Peg, first, I think you know who I am; you originally friended my "SG" fanfic-oriented LJ, then friended me when I decided to create this real-life LJ as my primary LJ. Anyway, I got stuck, massively stuck, on the novel that finally got unstuck this spring and has been falling into place ever since, and I thought I'd share with you the process in hopes you find some encouragement and hope for yourself in my experience.
The story really begins in the early summer of 1994. I had just being reading some Arthurian legends to my then-young son. The bit about how someday "Arthur will return in time of England's great need" stirred up something I'd long forgotten: how much I had truly been shocked by and hated Frodo's decision at the end of The Lord of the Rings. And I said to myself, there at the age of 30-1/2, hey, if Arthur can return, why not Frodo? I grabbed a notebook and pen and started writing what I thought was going to be a few pages, my goal being to sketch out a plausible, believable scenario in which Frodo returns.
Thus began the madness and obsession that came to dominate my life and writing.
I ended up writing about 180,000 words, 43 or 44 chapters in all, a huge, sprawling epic tale loaded with lots of beginner's errors and padded with all the fantasy-template stuff I was told it should have if it was taking place in Middle-earth. I finished the story, then realized it could use revision. I wrote a complete second draft.
Meanwhile, I discovered the Internet and the concept of fanfiction, and by the time I got about a third of the way through the third draft, I realized that the odds of the Tolkien Estate wanting to adopt my vision of Frodo-Return into the "canon" were, well, next to zilch. Maybe below zilch. And not only that, but there were actually people who LIKED the ending of LOTR and were NOT waiting for someone (e.g., me) to write Frodo back into reintegration with ordinary life in Middle-earth.
Bloody hell, said I. I set the thing aside, focused on doing creative writing and creative web sites, mostly humor, some fanfic, and let it simmer.
Let me tell you about the book that did not want to be written
The story really begins in the early summer of 1994. I had just being reading some Arthurian legends to my then-young son. The bit about how someday "Arthur will return in time of England's great need" stirred up something I'd long forgotten: how much I had truly been shocked by and hated Frodo's decision at the end of The Lord of the Rings. And I said to myself, there at the age of 30-1/2, hey, if Arthur can return, why not Frodo? I grabbed a notebook and pen and started writing what I thought was going to be a few pages, my goal being to sketch out a plausible, believable scenario in which Frodo returns.
Thus began the madness and obsession that came to dominate my life and writing.
I ended up writing about 180,000 words, 43 or 44 chapters in all, a huge, sprawling epic tale loaded with lots of beginner's errors and padded with all the fantasy-template stuff I was told it should have if it was taking place in Middle-earth. I finished the story, then realized it could use revision. I wrote a complete second draft.
Meanwhile, I discovered the Internet and the concept of fanfiction, and by the time I got about a third of the way through the third draft, I realized that the odds of the Tolkien Estate wanting to adopt my vision of Frodo-Return into the "canon" were, well, next to zilch. Maybe below zilch. And not only that, but there were actually people who LIKED the ending of LOTR and were NOT waiting for someone (e.g., me) to write Frodo back into reintegration with ordinary life in Middle-earth.
Bloody hell, said I. I set the thing aside, focused on doing creative writing and creative web sites, mostly humor, some fanfic, and let it simmer.
Continued in next post....