References/tributes to Tolkien in your own writing

[LadyBrooke]

Hakon, what do they mean it connects to much with the reader? Are readers not supposed to enjoy the story anymore and just sit around and do literary analysis on it all day? That seems strange to me because all my teacher stress that works should have emotional depth and allow the reader to feel the story.

[Hakon]

Well an example is with Tolkien, how he will sometimes kind of go off the regular narration and throw in more information. He did it quite a bit in the Hobbit. I always feel that when that happens it connects more with the reader because it is less like a formal narration. My teachers seem to think that doing that ruins any kind of written work.

[LadyBrooke]

That seems strange to me. Surely teachers at the very least should be aware that many of the greatest works of literature have come about after somebody broke all of the 'rules' of writing? LotR itself is a good example of this. Looking at what should be popular according to the 'rules' LotR should be one of the least popular but it's not.

I have been very fortunate to have teachers who have encouraged experimentation in my writing. Which is suprising when you consider that I've had 4 English teachers in 4 years.

[Hakon]

That is lucky. I have not had a good English teacher since 2006.

[Laurinquë]

I have recently enrolled in an eight-day creative writing class at my school. The focus is nature and travel writing yet somehow it always turns into something very Tolkienesqe for me. This probably has a good deal to do with my own inexperience with creative writing (I haven't done it since I was in the forth grade) so I have not developed my own style in anyway. So far I have found it very enjoyable, which surprises me greatly, and I would like to continue with it - even if I am quite lousy at it. Particularly with the punctuation aspect of it, I will never understand it's complexities.

HERE you can find one of first pieces. I did it mostly for own amusement and was a terrible copier of both Tolkien and the Barrow-Downs. Please do not think too poorly of me, I had fun.

And HERE is my later work. It has an Ent in it I fear. It is much more like my usual work and is less of a ripping-off-of. Still a bit bad though . . .

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Laurinquë

I have recently enrolled in an eight-day creative writing class at my school. The focus is nature and travel writing yet somehow it always turns into something very Tolkienesqe for me. This probably has a good deal to do with my own inexperience with creative writing (I haven't done it since I was in the forth grade) so I have not developed my own style in anyway. So far I have found it very enjoyable, which surprises me greatly, and I would like to continue with it - even if I am quite lousy at it. Particularly with the punctuation aspect of it, I will never understand it's complexities.

HERE you can find one of first pieces. I did it mostly for own amusement and was a terrible copier of both Tolkien and the Barrow-Downs. Please do not think too poorly of me, I had fun.

And HERE is my later work. It has an Ent in it I fear. It is much more like my usual work and is less of a ripping-off-of. Still a bit bad though . . .

I wrote about Ents as well, just not so blatantly that it was noticed by our English teacher. I also inserted the word 'Arda'.

[Laurinquë]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

I wrote about Ents as well, just not so blatantly that it was noticed by our English teacher. I also inserted the word 'Arda'.

Balrogs may or may not have featured in my work today. I could not help myself, really. They are so much better than tigers!