Writing Lessons From: Lord Of The Rings

   So my lovely friend Ellen (whom I know in real life, so she is an awesome bean) emailed me to remind me that March 25th is a big day in the realm of Middle Earth and, being a fan, she said that I should do a post. (and look! ... I managed to be a day late. Go figure)

   Which resulted in me doing battle with my goldfish brain, because I wanted to post! but ... it normally takes a few days of brainstorming to come up with anything coherent.

   But we're changing up the rules. *insert very last-minute post that I scrambled to put together* Have fun with this, y'all - and do go read the posts that my friends Ellen and Hanna did about Hobbits ;).    

1. Worldbuilding

via Google Images

Who can talk about Lord Of The Rings without talking about worldbuilding? (not me, apparently) Worldbuilding is not my strong suit - all of my story-scenery gets stuck in my head and refuses to drift down onto paper - so I'm especially in awe of the massive world that Tolkien created.
   Rohan, Mordor, the Shire, Gondor - not only are they all extremely different, ranging from volcanic terrain to bright green meadows, but they each have their own "feel" as well. The Shire is laid back and calm, and everyone is friends with everyone, while Gondor is more of what you would expect a medieval city to be like. I can barely get one extremely small area of my story-world to work itself out, so there's a lot that can be learned from the world of Middle Earth.
   Does your characters travel over many different terrains in your storyworld? Try to give every area a different look and feel. 

2. Fully-Crafted Languages 

   I can't be the only Tolkien fan who has learned a bit of the Sindarin language, can I be? (im agor hartha al) I can't really speak it (pfft, I can barely speak English, I fumble with words so much), but I can write it, and it's a lot of fun ;). Tolkien created an entire language for not only elves - they have both the Quenya and the Sindarin language - but he created a language for the dwarves, as well!
   This added a whole new level of creativity to his stories - and a whole new level of "addicted" for us fans to reach ;).
   Does your novel have people that speak in a language you made up? Make sure to create it fully enough that it can pass off as a well-crafted language.   

3. Likable Characters

via Google Images

   As if I haven't talked enough about characters from Lord Of The Rings in my character building series already xD. So I'll keep this point short - Tolkien managed to make each and every one of his (good) characters likeable. We love Sam for his loyalty, Frodo for his courage, Merry for his determination, and Pippin for his lighthearted-ness. And that's only the Hobbits! Not to mention Aragorn, Arwen, Legolas ... *refrains from going on*
   Everyone who has read Lord Of The Rings has a favorite character (or at least a favorite three characters) - but you could basically point out any character for me, and I could say that I love them. Because not only are the characters easy to get attached to, they're incredibly fully fleshed-out as well. And that's very important to this character-oriented girl ;).
   Does your novel have a big cast of characters? Try to pick a specific quality for each of them that will make them especially lovable - loyalty, courage, determination, sweetness, loopy-ness (everyone loves a character that's a little off their rocker), mostly anything goes when it comes to creating likeable characters!   

4. Tolkien Created Cliches

 created a lot of cliches. If you sent characters off on a quest that has anything to do with a powerful ring, I'm guessing a lot of people would think that you were either retelling or copying Lord Of The Rings.

  If Tolkien's trilogy had been created now, it would definitely be tagged as cliche, but back then? No one had written anything like this - Tolkien
   But what does this mean for us? Well, Tolkien is considered one of the masters of storytelling - and he certainly went out on a limb when he wrote his stories. Nothing had been done like this before! And that should inspire us to never decide not to write something because we think it is too different, too weird, too strange. Going out on a limb is what got Tolkien to where he is.
  What incredibly different aspects does your story have? Never be afraid to add something in that seems crazy - because maybe it will be your best choice ever, and maybe you'll create the next cliche.     
   

   There's a million and one things that we could learn from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy - It's definitely on my list of books that I will continue to re-read, and it's definitely on my list of movies that I'll continue to re-watch. (and this post is definitely on my list of last-minute things *cough* xD)

~ Savannah Grace 

   Have you ever read Lord Of The Rings before? What are some of the writing lessons that you have learned through it? Have you ever created a language for one of your stories?