[the guy who be short]

If so, how have you dealt with the temptation to be imitative of Tolkien?
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With great, humungous, amazing difficulty. Especially since in one of my worlds, I have a race of elves.

i deliberately left out elves as i thought that would definitely give away that i was... er... basing my work on tolkien (not copying!)
plus my dwarves are bald!
ive forgotten who it was with the dog sized dragons, but, well, being an author i need to scavenge! could i use that idea please? i havent decided yet, but i would either have them as a new race or the children of the dragons, who for some reason are very small. i await your response.

thread has me on a MAJOR inspiration high.

same! you expert 40-something year olds have great experience, and im really thankful for everybodies advice. plus i get ideas from your ideas. like the dragonettes i want in my poem...

I was just wondering, do you write your story up straight onto the computer, or do you do several drafts on paper and then type it up? Which ever way you do it, is there a particular reason why you do it that way and not the other?

on a very rough exercise book first. and i mean rough. ts front cover has fallen off. this is where i write my first version of my poem. then i revise it a bit, and put it onto microsoft word, because its tidier, plus i can email it to people. i also have a large notebook where i roughly note down my ideas when i get them.

Plus, I type very, very fast, and generally type faster than I write

i type extremely quickly too, as in i cant see my hands properly! but i also write extremely quickly, but extremely untidily. this is why i keep my "proper copy" on my computer, because its actually readable. i read that jrrt would also write quickly and untidily, so that his work becomes indecipherable in places, even to himself.

heres a question... do you think jrrt wouldve used a computer if theyd been available back then? id say probably not, since he hated new industrial things.

70-80 WPM

you count the words per minute? i will do that soon...

I like inventing swearwords. ::blushes:: No, really . . .swears, curses and other exclamations.

i use insults from books, such as: fool of a took! those of you who have read macbeth will know the insult: thou cream faced loon. i like using both. then, one day, i said: cream faced loon of a took! it is my new insult. i know its not really inventing, but it is from famous works.

I like making religions too, though I am a little afraid of creating gods and goddesses as I tend to start beleiving what I right too much.

well whos to say your made up creations arent actually real? theres a minute chance. perhaps manwe and varda and iluvatar exist. perhaps my version of the creaton story is actually true.

i mst go now... part way throuh page 15. soon i will finish...