#but this is no refined tolkien blog.

[winds-of-zephyr416]

New favorite Sauron headcanon: No matter what form he takes, he always bears visible scarring around his neck from where Huan bit him.

[crowandmoonwriting]

This or That? Tag

Tagged by @writernopal! Thanks, ily!

Historical or Futuristic

Historical, definitely! I’ve written on my blog before that sci-fi disturbs and sometimes frightens me, and not in the fun way. I am a professional historian, so I’m very comfortable writing about several periods and places I’ve studied, in academic settings but also through my personal studies. I’ve written about ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China, the Byzantine Empire, Middle Ages Europe, Renaissance Europe, Feudal Japan, 18th century Europe and the Americas from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Currently I’m playing around with an idea about or based on Tudor England.

Opening or Closing Chapter

Closing chapter! It’s finally over, lol. And you can torment your readers with a little cliffhanger for the next book ;)

Light and Fluffy or Dark and Gritty

A good mix of both, but I suppose I lean juuuust slightly towards dark and gritty. I write a good deal of horror, and that is definitely a factor. But light and fluffy definitely comes in! It can’t be grimdark all the time.

Animal Companion or Found Family

Found family! I turned away from animal companions after Robin Hobb’s books lol. If you know, you know. (I do love them but that one scene…oof.)

Horror or Romance

Horror AND romance! The horror OF romance! The romance OF horror! It’s difficult for me to write one without the other. They intertwine so perfectly, and together they can have strong emotional impact.

Hard Magic System or Soft Magic System

It depends on the WIP, but I do like a hard magic system sliiiightly more than a soft magic system.

Stand-alone or Series

Series! When I fall in love with a story (particular with the characters), it’s hard to let go. I like to give them more adventures, see how they grow and change, or how their world changes around them. As a historian, I’m very interested in the latter, in how political and social tides rise and fall.

One Project at a Time or Always Juggling 2+

Always juggling! I love to explore different genres in particular, so although I have a fantasy world I’ve been working on for more than a decade, I write southern gothic, ocean gothic, historical fiction, and horror often as well. I have so many WIPs it’s not even funny lol.

One Award Winner or One Bestseller

That’s tough. I don’t particularly care about accolades of any kind, but I do like to know that people like my work. So I’ll go with bestseller. If I impress critics, that’s nice, but I want to make an audience happy more than anything.

Fantasy or Sci-Fi

Fantasy, 1000%. My first real fandom experience was in the Tolkien fandom. I loved Lord of the Rings when I was a child (I collected all the action figures, and like a the red-blooded gay boy I was, Legolas was my favourite <3). I fell in love with Elves in particular, the beauty and elegance of their faces, forms, architecture, clothing. I wanted more of their lore. So I went to The Silmarillion, and that was it for me. I do like some sci-fi, but it’s not as escapist as fantasy for me. And fantasy, particularly Tolkien’s and Tolkien’s followers’ fantasy, is heavily based on historical Europe, which is my primary academic study.

Character Description or Setting Description

Both! And like horror and romance, they intertwine. I like to match my character’s inner world to the outer world, and have their appearance hint at their location or place of origin. The people of Merovyn, for example, have very pale skin, a reflection of the snow around them, and the people of Heledd tend to have richer coloured hair and eyes, a reflection of the jewels and gold and other wealth of their country.

First Draft or Final Draft

Final draft! Ugh, first drafts are the worst! Sure you have more freedom, but editing is far easier for me than drafting. I am a freelance editor, and have even worked on a now published book as an editor. I love doing it, as it’s sort of like a puzzle, and also a refining process that I liken to the final polishing of a marble statue. That image appeals to me lol.

Tagging my mutuals! @chromehoplite, @silvertalonwritblr, @thewardenofwinter, @sam-glade, @jasmineinthenight, @elshells, @words-after-midnight, @lola-theshowgrl, @moonshinemagpie, and anyone who sees this and wants to do it!

[mask131]

It is really fascinating to study the evolution of the “Our elves are better” tropes (TV Tropes and Idioms terminology) in fantasy literature. You can easily track down the evolution by two fantasy book moments.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings - the protagonists’ friendly night chat with Galadriel in “The Fellowship of the Ring”. This moment has been used and reused a LOT throughout websites and Youtube video essays and blog posts recently due to the resurgence of the Lord of the Rings fame - so you might have heard about it.

Up until now, the elves seemed for the protagonists of the story “magical”. After all they are ethereal, impossibly beautiful and graceful nearly-immortal beings, who are able to hide from the sight of regular beings their dwelling, seem to work with treasured magical artifacts everyday and have wonderful explainable ability such as reading the minds and hearts of people... 

But as Galadriel explains to the characters (and to us by extension) is that for the elves, what they do is not “magic” or at least “true” magic, because for them it is all natural - and in fact, all those wonders and marvels are indeed part of a “natural process”. They are the results of an extremely long time of studying and perfecting various skills and crafts, much more time than other species in Middle-Earth had since the elves are the oldest mortal beings of the world. They are the results of literaly a civilization so advanced, and helped by natural abilities that other species are deprived of, such as a form of telepathy, that it looks like they are doing “magic”, such as seeing glimpses of the future in a pool of water, when in fact to them it is all just an art, a craft, a technique that was refined and practiced throughout millenias and generations until reaching its most advanced form. This is one of the original fantasy examples of “Any science can become magic when it is advanced enough”. The cloaks that make a perfect camouflage, the boats that never sink, the ropes that untie themselves at extremely convenient time and with a suspicious ease - they are not the product of any true enchantment or spell, even though they look like supernatural. They are just extremely advanced craft. 

But then cut to the very first book of the very popular Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist, “Magician”. And when the elves are first introduced to the protagonist and explain to him about their “marvels” and “wonders”... The protagonists literaly say “Oh yes, this is all magic. We have magic running through us, we make everything we touch magic, we are just so magical, and this is why our items and crafts and talents are better than those of humans. This is why our boots are more silent, why our bows never miss. It is because when we make them, they just become magical because it is us that made them.”

This shows extremely well how the idea of “elves are better than humans/other species” evolved from Tolkien’s subtle and refined take “It looks like magic, but it is all just very advanced craft and technology”, to the misunderstood and then massively spread and popularized “Elves are magical and so are their creations”. 

[acceptedguy]

Blog Post 8: NOSTALGIA Phase 3: Finalization 

In this post, I’ll walk through my final project, discussing my design choices, the obstacles I encountered, and the skills I developed and refined along the way. This project not only introduced me to new techniques but also challenged my adaptability and creativity as I worked to bring an iconic piece of literature to life in 3D.  

Reflecting on this project, I can’t help but feel the hours blur by as I balanced recovery from illness with excitement over the week’s work. Writing this now, I’m taken back to childhood memories of reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, wrapped in a blanket with a hot cup of cocoa. Although some elements didn’t fully reach my initial vision, the project still captures that same nostalgia—drawing me back to those pages from years ago. 

The core of the project centered around learning Adobe’s Substance Painter—a tool that lets you build up textures by layering materials, making them look incredibly realistic. To start, I modeled a book in Blender, with an indented space in the center where I could add the pop-up scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Gates of Moria. This book was then imported into Substance Painter for texturing, and I broke down the book into two main sections: the pages and the leather cover. For the pages, I applied a rough, layered texture to capture the depth and aging of each sheet, while the cover used a leather material with a mask to give it that well-worn, lived-in feel. In the final stage, I brought everything into Blender to add a subtle Lord of the Rings logo via UV mapping. Though I had planned to add finger stains and other little touches to make it look really aged, illness and the ticking clock made me decide to stick to the essentials. 

