I have always been a book nerd.
A great example of what I mean is my first reaction to J.R.R Tolkien’s masterpiece The Lord of the Rings. I read the book that first time when I was around nine and while I loved it, my favorite moment was probably not the same as for other readers.
There is this wonderful chapter in the first book The Fellowship of the Rings called “The Bridge of Khazad-dum.” For those that don’t know or remember, this is the lowest point for the fellowship as they run to escape the dark of Moria, pursued by unspeakable evils. Yes, I worried about the heroes but really what made me sit up straight and take note was what Tolkien did in his writing and I had never seen anything like it before.
The orcs and goblins chasing our team were using drums but their drums were more than drums. They were speaking.
Doom, boom, doom, went the drums in the deep.
They are relentless, and obviously doing more than simply beating. They are screaming a warning, building to a crescendo over the course of the chapter until finally at the end Gandalf is lost and the drums then fade into the distance, leaving the fellowship and the readers all breathless.
But for me, I wasn’t breathless because of the action and the loss.
No…
I wanted to know how Tolkien did that.
The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard 