What are you writing about now?

Drew and hand-painted a half-dozen Christmas cards, I'll post them tomorrow when the watercolor paint is fully dry. I'm getting closer to being able to illustrate my books with every week.

Why'd you decide to link up Middle-earth with our world? Just asking out of curiosity.

WatcherWraith said:

Why'd you decide to link up Middle-earth with our world? Just asking out of curiosity.

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There are lots of legends and lore that could be explained by a few elves, dwarves and hobbits hanging on in the world. Lots of story possibilities and things to explore. Plus, how do the few survivors adapt as the world becomes unrecognizably different?

Gives me a way to have a bit part in the story like Stan Lee did in the Marvel movies.

Handmade Christmas card with watercolouring over ink. First try at this media combo. I'm excited for the book illustration possibilities.

WatcherWraith said:

Why'd you decide to link up Middle-earth with our world? Just asking out of curiosity

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P.R. Jennings - (our own @Bosko Took) - does similarly in his Tolkien and the Dangerous Truth. It's a good read..!
(Yes, another shameless plug for one of the writers membering in our Forum, and their work.)

By the way, good to hear from you again @david_wendelken. Was missing your input there for a little while.

To all the rest of us:
......... - Keep writing, as time permits. And if time doesn't permit, write anyway..!!

As for me, I've synched up my Prefance and Introduction now, doing a final slight revision to the Preface in the process, and set it aside. not to be looked at again until the book is done and I'm reviewing the whole.

I outlined the intent and purpose of the Introduction last night, and determined what's needed to move from the Introduction directly into Chapter 1, without needing the dreaded Prologue to sit in between. (I wasn't fond of all 3 prefatory pieces, but didn't see 'the way' until I started earnestly outlining and reworking the Introduction.)

Hint: Consider doing outlines in advance of the work, when it's of a more expository nature. May even be a good idea for pure 'story' - or for portions within story we may be struggling with. it may well be we don't know where to go, because we haven't really defined where we're going. (I know outlining has been mentioned before, and some authors use it while others don't. It's a choice. But I found I had so many thoughts regarding how to deal with the structure of this book, an outline even of the basics of the Introduction became necessary. The Ent is easily confused..!!)

Back to work on the Introduction now - I want to finish it, set it aside as well, and move into Chapter 1. Today if possible. Tomorrow if not.

Then I can send Preface, Introduction and Chapter 1 to the lady at the Tolkien Attorney office, and the lady at the Tolkien Archivist office, I've obtained emails for, to be sure I'm in the clear on quoting.

(Though I'm pretty sure I am, and even if they balk, I may choose to proceed, just handling the quoting diffferently. But I'd like to use direct quote if/as necessary.)

I've finished the Introduction...!!!!! I'm so excited.
Quite happy with its direction now - giving it a final polishing today, then will set it aside and move on to Chapter 1. (Which I will definitely outline first..!!!)

Soon they'll be e-winging their e-way to England, into the clutches of the Tolkien Estate, for a review. (Why does that feel similar to going to Mordor?)

May the Lord bless your efforts!

WatcherWraith said:

May the Lord bless your efforts!

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You are so very kind.
He has granted me the time to outline and make a small start on Chapter 1 today. (Said time is not yet ended, but likely will soon. Back to the word-smithing..!)

In "The House of Finrod and the War of the Ring", the original first chapter was 43 pages long. That's a really long chapter. And parts of it dragged a bit.
There was a long section where I needed to impart a fair bit of back story. I compressed it down as best I could (not good enough, but we learn by doing!) presented it in summary form.

I've since made some important changes. First, I split this huge chapter into 3 chapters, each one more tightly themed than the huge mega-chapter was. That would help with folks who want to finish a chapter before they go to bed, but it wouldn't help keep them from putting the book down and never pick it back up again!

I just finished my next draft of the chapter. I've changed that backstory to first person and have the character tell it to her new friend. I'll need to make a few more passes through it, but it's a much more vivid and engaging read now.

Volume IV, currently known as The House of Finrod in the War of the Ring, covers a one year time span surrounding the War of the Ring. The main action takes place in Lorien, including 4 battles (The Chase the Fellowship skirmish and the 3 listed in the LOTR appendices). It also includes travelling to Minas Tirith with Arwen and Elrond for the wedding, and back to Lorien via Theoden's funeral in Edoras.

