If you like fantasy and you want to be the next Tolkien, don’t read big Tolkienesque fantasies – Tolkien didn’t read big Tolkienesque fantasies, he read books on Finnish philology. Go and read outside of your comfort zone, go and learn stuff.

Neil Gaiman
About This Quote

The mistake people make when they want to be the next Tolkien is that they go and read big Tolkienesque fantasies. The problem with this idea is that you can’t just say, ‘I’m the next Tolkien, I’ll write a fantasy novel.’ It doesn’t work like that. You have to work hard at it. At some point, you get your PhD in Tolkien studies and then you write your book ‘The Fall of Gondolin’.

It would be a great book … but it would probably not sell because not many people would want to read it. If you want to be the next Tolkien, go and learn stuff … read books on Finnish philology. Or history … or anthropology … or whatever else inspires you.

Learn everything … learn languages ..and learn how to write in different styles … it is very important. Read the classics in different languages … read Tolstoy in Russian or Dickens in English or Shakespeare in French or Sophocles in Greek..and then when you are done with all these books, come back and write in your own language!

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