This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Noaqiyeum: Objection, your honors. This is not how to be the next J. R. R. Tolkien. This is merely how to write a high fantasy novel.
The simple fact is that Tolkien is so definitively genre-defining (if you'll pardon the redundancy) that becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien is a much more complex and more difficult task. What Tolkien did was to reinvent the genre of fantasy and introduce it to the modern era. If there is to be any talk of the "next" Tolkien (or Lovecraft, or Tezuka, as the first seems to be on its way to heading in this direction, though it seems superior thus far in this regard, and I therefore have concerns about the future of the latter) let it be about writing stories that quintessentially destroy the genre, raze it to the raw soil that was there before, and then begin again from the earth up. These three at least have enough sheer influence within their own genres that it is absolutely vital for them to be approached with far more care and consideration than the other authors on the list. They are the Trope Makers, and ought to be treated as such. The others, insofar as I am aware, are not.
For this, rather unjustifiably Purple Prose-stricken, reason, I wish to call into question whether the template as it stands is a fulfillment of its titular promise, or whether it is a victim of false advertising. With all admiration for the ability of those involved in its creation to assemble a well-written template in a manner in which I am most certainly unqualified to perform, I do not believe that anyone who merely follows this template will become the next J. R. R. Tolkien and to claim otherwise is gross exaggeration.
Thank you, and I am now open for cross-examination.
