Now that I have read them, it seems that they all used the same basic plot structure. I have painstakingly read between the lines and put this plot into an easy to read format. If you have always desired to write a bestselling fantasy novel, use the following plan as your guide.
Lord of the Rings = blue Wheel of Time = red Sword of Shannara = white
To start, make up some hokey prophecy to add suspense about the upcoming events. Then start the story like this. A young hero named Frodo/ Rand/Shea, ignorant about the ways of the world, is met by a mysterious mystic named Gandalf/ Moiraine/Allanon, who lives longer than normal beings. The mystic possesses magical powers and belongs to a council of mystics called The Wizard's Council/Aes Sedai/ Druids. The mystic explains that a dark lord called Sauron/ Shai'tan/Brona , living in a black land called Mordor /The Blight/ The Skull Kingdom, in a black mountain/tower called Dol Guldur/Shayol Guhl/Skull Mountain, wants to take over the world. The dark lord has undead lieutenants called Nazgul/Mydraal /Skull Bearers and a massive army of mutant creatures called Orcs/ Trollocs/Trolls (also gnomes). The dark lord's forces invade the hero's home in The Shire/ The Two Rivers/Shady Vale, which is completely isolated from the outside world. The unlikely hero escapes with a motley group of companions, including some who are not necessary but would not be left behind. One of the companions is the slightly oversized Samwise/Perrin /Flick. There is also one who is handy with an axe Gimli/ Perrin/Hendel . Eventually, the hero's party is joined by an exiled king/prince named Aragorn/Lan/ Balinor, who, by all accounts, should be happily ruling the land of Gondor/ Malkier/Callahorn. The hero possesses some mystic jewelry (The One Ring /Angreal,Ta'angreal/ Elfstones) which greatly aid him on his quest to destroy the One Ring/ live until Tarmon Gaidon/ find the Sword of Shannara. The group first travels to a town named Rivendell /Caemlyn/Culhaven to regroup and recover after the first stage of the journey. There they debate what to do next (another trek across the map). During the exodus, the hero meets a friendly nature god called Tom Bombadil/ The Green Man/ The King of the Silver River, who assists him. The mystic guide falls into a chasm/ portal/pit and appears to perish while locked in mortal combat with a Balrog/Forsaken /Skull Bearer, but eventually returns (Moiraine is NOT dead). A key to the success of the quest is a fabled sword called Anduril /Callandor/The Sword of Shannara, which can only be wielded by Aragorn/Rand/ Shea. The dark lord's armies make an assault on the good guys at the well-defended city of Minas Tirith/Tear /Tyrsis.
Those are all of the essential elements. You have to provide the ending to the story (Robert Jordan hasn't found his yet). Good luck!
As for myself, I think that Tolkien's books, which I started reading when I was eight, are the best works of fantasy that I have laid my eyes upon. Brooks is a master of taking the same basic story line and crafting eight bestsellers out of it. His battle scenes are nothing short of spectacular. As for Jordan, his stuff is great just because there are so many different characters and events happening simultaneously that the reader wants to read more about those who haven't been mentioned in the past few hundred pages.
Robert Jordan's Path of Daggers is now available in paperback. I recommend it, although I also strongly recommend that you re-read Book 7 before setting into Book 8. As I only had two weeks to read the darn book, I didn't bother to do this. Conse quently, it took me a bit longer to refresh my memory for the events of Book 8. Still a DARN good book, though.
Terry Brooks is writing a new series that's Stephen Kingesque...I read the first of the books, Running with the Demon, and didn't think highly enough of it to continue to the next ones.
Unfortunately, J.R.R. Tolkien didn't write much else besides The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings books. There's a bunch of note-type material like The Simillarion, but it's boring stuff (to me).
Read the Harry Potter books if you get the chance...they're very reminiscent of The Hobbit and fun reads...children are actually reading again.