I have begun the letters of JRR Tolkien. I love reading letters of writers. To hear a writer discuss what will end up being a great or a classic work of literature – and the writer has no idea of what is to come… it’s a great thrill.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s letters are like that. Her journals, too. She will write, “I am working on something now which is very different for me. It’s about a little red-headed orphan girl. This will be different – there will be no moral to the story. It will just be the story of what happens to this little girl.”
She had made her success in writing short stories with morals to them, things that could be taught in Sunday school. She was sick of it. She wanted to write about human beings. She didn’t think anyone would read it, she didn’t even think it would get published.
And lo and behold, it turned out to be Anne of Green Gables.
Tolkien has completed The Hobbit and people are already wondering: What next? What happens to the Hobbits next? He had not written The Hobbit for there to be a sequel. He was stuck. But then in a letter to his publisher he says, “Here is the first chapter of a new book about Hobbits. It’s called ‘A Long Expected Party’. Give it to your son to read – let me know what he thinks.”
A Long Expected Party is the first chapter of the Ring trilogy.
I also LOVE how he wants a child to read it. Children are the true judges. Look at what happened to Harry Potter!
Oh, god, Anne of Green Gables…I’m off to Blockbuster!
Trinity – I forgot that you were an Anne of Green Gables fanatic as well!
Very good to see you back. Your blog has gone to a whole new level – I really like reading it. Thank you for your honesty with yourself. It’s a gift.
There is something very weird about the creative process when it comes to writing fiction. I must say I’d never experienced it, really experienced it, until recently.