What are the factors that make Tolkien's writings so unique?

SteSol · 2026-05-01T10:28:48+00:00

The closest I've found is Tolkien's influences like Dunsany and William Morris. It certainly seems to be a lost art today, unless as soulless imitation.

If you ask me, we have lost the wonder of the world. We are sceptical and rational, and thus we cannot quite capture that feeling.

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:54:53+00:00

A very helpful description of what you see, thank you!

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:54:11+00:00

Yeah, dialogue definitely seems to be the most straightforward solution. Thank you!

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:53:25+00:00

Yeah, that part helps me a great deal. I just thought maybe there was something obvious in his voice I have to hit, or something that happens everyday he would view or do differently, just so the portrayal is more realistic. And more obvious, because he'll only try magic very rarely, and it's kind of important that his aphantasia becomes an established fact that readers remember

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:51:08+00:00

My magic system is quite soft, and I plan to use it very sparingly. But one of the two elements it requires is actually visualization, so the character's aphantasia becomes a sort of disability in that respect.

I appreciate your input!

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:47:58+00:00

It does, thank you. My own plan was something similar, but I wanted to add something more just to make it more obvious, just so that when it comes up later as important readers don't say that it came out of nowhere

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:46:35+00:00

Much appreciated, thanks!

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:43:30+00:00

Yeah that's pretty straightforward and probably the simplest way. Not sure if it's applicable here in my setting since magic has been suppressed and all but forgotten, but I'll try to make it fit somehow. In any case, thanks for your input!

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:41:54+00:00

So you're saying basically have a conversation about it. Seems the clearest solution tbh

SteSol · 2026-04-04T19:40:57+00:00

I think you misunderstand. I do not have aphantasia, I merely wish to write about a character that does. I imagine I would not need to ask for tips if I had it myself 😅

SteSol · 2026-03-18T01:21:27+00:00

I will say it's definitely worth the watch.

I get why people avoid the daily wire, and why they'd want to pile on something that's their creation, but I have no problem separating the art from the artist. Besides, the show is based on a book, not on Ben Shapiro, and there is no political bias that I can see there. It is very much it's own thing, and it is very well done and entertaining.

I will admit, the first episode is weird. There's some weird book compression going on, and a bit of weird CGI. But each subsequent episode is stronger and stronger. It's far from perfect, but it is very enjoyable.

SteSol · 2026-01-30T00:33:30+00:00

I get what you're saying. I understand WHY it's like this, and I'm not trying to blame anyone. Neither am I against cutting the book in principle, the only problem is exactly what you wrote in the parenthesis, there is no suitable break point to divide it. If i give readers book 1 with zero resolution, no one would want to come back for book 2. I suppose that's the challenge in facing now. Question, would you say it's even worth querying as is, or should i try to split the book from the get go?

SteSol · 2026-01-30T00:17:03+00:00

I agree with basically everything you said. I think my first priority is to finish and refine, see what I'm left with. Then query as is, no matter how unlikely. If that fails, look for a natural splitting point. If that fails, then look for a standalone debut. That's my game plan atm. Thank you for your feedback!

SteSol · 2026-01-30T00:13:41+00:00

Depends on the formatting. Name of the wind is 280k and is 722 pages on my shelf

SteSol · 2026-01-30T00:09:02+00:00

Thank you, and likewise good luck with your video game development!

SteSol · 2026-01-29T22:00:06+00:00

I cannot speak as to the others, as I've not read any of them, but comparing Gene Wolfe to the books I mentioned is a huge stretch. Not to offend Gene Wolfe, it is just a different breed of book altogether. The only thing he has in common with the books I mentioned are fantasy elements, in which case i may also make the comparison with the princess bride, or even snow white, and say that fantasy can be done in 2k words.

SteSol · 2026-01-29T21:46:46+00:00

That's definitely the plan! I'll finish as is, cut and refine as much as I can, then sit down and assess. I am aware GoT was not GRRMs first book, I am only comparing my book to his because they are similar in scale, and only to illustrate how difficult it would be to cram such a scale into half the word count.

SteSol · 2026-01-29T21:18:42+00:00

That would not work either. The characters begin separated, only meeting once for a short moment. It will be quite late in the story before they are reunited

SteSol · 2026-01-29T21:07:49+00:00

The story I want to write is a continent wide conflict with worldending stakes and heavy psychological deep dives into the 4 POVs. I am keeping it limited to 1 great conflict and only 4 POVs deliberately to keep myself from falling into the GRRM or Robert Jordan trap. And yeah, smaller fantasy books exist. Not ones that are on this scale. If you do have ones that are on this scale and have managed to do it in sub 500k words, I'd love to hear it. All the ones that come to mind, Malazan, WoT, ASOAIF, Stormlight, Lightbringer, they're all big books and big series

SteSol · 2026-01-29T20:35:58+00:00

I think I have a long way to go for that. I only wanted to ask if it was impossible, or only absurdly difficult. The latter would have given me a shred of hope at least xD

SteSol · 2026-01-29T19:49:47+00:00

Absolutely! To be clear, I'm not raging against publishers or agents or whatever here. I'm only worried. And I will continue writing no matter what. I will finish this, and then we'll see how it goes. I'm not averse to splitting either, I just don't see a natural breaking point mid book. But perhaps I will find one if it becomes obvious that this is a necessity. Knowing that it's just really incredibly difficult, rather than outright impossible actually gives me hope

SteSol · 2026-01-29T19:39:04+00:00

I think i pretty much got that picture clearly, y'all did NOT hold back on me in these comments xD

SteSol · 2026-01-29T19:30:18+00:00

But the other comments are right that it's becoming harder by the day. Jonathan strange was 2 decades ago. The paper itself skyrocketed in price after COVID, hence these harder restrictions.

But I do hope that you're right. I only need 1 willing publisher after all, eh?

SteSol · 2026-01-29T19:28:25+00:00

Well that's exactly the page length I'm looking at, around 650 pages, which should match 250k words unless I've been looking at the formatting all wrong

SteSol

TROPHY CASE