The new series begins!

After deliberation that lasted far, far longer than it should’ve, I determined the one thing that I really wanted to talk about this month. Last month was tough, for a lot of us. There were a lot of things that many of us needed to learn about the company that has been given a great amount of control over the business we so love, but now I think it’s time we take a look at the works we love, and remember why it is that writers need to be readers, too.

So, this month, I have eight authors I’m going to talk to you about. Think of it as a month-long review of some of my favorite authors, some of whom I can nearly guarantee you’ve never read before. But I’m not just going to tell you about these authors and their works, I’m going to tell you why it is that you, as a writer, should be reading these works.

We’re starting out with my favorite, because, hey, he’s my favorite.

J.R.R. Tolkien — The Lord of the Rings

(Note: I’m only referring to the primary trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers & The Return of the King)

I’ll be the first to tell you that LOTR is not an easy read. In fact, there are times when it gets quite boring, times when I’d like to pretend that I’ve read to the end even when I haven’t made it that far, and times when I wonder why I call this series my favorite (or why I got a tattoo inspired by it, perhaps).

But the fact of the matter is, LOTR is one of the greats for a reason, and Tolkien should be read by every author, for a very legitimate reason.

If there’s one thing that you’ll learn from reading this series, it’s foreshadowing.

Tolkien loved the stuff. It’s literally everywhere in the books. And foreshadowing is something that a lot of authors still try to use in their writing, today—but the thing is, the majority of writers struggle to make it work because they’re not sure how to do it so seamlessly, since they've never seen it done very well.

That’s why you need to read Tolkien, if you think there’s even a chance that you’ll end up wanting to use elements of foreshadowing in your stories.

See, there are two kinds of foreshadowing: intricately woven, so that most readers won’t even notice it’s happening, or the opposite—the kind so obvious that everyone sees it unless they’re really not paying any attention.

Tolkien was good at both.

You should be, too.

Readers are looking for things like foreshadowing. They’re looking for things that can connect them to the writing itself, to the writer. Foreshadowing is one of those. But you want to be able to both give them bits of foreshadowing that they’ll be able to find and surprise them with bits of foreshadowing that even you would struggle to notice.

If you’re not sure how to do that, as I’m pretty sure you’re not (don't worry, I haven't mastered it either), then you need to read Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings is full of obvious foreshadowing, dreams of something happening only to be followed by that dream coming true, mentions of creatures only to have them show up in the next chapter… but did you realize that the beginning foretold the ending, that by the time you’ve read through the first few chapters of Fellowship, you should already know almost exactly how Return ends?

That’s the brilliance of Tolkien, my friends. That’s why LOTR is my favorite series, and why I got a tattoo to commemorate it.

And yes, foreshadowing is just one thing you’ll learn from reading him. There’s a lot of other stuff, like language creation, world building, and characterization of more characters than you'd think should fit in a single book, that no one does quite like Tolkien.

So if you haven’t read The Lord of the Rings yet… give it a try. I know it's not an easy read. But it's one that'll be worth it, in the long run. 

Remember, as a writer, spending time reading is like spending time investing in yourself. So don't dismiss a book because it's hard to read. Savor it, because you're giving yourself the time to learn something new, something for you to use in your writings. 

[love]

{Rani Divine}