Are You Writing Serious Fantasy?

[Davin]

I have been trying to write seriously for only a few months now, and I find that I always start thinking about Hobbits and everything that Tolkien has created in his books. SO, I have decided just to try to write about events (that I have created) in his world. I am trying to write during the Fourth Age, so as not to interrupt anything that Tolkien has created. But I have to constantly check to make sure that what I am writing is believable in comparison to what he has written in his books. I find that very hindering, and it seems as if it would be much easier for me to just create my own world, and history, and language, and creatures to play with with my own imagination, instead of building off of what Tolkien has already created. But I am writing so that when the time comes that I want to make my works independant from Tolkiens, I will be ready to do so easily. I am using Tolkien as a kind of 'crutch' to get me started.