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What are you writing about now?

OK, I feel the need to blame someone for this, so I'm going to blame @Maedhros_Nelyafinwë for posting that Paul Corfield Godfrey Opera thread to begin with, and and @Fingon_Findekáno for not applying appropriate restraints to my exhuberance.

That said, I'm really here to solicit your help over the next couple years.
The help? Please keep encouraging me to 'get on with' and 'keep on with' the below from time to time.

1. I've been driven back to Music, from long ago days of yore. Particularly classical musics.
2. I've been led into the world of opera, one I always admired from a distance, but didn't pull in as a study.
3. I've been enticed (by my own senility) to actually get into composing at last as well.
4. I've always wanted to write a poem along the line of an 'epic.'
5. I've determined I need to combine my music with my writing, to satisfy all these fields of interest, SO:
6. I'm beginning an enterprise in writing a short (but for me long) Epic Poem featuring Sauron.

The Poem will all be told 'first person thinking' by Sauron - sharing what's in his mind.

It will begin from before he learns the Ring has again been found - touching on his rise again to the point where he reveals himself at last.
A dramatic point occurs, picking up at the point where he learns the Ring has been found.

It will walk through his great fears the ring will come to be in the hands of someone who can control its power... and will continue to focus on the agonies of his efforts to get at it before anyone else can.

It will speak specifically to several of the scenes we encounter along the way - the dispatcing of the Nine, the searching of the Shire, the events at the Inn, and all along the way. There are so many to speak to.

It will ultimately end with the ring being destroyed of course, giving us Sauron's thoughts at his ending, as he rises somewhat as a 'cloud,' above the crumbling tower, stretching his arm out toward the West where the battle now is mostly at a standstill watching the event - and then is blown away by an arising wind into the 'nothingness' he had hoped to avoid.

It all sings loudly in my head..!!

During all the time of the writing of this, I will be researching and studying composition, and eventually hope to have gotten where I need to be to set it to music... yes, as in an 'opera' style thing.

Anyway, I think this will be my next endeavor - putting me into essentially 'all new ground' in a way, though neither music nor writing are 'new' to me. But taking them into these fields and depths is new, so... a worthwhile endeavor to keep the brain working perhaps.
 
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@Ent at Large , get to work! Enquiring minds want to know how it turns out!
OK, OK, thanks for the encouragement..!!🤣
I'm starting to lay out the timeline.
I need to be sure of the dating of every event, what's happening elsewhere his thoughts will be focused on, etc. along the way, so I'm not having him share his thoughts about the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In fact, I'm considering entereing the dates right into the Poem at the appropriate transition times, for visibility and clarity as I write my way through the thing.

May or may not leave them in as sort of 'headings' to sections - depends on whether in the end I think the reader may find them an item of interest as well...

in short... "I'm on it..!"
 
Ooh, I'm so excited to see what you come up with! I lack basically any ability to compose music in my head, so I'm always impressed with others who can do it. Wishing you the best in your endeavor and looking forward to see what you come up with!

(Also, I'm pleased to hear we Elven Besties have been such a strong influence on you or source of the blame. 😂)
 
In preparing to launch this new direction, there are a couple things I'm wanting to finish up and get off my mind.

Consistent with that, I've just completed the Statement Of Faith and Doctrine And Covenants for The Religion Of Opinion. They are a bit of a romp in themselves, and of course form the crux of what was going to be the subject of my book of the same name. (Appendix A and B).

Unfortunately, there's no place to post them on TTF - they simply fit no category set aside for our focus on Tolkien - and though I've mentioned The Religion of Opinion since my beginning here so it's rather a 'well heard' thing, I don't think I want to push the envelope. (Though I may ask the other Admins if they think it appropriate to at least stick them in my Entish writings.)
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There is one other thing I will write for another place - a full disclosure of what I see Tolkien doing from the time the Balrog and Gandalf swap spells at the door of the Chamber, through their fall into the Pit and beyond. It is all directly fitting into J.R.R.'s intent and statement his work is "fundamentally a religious and Catholic work" though he does not include Christianity "overtly."

It will be a bit of a longer essay, and it will be posted here, as well as there. It will be a 'taste' of my other book tackling Tolkien's works SIL through LOTR demonstrating by his own words what he was showing. So at least there'll be a flavor of looking at things inductively and abductively, and exhorcising from his words and syntax what he intends to show, but we easily overlook.
---------
Once these two pieces are done, I will feel 'justified' in moving on from focusing on those two books as books... I will be able to drop the Statement and Doctrine, and the Essay, on folks who may want to know going forward. then I can take the books up again at a later date, once my Epic Poem etc. are done.

