Hobbits and Hornblowers

One ring to rule them all...

Today (January 3) is J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday! It would be interesting if The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had chosen to come out today. Now here is where I admit something I'm a little hesitant to say: I have never actually read any of the Lord of the Rings books. I attempted The Fellowship of the Ring twice. The first time the print was too small for me to read anything. The second time I got the large-print copy, and that's when I realized that it just wasn't my particular cup of tea.

But no matter! Today there was going to be an A-Z of Middle-Earth, but I ran out of time, so there are only a few. Sorry it looks pathetic.

C is for Creatures: There were a variety of creatures on Middle-Earth. Tolkien made some of these species ridiculously popular to the point of explosion. Try to write a paragraph about Middle-Earth where none of these creatures exist, only humans.

I is for Inspiration: Tolkien got his inspiration for The Hobbit when he came across a blank page when grading papers. He wrote the first thing that came into his head. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit". He didn't know what it meant, but he was determined to find out. Write down whatever you think of. There may be a story in there somewhere.

L is for Linguistics: Do you know the reason that you like Tolkien's language systems so much? Because he used to be a linguistics professor and knew what languages were made of. If you have a special language in your fantasy work, look at its speech patterns and develop complex rules of grammar to tighten it better.

N is for Nazgul: I don't know if you feel the same way I do about these, but I find them absolutely terrifying. Think of mythical creatures (if there are any) in your book that are supposed to be terrifying, and amplify what makes them so frightening.

S is for Sauron: Think to yourself: What made Sauron such a compelling villain? Think about him and ask yourself how you can make your character more like him. This doesn't mean make him exactly like the Necromancer, but strengthen your antagonist's personality so that people want to read about them nearly as much as they want to read about the protagonist.

W is for World-Building: Middle-Earth is a very complicated place that obviously took a lot of time and effort to work out the quirks of. Therefore, I encourage you fantasy writers out there to fill out every question at http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/ and answer all of the questions that apply to your work. (Some of the questions are in multiple places, so take care not to answer them more than once).