[Kransha]

My, my, this thread has been quite a while in it's existence, and yet I never noticed its presence on this forum.

On a first note, to discuss Tolkeinion influence. I cannot, by right's say that I was inspired per se by Prof. T., but I have leeched my share from his work. I took a lot to develope my own more amateur tales, including the varying realm of character, plot, and miscellaneous developement for most available genres out there. It wasn't hard to borrow a lot, in fact I found myself unable to help it. I have one friend who has never read Tolkein, and seems to have written a slightly mediocre story that is exactly like it, which he says is all foolishness (an issue I must discuss with him at length in the future).

Something I took from the Tolkein archives was a fuller branching system. Since I find that, even though stories told from a solitary first person point of view are still intriguing, going more prominently in depth into a single character, it is best for my more complex storyline to go with 'tree branches' in both plot and character. It is, in all seriousness, the easiest way to make a third person POV more 'grabbing' to both reader and writer, developed or underdeveloped. If a story's plot splits into multiple plots, still centered around a focal point, it works better for more diverse stories. Tolkein's different books within books, focused on the different aspects of each journey, was what did initially inspire me as far as that section of the story. I had to split my story into sections, each storyline rotating almost per chapter to avoid to much resemblance to Tolkein on a whole. Otherwise, I still have plenty of things I've stolen *nervous cackling beneath breath*.

I have two stories in the works that can be classified as fantasy.

Story A would be slightly more fantastical, but with a real root and base. You could say I cheapened the story a little by setting it in an actual era of Earth, rather than formulating a legendarium for the tale. It is set, as best as I could tell for the storyline, in the 16th Century of our world, and has enough twists to knock it into proverbial fantasticity (is that even a word I wonder? As you can see, my writing's prime limitation is the pomposity of my vocabulary, everywhere). Using the legendarium already created by the people of that era, based on religion, belief, superstition flowing around at the time. It works in context, since said context is realistic, but fantastic with the superimposing of fantasy (of that time period) on that period's reality, merging history with the mythos of the past, present, and some futuristic dabblings.

There are many characters in mine, which is genre-less on technicality, but many share generic traits with stereotypes just because the obviousness of their personas is needed, they are meant to be translucent, but others borrow more complex traits from Tolkein legendarium characters and characters from other mythos. There are, as I said, many. Some of them have intertwined pasts, but those who are symbolically related do not actually meet until much later in the story, for developement puposes. I found it more interesting, and, dare I say it, funner to slowly juxtapose the characters who shared the least (both in past history and personality) beside each other on the quest I have them all seeking, though they don't know their counterparts are seeking the same thing they do. The tale is not about intrigue, so I don't dwell on mytery, but I take pride in my twisting plot turns and suspense, so I have utilized that aspect to develope character, just as Tolkein did (Namely as inspired by the chapter from Fellowship involving the Barrow-Wights, a more horrific upheaval from Shire's peace that developed Frodo suprisingly as a character). They all come together at the end, not necessarily at allies, but together all the same, many battling as they do so, thus the dubbing of my story as more of action piece, but tampered with all the philosophy I could muster.

Story B and more on A (character) when I have some time. Please comment, for I am eager for some form of creative criticism. I know I didn't supply much information, but recommendations on the whole plot-branching and practical archive of characters would be much appreciated. Also, more on my in detail responses to the other questions posed by this thread's first post forthwith....too...sleepy...