What Was Once a Blog About the Hobbit Became a Blog About How I Write And Craft Ideas

When most people read a blog, short story, novella, novel, the written word of some sort; they see the finish product. Writers rarely ever show you their work, stealing a bit of from my math friends. So I decided to show you my work. I wanted to show you how an idea evolves, grows, and changes over the course of its creation.

The idea I had was originally the Hobbit. This came about because of the movie being released tomorrow and how I love this book. It is a very special book to me and I wanted to talk about it. I wanted to explain why this particular book out of the countless numbers of books out there was the one that I hold dear to my heart.

So let the experiment of showing my process begins. 

(Draft 1)

The Hobbit or There and Back Again – A Davey’s Journey as Well (I know I want to talk about the Hobbit and one of the few occasions I have a working title)

I decided this month I was going to talk about, discuss, the Hobbit. I am not even sure where to begin when talking about the Hobbit. Other than throwing out a punch of different tidbits of information as to why I decided to talk about the Hobbit and why it means so much to me.

-I am a dyslexic

-It was one of the first books I really remember reading

-Break the dish crack the plates

-It is one of the most perfect books ever written

-It is accessible to everyone regardless of age

Okay I know that looks like a mess of information, but sometimes that is how my brain process information. With that said, I believe Tolkien did something magical when he wrote the Hobbit. He created a timeless classic with the Hobbit and the world of Middle Earth. I think it is by far his superior work, though I am a huge fan of his Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. LOTR is a tough read and defiantly plays to his strengths as a professor and linguist.

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And yes I already have my ticket in hand to see the Hobbit in IMAX. (I know this is how I want to end things)

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(Draft 2 – You can tell how different of an attempt this was verse draft 1 and that is okay. It happens in writing all the time.)

Originally I was going to write about the Hobbit and how much I love the book. I was going to explain why I thought it was one of the best books ever written and quite possibly the most accessible book out there. I was going to talk about my learning disabilities and dyslexia. And all of this was going to tie in together wonderfully, but like any writer I got stumped as how to do it. I am not going to call it writer’s block because I had a whirl wind of thoughts and ideas in my head.

I was going to talk about how Tolkien didn’t think anyone would pay attention to the Hobbit. I was going to discus the animated film and how I saw it in its entirety in the 3^rd grade; though I had seen bits and pieces of the film before that. It was the movie, which got me to read the Hobbit in the first place.

I want to talk about how I then had to read the book again when I was college, for the first time, in a class about dragon’s in literature. This was a very diverse class of people of all ages.

I wanted to compare and contrast the Hobbit with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher’s Stone. Since I believe the Harry Potter Books in all are the closest modern equivalent to the Hobbit.

I was going to talk about opinions and how opinions are neither right nor wrong. They just are and everyone has them.

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(Draft 3)

The Hobbit…

Why do I love this book? Why does anyone love any particular book? Who knows?

For me the Hobbit was one of the first real books I read as a child. Now I had read other books and had been reading comics for a while, but the Hobbit was something different; something magical in my eyes, which has never left me.

I remember watching the animated movie in the 3^rd grade and I was entranced by the animation, the colors, the characters, the setting, the music; basically everything about it. So I then choose to read the book and I was transported. I quickly did notice the differences the things left out of the movie. And I was okay with that because it just made the book all that much more magical for me.

You might be saying that is all fine and good but how well does the book hold up now to Davey the adult, though how much of an adult am I? I still feel like I have that childlike wondering inside of me. I had to read the Hobbit once again in college when I was taking a class on Dragon’s in Literature and it was pure and simple magic and I started thinking just how accessible the book was to all ages. I really saw how different the book was from the LOTR which I find a hard and tedious read. I hate to say it, but in my opinion it is. But I will say Jackson did and incredible job with the movies and it filled me once again with the Magic of my childhood and imagination once more.

I do find it interesting that they are taking the shortest of the books and making them into three films with the supplemental materials from other Tolkien Middle Earth materials. And I can’t wait until next year when I get to do a sit down interview with Sylvester McCoy who not only played Radagast the Brown, but was also the 7^th Doctor; another childhood and current favorite of mine.

And I really think when we really look the closest thing, again in my opinion, to the Hobbit and its long lasting quality for all ages will be Harry Potter Series of books. Everyone seemed to have read these books regardless of age. And the funny thing is once again I came to the Harry Potter Books through the movies and one of my first conventions I did as a writer.

(this is where once again I lose my train of thought and begin to wonder if I should start over with another angle. –especially since I haven’t talked about my dyslexia and learning/reading disability and I didn’t care with the Hobbit because it so thoroughly entranced me… the next thing that came close to this was the Brian Jacques and his Mossflower books, which then lead into the Wies and Hickman Dragonlance Books.)

-          I want to show and evolution of reading here.

-          Comic books and Star Wars

-          The Hobbit

-          Brian Jacques (Mossflower Books)

-          Weis and Hickman (Dragonlance Books)

-          “The Sky” became the limit

-          The becoming a writer…etc.

Again I lost sight of the point I was trying to make while getting words on the page. Again I think it is all from my passion about the Hobbit and what it means to me. I hope that other people find that book for themselves. One day I hope I write that book for other people to read and discover… though honestly the odds of that happening are slim, but I can at least say parents have let their children listen to my Amazing Pulp Adventure’s Radio Show Podcast and then their kids play as my Heroes and Villains just as I did with characters from Marvel and DC Comics or Star Wars.

(I am so lost and off track it isn’t funny… but this is how my mind works as a writer/author)

Welcome back out of the world of drafts and writings of an over active mind.

That was my work. Now you may or may not be interested in seeing the final product of my writing about the Hobbit, but it isn’t here. I didn’t want to show what came out of showing my work; at least not yet. I wanted to show my work. I wanted to show that it isn’t always pretty, golden or makes sense. It takes time and revision after you write your initial piece. At least it does for me. I know there are some people out there who have the ability to write pure magic. I am not one of them. I am a dyslexic with learning and reading disabilities and yes it takes me longer to put something together. I see the words on the page in a different way and sometimes those words and ideas only make sense to me.

In the end, I hope you get something out of this. Namely that not everything you write is going to be pretty or golden when it first comes out, but at least you have something on the page to work with to edit to mold into the story, essay, paper, report, book you want to write.