Ithryn Luin

I wrote entirely original fiction for a good 15 years before becoming enamoured of Tolkien's world and characters. (You have to know the rules before you can break them, right? I've heard it said a good writer must know how to create their own world, not mooch off someone else's, and I'd agree but I don't think that disqualifies derived works as legitimate.)

The thing I find rewarding about writing within Arda is the opportunity to expand upon existing things, fill in unexplained details, make a whole detailed chapter of an event given a passing mention in the canon, delve into the minds of obscure characters. I don't think I'd enjoy making "fanfic" from anyone else's universe, because most writers don't have such a wealth of vague knowledge to choose from. Things like Harry Potter have a pretty clearly sketched world, without volumes' worth of backstory: if I did write within a world like that, my first inclination would be to find someone/something fairly obscure and fill in the holes, but there simply aren't as many holes there.

I view writing in Tolkien's universe as more akin to writing fiction about Greek mythology or something.

This reflection was prompted by my work of yesterday, wherein I got to a scene where the Maiar who later walk upon Middle-Earth as Alatar and Pallando are introduced. My plots tend to be roughly sketched in my head for weeks or years before I get round to writing them (I write extremely linearly, it would drive my organized mind mad if I started writing a chapter out of sequence just because inspiration struck me, so I keep it in my head and mull it over for as long as need be): but I myself don't know exactly what's going to happen, what these characters are going to do and say, until I get there. So it was a fun experience to help the events unfold, and say to myself, "Ah, so this is who Pallando is."

Even more fun because I know these two are going to fall from grace, somehow, in the future, and I have a faint notion of how it happens, but I'm not sure of the exact nature or severity of such a fall. I shall be watching their careers with great interest.

[On an unrelated note, I'm pleased with my attempt to put some dialogue in Iarwain Ben-Adar's mouth during a cameo, and I reread the whole freaking Bombadil chapter to try and get the cadence and personality right. Interesting, but not something I'd want to do again. *shudder*]