Once the book’s texturing was wrapped up, it was time to work on the pop-up scene—the heart of the project. Following tutorials (like “Sculpting a Stone/Rock in Blender for Beginners” by 3Dnot2D, 2023), I experimented with different rock designs and finally settled on two variations that I could use throughout. I used the same approach for the trees, creating two main styles that closely mirrored those in the books, sculpting them with my own tweaks for the right feel. The scene’s floor was sculpted to look rocky and uneven, using a custom set of brushes to give it that authentic look. 

As mentioned in the last blog, the design aesthetic for the project was of extreme importance to me as I wanted to showcase a ‘crosshatched’ art design that would make the scene feel as if it was part of the book itself. I utilized Blender’s material nodes which, using a crosshatching image as reference, generated a material that would produce the crosshatched design on any asset. Additionally, I also added a mechanic in the material so that it would react to light in such a way that the area would have reduced crosshatched based on the ambient light. Having completed this I assigned the material to the rocks, and a different variation of the material to the trees.

After having finalized the basic assets, I designed and propped the assets into position leaving a space in the middle for the gate itself. According to my initial plan, the entire door of Moria would be recreated using single point vertices which would then be given emissive material that would create a glowing effect that is akin to the movies. But with the ever-increasing scope of the project, I decided to instead use UV mapping to project the door onto the background and place point lights in strategically placed positions to illuminate not only the door but also the surrounding environment.   After completing the scene, I then created a seem in the middle, simulating a folded before finally bringing both the individual elements, the book and the scene, together for a final render.  

This project has been a massive learning experience, particularly in texturing and creating realistic details. I also learned that sometimes, simplicity is key—especially with foundational assets like rocks and trees, which can later be transformed with materials and textures. Perhaps most importantly, this project taught me the value of time management. Even with setbacks like illness, I learned to prioritize essentials and stay focused on the project’s heart instead of getting sidetracked by additional features. 

SOURCES:  

3Dnot2D (2023). Sculpting a stone/rock in Blender for beginners. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhrdiLABKc4 [Accessed 21 Oct. 2024]. 

‌ Critical Giants (2021). Artistic Trees In Blender. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDXB3SDQHYw [Accessed 21 Oct. 2024]. 

[thoughtrefinery]

THOUGHTS

Hello everyone and welcome to The Thought Refinery. Finally, a blog of my own! Whew!

I must admit I am a little bit excited by the possibilities here and, for my very first post, allow me to talk about myself and the reasons behind the birth of this blog.

Well, I have always had this fascination with art, especially expressionistic portraits and abstract landscape paintings. From as far back as my memory can stretch to I have always loved art. But it wasn’t just paintings for me, I loved the arts in general. Anything that stirred my emotions- from staring at animals grazing on a pasture, to music and a story book.

A decent portion of my childhood was spent at my grandfather’s farm in Western Uganda. I remember how much I loved cattle. Their horns, how they gently pranced on the hills and their bellowing sounds all captivated me. I do not know for sure, but perhaps it was this childhood love for animals that later turned me into a veterinarian. I am really not sure, because until I saw my name on the admissions list I had never considered studying Veterinary Medicine. I think it was just the law of attraction, but let me save that story for another time.

 My family are devout Catholics and I was raised to be no different. However, for almost the entirety of my University life I congregated at St. Francis Chapel, which is a protestant Church. I loved the animation and the music throughout the services. Oh, there was also always a short themed drama skit before the preaching begun! I always felt like the proceedings in this Church were a bit supple and capricious unlike in St. Augustine- the Catholic Chapel, where things were always rather mundane.

My most compelling reason, however, for favoring the St. Francis Chapel was the presence of a serene gallery at the back end of the Church. Firstly, the pews up there gave the best view of the congregation and the altar. But what really captured my soul were the beautiful paintings right over my head. The ceiling was dressed in some abstract pieces of art. There was this particular painting of a pumpkin that I really loved.  I was impressed by how its texture resembled the real thing. I even took photos of it and used them as screen savers in my phone.

Later on I would discover the real reason why I loved the arts despite being in college studying science. When I did, I learnt that what really fascinated me weren’t the physical pieces of art or the stories in the books or the music. What I really loved was how these pieces of art enthused my mind, how they sparked my own imagination and creativity. I loved how they prodded me to ask questions and to wonder. Whenever I stared at a beautiful scenery I would think about God and his unfathomable being, and whenever I read a good story I would try to envisage why the writer scribbled down those lines in the first place, what could have been going on in their life. I would try to understand their feelings and emotions at the time. I felt the same way about the painters and composers whose work I saw or listened to.

Writers are Gods, I remember hearing this somewhere some time back (okay I am honestly not sure if I heard or read it, but whatever, let me drive my point home). Writers are Gods. Why? Well, because they create worlds for us in which we can live through our minds. Consider the classics of J.R.R Tolkien, George R.R Martin, and even J.K Rowling. We get to live within wondrous worlds that are built from their thoughts and imagination. I also like to think of painters the same way as writers because, when both present to us the finished works of their thoughts our emotions, creativity and imagination are stirred. It’s almost an enabling effect.

Everything you know that’s been created started as a single, lonely and sometimes feeble thought in a random person’s mind. And while it would later be refined from these unseen soft whispers in their mind to the towering architectural awe of the Burj Khalifa, or the robust engine of the Bugatti, at some point it was all nothing but a simple hopeful thought.

Throughout my life I have fallen in love with peoples’ thoughts. I love to experience products of other peoples’ imagination through art, music, cinema and reading. What this has done for me is that it has sparked my own imagination. And so often times my friends say that I am always distracted, or tend to distract them. For instance, we could be having a conversation about a dirty table surface and suddenly I begin to tell them how we were all once star dust. They say I am so random with what I think and that my mind is always flying around.

In truth, I think quite a lot. I do not know how much more or less an average person gets lost in thought per day but almost everything I see or hear or perceive in any way conjures up some sort of thought in my head. I draw scenarios, ask questions, mull over theories of everything and anything. I try to refine all the stimuli input into my head and to create organized end products or ideas. What happens is when I am done I get left with a lot to share, and often times no one to share with.

I believe this is why I have always felt an emptiness inside me, like there has always been this part of me that wanted to be set free. There were stories that I wanted to tell, ideas that I wanted to share. A lot of end products of refined stimuli. I do not know why I didn’t open up a blog earlier. But I am glad I finally did. In some way I feel free now.

Many blogs have a theme. I am sorry to disappoint you (and myself) because The Thought Refinery doesn’t seem to have a specific theme- yet. I tried, of course, to convince myself that there were specific things I always thought and wrote about. Biological science- for example, animal health, books, gender, food, politics, art, death, shoes, parenting… I realized somewhere along this list that it was already too random. I have therefore decided that for now it will be, well, just a thought refinery.

But I hope you will love to live in my head for a while. These jumbled up pieces of me, I hope they can be some form of spark for your own imagination and creativity. If by reading this blog you end up asking new questions about casual phenomena around you, and maybe somehow creating solutions or avenues for solutions, I will be really glad. For me, sharing my thoughts with you liberates me, and your audience gives me company. I am consequently so delighted to begin this journey with you and let’s keep those thoughts refining!

