What are you writing about now?

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

Either one alone is workable, but both together??

Even if you get rid of one of the "believes," it changes the meaning of the sentence.

 

[david_wendelken]

An absolutely brilliant suggestion from the MS Word grammar checker. 😂
View attachment 45791

Absolutely right! (I'm more tired than I thought! Good thing I'm doing book ART rather than editing today!)

 

[Server Room Gremlin]

An absolutely brilliant suggestion from the MS Word grammar checker. 😂
View attachment 45791

Go home, MS Word, you're drunk!

(meme reference)

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

Go home, MS Word, you're drunk!

(meme reference)
View attachment 45798

I must need to go to bed because that sign looked normal to me at first. 😂

 

[Ashley]

So this scene is set in the Netherlands, and this is apparently Dutch for asked. Still, nowhere else in the book are other languages used, and this was the only word it was trying to change. Besides this, everything's going well with the book. We've gotten several more sections done recently!

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

I must need to go to bed because that sign looked normal to me at first. 😂

It's daytime, and I thought it looked normal for the first glance. 😅

 

[Backyard Professor]

-- This thread is for use by those who write. The intent is to provide a place to list your project(s) in progress, give a brief of what they are, and encourage one another to 'keep going, and keep at it.'
-- Like any artist or crafter, writers' project bins can become filled with 'stuff started....still in progress...' for (a-ahem)... way too long.
-- Let's see if the family here can help each other through a bit of encouragement and accountability to "keep on keepin' on" and get those projects finished.

I am writing a Handbook on Tolkien & Sindarin. How to translate the English of Tolkien's LotR into Sindarin. It deals with the linguistics, etymology and analysis of the words, names, places, peoples, and themes in Tolkien's philosophy. I should be finished around 2234, so there is hope - LOL! (actually, I am making very good progress!)

 

[Backyard Professor]

Ent's current projects - hopefully to be completed in this order:

1. The Origin of the Ents and Trees - a bit of a lengthier work in verse from Eru to the Ents and speaking trees.
2. The Evil That Remains - another lengthy bit of verse dealing with the beginning of evil and its existence after Sauron's demise.
3. Peregrin Took: My Part Of The Road - LoTR and beyond from Pippin's Perspective. Book: The journey through Pippin's eyes - his view of events - and what happens to he and Meriadoc afterward, including their resignation from their positions in the Shire, and their adventurous journey to Gondor for their retirement. Will cover Merry's death, and is written by Pippin as he's nearing the end of his time.
4. The Characters of Tolkien - book: a look at many of the characters, their traits and purpose in the works, and benefits we can extract from looking at them closely.
5. The Fourth Age: Book 1 - Elessar: Architect of the Fourth Age - All the doings of Elasser Enthroned, the machinations of Men while he's there, the cleaning up of (some of) the evil that remains, and setting the stage for his demise and what comes after.
6. The Fourth Age: Book 2 - After Elessar: The Age of Man - Book. What happens after Aaragorn's death, FA 120. How does mankind do with their charge of handling M-e in "the age of man" ?? Of course, things start well before Elasser's death... do they go well, or ill? Many things needing to be dealt with by Aaragorn and the peoples will be handled, etc.

So that's it at this time.
Present encouragement needed: a continued nudge to get #1 above completed. It's been sitting since 7/2022... well started, thoughts listed... but no more stitching done to pull the fabric together.

Let Ent know how he can be of service to you as well.

Ent Said: 4. The Characters of Tolkien - book: a look at many of the characters, their traits and purpose in the works, and benefits we can extract from looking at them closely.

I am looking forward to seeing this one! My Handbook also will deal with a lot of this kind of elaboration...

 

[david_wendelken]

I have the black and red ink version of the fan-fold stays for Volume One. Think of it as a bardic aide-memoire.
Next step is to make color versions of each badge for the chapter/pov change headings. I'll play around with a colour version of the stays, too.

 

[Backyard Professor]

I have the black and red ink version of the fan-fold stays for Volume One. Think of it as a bardic aide-memoire.
Next step is to make color versions of each badge for the chapter/pov change headings. I'll play around with a colour version of the stays, too.

Oh that's cool! How fun. Look, that's the one thing Tolkien has done for all of us, getting our creative juices flowing! I'm lovin this place!

 

[Maedhros_Nelyafinwë]

Attention everyone, I have a very exciting announcement!

