The Challenge of Fantasy Writing

[allion]

For an idea of the amount of writing Tolkien produced, see the 12 volumes of The Complete History of Middle-Earth. Copious amounts of rewriting, rewriting, composition, doodles that became sketches, maps, geneaologies, etc. etc. I admire Christopher for trying to organize the paperwork his dad left behind, and for trying to interpret his father's handwriting.

Another book is Ruth Noel's The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth. She gives the basics into the linguistic history he used and what the words really mean.

In Middle-Earth, every name carries meaning and weight. And a lot of it goes back to Beowulf and the Elder Edda sagas.

Karen (who loved her Old English class in university)

[Nateskate]

Originally Posted by allion

For an idea of the amount of writing Tolkien produced, see the 12 volumes of The Complete History of Middle-Earth. Copious amounts of rewriting, rewriting, composition, doodles that became sketches, maps, geneaologies, etc. etc. I admire Christopher for trying to organize the paperwork his dad left behind, and for trying to interpret his father's handwriting.

Another book is Ruth Noel's The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth. She gives the basics into the linguistic history he used and what the words really mean.

In Middle-Earth, every name carries meaning and weight. And a lot of it goes back to Beowulf and the Elder Edda sagas.

Karen (who loved her Old English class in university)

I think Christopher got a raw deal in terms of fan appreciation. He was a devoted son, and much of his father's works would have never gotten published without him. In fact, he was his second cheerleader, behind C.S.Lewis in getting LOTR published.

What some people don't know is how many re-writes of every single chapter, and every single book, Tolkien did. If he changed something in chapter eighteen, and the rest wasn't consistant, he'd go back and re-write the first seventeen chapters. Again, this was before Microsoft word, when you had to rewrite every single page on a non-electric typewriter.

His letters alone had multiple drafts.

[Garpy]

I'm writing a really non-hardcore scifi/fantasy series. It's sort of Space Opera-meets-ChickLit, a very mainstream (hopefully) scifi dish. One thing that I've found, with regard to names, is that I personally hate fantasy-spacey names like Zack Starthruster, or Qui'-thalth'ignufar. I much prefer names that feel grounded in the contemporary, but perhaps very...very slightly abstracted eg: Jon, Hal. Certainly I think the mass market..ie: those who never touch scifi/fantasy...are more likely to give it a go if on page one, they encounter names they feel familiar with.

Of course, I may just be wasting my time writing a chicklit/space opera for the masses, but, it's an original idea atleast.

[Nateskate]

Originally Posted by Garpy

I'm writing a really non-hardcore scifi/fantasy series. It's sort of Space Opera-meets-ChickLit, a very mainstream (hopefully) scifi dish. One thing that I've found, with regard to names, is that I personally hate fantasy-spacey names like Zack Starthruster, or Qui'-thalth'ignufar. I much prefer names that feel grounded in the contemporary, but perhaps very...very slightly abstracted eg: Jon, Hal. Certainly I think the mass market..ie: those who never touch scifi/fantasy...are more likely to give it a go if on page one, they encounter names they feel familiar with.

Of course, I may just be wasting my time writing a chicklit/space opera for the masses, but, it's an original idea atleast.

You are right in going for names like John for contemporary. I'd think odd names are useful when you want to convey you are not talking about this Universe or this time frame. Lancelot is odd, but it fits the time period. Personally, I think names like "Starthruster" sound campy. But with Fantasy, I think names can also fit a personality, and sometimes imbedding a word into the name can be useful. But overuse is cartoonish.