[theotherwesley]

tagged by @skyeventide! BRO THANK YOU <3

Rules: Choose your favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

1) Right at the beginning of 2020 (*can we even count the January-February Era as part of 2020? It feels like a separate timeline lol)  I designed a homebrew D&D campaign around an extended-universe Watership Down world, where all player characters are rabbits. :3 I designed it over the winter and DM’d my first test game with my family! It was so, so fun, and I had high hopes of continuing to playtest it and refine the rules this year.... ah, the best laid schemes o’ Buns and Men gang aft agley. U_U

Some samples: 

2) I got a truly awesome commission from a client on FR to do some stained glass window designs for their D&D campaign’s pantheon of gods. I got 4/6 done with them before my computer staged a revolution amongst our household electronics and went into a coma, taking BF’s laptop, a backup disk, and for some reason the toaster, with it. Then after that, the 2020 vibe got really uhhhhhh, shall we say, intense, and even after I found solution for my computer trouble I basically had zero creative fluid in the tank, so this was the last serious art I did for most of the year. :(

 But! I do really like these pieces, and I will eventually get to the remaining two...... sometime. I don’t want to jinx it. >>;

3) Got into a SUPER JUICY and EXTREMELY DENSE long-form RP with @salmaganto​ over on the Tolkien Blog. It involves so much research into historical and logistical minutiae about running a Big Evil Fortress, surviving sieges, uh... managing thrall labor, transitioning between war and peace... It is absolutely my favorite shit lol, just,,, 100% gratuitous worldbuilding nonsense, with my favorite micro-rarepair ship (or rather, its platonic counterpart). Again, this level of creative output, especially dealing with some controversial topics and in-depth analysis of like, authoritarian regimes, lost a looooooooooootttttttt of its um, escapist appeal. I desperately want to pick it back up, but man, this year was a lot, and I’m still recovering.  _( :’| 」∠)＿ We’re all still recovering.

4) Did some nerdy fanart for two of my favorite actual-play shows:

5) Attended a Zoom life-drawing session hosted in Perth, and it was a blast! 

6) Okay so this is a weird one, but, I edited a font??? I’m disproportionately pleased with this niche accomplishment. I had ZERO working knowledge of font design programs, and I went with a free, super nuts-and-bolts shareware application, taught myself how to use the basic functions, and then muddled my way through editing one of my favorite fonts, HamletOrNot:

“Well, this font isn't really Blackletter, but it has a certain historical touch, so it is welcome on these pages. The typeface Hamlet was designed by Edward Johnston for a Shakespeare edition, Cranach Press, 1929. The award winning book Hamlet was considered “the most beautiful book of the year 1930”. HamletOrNot – digitized by Manfred Klein & CybaPee.“ 

If you hunt down the mysterious user “CybaPee”, you find typographer Petra Heidorn and her many, many preserved, historical fonts, which have been painstakingly digitized and made available for free on... well, pretty much every free font website ever, which made it a real pain to source. 

I love this font with my whole heart, and I very much wanted to use it for parts of my comic (you know, the one) but HamletOrNot has a couple of readability failings that made it a bad match for small dialogue, and worse for ME, SPECIFICALLY: it does not include most diacritic marks.  *cries in Tôlkíën* 

So I embarked on this fool’s quest to do some touchups and add the diacritics and special characters I’d need to spell all the crazy bullshit for the comic, because HOW HARD COULD IT BE, HAHA, TO ADD A FEW MARKS AND CLEAN UP A FEW TANGENTS?  HAHAHA. HAHA. .....Anyway, I think I actually started this process sometime in like, 2019, but I FINISHED IT IN 2020, and I’m proud of myself. 

I’m calling the modified font ArdaOrNot, and it looks something like this: 

7)  Oh yeah, about that comic (you know, the one): 

‘Ey, would you look at that! Progress! :D  Slow, agonizing, unoptimized progress! I was hoping I’d have the first six full color pages ready with lettering and everything by the end of 2020, but.... well, here we are. Wow, I am SO TIRED OF BEING SICK, I HAVE THINGS I WANT TO DO SO BAD HAHAHAA FUCK 

8) Another minor accomplishment that I’m disproportionately proud of, I made some new baller playlists and polished up a few old ones to a fine gleam.

Anyway-- I don’t know who has and hasn’t been tagged, but consider this an invitation to anyone who has the energy to post your highlights from the last year. It was actually pretty therapeutic to see some things I DID manage to accomplish, because so much of this damn year felt empty and lonely and barren. But there they stand: the weird little triumphs that were sprinkled throughout the months, somehow improbably blooming in the wasteland. :’)

[eloarei]

Thoughts and comments in no particular order

It is WAY too hot and humid for being long past sundown. Is this the price for trees and fireflies? I’ll take it, but... 

My husband fixed my computer, so now I can type stuff again (which, in theory, means I can write as well, though that has yet to be proven). Apparently it looked like it had been spilled on? Not me, afaik. Like 90% of my big electronics, I got it used. So. 

Listening to “Be Kind” on repeat again. Doubt I’ll hit a 7 hour streak like I did last time. I just put on an hour loop to kind of count the time before I need to switch tasks. 

Enjoying having several days off in a row. I hope I never decide to go back to 6+ day work-weeks. 

Hey why do animals always want to cuddle when it’s a million degrees out? 

Really really want to write and draw. Really really not doing either of those things. 

So I made myself a daily/weekly task clipboard, but I still need to refine it... and buy clips. I’m liking the idea though. I think it’ll keep me focused on doing useful things, and less likely to overthink about if I’m feeling icky or not. 

The feral neighbor kittens are getting a little more used to me. I came within about 5 feet of them today before they scattered. I think they miiight realize I’m bringing food and water. They’re really cute; it’d be nice to get them adopted. I wish I had space to foster them, but I don’t, so I’ll just have to try to befriend them outside for now. 

My bookshelf needs cleaning out again. And maybe... actually reading some stuff on it. I think I’m gonna read The Prydain Chronicles to husband, like I read Spindles End. These’ll be faster reads. I haven’t read them in ages but I remember thinking of them as kind of... ‘little Lord of the Rings’. LotR is about 20 years older, though I don’t think Lloyd Alexander exactly intended to copy Tolkien. (And it’s not really a copy at all; they’re very different. They’re just both... Welsh, you know?) 

I should do some simple fanart to get in the swing of drawing again. Maybe something Trying Human, since FJ and Pig have popped up again, to my great delight. I love that little pink alien. 

Anyone following my fandom blog has probably noticed I’ve been in a LotR mood lately. (Glancing at the LotR AO3 page, the first fic is by someone with a LotR/Prydain name. Made me smile.) I started reading Sansukh after a year of it sitting open in a tab. It’s nice. I like a fic that sticks close to canon but somehow expands upon it in interesting ways. It’s... comfortable? Admittedly though I am terrible at remember all the dwarf names ^^; 

I started playing AC4 after finishing 3 a little while back. So far I don’t care about the story much (what is Edward doing? Does he have literally any real purpose in life?), but the gameplay is solid and the scenery is very nice. The ship controls also don’t suck. 

