say, "I'd like to nominate your story, 'X,' for the Golden Quill Awards. If you're happy with this, please let me know, then email admin@archives-of-excellence.9f.com to accept your nomination. To find out more, please go to golden-quills.9f.com. All the details are there." Nominations for any fandom are welcome.
From Juno and Aranel at There and Back Again
Because it fits the occasion, today "There and Back Again" presents the Romantic Dinner Challenge.
If you choose to accept this challenge,
- you will write a story of a format of your choice (drabble, drabble series, ficlet, or short story)
- about a character or characters of your choice cooking, possibly failing at cooking, and at last eating and maybe even enjoying, a romantic dinner
- and – this is the special twist of the challenge – you must include all the ingredients, the complete recipe, and the preparation of a real dish in your story!
For information on how to participate, see the There and Back profile page.
Posted by: Dreamflower on 01/31/10 - 01:03 pm(0 Comments)
Adding to Open Series on the MPTT Archive--UPDATED!
Update! The software developer has replied to my bug report, and the bug has been fixed. Authors should now be able to add their stories to any series that is set to open. If you have any questions or problems adding your story, please let one of us know.
Dawn
Hi, all,
A bug in the archive software has come to our attention concerning how authors add to series. Currently, series on MPTT may be set to open, moderated, or closed. If a series is set to open, any author can add her or his story to the series. For example, the series on the archive that are related to our monthly challenges are always set to open so that, if you have written a story for the challenge, you may add it to the series.
Currently, however, open series are not allowing members to add their stories to the series. Until this bug is squashed, hopefully in the next software update, please contact the site admins if you would like to add a story to an open series. All of the admins can be reached at manypaths@lotrgfic.com and I can be reached at websmith@lotrgfic.com. As always, please don't hesitate to contact us--we are happy to help! :)
Best regards,
Dawn
MPTT webmaster
Posted by: Dawn Felagund on 01/24/10 - 07:03 pm(0 Comments)
Important Events
We have added a page to the site to list auctions on the Help Haiti LiveJournal community that are being run by members of MPTT and the broader Tolkien community. Please check out their auctions, and if you have your own auction going, email me at websmith@lotrgfic.com to be added to the list!
Help Haiti is a multi-fandom effort aimed at raising donations for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti by auctioning fanworks and services in exchange for donations to relief organizations.
Congratulations to our members!
Several of the members of Many Paths to Tread had nominated stories that placed in the 2009 MEFAs! We'd like to congratulate all of you who won, and all of you who had stories nominated! We encourage you to add your winner's banners to your stories, and if they are not already here at the archive, to add the stories here! It's not too soon to begin keeping track of stories you'd like to nominate for 2010- if the story is archived here, consider using the MPTT URL when nominating the story!
February Challenge: Send It In a Letter
While the January story deadline has been extended for one week, we are still announcing next month's challenge, so that you will have plenty of time!
The February Challenge will have the theme "Send It In a Letter". Stories should either be written as a letter or contain a letter as a major part of the story. The element for the challenge will be a type of letter (e.g. "love letter"; "business letter"; "letter of recommendation"; etc).
The February challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, February 12, and will be revealed on Monday, February 15. Please tag your story "letters". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and to put the name of your story and your own name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated in the challenges before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your element. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com.
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our February challenge!
READ AND REVIEW!
We are so proud of the lovely Top Commenter banners and icons that we have available to our members! Remember, if you are able to reach the "10 Most Prolific Reviewer" list, you will be entitled to one of those lovely banner/icon sets for your own use! Thanks so much to Rhapsody for all her work on them!
From Wendwriter at Archives of Excellence
Writing Challenge: Before the Beginning
Happy new year, everyone! Posting for the monthly Archives of Excellence writing challenge begins today. The story must have a reference or allusion to the role that your favourite character is going to play in the events of your fandom. Perhaps something significant that they do - let's say, overcome a fear of something to help another character in a pivotal scene. The idea is more than a gapfiller - it must tell us something about who the character will become.
You can pick up your entrants' icons on my LiveJournal account. As usual, the story can be any length for any genre for any fandom. The best entries will be added to the story challenges page here at the Archives. Entries can be made on the Story Challenges thread at Can We Talk? my forum on fanfiction.net, or you can email them to me here at the Archives: admin@archives-of-excellence.9f.com. The winner will be chosen by a poll on Can We Talk? at fanfiction.net.