Sigh... "So much to do, and so little time." (Jack Nicholson as The Joker: Batman.)
 
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Just finished another chapter. This is the one that was originally a plug-n-play adventure for a Middle-earth gamemaster to use in their own campaign.

It's now an after-action report by those responsible for investigating two questions after the disastrous destruction of the host of Cardolan and the fortress of Amon Sûl (now called Weathertop) in 3A 1409.

1) How did the host of Angmar get so close without us discovering their approach? After all, we knew they were mustering and were mustering our own troops to receive them!

2) How did the Angmarim get siege weapons to Amon Sûl so quickly? They did so before our own field army could react. These weapons are hard and slow to transport, it should not have been possible for them to get there so quickly.

They piece together a devilishly clever plan - sadly after it succeeded. It's an example of how the Cold War in Arthedain played out in between the segments of the Hot War.
 
Good news! I just finished another chapter! 5 out of 6 planned chapters covering the cold war in Arthedain have been written. The remaining one had all the material written for it, I just need to re-arrange its components and change the point-of-view to fit it into Volume 1. (It, too, was written as a scenario for other referees in Middle-earth.)

I'm off for a 2 week bookbinding workshop in the morning. I expect I'll finish the last chapter in the cold war in Arthedain series in the evenings after class shuts down (or I do!)
 
Status Report:

Volume 1:

33 chapters completed.
9 chapters with a great deal of writing done, I'll consider them half done.
8 chapters barely started.
6 chapters I'll probably need but don't know where yet. :)
==
68% of 55 chapters done!

Volume 2:
Done!!!!!

Volume 3:
5 chapters completed.
?? chapters I'll probably need.

Woot!
 
WOOT - Definition:

Merriam Webster: "used to express joy, approval, or excited enthusiasm —often repeated."
Oxford Languages: "used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph."

Seems quite appropriate. I've found it a fascinating word myself in the past, and have adopted it on occasion.

Thinking on the word now, it is my hope for us today and every day, we come to the end of our day, and can honestly say 'woot' - whatever our involvements and enterprises have been.

Thanks for the thought. Set me to pondering again - (which for an Ent is almost inevitable.)

Going forward, when someone asks me what I'd like to do, I will adopt: "Achieve Woot".
 
OK, I feel the need to blame someone for this, so I'm going to blame @Maedhros_Nelyafinwë for posting that Paul Corfield Godfrey Opera thread to begin with, and and @Fingon_Findekáno for not applying appropriate restraints to my exhuberance.
Happy to be part of the blame, Ent! 😁🤣 You’re always encouraging us in our own endeavors, so it’s only right for us to encourage you in yours.

What an impressive undertaking you’ve decided upon! I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this epic poem of Sauron. Such an intriguing concept, getting into his mind as he contemplates and agonizes over the location of the ring. I wish you the best as you tread new ground with the writing and composing. 😊
 
looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this epic poem of Sauron. Such an intriguing concept, getting into his mind as he contemplates and agonizes over the location of the ring. I wish you the best as you tread new ground with the writing and composing.
It is going to take some time, for sure.
I'm having SUCH a good time going over Paul Godfrey's works, and reading through some of his thinking on his intentions, and how he achieved what he wrote into, his accompaniment.

I'll have more to say about that on the Discord as time goes on, for sure, hoping I can get some folks who really understand things to correct me where I'm misinterpreting or misunderstanding.

Anyway, the poem itself is going to take a lot of work... and given its 'speculative' nature regarding what Sauron is thinking, I'm sure there will be many dissenters along the way who disagree with my character analysis and resultant conclusions.

But that's part of the fun, isn't it?
Perhaps if I share some of the thinking along the way, I can extract adjustments, ideas, etc. from others to alter my course, or enhance it, as I go.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to give the TTF Membership a shout-out as an assistant all along the way?

(To a certain degree, that's deserved anyway. I already have the Forum written into the "Acknowledgements" of my Middle-earth: Its Religious and Moral Elements work.)


Is it just me, or do others of you actually find it an 'enhancement' to jump back and forth between works from time to time, to focus on something entirely different for awhile?

