In The Beginning
Long before Peter Jackson and Ralph Bakshi, even before Rankin-Bass, my friend Norma and I acted out the stories of Tolkien. We started with The Hobbit then proceeded to enact the entire Journey of the Ring. We even dabbled in some of the stories from the Appendices (this was before The Silmarillion was published).
Norma played all the noble figures: Gandalf, Aragorn, Theoden, Saruman. I played the character roles: the Hobbits and Gollum. Her backyard became Middle-Earth, and we tramped up-hill and over-dale, and the road went ever on and on.
When we completed The Lord of the Rings, we tried imagining what else might happen to these characters. Our favorite episode was a marital spat between Aragorn and Arwen that devolved into a swordfight.
As children of the seventies, we were well-versed in Tolkien. So, when I began to dabble in writing, of course I modeled my first stories on Middle-Earth-like lands.
You didn't have to squint too hard to see that my Greyhold the Wizard was a Gandalf knockoff. Long white beard, surly-sentimental temperament. Instead of the One Ring, I had the Sword of Pengol -- coveted by all. What its special powers were still eludes me.
I still have these original stories: all seven novels, written fast and furious when I was thirteen and fourteen. I cranked them out without forethought or concern for quality. I wrote what I wanted because I didn't know any better.
These seven novels were a great training ground because they were written without the internal censor. It wasn't until my late teens, when I began to seriously consider writing as a career, that I had to face the adage Write What You Know.
As I touched upon in my last post, writers write what they know when they ground their characters in human experience. When I empathize with my characters, I am writing what I know, regardless whether the setting is a fantasy wonderland or Chicago's Loop.
Someday I'll read those seven novels again. Occasionally I consider rewriting them, obviously with a more critical eye toward proper storytelling. But reimagining Greyhold the Wizard and all his cohort will never destroy what those original stories taught me as a young writer.
By the way, the title of this post, "In The Beginning," was the title of my very first short story.
Norma played all the noble figures: Gandalf, Aragorn, Theoden, Saruman. I played the character roles: the Hobbits and Gollum. Her backyard became Middle-Earth, and we tramped up-hill and over-dale, and the road went ever on and on.
When we completed The Lord of the Rings, we tried imagining what else might happen to these characters. Our favorite episode was a marital spat between Aragorn and Arwen that devolved into a swordfight.
As children of the seventies, we were well-versed in Tolkien. So, when I began to dabble in writing, of course I modeled my first stories on Middle-Earth-like lands.
You didn't have to squint too hard to see that my Greyhold the Wizard was a Gandalf knockoff. Long white beard, surly-sentimental temperament. Instead of the One Ring, I had the Sword of Pengol -- coveted by all. What its special powers were still eludes me.
I still have these original stories: all seven novels, written fast and furious when I was thirteen and fourteen. I cranked them out without forethought or concern for quality. I wrote what I wanted because I didn't know any better.
These seven novels were a great training ground because they were written without the internal censor. It wasn't until my late teens, when I began to seriously consider writing as a career, that I had to face the adage Write What You Know.
As I touched upon in my last post, writers write what they know when they ground their characters in human experience. When I empathize with my characters, I am writing what I know, regardless whether the setting is a fantasy wonderland or Chicago's Loop.
Someday I'll read those seven novels again. Occasionally I consider rewriting them, obviously with a more critical eye toward proper storytelling. But reimagining Greyhold the Wizard and all his cohort will never destroy what those original stories taught me as a young writer.
By the way, the title of this post, "In The Beginning," was the title of my very first short story.
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