From The Silmarillion Writers Guild
Lost Letters Challenge
Your character is going through paperwork, an old trunk, or the dusty shelves in an forgotten part of the library when she or he discovers a letter from someone no longer present. What does the letter say? What does your character do (or not do) as a result of it? January 2010 SWG Newsletter
Are the two Glorfindels actually the same person? What song did Fingon sing to rescue Maedhros? Do Elves indulge in the same holiday mayhem as we do? All of this and more can be found in this month's newsletter!
Back to Middle-earth Month 2010
This year's B2MeM event will be a team challenge in the form of a quest game. We are looking for volunteers who would like to help us plan and run the game, as well as looking for other Tolkien-related groups that would like to get involved. Please note that you do not need to be an SWG member in order to volunteer, and the event will welcome all Tolkien-related fiction and artwork, not just work that focuses on The Silmarillion. Please contact us for more information on how to volunteer or get your group involved.
Teitho
At Teitho, the challenge for January is The Price of Freedom: Freedom is one of the most precious things in life. Unfortunately, often we only start to appreciate it once we've lost it. And since it is so precious and fragile, sometimes we have to go to great lenghts to ensure it or win it back. This time around, we want you to explore these lengths. The deadline for this challenge is January 25th. If you want to know more and/or participate, please visit the website..
Posted by: Dreamflower on 01/18/10 - 09:23 am(0 Comments)
Help Haiti
We have added a page to the site to list auctions on the Help Haiti LiveJournal community that are being run by members of MPTT and the broader Tolkien community. Please check out their auctions, and if you have your own auction going, email me at websmith@lotrgfic.com to be added to the list!
Help Haiti is a multi-fandom effort aimed at raising donations for earthquake relief efforts in Haiti by auctioning fanworks and services in exchange for donations to relief organizations.
Posted by: Dawn on 01/16/10 - 08:06 am(0 Comments)
Using CAPTCHA Verification on the MPTT Archive
Hi, all,
Some of you may have noticed that we've had a rush of registrations lately from people who aren't here for Tolkien fanfic; they're spammers, and if that was not bad enough, some of what they're peddling is not acceptable for this site. This is the second time we've had a rush of spammers like this, and both times, they are coming from the same places. This sort of activity makes for unpleasant experiences for all, so we're trying to put a stop to it.
To this point, we have not used CAPTCHA verification for members signing up for a new account. CAPTCHA verification is when you are asked to type a string of letters and numbers to prove that you're a human. We've decided to turn on CAPTCHA for Many Paths to Tread in hopes that it might deter the number of bogus accounts that are being created on the site.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. CAPTCHA is annoying, which is why we have avoided using it on the site, but spammers from websites that would make Sauron blush and double the security needed to enter Barad-dűr are pretty awful too. As always, if you run into any problems with using the site, please don't hesitate to contact me, no matter how small or silly you think it is--I'm always happy to help!
Dawn Felagund
MPTT webmaster
websmith@lotrgfic.com
Posted by: Dawn on 01/07/10 - 11:20 am(0 Comments)
January 2010 Potluck Challenge
Since December is a very busy month for most of us, what with RL holiday obligations, and the many fic exchanges that take place (including the GFIC Yule Exchange), we are not having a December Challenge. Instead, we are giving you a head-start on January's Challenge!
Once again we are having Potluck for the New Year! Behind the cut are the themes and unclaimed elements for ten months of 2009. (January and December are not included, as January is always "potluck" and December is always the Exchange). If you would like to participate in the January Challenge, look through the elements posted, and choose one. Comment to THIS POST with the number of the prompt you have chosen, and I will strike it from the list. For June and July, you do not need to choose a prompt-- just follow the instructions for that month. This is your chance to take part in a challenge you missed. Also, if you claimed a prompt for any month last year and did not finish your story in time, you may enter that instead. (Please comment at the post linked on LiveJournal, and NOT to this email post, as that way you will be able to see which prompts have already been claimed.)
Stories will be due the weekend of January 15th, and will be revealed on Monday January 17th. Please remember to put your story title and your name on the subject line, and to use the header provided on the community profile page. Tag your story "010 january potluck challenge".We look forward to seeing your stories!
Just in time for Christmas!
Just in time for you to add to your Christmas wish list-- Dawn's designed a lovely logo, and we have MPTT T-shirts, mugs, mousepads and so forth for those who'd like to show off their affiliation with the archive!
Reminder:
To those participating in the LOTR_GFIC_Community's Yule Fic Exchange, remember that stories are due by December 14. If you are going to be a bit late, please contact the mods. Also, if you do not think you can finish your story at all, please contact us ASAP, so that we can line up a pinch hitter!
