[Viv]

There have been some very long and interesting reviews for the nonfiction piece The Virtues of Reading the Books. First off, if you haven't read that essay, please do: at the very least, it will show you where die-hard Tolkien enthusiasts are coming from when they post those, "No! Faramir has *dark* hair, you dork" reviews.

Secondly, the essay and some of the reviews raised an interesting question in my mind: Why *do* we write LoTRfic? Is it mainly because we adore the characters and must get inside their heads? Or is it mainly because we adore the world (which could be argued as a separate character altogether) and want to write new adventures there?

Thoughts?

(I'll tell you my reasons later )

[sindohte]

I cast my vote for "other" because the reason why I write is a combination of the characters and the world of LOTR. As a unrepentant psych major, I simply adore crawling inside the heads of memorable or interesting characters and trying to understand every little thought and motivation that might pass through their heads.

Second, I love the richly detailed world that Tolkien created in which the characters live. Off the top of my head, the Xanth series by Piers Anthony was another set of books that had such a finely crafted world, which really captured my imagination when I was younger.

As for writing new adventures in ME I think that is part of my motivation too b/c it is only natural to wonder, "What if this happened instead of this?" At the same time I like trying to infuse some modern day sensibilities into Tolkien's characters and world, without detracting from what the master has done.

[JMac]

Mine is also a combination of the two.

Actually, I believe the land of Middle-Earth itself was described much better than the characters. Tolkien spent such detail on the places and locations that it's easy to imagine them in your head. And there are so many varying landscapes that who can resist not wanting to play there.

Besides the fact that I have a degree in Journalism and can't keep myself from writing if I wanted to...I am addicted to LOTRs fanfic, because so much is just narrative that it's fun to fill in the blanks with moment by moment stories that flesh out the characters with more depth and dialogue. There's so many things not explained that are just waiting for someone to tell. What did Elrond and Arwen talk about at their last parting? What did Gimli say when he arrived in Valinor? What was Eomer thinking about as he sat in the cell in Edoras?

[Maram68]

Jen said:

[Scribe]

I write fan fic because I have a god complex

[Leila]

I write fanfic because I LOVE to do it
Any other reasons None that I can think of.

[ArwenEvenstar]

I put my vote to Other, because I liked to do it for the world AND the character ( mostly for the character.) And because I want to! Not realie any other reason.

[Panneth]

I guess I'd have to vote "Other" now, but probably when I started writing it was because of the world.

I first started writing because Middle-Earth had utterly captured my imagination and I wanted to explore it on my own and fill in the bits that Tolkien didn't tell us or get round to writing about.

The reason I write at the moment is to find a bit of balance in my life. I spend what seems like most of my time either in Physics and Maths lectures or in a lab, which to be fair, aren't the most creative of topics. For me, writing is a way to let out all the creativity inside me that's been repressed by numbers and Greek letters, especially since I don't really have a way to get any music done while I'm away at uni.

Someone's going to tell me now that I'm being difficult, and can't vote for more than one catagory aren't they?

~Panneth