tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post108013507573367996..comments2024-03-28T13:10:04.655+00:00Comments on The Notion Club Papers - an Inklings blog: The shamanistic creative method of JRR TolkienBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-83603452144225244552022-09-04T07:24:41.488+01:002022-09-04T07:24:41.488+01:00Thank you for this blog.
I came here after watchi...Thank you for this blog.<br /><br />I came here after watching a biographical film about Tolkien that gave me the idea that at least part of his creative process might have happened in an altered state of consciousness. That made me curious to learn more as I have become a hypnotist during the past few years.<br /><br />But having been a philologist-historian myself for mostnof my adult life, currently in the process of reshaping raw material of an unfinished fantasy novel (in German) into TV series format (in English), I am mesmerized by Tolkiens method as I found while reading this blog that my own work is a combination of both approaches - the usual novelist one when there is a rough idea of the meaning and the details are reworked and the poetic one when certain details or incidents are being kept as crucial elements and the interpretation is reworked and changed during the editing process.<br /><br />I mostly don't end up with the opposite but crucial incidents and turning points, details, names etc. have been there since the first draft and a good deal of the story had to be arranged around them. The very reason why this story could develop this far was that two characters sprang to life and something unexpected happened while I was writing a scene as an exercise and suddenly, a whole new story started to unfold. I even saw the face of my main character in the time between sleeping and waking clear enough that I managed an halfway decent sketch in a rather tricky perspective with next to no drawing skills. Another character suddenly appeared out of nowhere while I was writing a scene and I feel he still has not fully arrived at his final place and meaning for the story. So I might test Tolkiens method now.<br /><br />Thanks again, utterly fascinating read.Susannenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-68017202577769995552017-05-01T11:18:43.916+01:002017-05-01T11:18:43.916+01:00Thank you very much for a glimpse into the mind of...Thank you very much for a glimpse into the mind of the great one :)<br />I myself had those trance like writing spells , but never knew what to do with it later. Its hard to get back to the freshness and vividness of the vision in which you were once so enthralled by.<br />So i might take some cues from this essay as to how to approach developing it later.<br /><br />Thx.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17164926322661726992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2410716623228444076.post-21880795295211100222014-01-08T21:19:27.349+00:002014-01-08T21:19:27.349+00:00This is a wonderful piece, and I'm surprised t...This is a wonderful piece, and I'm surprised that nobody else has commented on it yet!<br /><br />Thank you for elucidating Tolkien's creative method; the "shamanistic" approach which you described is fascinating, and in regards to the professor himself, it also makes a lot of sense due to his background as a philologist.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com