I recently got this really lovely “Princess Sakura” tea-- it’s a green tea that’s a very hearty matcha-like flavor, with a good strong note of cherry, and despite the brewing instructions (which say to only use 6 oz. and 90 seconds), it never gets bitter, even if you double-steep it. It’s so palatable, I wish I could share it with my friends.  Well, I always wish I could share delicious teas and snacks with my friends, but alas, most of you are too far away for that.  That said, it’s tea time for me.  See ya. =] 

[mayihavethisdanse]

Tagged by @randomfallout4posts, @slashy-mcslashkins and @pchberrytea. Thanks!

In return, I will blatantly cheat and tag "anyone who sees this and would like to participate".

***

Nickname: Dea

Zodiac: Joy-killing skeptic, alas.

Height: 5'8"

House: I never really liked the Hogwarts house system either. I'm no fun. :P But Hufflepuff.

Last thing I Googled: red black squirrel

Song in my head: Strangeness and Charm alternating with something else. Ambient game music? Probably.

Followers/following: A whole bunch of both! I like a busy dash.

Amount of sleep: Too much, too little, who knows. Most days I'm not sure I ever feel really awake.

Lucky number: Not superstitious either. Told you I was no fun. But am synaesthetic with a bit of OCD and generally prefer odd numbers. (Don't believe me? Count the tags on my posts some time.)

Dream job: Some sort of independent researcher studying whatever catches my fancy, churning out monographs like some wealthy Victorian jerk. Textile archaeology? Sure! Rodent skull morphology? Great! Have forty pounds and a byline.

Wait... wait. I think that's just a blog.

Wearing: Pants, impressively!

I mean, they're not clean pants, but still: pants.

Fave songs: Error. Too many matches. Please refine search string. (Honestly, I'll listen to pretty much any genre and I have a lot of favorites.)

Instruments: Played oboe growing up and can manage a mean tin whistle today. I also have a kantele at which I am not very adept.

Random fact: I'm a demon on inline skates. It is my one (1) true athletic talent.

Favorite authors: What a rude question to ask in a space-limited format. Let's go with who's got permanent bookshelf space: Tolkien, Mary Stewart, Dorothy Sayers, Elizabeth Peters, Ellis Peters, Gerald Morris, Patricia C. Wrede. (Gee, can you spot the formative influences on my banter?)

Fave animal sounds: Guinea pig chubbles. The low ones that are barely audible when they fall asleep on your lap.

Aesthetic: Grumpy hedgehog.

Or... oiled leather, stained glass, bobbin lace, fresh green leaves, sunlight, William Morris, cherry and maple wood, irises, raccoons, wool slippers, pigeons. There, that's much more artistic.

But, really, it's mostly just

[tes-trash-blog]

Non Canon Guide To The Falmer Tongue: Past Plural Case

So I mentioned a couple of times that I’m turning the Falmer language into something kind of workable. My primary resources here are Calcelmo’s Stone, with some lifting from the slightly more formed Ayleidoon, and JRR Tolkien’s Elvish Dictionary because there are more than a few similarities between both. Just look up the Sindarin word for “king” and compare it to Ayleidoon and Falmeri. I’ll wait.

(Spoiler: they’re both “aran”)

Today I’m going to share one of my more solid examples: Past plural case. Keep in mind that I’m not a linguist, I took exactly one class on linguistics in college and nearly flunked it, none of this is explicitly canon but neither is anything I say on this mess of a blog.

So! Without further ado, we’ll be examining the second sentence from the Stone:

Falmeri: Ilpen av sou meldi nagaiale as guntumnia spantelepe-laelia arani Morae ye sou liebali racuvane ye nu rautane sye ye nu hautalle nou buroi gume sou gravuloi sa metane sye garlis.

Tamrielic Translation: “Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora,and your wills were broken, and we heard you, and sent our machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under.”

Here we’re going to look at “sou liebali racuvane, ye nu rautane sye” or “your wills were broken, and we heard you”. You’ll see “sou” refer to “your/s”, “liebali” looks to be “wills” or “spirits”, and here we reach the fun part, “racuvane”, “were broken”.

Compare that to “nu rautane sye”, which is “we heard you”. Notice the similarity in the endings of “racuvane” and “rautane”, which both end in “-ane”. Here we can infer a part perfect for what looks like the plural second and first tense, or “you [plural]” and “we”.

We also see the possible direct object form of “you” in “sye”, idk i thought that was neat. There is also a slightly similar spelling in both racuvane and rautane, but I like to think it’s in the same vein as the German “Lieben” and “Leiben”; the first means “love”, the second means “dead bodies”.

Moving on, we have the phrase “nu hautalle nou buroi”, which is “we sent our machines”. Here we can see that “-talle” for some kind of perfect tense (aka “have/had sent”. That just means a closer translation might be “we had sent our machines”. It’s minor in the grand scheme of things, and you’re always going to take a bit of creative liberty with translations. Word for word perfect translations don’t really exist, after all.

Anyway! From here we can infer:

“-ou” can refer to a plural possessive (ie. “your wills”, or “our machines”)

“-ane” can refer to a plural past passive (ie. “We were done”, or “You were lost.”)

“sye” can refer to an objective case for “you”, and given the similarity between “sou” and “nou”, we can further infer that “-ye” can be the objective case for plural pronouns.

“-alle” can refer to a plural past or future perfect (”we have done”, “you had sent”)

We can take it one step further and argue that “-vane” and “-tane” are the plural past perfect for “you [plural]” and “we”. Logic dictates we can extend this to their past participle since it appears to follow the same rules: “-talle” is “we have [verb]���, and “-valle” is “you have [verb]”.

With all of this, we can create a fancy table:

(This took me six hours.)

The Stone also features what could be examples of present tense, modifiers, and maybe even a future tense of sorts, but this is already pretty long so I’m gonna cut it off here. You’re more than welcome to use this in your own conlang endeavors, and you can always hit me up if you want to see my other, less refined notes on the Falmer language.

(I also find it interesting that hecta is translated as simply “do not”, where it means “exile” in Ayleidoon and “abandon” in Tolkien’s Telerin language. idk i think that’s a lost in translation sort of deal, like you wouldn’t use hecta in Falmeri to say you didn’t particularly care for a movie or something.)

[milleralexanderauthor]

Let’s talk about cartography and how it can be useful to you as a writer. 

Cartography is the process of map-making. You may have picked up a book in the past and noticed a map in the first few pages, ala Tolkien or Le Guin.

 These reference images help the reader get a better image of the layout and scope of the world of a novel. We’re not gonna talk about that today. What I want to talk about is how cartography can help you, the author, develop an in-depth world. 

First of all, under what circumstances should you spend your time on this? If you’re writing, say, a contemporary novel set in New Jersy, you probably don’t have to worry about this. The genres that benefit from this type of planning are:

-Science Fiction

-Fantasy

There are probably exceptions to this rule, but these two genres require a certain amount of worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is the process in which you develop the system, rules, and landscape your novel takes place in. In some instances, a novel may fall into these two genres but be set in a familiar setting. The landscape in these instances is still something I think you should give some degree of thought to. Consider how the landscape has changed or will change based on the parameters of your story. 

An example of this is Panem from The Hunger Games. 

Panem exists in a dystopian world in which the country of the United States has not only been divided, but rising sea levels have changed the coastline. This is an example of a familiar landscape that has changed because of the events of a novel or the rules of the world in which it exists. Even if you’re not starting a world from scratch, take into consideration what might alter your world.

Let’s say you are writing a novel set in a different world. Do you need to make a map?

Of course, you don’t NEED to do anything. I’m not your dad, I can’t tell you what to do. Do I think it’s incredibly helpful? YES.

