New Podcast Up: There And Back Again Once More

In the first podcast of 2015, we discuss a little bit of literary failure before launching into why we continue writing even in the face of adversity. What keeps you going? We also discuss the final Hobbit film and how it holds up to the text of Tolkien’s work. Finally, we answer some listener mail

Tolkien’s 5 Tips for Writing to an Audience

One of the most important things a writer must consider is the audience.  Who will read this massive tome we are constructing?  To what group of people are we directing our story?  J.R.R. Tolkien considered this in retrospect after The Hobbit had been on the shelves for a while.  He was asked the following questions by The

Tolkien’s 5 Tips for Creating Complex Heroes

Tolkien’s letters are rich with information about J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing process.  I wrote a post last week about Aragorn being Tolkien’s example of an epic hero, and someone posted: “But Frodo Baggins is the hero of the LOTR trilogy, right?”  I would argue that he is not, but only one of three or four characters who together