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He was a linguistics professor, i.e. a very accomplished person in a field that definitely informed his creative process …
I’m trying to cultivate hope 😭
Yeah, I know. I guess it depends on perspective; someone who did put a lot of work in but just didn’t have commercial success yet might find this plenty inspiring. I think most people, myself included, just don’t get anywhere with their creative endeavors, because of lack of time, energy, motivation etc.
well maybe don’t try to write a second lotr. i think the point is: it’s never to late to start a cool project. you might not reach the level of a tolkien, but if even rowling had success so can you with your ideas.
He started the Hobbit at 38 and had been writing fantasy stories for years prior to that. He was doing the things that would lead up to LotR for decades prior to starting that specific work.
But yes, just because you haven’t created a genre defining book series by 45 doesn’t mean there isn’t still time.
The Hobbit was just a bedtime story at first. Every journey begins with the first step out the door. And it’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.
He didn’t intend for his stories to become published or widespread. He was encouraged by others to submit The Hobbit, and when it did very well, he went from there. Which I guess is as inspiring as the OP’s meme. If Tolkien needed a push to get going, what’s to say any other reluctant author isn’t the same and just needs that first success?
The point is that he was already writing stories in a rich world he developed long before he started working on LotR.
It’s nice to point this out because we focus a lot on prodigies or early achievers, and for most of us life doesn’t work out that cleanly.
“But I’m older than 45…”
“Oh, well, then, you’re fucked. Sweet dreams!”
He started writing the first parts of his Middle Earth mythology when he was 21, though.
Me, at 44, realizing I’m running out of self-soothing anecdotes about people older than me finding success…
But Doctor, I am great writer J R R Tolkien.
Be me, clock closing in on 40 … my time is running out!
Godzilla didn’t get his first Oscar until he’s 70. You’re good!
Tolkien enwebbed his horrible experiences of being a soldier in the first world war in his books.
Got it, I’m gonna become as great an author as him.
Step 1: Start a world war.no!
no! starting world wars isn’t the way of the author.
participating in a world war is the way. starting a world war is the way of the failed artist.
then i will use my experiences as a spoiled privileged white guy who had a easy life with low obstacles, no war at all, too much luck and somehow everything always works out.
the lord of the couch
it will be a trilogy with another prequel trilogy and expanded universe. i want lego movies, warner brothers video games and merchandise. after i sell all the rights i will constantly complain how the new authors don’t get it and then i will end my reputation by writing a racist post and start fighting people who weren’t as privileged as i am… maybe poor people or cancer patients.
wtf? why would i do that? that wasn’t what i intend at all… maybe it’s better that i don’t become a successful author.
Now you still need to tell everyone the reference
I hope that means in 4 years I’ll actually figure out how to finish my story. I haven’t ended it because I don’t want it to end.
I have four stories, each nearing 100k words. I’m hoping for the same. I have two years left.
I haven’t ended it because I don’t want it to end.
Many die too late, and some die too early. Yet strange soundeth the precept: “Die at the right time!”
On the other hand generations of people found contentment by contemplating the ephemeral nature of existence, and knowing that no matter how small their individual contributions seem in the moment, they were an integral part of a universe that had evolved the ability to look at itself with awe and wonder.
(But I am a little sad I never became an astronaut, though.)
There’s a very thin slice of time between which famous people started doing the thing that made them famous and when famous people start dying.
What about The Hobbit?
That was a bedtime story he told his children that he had to write down because they were pedantic about the details.
Damn the boy