Why? It will give you the same benefits it will give a reader. A more in-depth layout of the world you’re creating. 

If your characters are staying in the same place throughout the duration of the book, maybe creating a full map of the entire planet isn’t necessary. But maybe making a map of the city could help you. What does you’re city look like? What is the architecture like? What is the economy of your city like? What in the landscape influences that? 

If your characters are going on a Tolkien level journey across your world, you probably need to consider the landscape. Mapping is a good visual way of doing this. It’s also really fun, in my opinion.

“But Miller,” you may be saying. “Why would I go to all that effort if my characters don’t even go to most of these places?”

That’s worldbuilding for you. You will come up with a TON of details over this process that will never make it into your novel. However, the more detail YOU have in your brain, the more detailed your world will feel. 

“Okay, sure.” I hear you say. “But I’m a terrible artist!”

Me too. I’m not saying that the draft of the map you make has to be in your book. In fact, I encourage against that. If you think a visual aid will help your reader gain something or would just be a fun perk, you can refine it or hire a professional cartographer (yes, they exist) when your book is closer to publication. If you’re at that point, I’m not talking to you. I’m encouraging map making as a world building exercise to those of you who are trying to flesh out your worlds before you even commit anything to page. 

It can be an intimidating task, creating a whole world from scratch. I’m happy to tell you that it doesn’t have to be hard.

The first step is to consider the scope of your map. Like I said, only create what you feel you may use. Does your character never leave their home town? Do a map of the town? Does the country your story takes place in come into play during your book? Do a map of the country. Does your character make a grand journey across the world? Make the world. My RECOMMENDATION is to make at least the country your novel takes place in. You probably won’t use every location, but less is not always more. 

Then, consider the context. Are cities in your world trade centers? What are their major imports and exports? What type of climate does your world have? What is the political climate like? Are there physical boundaries that cut one part of your world off from another? These are things to keep in mind before you start making your map because the landscape of a world could have a profound impact on the daily lives of its residents. 

Next, we need to outline. I find countries or continents to be the easiest to do, and you’ll probably see why. Coastlines are honestly really easy to do. This is probably the part you’re freaking out about but worry not. There are some easy methods to get natural-looking coastlines and borders.

A prefer traditional paper and pencil art, so we’ll start with that. By all means, if you just wanna go crazy and come up with something all on your own, I won’t stop you. However, some of you may be intimidated by the idea of just DRAWING A WHOLE COUNTRY FROM NOTHING. There are a couple of things you can do if this is you.

Look at some reference pictures. 

Look at an atlas or a globe. Find borders and coastlines that look cool or fit into some of the ideas for your world and copy ‘em. To some people, this doesn’t feel “creative”. Someone will always look at your map and tell you that it looks like Russia or Italy, so don’t stress too much about it. 

BEANS. 

This will sound weird, but a tried and true method to get nice looking coastlines is to just dump a few handfuls of dry beans or rice onto a piece of paper and move them around until you like the look of it. Then you trace out the masses of beans until you got yourself a country, huzzah!

If you’re working in photoshop, a method I’ve seen used is to import a few images of different countries into it and move and transform them around until you you have a brand new landmass you like, then trace around that. 

Next, we need to fill the world with stuff. This sounds simple, but keep in mind that things don’t happen in a vacuum. 

If you’re building a forest or farmland, consider where a water source would be. 

If you’re adding a lake or rivers, consider how it would flow to the ocean with the force of gravity, starting in mountain ranges.

If you have mountains, consider how shifting tectonic plates would form them. You have to at least know the rules before you can break them. Your world has to make some type of sense and, if it doesn’t, you need to explain why. 

Take a look at the styles of maps to get an idea of how to indicate this on your map. Some maps take a very simplified approach to denoting landmarks, some are very complex. It’s up to you.

Once you know where your forests, mountains, and lakes will be, you can place your cities. 

Your cities should be placed in locations on your map that make sense. Is your city’s major export fish? Put it by the ocean. Is the climate cold? Put it at a higher elevation. Is your city isolated? What type of physical barriers could illustrate this? 

If you didn’t take any of these things into consideration before this exercise, you have now. Let’s say you have a protagonist who needs to get from one town to another, but you need to spice up the journey a little. You made this map, you look at it, there’s a river in between the towns. BOOM! Now your protagonist needs to cross a rushing icy river. Mini conflict, a setback. All because you considered the landscape of your environment.

Obviously, this works on a lot of different scales. How long will it take your protagonist to get from point a to point b? What stands in their way? How do the features of the landscape impact the world as a whole? Now you know. 

Finally, slap some labels on that bad boy. 

If your working on paper, it’s a good idea to do this ALL in pencil first and leave some space for labels. This will make referencing where things are and what they’re called easier. Get creative with it, use crazy fonts. It just needs to be LEGIBLE for your own sanity. Trust me. 

Honestly, doing this at some point in the worldbuilding process has done worlds of good for me. It really gets your creative juices flowing and it’s just another step to a well-rounded world. You can skip it if you’re not a visual person, but I definitely am and I’m sure some of you are, too. 

I just want to reiterate, this is for YOUR benefit only. No one else has to see it, its reference for you. However, if you want to add a map into your published works, consider talking to a professional artist/cartographer unless you, like, are one. Then I’m not sure why you read this much of my post. 

Thanks for reading! I post a wide variety of content on my blog every Friday including writing advice and book updates. Stop by and say hi!

-Miller

[exploringalterra]

Age of Exploration Spotlight: Devilers 

Hey everybody! This is Dave (Creative Team, Age of Exploration) with some lore/worldbuilding background content I thought some of you might enjoy. 

In a recently reblog, @wretchedor30 was wondering if Alterra had a dark side to it, which made me think this may be a good time to introduce devilers... 

A while back, Parrish and I were working on some worldbuilding design prompts, and one of them asked us to describe monsters that were iconic to the world of Alterra. It occurred to me that while Alterra has a lot of great monsters pulled from folklore all over the world, we hadn’t yet designed any enemies or creatures that were unique to our world. And for any of you who follow my personal/hobby/writing blog @flavoracle, you know I can’t resist a good creative design challenge like that! 

I started by thinking about iconic monsters in other popular fantasy worlds, and tried to figure out what made them distinct. The ones that stood out the most in my mind were the Ringwraiths and Balrogs from Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, and Mindflayers and Beholders from Dungeons & Dragons. (There are plenty of others too, but those were the ones that kept coming back to me.) 

I decided to group Ringwraiths and Mindflayers into what I call the “Frail-Yet-Frightening” trope, and I grouped Balrogs and Beholders into what I call the “Fly-You-Fools!” trope. With that in mind, I set out to design a “Frail-Yet-Frightening” monster unique to Age of Exploration, in a way that felt authentic to Alterra. (Sometime soon, I’ll make a post about what I came up with for the “Fly-You-Fools!” trope. But that’s a story for another time.) 

It seemed to me that Ringwraiths are such a great fit for Middle-Earth because they play into Tolkien’s narrative themes of corruption and darkness. If Tolkien’s idea of paradise was the Shire with its simple life, growing things, and appreciation of nature and all its beauty, than the Ringwraiths are the exact opposite of that. Corrupted old kings who abandoned their natural lives just to desperately hold on to power and avoid death. 

