WOT questions: Will all three AMOL books feature Rand, Mat, and Perrin?
Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: They will all three appear in all three books, but it will not be equally balanced. Some characters will be more of a focus in some of the books, and other will be more of a focus in others. This is particularly true of the first two volumes, where I had to juggle which characters would be a focus in one, and which will be a focus in the other.
I ask because you said the prologue Robert Jordan wrote would probably be split over two books.
Yes, it will be. I don’t know yet if the third volume will have a prologue or not. The Material Mr. Jordan wrote for the prologue is split, half in the prologue of TGS, half in the prologue of the second volume.
Does this mean story arcs are getting split as well?
I tried to keep story arcs contained in a single book. We’ll get glimpses from some of the characters in the first book, with a more complete story arc in the second book. And we’ll get story arcs in the first book from some characters, followed by glimpses in the second.
The split actually turned out really well. I think I managed to get a balance working where characters don’t vanish for entire volumes, but we still get to have complete character arcs.
Also, who was your favourite character to write? And don't say Bela.
It’s really, really hard for me to answer this, since when I’m in a character’s head, that character is the most important in the book. They’re all my favorite when I’m writing them--that’s just the way it has to be as a writer.
It is also hard to answer without giving spoilers that I’m not certain I want to give. For instance, some characters were interesting to write for different reasons. In some places, I was expanding on things Mr. Jordan left behind, in other places I was trying to piece together what I think he would have done based on the momentum of the books. In some places, I was writing based mostly on my instincts as a writer. I was doing a lot of different things with a lot of different characters, getting a balance of action, drama, and fun. Which is my favorite among all of that? It depends on what I’m feeling like that day.
If really pressed on it, I’ll probably say that going into this, my favorite thing that I anticipated would be finally (after all of this time) writing Rand’s character through the end of the series. Like many, I was initially hooked into this all by his story, and--regardless of other favorites at different points in the series--who he is as a person is vitally important for driving these last books.
Any plans to tour Warbreaker or The Gathering Storm in Toronto or other Canadian cities?
I’ll be in Montreal on Saturday the eighth! Less than a week away now. I’m hoping to get to other cities in Canada for future tours, but I’m going to start with this one visit. We’ll see. We might be able to manage a several-city Canadian Tour next year.
I'm not English and I hope you won't mind too much the grammar and spelling errors left leave here and there.
Well, I do speak English as my native language--and I’m certain I’ve got my fair share of errors here and there in my posts. So if you’ll forgive me, I’ll of course forgive you. :smileywink:
As many, I'm a huge fan of the wheel of time series, I can't say why it appeals to me so much but it just feels so epic, so detailed, so grand, I wonder how can anyone not love it.
I'm also really eager to read the end of the saga, and I must say that I'm really happy with your decision to split the book in 3 and cover all that is left to be answered.
Knowing you will finish Robert Jordan's book I was curious to read your previous works and see if I will like or love them as I do with wot.
I must say that I found them quite enjoying and yet, and I beg you not to be offended by my impressions, I could not find the epic feeling I love so much in wot.
I find your characters to be very practical which is great in a way but for me it takes away the epic feeling, the unknown, the maybe, the what if.
So finally reaching my question, if it's not too silly, do you plan to make the characters react, speak and think, as they do in your books or will you follow a more Jordan's way of doing.
I think the thing you’re talking about is something very intentional on my part, related to the fact that I wanted my books (particularly the ones I did at the beginning of my career) to be more self contained. Elantris, Warbreaker, and even Mistborn exist (in my mind) as a kind of ‘calling card’ to readers. Something that says “I want to show you that I can tell a story, so that you’ll trust me--eventually--when I do something much larger in scope, something where the pay-offs aren’t as immediate.”
I love the self-contained fantasy epic form. However, one of the things I felt that those books needed was cohesion. I had to make my magic very, very tight.
Unknowns are great, and they DO lend to the epic feel of a story. One of the things that the WoT has over my books (beyond Mr. Jordan’s fantastic storytelling ability) is the sheer power of scope. The magic is far from being understood, and it’s larger--and vaster--than the characters can understand. There’s a vast wealth of history and world--not to mention numerous machinations by dozens of different groups and secret cabals--making the characters (particularly at the beginning) feel very small compared to it all.
I think that’s the sense of what you’re talking about. It has to do with the characters, and it has to do with the magic. But it also has to do with the scope. You don’t always get an immediate pay-off in the WoT books. Some threads hang through books, finally getting revealed or resolved long after they were introduced.
I’m not trying to imitate Mr. Jordan. Instead, I’m trying to adapt myself to the Wheel of Time. (If that makes any sense at all.) In other words, I want to maintain this feel, and write these books appropriate to the Wheel of Time. I don’t want these volumes to feel like Brandon Sanderson books; I want them to feel like Wheel of Time books.
But artists in any medium learn to work with different styles and forms. Many of the things that seem like natural voice in a novel are conscious choices we make, as we work to create a certain feel for a novel. If you read and compare my Alcatraz books to my Epics, you’ll see what I mean. Even the Mistborn novels have a different feel from the stand-alones. (And Mistborn 2 and 3 have a different feel from number one.)
So, the end answer is this. Yes, I’m trying very hard to maintain what it is you love about the Wheel of Time, rather than trying to force the Wheel of Time into a different box or style.
So, Brandon. Hoid. I remember you saying at the I.F. signing last year that he was in WoA. We, your dedicated fans who like scouring books searching for obscure characters who have any possibility of being the mysterious Hoid, have yet to find him. Peter sent us on a hunt for him (Hoid, not Peter...) in the deleted scenes, and we found his boot-print.
Now, I think he broke the pottery there too--the one holding the larasium--and since there's broken pottery in the actual version, I think he may have snuck into the cavern and broken it as well. If so, is this Hoid's part in WoA? This trace of him? I commend you if it is. It is clever, making us think it was a person, when in fact it's just something he did.
You are on the right track, but wrong on one point. Hoid does appear in the book.
I had originally toyed with making his touch on the novel more obscure, but decided that I wanted to be consistent with the other novels by actually having him appear. Once I realized I’d probably cut the scene with the footprint, I decided I needed this actual appearance even more badly.
Fortunately, I knew what Hoid had been up to all this time, and had placed him in a position where several characters could run into him. In WoA, Hoid believed (as Vin did) that the Well was in the North, even though it was not. He spent much of the book pursuing this idea.
Through events, however, he discovered he was wrong. He made the realization after Vin did, but only because of a chance meeting. (This is recorded in the books. Let’s just say he was listening in when someone implied that the Well was in Luthadel.)
He hurried to Luthadel, and was in the town, skulking about in the last parts of the novel. He isn’t seen here, though he does still infiltrate the Well. (Hoid is quite proficient at manipulating Shadesmar for his own ends.)