Subject: You're welcome to not put forth the effort.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-02-19 14:56:00 UTC
Tolkien was first and foremost creating languages, and the world and mythos that would support and result in such languages.
As for the items you are describing, any writer can tell you that they're common enough items.
Things change with each draft of a story- details get refined, things get moved around so that the whole story moves better as a whole. The first draft is usually the roughest- while you have an idea of what you want, you don't necessarily know how it will happen because you have to work out all the details so that the story is consistent, and that everything set within is resolved as appropriate.
Changing what a line is going to say, and who is the actor within a line is nothing new, again- things change, perhaps this character or that one instead will suit it better or had not recieved as much focus.
People are more than allowed to change their plans, or heaven forbid, be unsure what projects they will work on, and the details of such. I just restarted a story I'm working on because I realized that a different angle would suit my goals and intents with said story better; not because I don't know what I'm doing. The same would certainly go with Tolkein, and even more so with him.
Authors have the fiat and author- (heh) -ity when it comes to their works. There are all sort of paths to getting there, and those often change, but it doesn't mean they don't know what they are doing, even if they are actually making it up as they go along for the first draft, instead of having things plotted out.