Comments on: Authorial Intent, Fan Writing, and “Asterisk Reality”

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:59:29 +0000

Ithilwen: Yes! This happens to me all the time that my characters get other ideas in their heads than what I have in mine. I find it fun to let the story take its own shape, if slightly nerve-wracking. I had it beaten into my head that the “correct” way to write was to make detailed outlines and have everything planned before setting pen to paper. Well, JRRT went with the flow for LotR, and I think he was mildly successful with that.

Tristan: Yay! You’ve commented on my weble! Believe it or not, I was going to catch up on your weble last night … but my home Internet is down! I am writing this from Panera Bread. I think Bobby and I brought a mischievous fairy with us from Ireland; everything that could go wrong this week, so far, has.

But, on a positive note, I am mostly caught up with stuff that happened while we were on vacation, so I should be back and commenting soon. Fairy permitting!

By: Tristan Alexander

Tristan Alexander — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:02:49 +0000

So, this is what you do instead of commenting on my weble! Well, I can see what you consider important..herumph! (LOL)

OK, I am a comment junkie, as a friend has repeatedly said, and you used to be my best commenter. I guess your idea that Summer would give you more time for certain things was over hopeful.

Ah well, at least I now have posted/commented on your Weble!

By: Ithilwen

Ithilwen — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:56:18 +0000

It’s really hard to see how JRRT could have constructed something as large and complex as the Ardaverse without using “asterisk writing”. I hear authors of novels say all the time that their characters surprised them by doing/saying unexpected things – and a single novel is tiny next to the Ardaverse. Fortuitous serendipity would have to play a role in its construction. You can only wonder what other ‘facts’ about Arda’s history he would have come up with had he chosen different questions to think about!

By: Dawn

Dawn — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:22:11 +0000

Thank you, Rhapsody!

I totally agree; I think that’s why I related so much to Shippey’s theories on how JRRT constructed his books. To me, this is what makes writing Tolkien-based fiction such fun.

Reading your post, the connect-the-dots idea made me think of the analogy of constellations of stars. If we all stand together in my backyard, we’ll all be looking up at the same stars, but we’ll all draw the lines in different ways and come up with different constellations, even though we’re using the same stars as starting points. To me, that is one of the things I love most about this fandom. It really does demonstrate how creative we are as a species to start with the same books and each come to see them in her own way.

I probably did construct some of the later chapters of AMC with you in mind, so you are right about that!

By: Independence1776

Independence1776 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:43:04 +0000

*laughs* I’d forgotten about that! I’ll agree with your assesment.

By: Rhapsody

Rhapsody — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:28:04 +0000

Coming late to the party, but I just turned on my desktop and saw this in my feeds. Asterisk writing, connecting the dots, I never thought of that, but that is how I do write most of my stuff, I just take this and that, research, research, research and while doing so I am making the connection between the dots, yet when I write Maglor (hi Indy), the way I go about it will be different from how I choose to connect the dots.

I love that freedom, especially when writing shorter fiction. Give it a twist, here and there.

What a wonderful blog and we both know you wrote AMC for my pleasure (j/k)

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:28:07 +0000

Have you ever read Whitewave’s The Dark Foe Wears Feanaro? I think it’d be something like that!

By: Independence1776

Independence1776 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:38:59 +0000

*bursts out laughing* And that would be one show I’d actually watch. (And I have a tendency to call them the Insane House of Finwe.) I wonder what the Valinoran tabloids were like?

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:47:09 +0000

Of course it is! And its heart, the Silm is all about dysfunctional families, imo. If the Finwions lived in today’s modern world, they’d probably have a reality TV show!

By: Independence1776

Independence1776 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:47:54 +0000

but if I wrote about familial relationships

Isn’t the underlying background of the Silm a family story? If Feanor’s sons weren’t so loyal, they wouldn’t have sworn the Oath. Feanor wouldn’t have been upset about/jealous of his half-brothers. And what about Fingon and Maedhros? And I think I’ll stop– I’m preaching to the choir.

Then I haven’t grown up either!