How C.S. Lewis saved Lord of the Rings from J.R.R. Tolkien’s boring ideas

The Tolkien fanboys get grumpy when I talk about this. But, at least according to the book “Bandersnatch” (about the Inklings group C.S. Lewis and Tolkien belonged to) probably Lord of the Rings never would have been written if not for C.S. Lewis. And, even if it had been written, it would have been a completely boring, snooze fest just about hobbits sitting talking and eating and drinking and smoking or whatever. Yes, originally, Tolkien didn’t write it as some kind of War of the Ring story. In fact, The Ring had nothing to do with it. (Add he had to retcon The Hobbit later as a result) And if LOTR had been written at all, it’d been boring as hell. With no Rings. No Ringwraiths. And no real adventure or anything worth reading. There’d never even be a Lord of the Rings if left to Tolkien’s original ideas for the book. Not to mention no movies, no video games, no Amazon series (not that anyone cares about that show, but still…) and, basically, no multi-billion dollar franchise. So how did Lewis save Tolkien from his boring ideas? It’s quite simple, Frodo: What Lewis told Tolkien was, yes, hobbits were interesting. But, they were only interesting when they were out of their element and stood in CONTRAST to the other Middle Earth races — humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. It was only then that anyone cared about them. And, I will add, it was only then when the story started getting interesting, and ultimately turned into something people would grow to love and cherish as LOTR fans do. More: This advice applies to many beloved franchises. It’s not unlike the blonde chick (Marilyn) in The Munsters. The Munsters would probably not have been as engaging and popular probably without a human in the mix. And so it was also with the Muppets. It was the human guest each show that made the Muppets stand out and be inherently more interesting. Same with Sesame Street, Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and many other beloved entertainment shows, movies, franchises. More: This is one of many things I talk about in the November Email Player issue to show how one of the single most powerful (if not mysterious) forces of influence & persuasion I’ve ever used works. It goes far beyond fantasy and puppets. It can be applied to PPC ads (as the late Jim Yaghi did to make his AdWords ads almost look like they had a different color to them, and completely stand out from the other ads on the page). It can be applied to how your emails are written & formatted. It can be applied to copywriting of all stripes — email, sales copy, VSL scripts, or anything else, especially your bullets. Very powerful stuff. And I talk all about it in the upcoming November Email Players issue. A prediction: Of all the issues I’ve written in Email Players’ nearly 150-issue run… I think for some of my subscribers, this one will be their absolute favorite, that they go back and re-read many times, and get excited about the ramifications that can happen as a result for their own businesses. And I especially think this will be the case for those who struggle with getting noticed, standing out, being engaging, wondering why a bunch of plain vanilla simps who have half the brains and even less than half the knowledge of their topic do so much better than them. I can’t make any specific promises. But, I will say this power of influence I write about can absolutely potentially turn that all around. With your business being the one that stands out: In the inbox, on social media (if that’s your bag), in the mail box, on the internet, on your street, in your circle of business friends, at masterminds, and the list goes on. The deadline to subscribe in time to get it is coming up lickety-split. Here’s the link to subscribe in time, while you still can: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA