Writing meme

[dreamflower]

Stolen from several friends, but seen first at lindahoyland's journal:

Ask me a question about one of my stories. It can be absolutely anything (Including current WIP's) I will answer honestly.

You can also ask about my writing as a whole, if you like.

Comments

[shirebound]

I remember a marvelous story of yours from years ago, where Goldberry helped Sam get over his fear of the water, and Tom Bombadil eased Frodo's mind about sailing West. Those two are not the easiest characters to write, and I always admire those who do it well. Who have been difficult characters for you to wrap your creative brain around (if any), and did you enjoy the challenge?

And... like me, you are obviously a lover of hobbits. When did it start, and did the films inspire your creativity and passion for writing about them?

[dreamflower]

Ah! "Up the Withywindle" which was one of my early Marigold's Challenge stories!

I was quite worried about writing Tom and Goldberry until I tried it. I still don't think I could write Tom extensively, because it really is hard to keep that rhyming up for long, but I think I have it okay for his shorter appearances.

I think the hardest thing has been wrapping my brain around Bilbo's correspondence with Sauron in "The Prisoner and the Hobbit". I always felt I knew him well, and how he would react to certain things--but that takes me far beyond any situation I could have envisioned him in before, and I am thankful to pandemonium for helping stretch his POV. He has turned out to have much more to him than I knew before.

I also have a hard time writing villains, like Saruman or Ted Sandyman or Gollum--easy enough writing about them, when it's someone else's POV of their actions, but writing through their own POV is rather difficult and sometimes frankly icky. And again I am thankful to challenges that have forced me to try and overcome that and push myself. I still don't enjoy writing the "bad guys" POV, and it's still hard, but I am learning how to do it anyway whether I particularly want to or not because it makes a stronger story.

Well, really my love of hobbits began with my first time of reading the books. I was captivated by The Hobbit, and was enjoying FotR as a nice read--until I got to the "Conspiracy Unmasked" chapter, when it went from just liking the book to being totally in love with the main characters. As to what inspired my own creativity, it was only indirectly the films--the films were what moved me to check out online things about Tolkien. Then I discovered fanfic, and people like you and Baylor and Budgielover and Lulleny (who inspired my first story) and many others who were writing back then. I'd never realize before that that I could write new stories of Middle-earth! Once that door was open I went through and never looked back.

Fanfic has by far been the most creatively satisfying hobby I have ever had.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

So many of your stories are set in the Shire. Why do you like to "play" in the Shire so much? Why not set more stories in Gondor or Rivendell? What do you think makes the Shire special to you personally (or what draws you to the Shire moreso than other places in Middle-earth).

And did you ever finish that epically wonderful story about the hobbits being taken to the king for judgment? (WHY am I blanking on the title right now? I have it on my ipad whcih is in the other room! ;D /lazy)

[dreamflower]

Well, the short answer is: because the Shire is where the hobbits are! I do have some Rivendell and Gondor stories--but only if hobbits can be involved! What's a story without hobbits? (Just joking. I have written a few, but really--hobbits are the main thing for me!)

But I also like the Shire because of the scope it gives--it's a place that I feel I know, and yet there are so many unexplored places there and so many lovely gaps to fill.

I finished "The Road to Edoras" and I'm still working on "In the Court of the High King" and just posted a new chapter a couple of weeks back. My updates have been more sporadic than I like, but also it's making more progress than it was. I am up to Chapter 19, and BTW, Aragorn has passed sentence on Clodio and Dago!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Who is your favourite Tolkien character other than the Hobbits?

Would you consider writing more stories about Aragorn and Sam's children? I just loved the one where Aragorn acts like Good King Wenceslas.

[dreamflower]

Gandalf. The only wizard to complete his task, friend to hobbits, Men, Elves and Dwarves. Kindly yet crotchety, powerful yet humble, wise yet fallible, he was the glue that held together those who banded together to defeat Sauron.

Well, I did write "Hark! How Blithe the Throstle Sings!" about Frodo-lad at Anuminnas in the spring following that. And I might revisit that time period again if I get the right plot bunny!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I know you've done how-to non-fiction, but have you ever written any original fiction?

[dreamflower]

Not for publication, and not since college. Back then I did aspire to be a novelist, and in high school and college I started a number of stories with the ambition of being traditionally published.

I usually ended up writing myself into a corner. It wasn't writer's block--but I simply had a habit of getting my characters into such a pickle that I didn't know how to get them out. Then I got married, became a mother, and poured my creativity into different outlets, such as sewing, crafting and cooking.

It wasn't until many years later I rediscovered my fiction muse, and then it was fanfiction. I no longer had any desire to write "original fiction", but wanted to write about hobbits. And looking back at some of my stuff from my school days, I realize what was wrong with it: most of it was about as "original" as Terry Brooks' Shannara books. What I had truly wanted, always had wanted was more Middle-earth. Why should I bother about making up an imitation any longer when I could work with the characters I truly loved in the world that had been created for them?