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As a guy who writes at times, let me tell you that authors can't really just start writing out of the blue. At times you can have great ideas yet no idea how to say them, and if you try while you have those ideas you can lose the ideas. Getting your brain churning while able to express what's in your head at the same time isn't easy or common. With a job and a family, I am impressed that Tolkien gave us so much quality work, and the time it took him is just about right. With a mythos so large, it is fitting. Tolkien's early drafts are much different than the final story, and even Sauron started out as a severely minor character (who was a cat with only two cronies to boot.)
However, I have never seen Tolkien's works as something to continue or make your own ideas about. The works of Tolkien are immense, cover pretty much every detail, and in the end I got a solid in stone feeling that the tale was over. Tolkien's works are "fanfic proof," so to speak. This is Tolkien's story, Tolkien's tale, and Tolkien's life. Even Tolkien himself realized that the Lord of the Rings was the end of his works. There was no path left, the soul had been spent.
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"And forth went Morgoth, and he was halted by the elves. Then went Sauron, who was stopped by a dog and then aged men. Finally, there came the Witch-King, who destroyed Arnor, but nobody seems to remember that."
-A History of Villains
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