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What are you writing about now?

If I may, why magazine pieces, and what would that entail? I have heard the writing style of a magazine piece and that of writing a book are very different; different in quality as well as in other matters. Magazines tend to go for the quick, attention-capturing pieces, not for truthful ones.

Writing a book, as I am finding out myself, is not only a time-consuming process, but a difficult one. Finding out what message one wishes to send, enhancing one's writing ability so one can produce a work worthy of being read, working out the proper structure and style of the book, etc. But why abandon such a project? I have learned(over days of illness) how to manage my time so I can get a lot of work done on my stories, and I hope(once I have finished these little tales) to put greater labor into the books I really want to write. I am confident such could be accomplished within a shorter timeframe than might be thought possible; after all, did not such writers as Jules Verne publish multiple books a year? They were self-disciplined as well as being masters of their craft.

While I do not know how close you are, Ent, to being a master of the writing craft, you may have time, Lord willing, to write at least one of the books you have in mind. It will require dedication and much self-discipline, but the ents are well known for the thoroughness in their work. Would this not be a better course of action than to limit both your writing quality and your options for quicker, easier results?

I admit, much of this is spoken from my own heart and I do not know how much of it you have already considered. I just want to be able to see and read the work you've talked about in this forum before, and giving that up...I think there's a lot of good you could do with it. I don't know how much time you have, but such a legacy as a book analyzing Tolkien's work as you have described sounds like a wonderful one.
 
WatcherWraith said:
If I may,
Click to expand...
You may.
WatcherWraith said:
why magazine pieces, and what would that entail?
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Because the two publications I'm considering publish materials along the lines of my book, and would be suitable for the material.

It would allow me to do "something" with the 'core' of my materials chapter by chapter, on a reduced level, then complete developing them further into the full book chapter. But it would 'get the materials out there' for people to consider.

Also, the publications MAY be willing to run it as a regular 'serialized' piece, so if there is a 'repeat audience' as the pieces come out, I can see an interest level in the materials.

In addition, it gets my foot in the door with them to write other kinds of materials for publication: as an example, I'm considering doing a piece on "redeeming the time" from a Scriptural perspective, and why we're instructed to do so. (and it's the only thing we are given to redeem - God must redeem everything else )

The publications I'm considering are of a Christian/religious nature - an excellent place to be demonstrating Tolkien's contribution to the world.

WatcherWraith said:
While I do not know how close you are, Ent, to being a master of the writing craft,
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I am about as far as the East is from the West, to being a master of the craft.

WatcherWraith said:
you may have time, Lord willing, to write at least one of the books you have in mind
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I do hope and pray so, as I would really like to get the "primary one" into print at least. And I'm not giving up on it really, I guess, since I still speak of using the Publication shorter versions as the core of the chapters.


WatcherWraith said:
I think there's a lot of good you could do with it. I don't know how much time you have, but such a legacy as a book analyzing Tolkien's work as you have described sounds like a wonderful one.
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I do believe this is why I've been considering 'splitting' at least the primary book into the two separate functions... publshing as a serialized short work, then expanding into a book.

WatcherWraith said:
I admit, much of this is spoken from my own heart
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I appreciate your heart, very much.
Perhaps the end of the matter is I won't take up editing again... but work on the publications and the book.

All is still under prayerful consideration - in part shared here, hoping some might join me in two things with rigor:

1. Considering how to redeem their own time the best in 2025; and
2. Adding me to their prayers for clear direction.


God speaks of two kinds of "will" in Scripture. The (His) Thelema will, and Boule will.
Thelema is the will of 'desire' - i.e. His 'best desire' for us to do 'what is absolutely best' as inbirthed by faith in His direction for our doing.
Boule is the will of 'planning' and drives the planning to a result.

In other words, Theleme comes from God and is the undergirding or foundation of where Boule should begin. Most of us, including Christians, operate out of Boule will alone, so lack the full Godly power otherwise available to 'get what is to be done, done' We are operating from our own Boule, making our own plans according to our own desires.

May we all work from the Source, with access to the needed power to drive the results desired by Him rather than by us.


Added p.s. - Thelema and Boule being 2 different transliterated Greek words, both translated normally as "will" in English texts, but having very different underpinnings/meanings.
 
