Cutlass Trilogy

Monday, September 19, 2011

Inspiration Mondays: J.R.R. Tolkien

Do we all know by now that I am the biggest J.R.R. Tolkien fan alive? Let me put this into perspective for you:

  • I decorated my room in LotR themed things. I painted the Elvish "One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them" as a boarder around my room. 
  • I painted the door of Moria on my wall. It was pretty epic. 
  • My walls were gray, like the walls of Helms Deep.
  • My bedding looked 'Elfish' to me. 
  • Posters of LotR were EVERYWHERE. 
  • I watched The Two Towers everyday after school for a month.
  • I reread and reread the book, carried it with me everywhere. Once I also lost it, and I cried. :/ 
  • I would braid my hair like Legolas's.

  • I was a member of councilofelrond.com. I was a member of the Realm of Vana; A Realm Leader and a Realm Head. 
I'm sure what else I did that was associated with The Lord of the Rings, but the most important thing it did--It immersed me into the world of Middle Earth, and I yearned so badly to be a part of that world, I began to write my own story. 

I don't remember it being hard, but I remember how oddly it seemed to sit at the computer and think about a story I wanted to write. My friends once made fun of me because they felt my stories were like LotR's Fanfiction, however...when you're not used to writing, how else are you going to begin? You have to start with what you know. And I knew a world that was completely made up, a world with made up races, with a map, with a history so vast it could be real!

So that's where I started and now I'm here today: I never write within my world. I can't. I never thought about it before, but there's a reason for that--look at how I began. Writing within my world would be foreign to me, no matter how ironic that is. 


How did everyone else begin writing? Was it a book that motivated you? Or did you just wake up one morning and write? 

9 comments:

  1. I LOVE that you wrote Moria on your wall!! LOTR is my absolute favorite, and I think you've got me beat for fandom. I gladly pass the torch :D AWESOME.

    I agree - for the same reasons as you mentioned, I have a hard time writing in "my" world. I write what I know, which means I write about other worlds. And the writing obsession started the day an idea popped in my head and refused to let go. We've been together ever since :D

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  2. LOL! I was suchhh a LOTR Fan!! hahaha.

    How interesting! I love that you starting writing just because of an idea. Isn't that crazy? It just wouldn't leave you alone!

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  3. I LOVE LOTR too, but maybe not that much. ;-)

    I started writing in 3rd grade, but lost all inspiration during my teenage years. A few years back, I got the urge to write again. I hated every single word of what I wrote. In January, the urge hit me again and I haven't stopped since. I understand myself and what I want to become as an author and that helps drive me.

    I write in both worlds, though I find the ones I make up are much easier to describe. ;-)

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  4. Wow. You have me beat with your love for LotR. I love the world, but I can't say I ever redecorated my room with a Middle Earth motif.

    As for how I started out writing, I started with play-by-post roleplaying online in chatrooms and on forums. (I still do this occasionally when I feel bored or like I can't make any headway in my novel.) Basically, you create a character and completely assume their personality and write out their actions. You then interact with other characters, and go on to collaboratively weave a story with these other writers simply by meeting and interacting with their characters. Gradually I moved on to creating entire worlds to set these roleplays in, and because you have to have such an extensive amount of detail present on the setting for other people to read and be able to create a believable character to immerse into the world, I like to think it's what led to my graduating to creating worlds for novels instead.

    I suppose it's a weird way to approach it all, but it worked for me. One of the old roleplay settings I had created actually inspired the world of my present novel in some small part.

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  5. Great post! LOTR's is one of my all time fav books. As a terminally slow reader I can't tell you the sense of achievement I felt when I had finished reading it. And that was in addition to the sheer joy of being in that world for what at the time seemed like quite a stay. Though it never leaves you of course :o)

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  6. @Krystal - how wonderful you felt so compelled to write so young, and it never really left you either! That means you were always meant to write! :D

    @ Monica - I know!!1

    @ Rachel - I did role-playing too! I totally forgot about that! I didn't do it much, just in the forum of Vana. ;) I completely think it's a great way to begin writing. It takes a lot of talent!

    @ Deanus - No, it doesn't leave you! I feel like a slow reader, too, but I just loved LOTR!!

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  7. That is some amazing dedication! I love people who are passionate about things because I'm that way too, but I've got to admit you completely eclipse me with this, so congrats! :)Do you still read the books a lot now? I don't remember when exactly I decided I wanted to be an author because I was still in primary school, but my life story is basically this: I was born; I started reading; I started writing. So far I haven't stopped with any of those three! ;)

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  8. Great post, Ashley. I think you have to be crowned the No. 1 LOTR fan! For me growing up, it would have to have been comics writer Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell). I devoured everything he wrote and he was a direct influence on my wanting to be a writer.

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