[Edlyn]

Lately, it seems like I'm not doing anything with the important canon characters. My Pippin/Diamond fic that I was thinking would have been finished and ready to post has stalled and all I'm writing about are what the opera calls "supernumeraries" aka nameless spear-carriers.

I'm hoping that I can get some of these stories posted by this weekend and maybe be able to get back to my favorite hobbit and his ladylove but these spearcarriers are getting pushy about wanting their stories told!

So who else has had to deal wit hthis problem? And what did you do about it?

[SilverMoonLady]

[Rhapsody]

[NancyBrooke]

Some of Tolkien's most fascinating and poignant story lines are those he only briefly sketched - the guard at the door of Rath Dinen, those Minas Tirithion's who discovered their son's heads being used as amunition just to name two - not to mention those actually named but only briefly mentioned, leaders of the Gondorian Fiefs coming to the Pelennor e.g. I love these stories and I think they really add to our understanding of the source material.

On an only slightly sloping tangent, I just get concerned when the nameless or unnamed character becomes just a vehicle for the writer and not an actual 'Tolkien Character'. i.e. I prefer those that Tolkien created, but didn't name, over Joe Smithonion from Lossarnach who could be anyone/anywhere/anytime. The Character's got to be grounded.

Other than that - feed the Muse, Baby! The folk singer John Gorka says that songs seem to come to him down a long pipe and he has to take whatever comes in whatever order. Sometimes he uses this as an apology when performing a particularly goofy song ...

[Edlyn]

Keeping the minor character in Middle Earth is something that I'm trying very hard to do. What I'm hoping to do with the nameless character fics I'm working on is to show something about the character of whatever named/major character the nameless one interacts with. Currently, the major character my nameless fics are reflecting is Boromir

I'll have to see if I succeed at my self-appointed task.

[Rhapsody]

Well, not every major character in Tolkien's works is popular that you see a lot of stories about them... :c) And some minor characters (for example Erestor) have a lot of stories. So yeah.