News from Other Groups
Archives of Excellence One of our members WendWriter, has a multi-fandom archive, Archives of Excellence, where several of our authors have stories posted. The Archive is currently running an Awards poll, the Golden Quill Awards, for the best of stories in several genres and fandoms. Voting is open until December 12.
Silmarillion Writers Guild
Current challenge: Lost Letters
Your character is going through paperwork, an old trunk, or the dusty shelves in an forgotten part of the library when she or he discovers a letter from someone no longer present. What does the letter say? What does your character do (or not do) as a result of it Back to Middle-earth Month 2010
This year's B2MeM event will be a team challenge in the form of a quest game. We are looking for volunteers who would like to help us plan and run the game, as well as looking for other Tolkien-related groups that would like to get involved. Please note that you do not need to be an SWG member in order to volunteer, and the event will welcome all Tolkien-related fiction and artwork, not just work that focuses on The Silmarillion. Please contact us for more information on how to volunteer or get your group involved.
SWG December 2009 Newsletter
All the news from in and around the SWG--plus new columns and comics--can be found in our newsletter!
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
The 2009 MEFAwards (Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards) have only one month to go! A number of our members are participants in the MEFAs, and many of them also have stories that have been nominated. It's not too late to join and add your own reviews! Here is a link to a post with all the information you will need: On MEFA membership. Voting closes on December 31, so you may well want to redouble your efforts to read and review!
From Teitho
Teitho is an LOTR challenge site, offering monthly challenges on various themes. December is almost there and that means christmas is coming. This is the season when we spend more time with our families and friends and when we take a special joy in finding gifts for our loved ones. And surely, our heroes like gifts as well, therefore the theme for December is Giving Gifts, Receiving Gifts.
On which occasion would you get gifts in the different societies in Middle Earth? For your birthday? For solstice? Are there other special occasions? And what could you give the King of Gondor or Arnor? What present should you get an elf who has everything for his begetting day? Must a gift always be tangible? Besides the obvious book, swords or candlestick - what else could be considered a gift? What about love, friendship, loyalty, trust?
Choose this theme to explore different cultures and the contexts in which the give and receive gifts. Or choose this theme to write about families and friends!
You have one month to write a story for this challenge. The deadline is December 27th, by this date you should have sent your story to teitho.contest@gmail.com if you want to participate.
Posted by: Dreamflower on 12/01/09 - 03:14 pm(0 Comments)
The November Challenge
The November Challenge will have the theme "Dialogue". Stories should consist of all or nearly all, dialogue-- tags such as "he said" or "she said" will be allowed. But try tell the entire story in conversation. Elements will be four random elements you will need to include in the story.
The November challenge stories will be due the weekend of Friday, November 20, and will be revealed on Monday, November 23. Please tag your story "Dialogue". Please remember to use the header template on the community profile page, and put the name of your story and your name in the subject line.
To request your elements, please leave a comment to this post. If you have not participated before, please leave an email address so that I can send you your elements. Or you can email the mods at aelfwina@gmail.com or virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com
I hope we'll have lots of participants for our November challenge!
LOTR GenFic Community Yule Fic Exchange
If you are wishing to participate, please have your request sent to the mods by November 8!
Rules and Guidelines for Yule Fic Exchange:
1. Everyone who requests a story agrees to write one in exchange. Authors will remain anonymous until one week after the stories are posted.
2. Stories should be a minimum of 1,000 words. This is to ensure that one person doesn't get a drabble while another gets a novel.
3. Ratings and Genre must be according to the group's rules on the homepage: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LOTR_Community_GFIC/
and more detailed guidelines are to be found in the group file, "Ratings and their definitions.rtf" . Please ask if you have any questions.
4. Please indicate what you are willing to write! For example, let us know if there are any characters/genres/rating/time period, etc that you don't want to write about. Likewise, indicate the same for things you are willing to write about.
Ex: "I am willing to write hobbits and men. I don't want to write elves." Or: "I know nothing about the First Age so please don't ask me to write anything in that time period."
However, remember that the more picky you are about what you're willing to write the harder it may be to match you to someone's request so try to keep as open a mind as possible! It also helps if you are not too precise (AKA, "laundry list") about what you want in your fic. Remember, we will be matching a wide variety of people and the more you require, the harder it may be to find the right person to write your story.
5. Please EMAIL your requests along with what you're willing to write about to either Dreamflower ( aelfwina@gmail.com ) or Cathleen (virginia_lee_redcat@yahoo.com ) , but DO NOT post them on the group's list please!