Alterra doesn’t use the same good-versus-evil, holy-versus-abysmal dichotomy that Middle-Earth uses, so a focus on corruption and undeath wasn’t going to work here. But even though it doesn’t have a standard of “divine good,” there are still values that are encouraged in Age of Exploration. 

One of those values is diversity versus xenophobia. (Again, I’d love to dive into all the other AoE values we’ve discussed in creative design, but I’ll have to save that topic for a future post too.) So I started thinking about how to use that value for some monster design fuel. 

I also started thinking about how to use the monster’s creative identity to provide some potential mechanical identity. For example, Mindflayers in D&D are scary not because of their physical strength (their bodies are pretty weak and frail) but because their psychic magic is so disruptive to typical player strategies, and because losing to one presents the threat of permanent death by brain munchies. 

While permanent death can occur in AoE, it occurs very infrequently, so that wasn’t a threat I wanted tied to an “iconic monster” in the game. So what mechanics would make players feel scared? Or what players strengths are really played up in AoE that this monster could subvert? 

Teamwork. Whether it’s in combat or role-playing, explorers in AoE are encouraged and rewarded for playing cooperatively and using strategies that require teamwork. OK, so how do I subvert teamwork? 

At first I thought of a monster that might possess explorers and turn them against each other, or affect their emotions to make them behave ways they typically wouldn’t. But that violates the design principle of “player agency” that is crucial to AoE game design. I thought about monsters that created literal walls between explorers so they couldn’t interact with each other, but that felt incredibly boring, forced, and hard to execute mechanically. 

Then I thought, “What if only certain explorers could see them?” From that thought, I iterated on the idea until I came up with the following concept... 

Devilers are monsters that were created by a xenophobic cabal known as the “Gatekeepers” to disrupt and break down the integration and cultural exchange that has recently started to become so prevalent in Alterra. The Gatekeepers don’t want students of different spell schools to mix, and they don’t want people of different races to mix. And devilers are their attempt to achieve their goals. 

Devilers are created by enchanting mask made of wood or clay, and infusing it with spectral elemental magic to animate a creature with a semblance of life. What’s so insidious about devilers is that their interaction with the physical world is conditional. Some devilers can only see and be seen by beings who have learned the magic of a specific spell school. (For example, one type would only attack explorers who know fire spells, and only players who know fire spells would be able to see it or attack it.) Other devilers might have conditions based on character race. (Like a deviler that can only interact with Fauns, or devilers who can interact with everyone except humans.) 

Devilers are completely unaware of anyone outside their sphere of influence, and they are ALWAYS hostile to any beings within their sphere of influence. Once defeated, they evaporate and leave nothing behind but a broken mask. 

There are a lot of things I personally love about this concept of devilers. 

For starters, I like how their nature subverts teamwork among explorers, without taking away player agency. I like how even if an individual deviler is relatively weak, it can still present a threat to the party. And I like how they force explorers to think creatively about how they can support an ally is getting attacked by a threat they can’t see. 

From a deeper and more philosophical point of view, I appreciate what devilers have come to represent for me, and the kinds of introspective moments they could offer to players both in and out of gameplay. 

For me, devilers have come to represent the concept of discrimination and “privilege,” and embody the destructive impact that people experience in real life because of them. And highlight the danger of ignoring a threat, just because it doesn’t impact you directly. 

To illustrate the concept, imagine the following scenario: Your expedition party is approaching a Sun Elf city, and you encounter a Sun Elf Gatekeeper agent, surrounded by devilers. The Gatekeeper agent and the gang of devilers attack your party, and you and your allies enter combat to defend yourselves. 

After a difficult battle, the authorities from the nearby city ride out and place everyone in your party under arrest! You find out that guards on the city wall witnessed the fight, but because this pack of devilers can’t be seen by Sun Elves, all they saw was a whole group attacking a single Sun Elf. 

Now your party has to role play and figure out a way to convince the authorities that you’re the real victims here. But how do you do that if none of them has ever seen a deviler?! 

Now, before I end this post, I want to make something abundantly clear: What I’ve described here should not be taken as 100% official canonical lore, nor should it set defined expectations of how devilers will behave mechanically in Age of Exploration. Devilers are still a very recent addition to the game, and they still need to be playtested and refined before anything about them is officially “nailed down.” 

What I hope you DO take away from this post is some insight regarding the thought and passion we pour into every aspect of this game. I also hope you enjoyed getting a little peek behind the scenes, and some hints at other info we’ll be introducing down the road. 

Having said all that, I would absolutely LOVE to get your thoughts and feedback on the concepts of devilers and how you feel about them! Feel free to share your feedback by reblogging this post and adding your thoughts directly in the reblog. (I used a “Keep Reading” link at the top, so you don’t have to worry about the length.) If you prefer to share your feedback privately, you can send a direct message to my personal blog at @flavoracle or you can send a message to the game’s creator Parrish at @professortallguy on Tumblr. 

Thanks again to everybody already engaging and sharing your thoughts! Please keep your feedback and questions coming in!! 

- Dave (Creative Team, Age of Exploration) 

Art by James Harrod (commissioned for Age of Exploration, do not use without permission) 

[archetype-online-blog]

Blog: So it’s time to write a query letter …

You’ve just finished the perfect short story and want to submit it to your favorite journal or magazine. Or, you’ve finally put the finishing touches on that 80k-word novel and you need an agent to start pitching it to all the big publishers. But how do you approach these intimidating professionals* who have been reviewing masterpieces longer than you’ve been alive? Your best friend throughout this process is going to be a really strong query letter.

If you don’t know what a query letter is, don’t stress! It’s just a short note, almost like a cover letter, that pitches the idea of your story to an agent and asks if they’re interested in representing you. It gives you a chance to specify the title, length, and genre of your story, as well as provide a brief summary, so an agent can decide if your work matches their professional interests. A good one can get you moved to the “keep reading” pile — but a bad one can mean an immediate rejection. Like all first impressions, the way you represent yourself and your work is key.

Read on to see our comments and critiques of example letters, as well as advice on how to create and refine yours.

*The people we’re talking about — agents, editors, publishers, etc — shouldn’t be seen as intimidating. They only want what you do — to find amazing, creative works, and to make them available for everyone to appreciate. If it helps, think of them as giant book nerds like you and your friends.

MAGAZINES/JOURNALS

When submitting a short story to magazines or journals, you don’t really need the long summary and detailed description authors include for novels. Your submission is short enough that editors will be able to read the whole thing! Instead, just give them the basics and thank them for their time. A lot of times, journals will post exactly what information they’re looking for in their calls for submissions.

Here’s a sample:

Dear Editors,

I would like to submit my short story “Hills Like White Elephants” (1,400 words) for publication. I have never previously published a short story.

This is a simultaneous submission. Per your guidelines, if I don’t hear back within three months, I will assume my story does not align with the publication goals of Transition Magazine.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, Ernest Hemingway

This offers all the important information — title, word count, whether you’ve been previously published, and whether this is a simultaneous submission (in other words, if you’re submitting the piece to other journals at the same time). It takes the time to be polite, but it isn’t so long it’ll waste an editor’s valuable time.

The line about the guidelines is optional, though you should definitely follow all guidelines. You can also include any relevant personal information here. Make sure you check the requirements of the journal you choose to see what information they require.

ROUGH QUERY LETTER — MISTAKES TO LEARN FROM

Before we get to a really strong query letter, we though it would be fun to show you one that pretty much misses all the key requirements. See if you can figure out why the mistakes below are so tragic and ill-advised.

