That’s Not Important

Writing a story is just plain fun. It’s fun to sit down and write all the different little aspects and intricacies about the histories of characters, the creation of castles, and civilization. One of the things that really intrigued me about The Lord of the Rings was the Silmarilian, the deep theological journey J. R. R. Tolkien took himself through in order to really dig deep into what that’s actually going on in his world. That journey created an enriching depth to his books, but at the same point, it wasn’t important.

When you look at The Hobbit, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the deep theological truths behind the story don’t play a crucial role. Sure, there are mentions of historical events and characters, but nothing that forces a reader to go back and investigate to understand. An example is Aragon. His race comes from the brother of Elrond, who chose to die, rather than live forever like the elves. This accounts for his old age and the separation between him and Boriamir. That’s all the explanation you need to understand his life length as well as the difference between him and men. Yet the story of Elrond and his brother is extensive.

So theology, when it comes to writing a book, isn’t important unless it is. There are so many books that only have the story itself written and slight details about history needed. What I find really fun for myself is writing about theological depth and myths. What role do they play in my characters’ lives? Is there a higher power allowing my character to come across good luck? I even specified a portion of my website to include different conclusions of the world creation based on different sects.

The truth is I keep calling it theology, but in reality, it’s history. It’s the actual history of how my world was created. I wrote a lot about this is the blog intricacies of theology. This is more focused on the fact that it’s just fun to make stuff up. It’s weird to bind yourself to rules based on historical facts, yet the generalized creativity is  freeing. You can write about whatever you want as little or as detailed as you want because it’s not a book. It’s just history.

That’s the fun of it. Writing is about being as creative as possible. It’s about building a path for readers to enter your world. It’s about building a world they want to stay in. C.S.Lewis got right with the Chronicles of Narnia. A world in a wardrobe where all your imaginations come true.