[Neniel]

Well, since you're mentioning it, I've been trying to start a story about a modern day girl who ends up in Middle-Earth... except it's like several hundreds of years before the War of the Ring, she ends up in South Gondor, gets taken as a prisoner by the Corsairs, sold as a slave... yea, it's kinda on the dark side. But it's supposed to be quite realistic! She's obviously a LOTR freak and can speak a little Sindarin haltingly (it's a pity I wouldn't be allowed to post it if I ever got round to writing it, but shouldn't the rule about having read LOTR be focused on OCs who join the Fellowship?), but that can hardly help with Corsairs, right? (maniac grin)

Anyway, since I won't be posting it either way, here's the plot and let me know what you think... The twist is that while she's having the time of her life being introduced to the wonderful world of slavery, the corsairs get their hands on some more prisoners... Apparently, a certain dark-haired elf *cough*Elladan*cough* and a Ranger called Thurin (Sindarin for 'secret, hidden') were a little careless. Recognizing Elladan and relieved to find someone to trade even a couple of words (the corsairs treat her pretty much like a retard) she tries to help him...

To make a long story short, she falls in love with the Ranger, Thurin, only to realise once they've broken free with Elrohir's help (who wasn't far behind from helping his brother) and Thurin's father along with quite a few more Dúnedain, that Thurin's real name is Aravorn, son of Aragost 8th chieftain of the Dúnedain! OK, so then she sort of freaks out, since he's Aragorn's great-great-great-(you get the meaning)-grandfather, and he doesn't help much by asking her to marry him, but in the end things work out and they live happily ever after!

Of course, there's the little detail of incorporating an OC into Aragorn's bloodline, but I just couldn't resist! The worst that can happen is introduce a new kind of Mary Sues!

But, no reason for panic, I'm hardly across the second chapter and it's harder to write than it sounds, especially with my limited experience and skill, but it should be fun if I ever manage to finish it!

Another plot bunny that has been eating me up though is why stick to one person alone? What if an entire bus let's say ended up in ME? And a couple of people could be Tolkien fans but the rest like totally clueless! Revenge on those that have ignored the good professor's masterpieces! And imagine the possibilities! Your next door nosy grandma commenting on elves "oh my, those poor boys, that's what happens when you don't eat your meat! Poor things, nothing but skin and bones!"... Or a couple of sissy blondes on high-heels (hey, no pun intended for blondes, you get my meaning!) throwing themselves on the twins or going frantic upon the sight of orcs... Or the main OC's parents watching in horror their son/daughter talking with the strange creatures in their weird language!

*sniggering* I think there's just too much out there to be written about landing in ME! Too bad there aren't enough creative stories on this matter!

[ghettoelleth]

3. Ditto above, but the Valar have been dethroned, tuhs Morgoth is unchained, and they and the elves live in our modern world, trying to stop Big-Bad-Morgoth

Got that one covered in Part III coming to an archive near you in the year 2347 Wait for iiiiiiit.

My biggest deal was I wanted an OC that had never been done before. I don't think I did it though, the bitch has been called Mary Sue twice already.

Ah well, I'm a firm believer in two things when it comes to Tolkien, 1. No matter what you do with your OC, someone, somewhere is going to cry Mary Sue/Marty Stu.

2. Anything that Tolkien said anywhere, anytime, in any work, (usually in writing even if it was just on a cocktail napkin at a dinner party somewhere in Nairobi where the napkin was subsequently mauled by tigers and discarded and later somehow miraculously unearthed in a phone booth in Toledo 26 years later), he at some point reversed himself or took a gradual down slope to the opposite end of the spectrum. So technically, unless you're one of those impossibly full of ...you can make Strider, the Dunedan Ranger blessed with extraordinarily greasy hair, a Hobbit named Trotter just trying to help out his pal Bingo of the Shire, waving two flaming firebrands and no Glorfindel to be found.

And Treebeard...Spit out that Istar, dammit!!!!!

[Viv]

Dude, my Moira is as Sue as Sue gets. And she loves it. Sues, after all, get to make out with the hotties.