Now that you’ve survived that train wreck, here’s why these mistakes might be the last ones you make with that particular agent, and how to avoid them:

1. Agents get TONS of query letters every day, and they want to know you’ve already done your homework and checked whether they’re a good fit for you. So sending the same unpersonalized query letter to every agent listed on a website probably isn’t the best idea! If you didn’t take the time to look up their name and write a separate email, why would they waste time reading the names of your characters and worlds in addition to everyone else’s?

Instead, address the agent by name and always start a new email for each agent.

2. This doesn’t tell us anything particularly interesting about the writer or how their interests connect to the agent, so it’s kind of a waste of time to read. It would be better not to include this paragraph at all.

3. Make sure to mention the title and genre of your work near the top, so the agent knows what they’re about to read. Also, avoid boastful claims or bragging about how good your story is — let your writing speak for itself later on.

4. A lot of people say there’s no such thing as a new story, just new ways to tell it, but you still don’t want your summary to sound like twenty other books or every movie that came out in the 90s. Instead of relying on cliches like “new kid in town” or “chosen one” that we’ve all heard a million times before, focus on the parts of your story that are fresh and exciting!

5. Repeating “mysterious” and “mystery” in the same sentence starts to feel a little sloppy — make sure you read through your letter out loud before you send it off, to catch any embarrassing mistakes.

6. When you read this paragraph, the plot and conflict are really hard to follow. Make sure your summary gives the reader a clear picture of what happens in your story. You can test it out on your friends before you sent it for real — if they can keep track of what’s happening, you’re probably good to go!

7. Again, if a particular sentence doesn’t add very much, cut it — that way, it won’t take up an agent’s time and annoy them.

8. When reading real query letters, the funniest thing is always when people claim their work is “the next Harry Potter” or “following in the footsteps of   J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin.” By omitting a claim like this, you’re not saying your work isn’t amazing — but you’re also not setting yourself up for an unfair comparison between you and incredibly sophisticated, famous writers. Think about it — even J.K. Rowling probably wasn’t calling herself the next Roald Dahl or Madeleine L’Engle as she was querying The Sorcerer’s Stone. Statements like this are too bold, and give agents a weird feeling before they even start on the manuscript.

It can be helpful to include works you think are similar to yours if such information will concisely convey the mood or themes of your story to an agent. Try something like, “fans of Neil Gaiman will appreciate the whimsical atmosphere of my setting,” or “my protagonist will captivate people who love the inquisitive nature of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.” From these descriptions, I’m prepared to get a similar general feeling from your work. But I’m still expecting you to be a unique, individual author doing your own thing, with all your own artistic choices.

9. Promising your book will make a good movie is also too bold, and feels weird.

10. Be respectful and formal in greetings and closings.

GOOD QUERY LETTER

Strong query letters avoid the mistakes we listed above, and add some other really important information. Here’s one for reference:

1. This writer clearly did their research and found an agent they want a strong partnership with in the future.

2. If you have a really great anecdote, this can be a good way to connect with an agent. If you don’t have something strong and you’re just looking for any way to connect, however, it can be best to omit this section.

Good anecdotes: You’ve interacted with the agent before, either at an event or on social media, and they encouraged you to reach out (this is a REALLY good way to open — get out there and make connections if you can!). Another agent recommended you try querying this one. The agent is particularly interested in minorities or strong women, and that’s a main selling point of your work. This agent stated recently they’re looking for (YA fantasy, middle grade sci-fi, etc) and that’s what you’re going to provide now.

Not-so-good anecdotes: You have a similar taste in books. You think other books they’ve represented are amazing. You strongly suspect based on a few comments in interviews that the agent likes hopeful stories, and your story is hopeful. You just know you’d get along based on something they wrote on Twitter last week.

3. Always mention the name of your work near the beginning, so the writer knows what story they’re about to read and can easily remember it. You can put this in the subject line of your email, too.

You should mention the target age group and genre, too, both in the body and the subject line. Do you write middle grade? YA? New adult? Adult? Is your story fantasy? Sci-fi? Mystery? Dystopian?

4. The summary of your manuscript is arguably the most important part. You want to make it sound interesting and complex, so it stands out among all the other letters the agent will receive. Write it and rewrite it, then rewrite it again. Get feedback from everyone you can.

5. You should specify the word count, and you should also know that your length is right for this kind of story. Agents are going to run away from a middle grade novel that’s 120,000 words, or a high fantasy book with tons of world building and subplots that’s only 30k or 40k. Do some research as you’re writing to make sure you’re hitting the sweet spot, and if your story ends up being too long, consider splitting it into multiple books.

6. Advice varies on whether to mention sequel potential, but if you have a series started, feel free to say so.

7. On their websites, agents will probably tell you how they want work submitted. Are they looking for two separate attachments, a query letter and a manuscript? Do they want the first twenty pages of a manuscript, the first ten chapters, or the whole thing? Do they not want to open attachments at all, and request that you copy everything into the body of the email? MAKE SURE you follow these instructions, as writers that don’t will be rejected immediately.

8. Be respectful and formal in greetings and closings.

As with most of advice, none of these tips apply in all cases at all times. There are always exceptions to any rule, and since you know your work better than anyone, you should trust your judgement if you think something doesn’t apply! But in general, if you stick to this format, agents will be able to move past your query letter and evaluate your work based on its merit.

Want feedback on your query letter? Send it to us at ArchetypeOnlineMag@gmail.com!

Like our blog? Find more posts at https://archetypeonline.org/blog/

[vardasvapors]

Hi, I just wanted to say I really enjoy your blog, and all the tolkien things you post. I'm so glad you seem really into both the silm and lord of the rings! I came here to ask if you could tell a bit about how any other fans have influenced your opinions or made you interested things that you didn't care as much about before? (By the way if you think you've seen this question asked before, you're right, I asked simaethae the same thing too)

omg hi anon! I think I remember seeing that answered ask on my dash too, if I’m thinking of the right one :)

GOD how do I even count these. Uhhhhh, focusing just on ones that made a big impact on creating new opinions or changing my opinions, because like, “making me more interested in things than I was before” is such an interconnected affair that I generally can’t pin down to one person….

@simaethae is hugely responsible for my liking Sauron/Celebrimbor as an actual ship and not just a cruel plot point for Celebrimbor’s arc, for making me consider seriously the ideas that Sauron was actually genuine about his desire to make Middle Earth great and caring about Celebrimbor helping him do it, and honestly just a lot of my interest in Sauron’s motives and his own point of view in general.

@emilyenrose for really pinpointing and clarifying the axis around which the Feanorians’ (especially Maedhros’s) relationship with and view of the Oath and the kinslayings revolves and in particular Maedhros and Maglor’s last horrible conversation and decision. Like I remember being fairly early in my process of succumbing to exploring tolkien fandom and going like *paging through blog #59* “no…no….you are not even touching the….watchamacallit…YES. THAT.” Uh, this isn’t exactly what you were asking about but whatever i wrote this paragraph already. oops.

@thelioninmybed‘s “but….the future refused to change” series of ask-answers about the implacability of the downwards spiral of the First Age made me notice and actually process and acknowledge so many things about the sequence of events in the Silm that I had honestly always unfairly glossed over a lot while coming from a ‘the Silm runs on Murphy’s Law so who cares about the in-universe logistics’ perspective

@crocordile for soooo much lazy-interpretation-killing and refinement (and motivation to properly re-read, and drawing-attention-to-the-significant-things) of multiple elements of The Children of Hurin and especially Turin as a character. And…handing me so much specificity in the form of headcanons and art and concepts about Numenor and the Faithful?

