Mulling over Tolkien and persistence
Apr. 24th, 2003 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrI'm reading the Shippey book, and I'm finding it both fascinating and, oddly enough, comforting. Apparently, Tolkien thought he was 3/4 of the way done with the entire book of The Lord of the Rings at the end of the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring. Even the great masters could be clueless sometimes. As Shippey puts it,
From The Pocket Muse:
Peg
However one thing which remains certain is that he was still not working from a plan, an overall design. He was writing his way into the story. Other great works have been written the same way, like Dickens's novels, composed and published in serial installments--Tolkien's notes often look rather like Dickens's, with both writers in the habit of jotting down a string of possible names for a character till they struck one that seemed to fit. But Tolkien, even more than Dickens, had no conscious idea of where he was going. Seven months after starting The Lord of the Rings, he complained that he still had no story. The amazing thing is that this did not stop him trying to write one.This gives me hope, and it's in line with what I've always suspected, and what I've always told beginning writers--and I have to remind myself, periodically. The ones that go the distance, that become professional writers, are the ones that don't give up.
From The Pocket Muse:
I once heard a college student in Waterville, Maine, ask visiting writer Ron Carlson how one knows if one is really a writer. Ever the showman, Carlson delivered an entertaining riff about the distractions writers put in their own way, all day, all the time: leaving the room to get coffee, check the mail, walk the dogs, go to the bathroom, get coffee, look something up, get coffee. Then, dead serious, he summed up the whole enterprise in a line I have never forgotten: "The writer is the one who stays in the room."Cheers,
Peg
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-24 08:21 pm (UTC)Ugh. Staying in the room. I admire your discipline, you seem to be one of those lucky folk who CAN stay in the room and not just decide to come back later.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-25 04:24 am (UTC)This explains a lot about LotR. I think the stories are brilliant. I think the characters are wonderful. I think about half of the writing is good/necessary. Privately I call Tolkien "ADD boy" because he couldn't seem to stick to the plot. He kept going off on tangents. FotR is like one big tangent and then all the loose ends are tied up in a few pages at the end of RotK. I know I probably have no right to criticize a great author like Tolkien, but editing never hurt anyone. I know anything I write is butchered before I show it to anyone and I usually cut a quarter of it away. ::grin:: It's nice to know that all those tangents we'ren't some big meaningful stuff that I was missing and that he couldn't find much of a plot until 3/4 the way through either.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-25 06:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-25 06:45 am (UTC)Right.
So often, though, my trick is to put myself on an airplane, where I have no choice but to stay in the room.
I understand that this only works in extreme cases.
B
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-25 10:16 am (UTC)No, seriously :grins: I find myself going to Israel a lot these days (surprisingly, three times in the last year) and that flight is a joy to behold - 11 hours with nothing to do and nowhere to go.
If you can ignore the movies and music, etc etc etc. :smiles: I've gotten some of my best writing done on the plane to and from Israel.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-25 05:23 pm (UTC)When I was writing my first book, I would regularly take the train from Chicago to Minneapolis and get great work done on that trip.
B
Heh.
Date: 2003-04-25 12:37 pm (UTC)Literally or otherwise. I just got done submitting sample columns to the Minnesota Women's Press. Finished writing well before today's deadline, forced myself to let the writing simmer a bit so I could give it a final look and tweak before sending, but when it came to actually getting my butt to the library to make the final edits and actually submit the things, I suddenly started seeing all sorts of other interesting
distractionsthings thatwould pull me off course into No Risk Comfort Zone Landreally really needed doing right then and there.And then I got to the library and had to very firmly tell myself that I would NOT open the web browser until I had edited my columns and sent the e-mail to the MWP editor.
The deed is done. And now I am rewarding myself with a bit of leisure, and resisting the temptation to log into my e-mail again and check for new mail every thirty seconds.
MN Women's Press
Date: 2003-04-25 12:59 pm (UTC)So I guess we were both analyzing our priorities and taking them seriously! Go us!
Good luck with your submission.
Cheers,
Peg
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-25 05:09 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-04-25 08:18 pm (UTC)What makes a writer a writer?
Date: 2004-01-11 04:57 pm (UTC)