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Printing out the 1st draft of my print layout to catch any boo-boos. I know I'll need to make some illustration or paging adjustments. I've got about 4 blank pages that I need to do something with, which might include "leave them blank". (But I would rather not!)

Just got some unbound copies of books on bookbinding in the mail today. I'll bind them using different methods described in the books to see which one I like best.
 
@Ent , I I think it's a great idea to write some articles first.

In my experience, writing a quality 10 page article is hard. Writing a quality 200 page book is NOT just 20 times harder, it's an order of magnitude harder. (Writing a bad 200 page book isn't even 20 times harder. Word vomit is relatively easy.

I think it's better to crystalize your key ideas in a series of 5-20 page articles. Then you just have to connect them with extra examples and some transition chapters.
 
@david_wendelken - thank you for your thoughts. You are a faithful fellow-writer.
"Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is safety*."

*-The Hebrew word translated "safety" here is teshûʽâ (the tau actionis form). It encompasses in its meaning safety, deliverance, salvation, The mean locale form of this word (i.e. the basic focus from which it is derived) is môshāâ, used only once, and refers to acts of salvation/delilverance/safety located within the Savior Himself (Yahweh).

One never knows through what messenger(s) the acts may be delivered - but one always knows when those acts have "landed" - "come home" as it were.**

While this particular verse seems to apply to "people" context does not call us to apply it to only pluralities - it can be applied to the individual as well.

We "cut off our nose to spite our face" if we close ourselves off from "counselors."

Added note:
** - a great deal of thought should be given to the particular line ending with the double asterisk. It extends and expands to a great many things essential to be understood, within certain realms.
 
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Layout is done, first draft of the layout checked and corrected. Printed out the 2nd draft of the layout.

I'll review it tomorrow when my brain isn't as tired.

Should start printing some copies to bind by Monday.

I'll decide on the 4 blank pages tomorrow. My mind is empty on illustration ideas at the moment.

Oh, decided to change the title to Lorien in the War of the Ring, since only die-hard Tolkien fans like us know who Finrod is.
 
Here's the Table of Contents and the List of (Planned) Illustrations for Lorien in the War of the Ring.

The colors don't look right on white paper, the paper I'll use makes them really pop without being garish. (It took a lot of work to find the right combination!)

Hope it sounds interesting!
 

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  • Lorien in the War of the Ring - 2nd - Table of Contents.pdf
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david_wendelken said:
I can't charge for it.
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You didn't charge for it.
I made an offer to you - a 'valid exchange of goods.' My 132 pennies for your countless hours of work.

The law says you can't 'sell it for profit.' i.e. it puts you in the 'drivers seat' of trying to make money.

I will testify on a stack of bibles you made no efforts to sell the thing whatsoever - I merely offered money. (Encouraging others to top my offer, of course.)

Then we could start a whole new lawsuit over whether it should have been 132 or 123, but that would be between the Ent and the Wraith... and you'd be uninvolved.

😄

(Hey, I"m tryin' here..!!)
 
  1. Made some progress with the binding yesterday and this morning. I expect to finish binding the first practice book tomorrow. I got stuck for awhile until I muddled my way through the instructions.
  2. Stubbed out what needs to happen in four key chapters in volume 2, Shadow War in Middle-earth. I'm now documenting "The Great Quest". These first four chapters cover the start of the quest and their initial success, not understanding that they were only "winning" on the distraction their enemy had left for them. They'll learn.
  3. You might remember I split the prequel into 3 volumes. It solved a number of structural issues but created a couple new ones. Figured out a way past them.
  4. I'm now starting a big push to get the illustrations for volume 2 done. The leftmost photo is a list of the illustrations I'm planning to do. I've put all the illustration placeholder pages on a wall divider (takes up most of both sides) and put any inspiration art I have for an illustration on that page. I have 1 out of 44 illustrations done. Plan is to do one concept sketch a week through the end of March. That will be 12 concept sketches. By then, I hope to be more used to drawing the material and can start to do one finished sketch per week. I guess I'll find out.

 

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  • Progress board (back) 20250108 with inspiration photos attached.jpg
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  • Progress board (front) 20250108 with inspiration pictures attached.jpg
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