Various

[altariel]

Hmph. Almost a month ago, I noted how grumpy short story writing was making me. Yesterday afternoon (thanks, mraltariel), I finally worked out what the story was that I was trying to tell. I've had four separate run-ups at this damn thing now, none of which have stuck, but this morning I scribbled down an Actual Framework for the damn thing, and now all I have to do is the Actual Writing - which is, of course, the easy part.

Wah, short-story writing is hard! Nothing like writing lovely Tolkien vignettes, which I can conceive of and execute in the space of two days (or used to be able to do). This has taken roughly eight weeks, and loads of different iterations. *plaintively* Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? Does it get easier with practice? Have my magic powers gone for good? Is this the end?

Yesterday I finished rereading Watchmen, which I hadn't read since college *cough*ty years ago (eighteen). Now I'm trying to decide whether I should go and see the film, but I'm put off by the fact that it's apparently two-and-three-quarter hours long. Two-and-three-quarter hours! No film should be that long, except The Fellowship of the Ring. Anyway, I can't make decisions, so Speak You're Branes, f'list, and do say why in comments if moved.

[Poll #1364164]

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd like to read Tuor/Idril and the fall of Gondolin, as that's the one I'm haziest about; I feel I've a reasonable grasp of Beren and Luthien. Turin & co fell somewhere in between; I recognised a lot of it, but he did explain how he'd woven various different versions together (and omitted a whole lot of extra detail from the verse versions).

I always liked it too, for its grim angst, though reading the story in full it did strike me that the plot depends on Morwen and Turin both being extremely pig-headed for about eighteen years.

I do actually have a Glaurung icon!

[gareth-rees.livejournal.com]

Me too, but it's a tough proposition. The fall of Gondolin has three versions: the one in Lost Tales II, possibly the first story in the mythology to be written down, composed c. 1917. There's a long version in Unfinished Tales, written c. 1951, but it only gets as far as Tuor's arrival in Gondolin, about a fifth of the way through the story. And there's a highly condensed version in the Silmarillion. Expanding the story to novel length would involve rewriting the last 40 pages of the 1917 version in the style of the 1951 version, while updating the names and other details of the mythology.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say no to having a go if the Tolkien estate came knocking at my door.