Essentially this.

It is never easy, but competent writers can improve or build upon lowbrow, tropey stuff like HP or Naruto, complete or not. But Tolkien is in such a different league it is not even funny: he was a fucking philologist, scholar and lecturer on myths, legends and folklore of different cultures. Granted, that doesn't a talented writer make. But since he was, it gave his work a weight, richness and thorough foundation that you'd be hard pressed to find elsewhere in the genre.

It'd be like making fanfiction of a Beethoven symphony.

Maybe people who haven't read the books... But if you have, the comparison has to be necessarily painful.

I started to read Eragon (dropped it after the second book and I still want those hours back) and remember some author notes where Paolini ranted about finding Tolkien disappointing and wanting to write a better story than him. How self-deluded can someone be? Sure, he was brilliant for a teenager, but still a teenager. Wasn't there any responsible adult in his environment to warn him about making a fool of himself?

+1

 

Eragon Started great and slowly went downhill. Great world building and a solid protagonist until the third book.

Also, seconding what was second above. LOTR fanfiction is unnecessary. The only thing I can see workign somewhat decently is taking a character (like Harry) and throwing them into Middle Earth. But even that requires a strong writer like @Steelbadger otherwise you're just gonna get crap.

 

Most of the good LOTR fanfiction ive read (and I agree there isnt a ton) have been crossovers. Probably because, as people said, the world is so complete as is.

I really liked hear me roar: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11605215/1/Hear-Me-Roar-The-Lannisters-in-the-War-of-the-Ring

I also recall a good fic i'm blanking on the name of where Finrod instead of dying versus sauron gets sent to Hogwarts. Was surprisingly well done I thought.

The shadow of Angmar too: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11115934/1/The-Shadow-of-Angmar

It had major flaws plot wise, but as a guilty pleasure i enjoyed this: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8221820/1/The-House-of-Elendil

Ohh also https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2335832/1/The-Black-Wizard

There's others i'm blanking on off the top of my head that I could probably dig up if I thought on it. But long story short, most of the good tolkien fanfiction i've found has been crossovers.