The Tolkien Toast: Celebrating J. R. R. Tolkien’s Birthday by Championing Our Own Creativity
According to the Tolkien Society, in celebrating Tolkien’s birthday on January 3rd, it’s tradition to raise a glass at 9:00 p.m., and say aloud, “The Professor,” as a means of honoring the late author’s birthday — and I would add, honoring our own writing. Please join me, in raising a glass to him, and remembering we all have a silmarillion inside us, and it will take hard work to finish it. But we do it, knowing it is the work we were called to do.
Remembering Tolkien today, allows us a chance to consider our own writing lives, and what we do each day and year that develops into a practice. Here are a few things that Tolkien can remind us, and essentially help champion our work:
1. IT CAN TAKE YOU TEN YEARS TO WRITE YOUR BOOK. Consider how long it took Tolkien to write the Lord of the Rings. Take a moment and think back to what you were doing ten years ago — now, imagine in that time you also wrote a book. A lot happens in ten years. The amount of time need not be a form of resistance, but simply the path that one took to fulfill their goal.
2. YOU CAN WRITE, HOLD A FULL TIME JOB, HAVE A FAMILY, AND THEN SOME. Consider that Tolkien was a hard-working professor, a father, a socialite, a translator, among other things, and worked diligently at his writing whenever he could. No matter where you are, or what you’re doing, you can write and make time for it.
3. INSPIRATION STRIKES AND YOU ANSWER. The well-known tale that Tolkien penned the first line of The Hobbit, while grading papers suggests that we can have inspiration strike at any moment. The question is whether we trust in it or not…
4. YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT HOBBITS AND STILL BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY. Imagine a Cambridge academic showing his colleagues a story about hobbits — it probably seemed silly, or even condemnable, and yet he believed in his tale and followed it through. Can you imagine the criticism, or the voices say, “What are you wasting your time on?” (Who’s laughing now!)
5. HAVING A GOOD WRITING COMPANION CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Tolkien was quite lucky to have the support in the way of a good friend. Most notably, C. S. Lewis, who was there to champion Tolkien’s work — to say, “you’ve got something here, and you don’t over here.” Finding a writing companion who can be fair and honest, and encourage you, can make all the difference. For many a story has died in the face of jealous criticism. Find your pal and be good to them.
6. TRUST THE STORY. Tolkien’s knack for trusting what he was writing is surreal at times — when you get into reading the Lost Worlds volumes, you begin to see he was simply transcribing the worlds, as if a visible viewer. That type of trust is crucial to any story you write — letting go of doubt, or the ‘world-mind’ of I can’t, can be hard, especially when you’re not writing often enough. The whole mantra of ‘write everyday’ is really more akin to: write enough, so that you no longer doubt what you’re doing. If that is five minutes a day, then that’s what it is. If it’s five days a week, then honor it and stick with it.
7. HAVE A PARTY. When I think of Tolkien’s work, it seems to always start or end with a party of some kind. So make sure along the way, you throw parties for you, your characters, your friends… in other words, enjoy what you’re doing, when you’re writing.
Today, take time to toast your own writing, to share in Tolkien’s legacy, and to remember we have work to do. Here’s to Tolkien, ‘The Professor,’ and here’s to you!
