Let us remember that volumes like "The Simarillion" or "The Lost Tales" are all Tolkien doing world building for "Lord of the Rings." Even "The Hobbit" was basically a side-story, based on world building Tolkien had been doing for nearly twenty years, written for his son.
Yeah, LOTR... Tolkien began developing Middle Earth around 1912, all working up to LOTR, published in 1954. Suddenly I don't feel bad I've been building my Pangaea setting for a decade. It's HARD to build an entire world that needs a pre AND post Atlantian history, and charting out how all the cultures changed after the destruction of Atlantis actually rotated the entire globe almost 90 degrees and changed the axis of spin... What happens when your "Saharan tribes" suddenly find themselves living in the Arctic?
Having to work out details from the tiniest thing (BUT WOULD THEY HAVE SPOONS) to the big, world-shattering events is indeed haaard. And you also do have to know when to stop and just get on with some writing.
JRR Tolkien approves.
Let us remember that volumes like "The Simarillion" or "The Lost Tales" are all Tolkien doing world building for "Lord of the Rings." Even "The Hobbit" was basically a side-story, based on world building Tolkien had been doing for nearly twenty years, written for his son.
Yeah, LOTR... Tolkien began developing Middle Earth around 1912, all working up to LOTR, published in 1954. Suddenly I don't feel bad I've been building my Pangaea setting for a decade. It's HARD to build an entire world that needs a pre AND post Atlantian history, and charting out how all the cultures changed after the destruction of Atlantis actually rotated the entire globe almost 90 degrees and changed the axis of spin... What happens when your "Saharan tribes" suddenly find themselves living in the Arctic?
Having to work out details from the tiniest thing (BUT WOULD THEY HAVE SPOONS) to the big, world-shattering events is indeed haaard. And you also do have to know when to stop and just get on with some writing.