[Estelyn Telcontar]

As a musician, I would like to add a footnote to this discussion that is applicable to writing and other arts as well as to music. Beginning composers usually try out different styles, often copying other composers, as part of the process of developing their own style. That's part of learning the craft, the 90% perspiration that brings the 10% inspiration onto paper and eventually, to the concert halls/exhibitions/printing presses. The better the predecessor, the better one learns the craft, so it's vital to choose the best. From there, upon having internalized the basic techniques, one can move on to stretching them, developing them, filling them with new contents in new styles - and perhaps even destroying them completely to make way for individual creativity.

What better writer could one choose to emulate than Tolkien?! (Granted, there are other excellent choices in other areas of writing out there, but those are not our topic here.) In "Meditations on Middle-Earth" (which sounds like cheesy devotionals, but is a compilation of authors' experiences with Tolkien's influence), a number of authors who have gone on to create their own worlds tell how they started out by emulating Tolkien.

I would in no way advocate selling others' products as canonical Tolkien, but fan fiction and RPGs can not only prepare budding authors for their own careers, the stories can give great pleasure to those who read them - if well-written, of course.