Ok, random idea! Perhaps you could pretend one of the guys from the Barrowdowns just appeared inexplicably in a story of yours, and write a bit their and everyone else's reactions in a post here. I still thinki you might be being too hard on yourself.
As for Wizard of Oz guys...yep, they can be good. So long as the opposition
seems like something worth making sacrifices to get rid of (doesn't matter if it is a Wizard of Oz like character, unless it's revelaed in a really, really lame way ("Frodo! The Ring was harmless after all!Sorry about the mental anguish...have a lolly!"))
Thinking some more about how Tolkien influenced me...I've always loved ancient myths, but they don't really have much cohesion (right word?) to them - each story makes sense on its own terms, but when grouped together with others can become very contradictory (esp. Greek ones). So I guess, reading all of Tolkein's work on ideas such as
fea, etc, that he made me try to make sure my stories all were 'watertight' from that point of view. Unfortunately, it feels like a chore sometimes.
