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Originally Posted by roriconfan
Seriously, do people still like Tolkien 5 page descriptions of a town? Or reading about body language than inner thoughts to tell how a character feels?
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In a word: Yes.
There is a lyrical quality to Tolkien's writing that I don't find in much fantasy writing today. It's hard to describe, but Tolkien was writing in a form of prose-poetry that only a man of his academic background and experience could have employed effectively. I especially enjoyed his choice of words and names for events and characters in
Lord of the Rings. He said so himself in one of his many notes: he chose words not just because of
the way they sound but also because of
the way they look on paper. The words have to be aesthetically pleasing on both counts.
Compare that with the whole host of ugly nonsense words that many sub-par fantasy writers use today, and it becomes easier to see why Tolkien is considered a master at his craft.
Also, Tolkien is hardly "long-winded" when compared to, say, Victor Hugo, who frequently digressed into side stories that are several tens of pages long in
Les Miserables.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timdog
I also felt that my creative writing class wasn't a great experience because my professor was pretty bad. Her own writing wasn't very good and she had an incredibily arrogant personality and played favorites.
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Ah. That's unfortunate. In my case, it's the opposite. My love for literature was inspired by a high-school teacher who was brilliant at showing us how to critique and evaluate poetry, prose and plays. By a stroke of luck, perhaps fate, she went on to become my literature teacher in junior college, where I was again lucky to have another few teachers who were particularly good in the subject.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timdog
Plus I found that it was much easier for me to work with visual/audio stuff than with the written material. I do understand that having strong writing skills will help and I do have strong "formal" writing skills (research papers and such) but I just find it hard to write fictional works. Most of the time I can very easily picture what I want to say in my head in movie form, but trying to transfer that to paper is very hard. I've always been a very visual thinker so perhaps that's why I find it hard to write fiction since whenver I get imaginative ideas, they are always in a very visual/audible form.
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Well, we're all gifted differently. If you're convinced that's where your talents lie, then go ahead. Interestingly, since you've pointed it out, writers think "visually" too. It wouldn't be possible to describe a character, a setting or an abstract concept otherwise. A writer needs to be able to see with his mind's eye. In this sense, he's no different from any other artist. Only the tools differ.