Essay Mama is an unusual site, providing students with essays. Even more unusual is the fact that they produced a lovely infographic on Tolkien, with some tips they gleamed from his correspondence. Enjoy!
Infographic by essaymama.com
Pearseus: Rise of the Prince will be on sale throughout November. Read the second book in my best-selling epic fantasy series for only 99c (no, you don’t need to have read the first book to make sense of it).
He is right. Sometimes the best connection between two points is the circle you complete after you get there and back.
Lol – the longest distance between two points, huh? 😀
I assume the “there and back” pun was intentional? 🙂
Thanks for the comment and welcome!
You are a wise man. A bag of Wise potato chips for you. Vinegar and salt, I assume.
Hold the vinegar, please, and you’ve got yourself a deal 😀
This is a very useful advice! I really love Tolkien’s trilogy and read “The Hobbit” in high school. He is a masterful fantasy writer.
Glad you liked it! I’ve read all his books (strangely enough, Silmarillion was my favourite), and have watched (and loved) LotR. Haven’t watched Hobbit, though. I can’t imagine how they fit what’s essentially a children’s book into 9 hours of film!
I’ve never read Silmarillion. Another one to add to my “to read list.” Hmm…I’v never quite considered LOTR to be children’s books. They’re quite dark and the language is fairly sophisticated.
I agree completely! The Hobbit was a children’s book, but his books then took a much darker (yet, not sinister) turn.
The Silmarillion’s opening chapter, describing the genesis of Middle Earth, is one of my favourite pieces of literature!
Looking forward to reading it!
Reblogged this on Chimaeral.
I find #4 to be particularly true! If you want your writing to be powerful the theme has to come from your heart.
Reblogged this on M.T. Miles.
I really enjoyed this article. Every # was so beneficial to me in more ways than one. They ARE words of a sage for sure!
Thank you so much for your kind comment, and welcome! 🙂
Reblogged this on Quoth The Wordsmith and commented:
I *never* reblog posts, but this is a bit of brilliance that I really enjoyed on my Sunday morning. I hope that you do, too.
Very interesting. It amazes me when a famous writer hits on all the insecurities of an obscure one like myself. Nice post.
That’s the bit I enjoyed best, as well. 🙂
Reblogged this on Author P.S. Bartlett and commented:
Number 8 certainly rings true with me, as so many of my characters are in fact based on people I know or have known. Thank you for this excellent blog.
A pleasure! I agree, #8 is a keeper 🙂
#6 is so true. Though it can be oddly maddening at times.
Inspiration can come through a number of ways, happy accidents being just one of them 🙂
True. I was thinking more about when thinks in a story change suddenly. Happens to me more than I’d like to admit, so it seems I’m letting the characters run the show.
Oh, absolutely. Mine actually laugh out when I pretend otherwise. We have dialogues like this:
Me: Don’t kill him, Cyrus, you know I’ll have to write half a dozen chapters to clean up your mess!
Cyrus: Lol – *plunges sword in chest*
Characters are so annoying some times… 🙂
They really need to learn their place. Thankfully, I haven’t had one kill another without reason. A minor character did rise up the ranks to supporting cast to replace someone’s original girlfriend, which has created one headache of a love triangle. I still can’t figure out who’s going to win that one, but I’m narrowing it down.
You’re just like me! I, too, leave them free rein and take notes while waiting to see who comes on top… 🙂
Well . . . I make outlines, so it always forces me to rewrite. Once a book is done, I have to fix up the next one to make it fall into line. Still it’s fun.
The best laid plans and all that… 🙂
Yes, it is. It’s great fun.
Has anything changed now your 5th book is out? Any spike in sales? I keep rooting for you! 🙂
Nothing really. It wasn’t very different than a normal release. I think the debut of Kindle Unlimited changed the landscape because I saw more borrowers than usual. Factor in that summer is a very slow period too. Things might change in September.
Summer was pretty slow for me, too. I sold 160 books in August, but 130 of these were due to the bundle promo. July was terrible, since I ran no promo. Everyone else I spoke to, complained about this, too. I hope things will pick up now! 🙂
I hope so too. I saw some major successes, but I have no idea how they did it.
Excellent inforgraphic. It proves that the right advice is timeless.
I’m glad you all enjoyed it, it turned out far more popular than I expected. 🙂
Reblogged this on Have We Had Help? and commented:
Sage words from the master of fantasy storytelling. 🙂