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It is a pity that so many authors writing today, particularly in this field, seem to see their writing purely in economic terms. Rather than having a passion and absolutely HAVING to write it down, it seems there are men and women ou there who have decided, "I can avoid the 9-5 by inventing 1700 place names, having elves and dwarves and heroes, and running to the highest bidder."
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I'll be a little more charitable to most of the modern fantasy authors out there. They probably started out with as deep a love of the subject matter as any of us have. Obviously Tolkien's work was a great inspiration for them.
But the writers of today grew up in an entirely different culture than the great fantasy writers of the 19th and early 20th century. Tolkien took seventeen (17!!) years to create
The Lord of the Rings If you read HoME Part 6, The Return of the Shadow, you'll see what exhaustive process it was. It's almost as if he wrote three or four different novels, each time taking certain aspects of characters and descriptions, blending, discarding, building up and tearing away, until each person and place gradually evolved into the beloved tale we know today. And during all this time he was continuing his teaching duties and research, and dealing with a World War, to boot. I've never read any other books describing the process of creating a famous novel, but have a feeling that this approach was more common back then then we know.
I've only seen one book being created in my life. It was a good book, and the writer was passionate about his craft. But Honey, there was no way he would have waited 17 years for his baby to see the light of day! He had too many other stories floating around inside him, waiting to get out!
I suppose there is the business end to consider, also. I'm not sure how flexible publishers were with deadlines back then. Today it is a more serious matter, especially if an advance has been paid. And few first time writers have the luxury of days of quiet contemplation to just observe and ponder their characters, as Tolkien did.