6. Requests will be assigned the week of November 8 . If you have not already made your request, you need to do so by November 6. If you *have* already made one, you may wish to check and see if it has been received.
7. Writers will have until December 1st to notify the mods of progress on the story. If you believe that you will be unable to complete your story, you must let us know by that date. Stories must be turned in by December 14. Requests for brief one or two day extensions will be handled on a case by case basis (e.g. Your story is finished but is in beta, or your story is nearly finished and just needs a little tweaking on the word count or something of that nature. )
Those who do *not* complete their assigned stories on time *and* fail to notify the mods of the problem, will be banned from participating again. We have to be firm about this rule because it is really unfair for someone who writes to miss out on receiving a story in return!
8. If you are willing to pinch hit, please let us know ASAP.
9. If you are willing to beta for the exchange, also please let us know. Some people do have their own betas, but others do not, and it is a good idea to have any exchange story beta'd. It's a gift, after all, and you want it to be a good one!
10. Stories will be emailed to the mods, who will see to their posting on the reveal date. The reveal, will be Dec. 31, which was the date chosen by a poll of the membership. Authors will remain anonymous for one week, so that readers may have the fun of guessing who might have written the story; then the authors will be revealed as well, on Jan. 6. Please do not respond to comments before that date, and please do not post the story on another site until AFTER that date.
11. This really should not be necessary to remind you of: but, please remember to acknowledge your gift! Read your story and thank the author!
Many Paths to Tread Opening to the Public!
On January 1, the archive will open posting privileges to the public. Up until now, they have been confined to members of the LOTR_Community_GenFic and its sister group, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
lotr_community on LiveJournal. Please spread the word to your friends!
From The Silmarillion Writers Guild
The current challenge at The Silmarillion Writers Guild is Another Place in Time.
When we write about Silmarillion events, our stories often concern the time and place where the action primarily occurred. However, there is a broad world beyond--what was going on there, at the same moment in time? This challenge asks authors to 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?
The Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards
The 2009 MEFAwards (Middle-Earth Fanfiction Awards) are in full swing. Nominations have been made, categorization is under way, and soon it will be "voting season" (even though you do not have to wait for "voting season" to begin voting. A number of our members are participants in the MEFAs, and many of them also have stories that have been nominated. It's not too late to join and add your own reviews! Here is a link to a post with all the information you will need: On MEFA membership.
News From Other Groups Welcome!
If you know of other writing groups in the LOTR fandom which have news or challenges, please send the information to the mods for inclusion on this page!
GeoCities Websites Now Closed
With the closing of GeoCities, many of the URLs to some of our favorite sites are no longer valid. This includes some sites on our Resource Page! If you should happen to know if any of those sites have been relocated, or of suitable substitutes for those sites, please let the mods know!
Posted by: Dreamflower on 11/04/09 - 08:53 am(0 Comments)
Word Counts on MPTT and Upcoming Site Downtime
Greetings, all,
It has come to my attention that there are some slight differences between word counts generated on the MPTT archive and those generated by MS Word or by a hand count. The difference tends to be slight: only a few words. For most stories, this is not much of an issue, but for fixed-length stories, such as drabbles, where the goal is to achieve a pre-determined word count, even being one word off is problematic.
The software we use generates word counts slightly differently than MS Word does, which can result in inconsistencies between the two. Unfortunately, this is not something that we can change, and it is a problem common to not just MPTT but all sites that use this software package.
If your story is intended to meet a fixed word count, I would suggest including the final word count in the Chapter Notes. These notes will not only show at the top of the chapter but will also show on the Table of Contents beneath the title for that chapter, where the reader can see your word-count goal before clicking on the story.
Secondly, our webhost has scheduled site maintenance for August 28. This maintenance will require them to take down the site for about an hour. They expect to complete their work between 7 and 9 a.m. GMT. If you notice the site is still down or is not working properly after that time, please let one of the admins know at manypaths@lotrgfic.com or websmith@lotrgfic.com.
Thank you and may the muses smile upon you! :)
Dawn
MPTT webmaster
Posted by: Dawn Felagund on 08/27/09 - 08:23 am(0 Comments)
Our New Resource Page!
We've added for your convenience a page of Useful Links and Resources. These are links not only to sites on writing and on fanfic, but also to things specific to writing fanfic in Middle-earth, such as links to names and languages, geography and so forth. There are also links to useful sites dealing with medicine and herbs (for the h/c writer), flora and fauna and other miscellaneous things.
