\nHow time flies…<\/p>\n
I wrote the first version of the “Tides” all of its 111,333 words in exactly four weeks. It seems silly that I need more than a year to get it rewritten. I have to remind myself of all the other words I have written during that last year.<\/p>\n
So many words!<\/p>\n
FFNet tells me that I posted 670,480 words during that year. If I add the ten chapters of my original story to that, my degree paper and all the rewritten chapters of “Loth\u00c3\u00adriel” and the “Tides”… I think I can safely assume that I have written 800,000 words during the last year.<\/p>\n
I have counted the words on an average page of a paperback novel. Round about 400, give or take.<\/p>\n
That means, I have filled some 2,000 paperback pages with words during the last twelve months, just with my stories and texts (not counting excerpts, posts, announcements, LJ entries…). <\/p>\n
But what does that<\/i> mean?<\/p>\n
More measuring: two of my Diana Gabaldon novels come up to 2,000 pages together. They weigh 1,285 g, a bit more than two pounds. They are 12 cm or 4.72 inches high. They are 18.3 cm or 7.20 inches long.<\/p>\n
But what does that<\/i> mean?<\/p>\n
I’m sitting here and staring at the screen, wondering what to think and what to write.<\/p>\n
As we read and write, we create our own “mythology” – lifelines – dreampaths. <\/p>\n
What we read, what we write, when we do it, how we do it – it shapes our lives, our identity. Our thoughts, our ideas, our feelings… invariably certain books and for the writers among us, certain kinds of stories\/poems, accompany and outline certain periods of our lives.<\/lj-cut><\/p>\n
What is your “mythology”? What is the “mythology” of your<\/i> reading and your<\/i> writing? <\/p>\n
When you have watched the waves washing up against the crumbling walls of the harbour of Mithlond, <\/p>\n when you have had shepherd’s pie in the Prancing Pony and burned your tongue,<\/p>\n when your weary feet have trudged the lonely miles between the Weathertop and the Last Bridge, all one hundred and twenty of them, <\/p>\n when you have listened to songs and stories in Rivendell and learned how to say meleth n\u00c3\u00aen<\/em> and the words of an ancient Quenyan hymn,<\/p>\n when you have picked a snow drop at Cerin Amroth and thought it to be a niphredil<\/em>, <\/p>\n when you have stood on the terrace in front of the Golden Hall of Meduseld and shivered in the cold wind blowing down from the snowy peaks of the Irensaga<\/em>,<\/p>\n when you have learned the names of all the Gondorian beacon hills and can sing them to an old teaching song,<\/p>\n when you have had a pint in the Laughing Oliphaunt <\/em>and tried to spot Iorlas in the crowd,<\/p>\n when you have set sail from Dol Amroth to find the Straight Way,<\/p>\n when you have heard tales about the kine of Rh\u00c3\u00bbn on the shores of the Eastern Sea, drinking red wine from Dorwinion,<\/p>\n when you have haggled for sweet dates and sesame bread with street-merchants in Umbar and barely kept the shirt on your back,<\/p>\n when you have danced with the hobbits around the mallorn<\/em> tree on the Party Field,<\/p>\n when you have celebrated New Year’s Day in Osgiliath, breathless in the arms of a dark-haired, grey-eyed ranger of the South, <\/p>\n when you have seen the floods of the River Carnen flow down from the Iron Hills in bright red floods over black sands,<\/p>\n when you have wandered farther still, where the stars are strange\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6then you are a fanfiction writer of Middle-earth.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/lj-cut><\/p>\n Many thanks to my friends (especially Aranel, Aeneid, Aliana and EL) whose writings inspired some of the lines above!<\/p>\n The tribble also contains references to most of my stories, of course. Today is my 1st Fanfiction Anniversary. Today, exactly one year ago, I wrote the first chapter of my first version of “The Tides of Time and the Bones of the Earth” and posted it to FFNet Today, exactly one year … Continue reading
\nWhen you have… a tribble from Middle-earth<\/u><\/p>\n
\n![\"Image](\"http:\/\/img.photobucket.com\/albums\/v228\/JunoMagic\/Live%20Journal\/4.gif\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"