I just read today that J.R Tolkin wrote only 100 words a day. Took him 14 years but still, gives me hope when I sit down and on certain days only manage 500 or so.
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When you know the exact 100 perfect words you need, you can avoid excess. Personally, I need about 2,500 words squeezed out of my keyboard to find those 100.
Frodo Lives!
(it was probably seeing the Hippies dig his heaviness that killed him)
It boggles my mind, the authors who only write 100 words a day on average (everyone has off days, of course) or the authors who only ever write one book or one or two short stories. I guess it's just so hardwired into me, I can't imagine what else I'd do with myself if it weren't for writing.
(it was probably seeing the Hippies dig his heaviness that killed him)
It boggles my mind, the authors who only write 100 words a day on average (everyone has off days, of course) or the authors who only ever write one book or one or two short stories. I guess it's just so hardwired into me, I can't imagine what else I'd do with myself if it weren't for writing.
Some peope only have one book in them (which, by the way, is not the same as that annoying cliché, "everyone has one book in them").
Eric Maria Remarque, who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front. Now, he did write a sequel, but you've never heard of it. Because it wasn't any good. Remarque only had that one novel in him.
Eric Maria Remarque, who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front. Now, he did write a sequel, but you've never heard of it. Because it wasn't any good. Remarque only had that one novel in him.
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Tolkien, I can understand. He wasn't really a writer, per se. He was an English professor (I would dare say, he was a lover of English at heart) and he was a father, a veteran, many things, one of which happened to be writing about Middle Earth.
Stephen King mentioned this in "On Writing:" what do authors like Thomas Harris, who have only written five books, do with their time? I consider it a good sign that he perplexes me, whereas I can understand easily how Isaac Asimov wrote almost four hundred books. I think that's okay.
Stephen King mentioned this in "On Writing:" what do authors like Thomas Harris, who have only written five books, do with their time? I consider it a good sign that he perplexes me, whereas I can understand easily how Isaac Asimov wrote almost four hundred books. I think that's okay.
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Elektra said:
Tolkien may have fought world war one, but he was too old to serve in world war two. His son Christopher Tolkien DID serve in the RAF in the western desert.
Tolkien began the Hobbit in the mid-1930's and he kept sending the story as it was written for Fellowship and the Two Towers to his son. He didn't finish the trilogy until after the war.
Regards,
Scott
Popeyesays said:
Of course not. His wartime experiences figured heavily into the Lord of the Rings, even he's said so. The point Elektra was making was that while he may have done 100 words a day, he was not, in fact, a full-time writer.
If I were a lumberjack (and I'm okay; I sleep all night and I work all day....) then I would probably get 100 words in a day too. Instead, as a writer, I do several thousand.
Thas'all.
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Imelda said:
I don't think he died til the 1970's so he was well aware of the cult-classic nature of his stories. It was 1973 when he passed away. In college I knew someone who had gone to Oxford on a scholarship and came back with a signed set. He just visited Tolkien in his office while he was working and the man cheerfully signed the set for him.
Regards,
Scott
Popeyesays said:
I would give my left (lug)nut to do that. There's a similar story about a man who went and spontaneously visited Will Eisner and had lengthy conversations with him on the spot, and then got a free signed copy of The Spirit from him, so he wouldn't go away empty-handed.
I've always promised myself I'd be that kind of author.
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PeeDee said:
He was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1915. Sent back to England in 1916 with a severe case of shell shock.
Although he did not SERVE in world war two, he was living through it and at least one of his children DID serve. The war affected the story quite complexly, but it wasn't battlefield experience in WW2.
Regards,
Scott
There's a line in the prologue to LOTR where he mentions something like "It was 1941, and I had come to the gates of Moria. There I stopped for a long time." (I'm doing it from memory as I am too lazy to go find a copy). I clued in (much) afterwards that he was referring to how far he had come in the story, and how the war's progress had affected him, and his writing.
If you've ever seen some of his manuscripts, they are insane with the different colours of ink and tiny print that he used for revision. I am amazed that Christopher Tolkien was able to make out half of what he did for the History of Middle-Earth books.
And he drew the lovely pictures of the gates of Durin, and the watercolours of Smaug and the Lonely Mountain, and the Father Christmas letters, and lots more besides.
No point except that he may have only written 100 words a day, but he was definitely constructing a lot of Middle-Earth aside from the written words.
I'm tired, so this probably makes little sense.
Karen
If you've ever seen some of his manuscripts, they are insane with the different colours of ink and tiny print that he used for revision. I am amazed that Christopher Tolkien was able to make out half of what he did for the History of Middle-Earth books.
And he drew the lovely pictures of the gates of Durin, and the watercolours of Smaug and the Lonely Mountain, and the Father Christmas letters, and lots more besides.
No point except that he may have only written 100 words a day, but he was definitely constructing a lot of Middle-Earth aside from the written words.
I'm tired, so this probably makes little sense.
Karen
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Why, find the perfect sentence fragment, of course!
There are good days and bad days, only that the bad days out number the good two to one...
I thought I read somewhere that he was creating the Elvish language as he recovered from sheel shock? I know the Silmarillion was the first he ever wrote, so perhaps he was creating it for that.
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Tolkien is the proof that the cliche "If anyone can be discouraged from writing he should be" is a false trope. He had to be constantly nudged into writing.
I wrote a whopping 1600 last night, today is a stand still on my page! Maybe at eleven I will start writing and whiz through it before bedtime.
If it weren't for the art works presented with the books, I don't think it would have had the same impact for me as I grew up. I just remember one fellow sixth grade student flashing a fancy Hobbit book with luscious paintings from various scenes of the book. I tell ya, that sold me big time.
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James D. Macdonald said:
It was largely his friend C. S. Lewis who encouraged to keep on it until he was finished.
Regards,
Scott
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Another fantasy writer who created languages and societies based on those languages was M. A. R. Barker. As a professor of Middle-Eastern languages he was nicely equipped to do that.
He was responsible for The Empire of the Petal Throne RPG and several novels based in that setting.
Regards,
Scott
He was responsible for The Empire of the Petal Throne RPG and several novels based in that setting.
Regards,
Scott
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I suspect that "wrote only 100 words a day" needs some explanation.
Does this mean he got to 100 every day of his writing life and then called it quits for the day as if 100 was his max allowed?
Does it mean that if you divide his complete works into how many days of his life it comes out to 100?
The 100 bit sounds way off to me. To think of anyone writing the highly complex stuff that Tolkein produced was limited to one or two paragraphs a day, day after day after day, is laughable.
Does this mean he got to 100 every day of his writing life and then called it quits for the day as if 100 was his max allowed?
Does it mean that if you divide his complete works into how many days of his life it comes out to 100?
The 100 bit sounds way off to me. To think of anyone writing the highly complex stuff that Tolkein produced was limited to one or two paragraphs a day, day after day after day, is laughable.
I'd have to say that writing one of the most popular trilogies of all time is enough to call him a writer despite what Stephen King might think.
Havlen said:
Er, sorry. Stephen King was very fond of Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings (it was what first got his train of thought jogging that eventually led to the Dark Tower series). What Steve King didn't like was The Silmarillion, nor did he especially care for the copycat books that began to spring up by authors like Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson...which, while perhaps not strict copyrights, were trying their best to capture the spirit that Tolkien could no longer capture for them once the Lord of the Rings ended.
Why do you think Messr. King didn't like Tolkien?
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