All of these links have been checked out, and we hope you will find them helpful, and that you will be able make use of them. Please feel free to suggest to us any additions to this list.
Dreamflower
Lingering Issues with the Character Lists
Hi, all,
It has come to my attention that we have some lingering issues concerning the character list from which authors choose characters when posting a story. In a nutshell, the character list includes sitewide characters--those who might feasibly appear in stories belonging to multiple categories--and characters that are assigned to a particular category. When you select a category for your story, the sitewide character list should expand to include characters specific to that category as well. For example, if you select The Silmarillion as a category, the character Elf: Fëanor becomes available to you. If you select The Hobbit as a category, Other: Beorn becomes available, but Elf: Fëanor is not. This helps to keep the character list manageable, given the sheer number of characters that appear in JRR Tolkien's many different works.
It should work that way. But it hasn't been. Authors who use Internet Explorer have found that, when they select a category, the characters assigned to that category are not being added to the list.
The developers of our software supposedly created a fix for this problem; however, as many of you have learned the hard way, the problem persists. Unfortunately for IE users, this means that we are stuck waiting for a better solution. Luckily, we have discovered a work-around for this problem until it is fixed.
IE users should fill out the entire form, including what characters are available to them on the sitewide list. Then click the "Preview" button at the bottom of the story form. The character list available on the preview page will include sitewide characters and any characters assigned specifically to the categories you have chosen. You are free to add the remainder of the characters then and post the story.
If you still do not see the character(s) that you need, please select "ADMIN: New Character Needed." One of us will be in touch with you to see who you need added to the list and will gladly do so. I generally check at least once per day to see if any characters are needed and the other mods are keeping an eye on this as well, so you should hear from one of us within a day. If you do not, as always, you are welcome to contact me at websmith@lotrgfic.com or the rest of the site admins at manypaths@lotrgfic.com.
If we do not hear back from you within a week or so, we may removed the "ADMIN: New Character Needed" flag from your story in order to keep ourselves organized and prevent multiple admins from contacting the same person about the same request. Of course, we are still willing to add the characters you need, even if we remove the flag; just get in touch with us at your convenience at either of the site email addresses, and we'll be happy to help you.
I know that there have been some bumps in the road as we get the site off the ground. I thank all of you for your patience and support as we try to figure out and solve problems. Please keep the questions and suggestions coming! :)
All the best,
Dawn Felagund
MPTT webmaster
Posted by: Dawn Felagund on 08/12/09 - 04:24 pm(0 Comments)
Some Tech Tips for Using the New Site
Greetings, all!
I am honored to have been asked to act as the webmaster for the LotR GenFic Community's new site. If you have any problems with or questions about using the site, please don't hesitate to let me know. I can be reached at websmith@lotrgfic.com, or let one of the other mods know, and they'll pass along the necessary information to me.
There are, however, a few bits of information I'd like to pass along that should make using the site easier for everyone. Firstly, those of you who wrote for recent challenges have an account here already. I have sent out emails to all existing members with your login and password information. If you're not sure if you have an account or if you have trouble logging in, please let me know.
Once you're logged into the site, you will see a link for Account Info. This is in the upper right-hand corner of the site. This is where you can update your user information, change your email address, post a new story, and so on. However, there are a couple of features hidden in there that I think might be especially useful to folks.
There are two different layouts--or skins--available on Many Paths to Tread. The one you see when you're not logged in is the design where I pulled out all the stops in building it. However, this means that it is full of graphics and scripts and will possibly run slowly if you're working on dial-up or a slower connection. The second skin is aimed at making the site faster for those on slower connections.
To change the skin, go to the Account Info link after you've logged on. There is a link to Edit Preferences near the bottom. Click on that and the final option allows you to choose the skin you'd like to see displayed when using the site. "Arda" is the main, graphics-intensive skin. "Ainulindale" is the low-bandwidth skin for those users working on slower connections. I have at least one more skin designed, so there will be more options available here eventually as well.
While you're on this Edit Preferences page, you might also want to set your account so that you receive email notifications when you get a new review on your story, or when an author replies to a review that you've left. By default, you are not notified by email; if you'd like to be, simply check the relevant boxes, and notifications will be sent to the account you have registered with the site.
Getting used to a new site can be a little frustrating. I thank those of you who have been patient with us so far as we get issues resolved and encourage anyone who has questions or problems--no matter how silly or small you think they are--to let us know. Have fun playing with the site; I look forward to the excellent fiction I know will be posted here!
All the best,
Dawn
Posted by: Dawn Felagund on 07/27/09 - 08:21 pm(0 Comments)
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