@anghraine for like, not so much changing my mind or introducing me to new viewpoints about the peredhil and about the peredhil’s connection to Numenor precisely, but more like for going “Yo, this is actually super supported by actual canon, moreso than the common fanon assumptions are: observe” about things where I had just been going “lol my own personal vague impressions and flights of fancy are all probably WAY off in left field and have nothing to do with canon but see, like, I can’t help feeling that it would make so much sense if –”

@kareenvorbarra for a number of amazing viewpoint-changing meta posts and headcanons and character analyses of the Edain, especially their roles in the later parts of the First Age, and for specific characters like Beren and Rian? Plus giving me actual concrete individual examples (rather than my own free-floating nascent irritation) about Silm fandom’s tendency to marginalize and minimize the Edain or the Edain’s presence in and impact on particular events and situations and locations and characters. Also responsible (see the Rian post) for one of the most vivid illustrations of the fascinatingness of Sirion and (completely inexplicitly, simply by dint of actually focusing ON Sirion itself, without a whit of critical commentary) indirectly presenting what I consider to be one of the most uncompromisingly devastating rebukes against interpretations that minimize the sheer level of visceral horror and cultural-loss-related consequences inherent in Sirion’s destruction.

@gurguliare and @catchaspark for less a “changed my mind from one opinion to another” than “filled and connected gaps in my mind that I had not even realized were gaps with commentary and opinions that I didn’t even realize I needed” regarding the story of Beren and Luthien. If you’ve even fleetingly thought the narrative glorification of the Leithian was not textually supported by a sufficient ballast of depth and thickness and density of thematic centrality to the rest of the Silm, pls let these two convince you otherwise.

@bamboocounting for a number of conversation-generated Numenor thoughts that I had never thought to think about before!!! And in particular directing me to and understanding my unrealized need for what was undoubtedly the most brain-changing and imagination-diverting entry in the entire HoME – the Notion Club Papers.

@erotetica for this awesome Caranthir meta that I p much just adopted as canon and which fulfilled something I never realized I needed so badly :)

@thearrogantemu for more Valar-related characterization and interpretations I had never considered (or at least consciously considered) before than I can count, but especially this one about Aule.

I am QUITE SURE there are like a billion more, especially for more narrow/specific topics, but iiiddddkkkk. I may reblog this with some additions later because I love fandom appreciation

[jjeh--writes]

Interview With Holly Hearn

Hello! I’m Holly, and I’ve been writing with an aim to publish for several years now. I’m currently working on an urban fantasy with the working title Nushada. It’s about death, the afterlife, and reapers, but there’s a theme of grief underlying, and there will be robots incorporated as well. Watch this space!

If you like what Holly has to say, check her out at:

My website is Oiseau De Feu: https://oiseaudefeu.net/ I’m on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hearningcurve/ Wattpad at https://www.wattpad.com/user/hearningcurve Twitter at https://twitter.com/HEARNINGCURVE

1. What got you into writing and how old were you when that happened?           

I had a wild imagination as a child, with an entire imaginary kingdom (a la Bridge to Terabithia) surrounding my home. It is my suspicion that this upbringing, coupled with the isolation of being an only child growing up in the countryside, and thus no one to tell my stories to, is what led me to start writing them down when I was about 12 or so.

2. What is the very first thing you wrote (And on a scale of 1-10 how embarrassed would you be if anyone read it?)           

It was a novel about dragon-themed magical girls trying to overthrow an evil queen. Considering I was only about 12-13 when I wrote it, I’m not that embarrassed about it. Maybe about a 3? Certainly helps that no drafts still exist of it.

3. Most embarrassing thing you've written (either cause of quality or just content)           

Hm, probably some high fantasy writing I used to do that was just basically one big cease and desist from the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien in the making. But it was fun, and let me flex my mental muscles, so how bad could it really be?

4. How many times do you edit your work before you feel like it is "finished"?          

 I like to rough draft, rewrite, edit with critique partners, then pass it through betas and make final amendments. Then comb through for grammar and punctuation. I’m very wary of letting a manuscript turn into a Winchester House. If it needs more refining than that, there’s a good chance there’s something fundamentally wrong with it.

5. Favourite thing that you have written?           

I’ve really enjoyed the flash fiction workshops I’ve attended recently. They’ve produced the closet I’ve ever gotten to poetry, which I’ve always found to be way above my pay grade. I want to get more into flash, and am currently awaiting the results of the second challenge of NYC Midnight’s Flash Fiction Challenge.

6. Have you done any writing other than fiction? (IE Non-fiction, journalism, reviews etc)         

  I wrote lots of essays during my academic career, mostly on eugenics and WWII. My job has me writing articles and blog posts, which is a nice change of pace. I’ve also been trying to get more into reviewing everything, in the hopes that it’ll make me more mindful and attentive to everything around me.

7. What are your feelings on self publishing vs. traditional           

I think there’s still a lot of stigma surrounding self-published authors, which makes it difficult to pursue both. For me personally I plan to eventually write shorter works to self-publish, while seeking traditional publishing for my larger works. I would probably use a pen name to separate the two bodies of work, because otherwise my sales figures as a self-published author could hurt my chances of getting an agent.

8. How do you think that the Internet has changed the way people interact with writing?          

 I think it’s greatly improved it. You’re seeing new ways of writing all the time. I’ve been really surprised at how good an influence Twitter has been on my writing and on the writing community. I never would have expected there to be such a vibrant community on there. I don’t know why I thought Twitter would be this sort of vapid space, but it’s really not, and it’s a great way of learning the art of brevity. It’s also interesting because we’ve never had more access to our favourite authors. You can engage with Stephen King, with J.K. Rowling, with so many authors, regardless of their pedigree or successes. And we’ve never had more access to the publishing industry. I think in some ways they’re still very much ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’, but we’re seeing more of them and from literary agents and it’s really opening up opportunities for writers and readers. It’s amazing!

9. Have you ever participated in Fanfiction, online Roleplay writing, or any other forms of recreational internet writing?         

  I used to be a constant presence on RPoL.net, and still think it’s a great site, just one I definitely don’t have any time to seriously commit to it these days. It’s how I met my co-author!

10. Do you feel that there is an ideal time or age to start writing? 

         As soon as you have an idea! Yesterday! Today! Anyone can write. Anyone can have a story inside them.

11. How would you define "a writer"?

Anyone who writes. No one’s an ‘aspiring’ writer. If you write, you’re a writer. I strongly dislike this culture of ‘real’ writers and ‘aspiring’ writers based off of who’s been published, who’s making money, who’s got a day job, and so forth. Do you write stories, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, scripts? You’re a writer! Don’t wait for someone to come along and stamp you with an ‘officially a writer says me’ seal.

12. What sort of advice would you give someone who is looking to start a career in writing?      

Be prepared to be a jack of all trades. Especially if you’re doing any kind of world building. But no matter what you write you’ve gotta learn at least the basics of marketing, social media, editing, and in some cases design. Be prepared to have patience. So much patience. The industry is notoriously nebulous and subjective. Be prepared to roll with the punches. You can’t take things personally. Not everyone will love your work, and that’s okay.