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Cap Brett (New Zeland)[OC] - Author: Gold-Lengthiness-760

"There's millions of Tumblr users" to you. To me There's only about 12 and we all reblog the same five posts from each other

unamccormack

What I like about that Tolkien letter is that it’s a reminder that stories don’t present themselves fully formed. This seems an obvious thing to say, but I think people sometimes forget it while writing. Tolkien is pointing out the underrated and essential part of writing which is “going away and having a big think about things” or, in other words, “imagining”.

You have to make stuff up before you can write about it, and that mostly involves inhabiting the spaces and minds of the places and people you’re writing about. Most of that won’t ever appear on the page. Tolkien’s case is different in a couple of ways. Firstly, the sheer extent of the world he’s imagining. (Of course the book takes years to write! He’s making up the history of Númenor and Gondor from thin air!) Secondly, we have unusual access to his world-building materials in the Appendices, which makes the book feel even more fully formed and authoritative. We also have unusual access to his creative process in HoMe. It’s fucking incredible watching Númenor get invented. People joke that Tolkien didn’t finish things, and use his Númenorean time travel story as an example (Lewis publishes the reciprocal three book space travel stories). But that material IS published in a deeply meaningful way. It’s the whole texture that supplies the unique depth and believability of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes people joke, “Oh, Tolkien barely published!” Yes, but he published The Lord of the fucking Rings. And an essay that revolutionised the study of Beowulf. I’d take that.

This quote also by necessity downplays the rewriting process of LotR which of course was years of painstaking craft and revision, and is its own story. But, yes, of course these things didn’t exist! He had to make them up! So if in doubt, go away and lie in the hammock or on the bed and gaze into nothing and really think about what the world of your story is like and how it feels and what it must be like to be inside the minds of the made-up people whose lives, for some bizarre reason, you want to make up. This actually is part of the work and it’s not frenetic. And there’s no real shortcut. But what is nicer? Why rush this?

(I read an excellent story fairly recently which was clamouring for a sequel. The writer knew this, and was trying to write it, but was stuck and had been for a couple of years. I suspect the writer was trying to pick up directly after the dramatic events of the written story and progress from there. But that would be retelling the initial story, and why do that? It’s already told. That work is done. No wonder they were stuck. I think this is particularly difficult if the story has been extremely successful (which it was) and a creative stretch (which I suspect it was) because the temptation to go back to that well must be overwhelming. But that well has been drawn upon. The solution most likely would be to pick up with the characters a few years down the line and see where they were now. In which case of course the sequel will take a couple of years to write because the writer would need a while to detach from the deep immersion of the previous story, and the time to immerse in and explore a new reality. Often we don’t talk about these aspects of creative practice which I think can leave them very bewildering and confusing. Lots of things happened to me between Enigma Tales and TEoTDB, and lots of books too, but one thing that’s probably of interest only to me, but is of enduring interest to me, is observing the difference between something you might write in your early 40s and something you might write in your early 50s. This relates both to reasons and need for writing a story, and the changes in competence and craft after ten more years practice.)

unamccormack

Yes, so, if you are stuck, one question you can ask yourself is, “Have I hit the limits of what I’ve imagined?” If the answer is “yes” go for a walk or a think or whatever. There will be no point trying to write further because there isn’t anything there yet to write. You can draw on habits and shortcuts and experience to a certain extent but that won’t always be your best work.

theartofmadeline

two pictish ladies

expressions-of-nature

Ostružná, Czechia by Jan Macháček

maureen2musings

Supermoon in Belarus

garikparusov

ives57

details

captain-price-returns

Arrest everyone involved.

captain-price-returns

Money saved: maybe a couple million dollars.

People killed: around three quarters of a million.

cowboyhatesithere

250 years and most native tribal groups continue to not be federally recognized. Embarrassing!

cowboyhatesithere

Hey so a small thing that literally everyone who sees this is capable of is correcting any “used to” statements about native people in this country.

“Native people used to live in this National Park” No. They still do.

“Native people used to tell these stories-” No. They still do.

“Native people used to use this plant as a natural remedy-” No. They still do.

Better yet, familiarize yourself with the tribes local to you. Odds are, they do not yet have federal recognition. You can still read the stories they have to share, you can share their ongoing battle for recognition with others, you can sign petitions and spread the word to others to do so as well. But do something.