My Silmarillion fanfic, Ill Chances and Strange Fates, which you can read here on TTF, has officially reached 100,000 words-- which means it is twice as long as a standard novel and it is now Epic Novel length!

 

[Backyard Professor]

Attention everyone, I have a very exciting announcement!

My Silmarillion fanfic, Ill Chances and Strange Fates, which you can read here on TTF, has officially reached 100,000 words-- which means it is twice as long as a standard novel and it is now Epic Novel length!
View attachment 45844

WOOT!!! Looking forward to reading it!

 

[WatcherWraith]

WOOT!!! Looking forward to reading it!

I hope you enjoy it. It's certainly very well-loved by its current readers 😁

 

[david_wendelken]

I wrote up this blurb to go in the front of Volume 1. It's a short explanation this is a translation of an ancient history and who it is about.

I'm breaking a time-honoured tradition. Typically, the first person mentioned in the story (or the first person with a POV) is the main character.

My main character doesn't show up until page 115, and the readers don't learn her name until page 126.

It's a draft version of the blurb and the layout. I'll experiment with a colour version later.

 

[Backyard Professor]

I wrote up this blurb to go in the front of Volume 1. It's a short explanation this is a translation of an ancient history and who it is about.

I'm breaking a time-honoured tradition. Typically, the first person mentioned in the story (or the first person with a POV) is the main character.

My main character doesn't show up until page 115, and the readers don't learn her name until page 126.

It's a draft version of the blurb and the layout. I'll experiment with a colour version later.

Thou Heathenage! How darest thyself go against tradition and change it up drastically in order to titilate your readers? DANG! Now I really gotta read it. LOL!

 

[Glorfindel Goldtress]

Ill Chances and Strange Fates... has officially reached 100,000 words-- which means it is twice as long as a standard novel and it is now Epic Novel length!

And as an eagerly-onlooking beta reader, I can gleefully assure you all this is only the beginning! 😄

 

[Backyard Professor]

And as an eagerly-onlooking beta reader, I can gleefully assure you all this is only the beginning! 😄

And I can assure you, we are going to read the beginning......... the middle........and the end!

 

[david_wendelken]

Some good writing advice on this webpage. https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2025/11/find-and-delete-these-phrases-from-your-novel

 

[Backyard Professor]

Some good writing advice on this webpage. https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2025/11/find-and-delete-these-phrases-from-your-novel

Crap, if I took out all those phrases, I wouldn't have any writing left! GRIN!

 

[Ent]

Ah fellow laborers in the world of linguistic legerdemain, greetings to you - and please excuse both my absence from - and now my intrusion upon - your decisions about redemption of your time.

Dropping in to share with you a minor thought - a concept really - one I've not considered well in all my editing of others' works, or in my own.

The concept: 'density.'

Now - density is not generally a common issue in narrative fiction. However it can often play a key role in philosophical, theological or reflective writing, nonfiction analytical work, and essays and opinion pieces.

But for those of us involved in narrative fiction, we should still exercise caution. There can, for example, be spots within our narrative fiction where our characters, scenes or situations bear quite a load of concepts, changes, thoughts, similarities or differences we want the reader to keep track of. When this is sprung on them 'suddenly,' out of character with the surrounding text and work, it can actually overload them.

This is part of the 'issue' with Silmarillion for example. It's a lot of 'narrative fiction' - but there's a rather significant load of 'names, peoples, places, etc.' the reader is demanded to keep track of somehow - and we hear the result. "There's just so many names" - or "how can we keep track of all the different elves" - or such.

What we're 'hearing' is the impact of 'density.' The load of 'tracking' being required by the brain.

Why this came up?

A clever editor noticed a significant difference in 'density' between an author's Preface, and his Introduction.
The difference was observable.
The solution was either to reduce the density of the Introduction, or increase the density of the Preface.

The decision: to 'bridge the difference' between the two, because the Preface was 'elegant and engaging' as it was (and needed to be), while the Introduction was 'clear and correct' as a lead-in to the actual work. Neither could rightly 'tolerate' a substantial change.

So by progressively 'increasing' the density of the Preface as it moved to conclusion, the reader was better prepared for the overall higher density of the Introduction.

Ah, the power of words.
I'm done. Just wanted you to know Ent hadn't vanished, or let you off the hook being bored by his contributions..!

If anyoe would like to know more about Density just let him know. He'll toss together a bit of an essay on ot to post over on the Discord in the 'writing' area.