Different titles I'm considering, besides the current one (which is accurate as to what the book covers, because the average person who has read or seen the LOTR doesn't appear to have any idea who Finrod is), include:

War comes to Lorien

Lorien in the War of the Ring

Ideas?

I'm not sure Ideas? would be the best title. 😁
(sorry, couldn't help myself.)

How about a combination introducing Finrod's house maybe?
Something like:

War in Lorien: Finrod's House in the War of the Ring.

I'm working my way through volume IV, The House of Finrod in the War of the Ring for another editing cycle. For this edit, I have several goals:

• Identify similar phrases used in close proximity and alter them unless they are intentionally repetitive.
• Tighten up the dialog by condensing it where the style and meaning of the prose can remain the same.
• Look for plot holes (or apparent plot holes because I failed to properly paper over them). I've found two of the latter.
• I have three scenes that are still "too expository". They need to be condensed and made to seamlessly fit into the narrative.
• Look for ways to increase the usage of "showing, not telling" where that's appropriate. Telling lets the author cover lots of ground with a few words, showing takes more reading time to get the same information. Every novel needs a balance of both. If it's important to character development, showing is probably the way. If it's just transitioning between two essential scenes, telling may be a better choice.
• While "showing", increase the usage of words that bring in the senses of smell, taste, touch, and hearing. Sight can easily bully the others out of the text if I don't monitor it closely.
  
  @Ent , I like the title, but it's even longer than the overly long one I have now!
  
  Back when I used to write and present technical software papers for conferences and technical publications, my friends teased me about my titles. They were often long and excruciatingly descriptive to hear them tell it. I (still) think it a kindness because then people know what's in the paper and whether they want to spend the time to read it.
  

Here's a question.

People from England are the English, from France the French.

People from Khand are the ???

People from America are the Americans. People from India are the indians. People from Mexico are the Mexicans. Asia, the Asians. Germany is Germans. Swiss are Swiss or Swedes. Wales are Welsh. Japan the Japanese. China the Chinese.

I would say people from Khand are the Khands, or possibly the Khandans or Khandins or Khandians or Khandese.

Thwack - back at you with utmost clarity..!! 😄

And Please don't forget those of Denmark, who are either the Danes, or Danish. So you COULD add "Kandish" to the list if you wish. Just sayin'.

You might find this bit of Fanfic dictionarium intriguing.
It would seem someone or other determined to use Khandians for something. I didn't pursue it to see where it comes from or is used... its legitimacy is, I think, as speculative as any other fanfic.

Still slogging thru editing volume 4. It is a slog. It's the price I pay for being a perfectionist about this.

1400 issues flagged by Grammarly are left for me to review, about evenly split between "correctness" and "clarity". In this pass, I'm accepting the product's advice about one out of every ten times. That means there's about 140 mistakes to correct or plain ole improvements to make. (That's because I've been thru the book multiple times before, when I did this the first time, the ratio was reversed. I accepted 9 out of 10 suggestions. Sadly, it doesn't remember what I've chosen once I close my document, or it wouldn't be showing me most of those issues anymore.)


Did I tell you I got an A in my drawing class? It was hard-earned, I can tell you!

ProWritingAid has a new feature in beta testing. It's an AI assessment of a manuscript from a reader's point of view. What part was exciting, which characters were (or weren't) relatable, where did they want to put the book down, etc. My wife and I agreed it was pretty spot on. I look forward to using it when it's released unless they charge too much to use it (which sadly looks likely).

Finished the preface and the first 3 chapters. I'm down to 1250 Grammarly issues from my start at 1650. This last chapter had the most extensive changes so I'm not surprised it had so many issues. I'm 24% thru the book by page count.

I just finished editing Canto 9. I skipped part of Canto 7 after I realized I needed to rewrite portions of it. In it, a character is recounting a summarized version of a tale that is told in full in Volume II. (Or, to be more accurate, will one day be told in full there!) The summary was in 3rd person omniscient, I've decided it will be much better if I convert it so the character tells the tale in their own words. I'll keep the portions in the 3rd person summary to keep the page count of the tale pretty small.

I'm down to 1086 grammarly issues to look at on the existing text.