Nuthin wrong with Sue.

[ghettoelleth]

Well, when you think about it, life is made up of Sues, Stu's, and fat people who watch tv all day long and never quite accomplish much beyond changing the batteries in the remote. If you were to write the story of a woman who came to Middle Earth, brought there by the man who, without knowing her well at all, would then marry her. Missing her family terribly and not speaking the language, although our hero speaks hers, the isolation overcomes her after the birth of her second child and she has a breakdown. With the support of our hero, she recovers and together they go on to have 7 children in all, living relatively happily in Mirkwood until one day, the hero is attacked. Set upon by easterlings he is beaten and left for dead. He recovers but he is never the same, the blows to the head leave him ostensibly unable to support his family, his sight and hearing all but gone. Mary, our heroine who is so reviled, steps up to the plate, learning to do all the things that our hero did to become the provider. She does what she must, feminine whiles in this case of no avail, she didn't like, go out and hook or anything, to provide for her family, eventually surpassing even our hero in skill and prowess. Without a hero, she became her own hero. How Mary Sue is that???????

Incidentally, replace Mirkwood with East Los Angeles, and this is basically the story of my mother.

[eresse]

The thing is though, that there IS a certain charm about sues. I mean, who honestly doesn't dream of falling to Middle Earth and running off with the elves? Some of the more well written ones can be worth your time, however it's the god awful ones that give the decent girl-in-middle-earth stories a bad name. There are some exceptional (and some that are just good) stories that could be classified as Mary Sue out there.

Personally I find the key is to make something about it different or interesting. Like having a Legolas nut fall into the Middle of the First Age *grins wickedly* That would make a wonderful parody type thing...

But honestly, how many fangirls do you see a' rainin' down on Gondolin? I guess on some level that's a good thing considering the quality of some of the fics I've unfortunately stumbled across... some look suspiciously like a sugar high teenagers fantasy from math class. *headdesk*

I suddenly can't remember what my point was.

[NancyBrooke]

[ghettoelleth]

[SpaceWeavil]

[Eyborg]

[eresse]

Did I say Elves? I mean just MEarthians in general. My apologies...

Though out of curiosity, is anyone going to write that? The whole Leggie lover falling into the first age thing. Because if someone wants to run with that, twould be awesome. Either that or I would. But I'm sure there are better writers who would do it more justice. [/quote]

[SpaceWeavil]

[MITAQ]

I'd totally do it. I was going to try something like it earlier, but I;ve always been protective of my writing...

[NancyBrooke]

No reason two or more folks can't try it ... happens all the time around here: folks writing about the same situation from different perspectives; hence the start of this thread, after all.

[inglor]

I think the Sue/Stu is something most (but not all) fanfic writers have lurking in the darker recesses of their minds.

RE: Boy into ME:
I tried it, fell flat on my face. I got through the language barrier by dropping myself into an elf, a la Quantum Leap (thought that was pretty clever ). 1st Age, got to play with Finrod for a while (not slashy, thank you for shopping). Imagine a 22 year old human male in post Bragolach Nargothrond. Not too crass but lets just say ALL my ME fantasies got rolled up into that one.

It was my first attempt at FF and it was duly horrible and illegible. I may have deleted it... bit off more than I could chew kinda thing. It had some flashes of brilliance (IMHO) but got to the point where it needed an overhaul of a rewriting and I just couldn't get up the energy to do it. It had too much that I was attached to that wouldn't work.

I really like JaneDoe's suggestion of Tolkien not getting some things right. Something like, Argon, Fingolfin's son who supposedly died in the Battle of Lammoth was actually a cross dresser that the family tried to hide. Or the real reason Gil-Galad never married and had children was that he actually a she and as the last remaining Royal (besides Galadriel who was married to a Sinda and therefore the Noldor would not acknowledge her) took to hiding her gender and ruled for 3000 years as a male...

Sorry, it's Monday and I'm not fully awake yet.


Inglor

[Thuriniel]