It's almost like it lends a 'strangth' to each one for me, as I don't feel like any one is 'demanding' me to attend to it. Removes a certain sense of 'slavery' I've sensed from time to time, repositioning a sense of 'mastery' over the writing/composing environment.

(Going forward, I'm likely to start using 'composing' to mean written, oral, and musical work. They're really all quite blending into being the same thing to this particular Entish mind - the whole arena of 'expression' in any way being a matter of 'composition.')

Anyway, finding myself a bit pensive today, so I'll shut up.
 
Is it just me, or do others of you actually find it an 'enhancement' to jump back and forth between works from time to time, to focus on something entirely different for awhile?
I definitely find it an enhancement!
  • Part of writing is consciously planning what you want to convey and how you want to achieve that goal.
  • Part of writing is subconsciously discovering a better idea.
  • Part of writing is editing.

re: Part of writing is consciously planning what you want to convey and how you want to achieve that goal.
Different works require different points of view, solving different challenges, and covering different emotions or types of situations. Any of those may create new and better insights into how to better achieve a different work.

re: Part of writing is subconsciously discovering a better idea.
It takes time for the subconscious to sift through a new work and find connections your conscious mind was unaware of. It helps to get the conscious mind distracted by something else so it does not summarily overrule the partially formed ideas the subconscious first starts to explore. Working on a different piece provides that distraction. Plus, it gives the subconscious mind more grist to work with.

re: Part of writing is editing.

A major part of editing is seeing what you actually wrote compared to what you intended to write. Your eyes and brain can (and will!!) play tricks on you if the brain's "memory" of what it thinks you wrote is still too powerfully fresh. Working on a different piece buys time for the false memories to fade away and distractions to help it forget.

I routinely switch between different chapters in the same work, or different works entirely. I find I work faster that way AND I produce better work as well.
 
I just listened to a couple more of Godfrey's Operatic presentations, which I'm dissecting for all I can given my limited thinking on my return to the musical genres.

That said, his The Song of the Eagle I just listened to thrice, though it uses Tolkien's words, has given me an entirely different perspective and viewpoint from which to consider the demise of Sauron in the minds of the people.

Music is such a magnificent way to envision a setting or circumstance.
Totally unexpected it was, but nails some things right on the head I'd not yet considered.
Valuable, given where I'm headed...in several ways.
 
Yesterday, I was talking to a family friend who is in the process of trying to get her children's books published. She's pretty knowledgeable about working with agents and such. I asked her if she would read the prologue of my fantasy novel and give me feedback on it. She told me she'd be honored, but she warned me that she's brutally honest and has made people cry before. I'm a highly sensitive person, so I'm kinda terrified, lol. But I agreed anyway because I want to know if my book has any chance of being accepted by an agent.

She told me she would probably spend about a month analyzing it. So yeah, I'm scared. 🙂
 
Yesterday, I was talking to a family friend who is in the process of trying to get her children's books published. She's pretty knowledgeable about working with agents and such. I asked her if she would read the prologue of my fantasy novel and give me feedback on it. She told me she'd be honored, but she warned me that she's brutally honest and has made people cry before. I'm a highly sensitive person, so I'm kinda terrified, lol. But I agreed anyway because I want to know if my book has any chance of being accepted by an agent.

She told me she would probably spend about a month analyzing it. So yeah, I'm scared. 🙂
Can I have her number and be brutally honest with her too, if needed?
 
But I agreed anyway because I want to know if my book has any chance of being accepted by an agent.
It is good to 'put yourself out there.' A wise choice.
"Brutal honesty" is, unfortunately, the only thing some people know. And they actually think it's a 'good thing.' After all, it IS 'their' opinion and they have a right to it.
What they fail to realize, is they have no 'right' to brutalize someone else.
SO:
I do hope by 'brutally honest,' this reviewer means she will provide not only an 'assessment', but a 'critique'. In other words, she'll provide the WHY of any shortcomings. Without the 'why' her input will be valueless, because you will learn nothing. (This is actually also true of the 'good points' she may remark on. WHY are they 'good points.)

So however/whatever she comes back to you with, look for the 'whys.' Ask questions. Learn.
And remember, if her review is a bit on the negative side, if you have the 'whys', you may realize the 'whole thing' is not wasted, but just needs some adjustment to improve.

You've chosen the 'good course of action.' I'm proud of you. Glean every ounce of knowledge from it you can extract.
 

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