Day 1. Slow going on The Lord of the Rings:
I have no confidence in [the first chapter]…, and I have only the vaguest notions of how to proceed. Not ever intending any sequel, I fear I squandered all my favorite “motifs” and characters on the original “Hobbit”.
Day 2. Responding to fan mail:
I am as susceptible as a dragon to flattery, and would gladly show off my diamond waistcoat.
Day 3. Critiquing Out of the Silent Planet:
I read the story…and was so enthralled that I could do nothing else until I had finished it. My first criticism was simply that it was too short.
Day 4. Writer’s block:
The sequel to the Hobbit [sic] has remained where it stopped. It has lost my favor, and I have no idea what to do with it.
Day 5. Preferring to write about hobbits doing their hobbit thing:
I am personally immensely amused by hobbits as such, and can contemplate them eating and making their rather fatuous jokes indefinitely; but…Mr Lewis says hobbits are only amusing when in unhobbitlike situations.
Day 6. The Lord of the Rings growing into a non-children’s story:
It is no bedtime story….The darkness of the present days has had some effect on it. Though it is not an “allegory”. [written in October, 1938]
Day 7. Taking his time:
The writing of The Lord of the Rings is laborious, because I have been doing it as well as I know how, and considering every word.