Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Juan Dolor on April 01, 2011, 08:41:06 PM
-
Some idiot Wheel of Time fan is posting on Facebook that Brandon Sanderson should be doing nothing but writing A Memory of Light. I've seen this sort of sentiment expressed in other places, at other times. And all I can say is: Don't listen to the jerks, Brandon. Not all of your fans, and Robert Jordan's fans, are tantrum-throwing toddlers. Most of us are patient, and appreciate all the long hours that you put in so that we can be amazed and amused. So, thanks, and keep up the great work.
-
If people have waited since 1988 for Wheel of Time to be finished.. they can sure as hell wait an extra 6-8 months. I can't believe people are really on Brandon about that.. man, that sucks :/
-
There were a LOT of people that were extremely upset the book was being divided into three parts too. It was quite ridiculous.
-
I guess its a big deal to have to wait longer, but wouldn't you rather have 3 more books (of awesomeness) instead of having it all crammed into one? Especially if an author says "I couldn't do it justice in 1 book." Boggles my mind. :/
-
From what I understand, that's mostly what he's doing. He's got other responsibilities, but that man is working his ass off.
-
From what I understand, that's mostly what he's doing. He's got other responsibilities, but that man is working his ass off.
Yeah, I've been following his tweets and I'm amazed that he accomplishes as much as he does in a day. I know if I tried to do this it would take me at least twice as long as Brandon and it wouldn't be half as meticulous. The man is amazing!
-
Yeah, I've been following his tweets and I'm amazed that he accomplishes as much as he does in a day. I know if I tried to do this it would take me at least twice as long as Brandon and it wouldn't be half as meticulous. The man is amazing!
Didn't you know? Brandon's the one who holds the 16th shard, Creativity.
-
Yeah, I've been following his tweets and I'm amazed that he accomplishes as much as he does in a day. I know if I tried to do this it would take me at least twice as long as Brandon and it wouldn't be half as meticulous. The man is amazing!
Didn't you know? Brandon's the one who holds the 16th shard, Creativity.
Somehow, we wouldn't really be surprised.
-
Some idiot Wheel of Time fan is posting on Facebook that Brandon Sanderson should be doing nothing but writing A Memory of Light.
The really hilarious bit was that they didn't seem to realize (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_117277505002630&view=permalink&id=151575158239531) it was an April Fool's joke.
-
Ah, that would make sense.
People took it seriously because of certain infamous epic authors who (for whatever reasons, often valid ones) take decades to write a handful of (admittedly phone-book-sized) volumes, and maybe run out of time on the Big Clock before they finish. It's a real and very present concern for fantasy fans in these days of lengthy multi-volume novels.
Brandon has always struck me as being more in the mold of authors like Pratchett or Butcher, who put out good work at a steady pace. He likes to write more (I think) than he likes Being A Writer, and we're all damn lucky that's the case.
-
I agree it's a very real concern in general, but I don't think it is a very pressing concern for Brandon finishing WoT, or even Stormlight Archive. He's young yet. ;) WoT fans just get a little over-excited sometimes. We're very lucky to have Brandon finishing the books - another author might have sold the ending of the series short by doing it in one volume as was apparently intended. (Though of course it was only supposed to be 'one more' because RJ was terminally ill when he made that decision and knew his days were numbered.)
-
I'm glad Brandon's finishing WoT because he's doing a great job,, an because I got to discover a new favourite author, who I may well never have known about if he hadn't been picked to finish WoT.
And yeah, I'm pretty sure Brandon will live to finish WoT and he'd better live to finish TSA..
Hopefully the Mayans were wrong.
-
When I took his class at BYU, he told us that he was unable to keep himself from writing during his honeymoon. So... Yeah, the man loves to write.
-
Haha, the notion of someone criticizing Brandon for his release schedule is laughable. I see him as the hardest working author out there. I'm in awe of his releases over the past few years...
-
Pfft, Brandon will overwrite the Mayan calendar. Or even better, the end of 2012 will be when A Memory of Light will be released, and the series will not go out with a happy ending - thus, the end of the world.
-
either that or it will be so awesome that the universe will explode.
-
Okay guys and gals, I think Brandon has enough on his plate. Let's not add an apocalypse. :P
-
As a gigantic fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, let me be the first to say...
let's add an apocalypse!
-
Okay guys and gals, I think Brandon has enough on his plate. Let's not add an apocalypse. :P
Dangit! That's what I was going to give him for Koloss head munching day!
-
Okay guys and gals, I think Brandon has enough on his plate. Let's not add an apocalypse. :P
Dangit! That's what I was going to give him for Koloss head munching day!
You too? Darn it... Looks like another tie this year, then.
-
There are always haters out there. I don't see why you let them get to you. They are in the minority. Just ignore them. Didn't Brandon say he was starting on Book 14 January 1st? He wrote the Mistborn book last year. He is also a known and diagnosed workaholic.
Also, note... it is much better for the last book to be great than it is for it to be out fast. If he spends more time on it, it gets polished more. Anyone remember how there was talk of a Robert Jordan documentary and it was going to be called The Wit of the Staircase. This means that you have your best ideas when you are coming down the staircase. Or doing something other than working.
Why let this get to you? I am one of those WoT fans that is half dreading the last book. Then it will be over. I am about the same age and Brandon and started reading WoT in High School. I remember when one of the books came right around my college finals. I read the book instead of studying. I don't want it to be over. It will probably take me months to make it through the last book since I don't want it to end.
I don't know why people even bother getting upset over this.
-
There are always haters out there. I don't see why you let them get to you. They are in the minority. Just ignore them. Didn't Brandon say he was starting on Book 14 January 1st? He wrote the Mistborn book last year. He is also a known and diagnosed workaholic.
Also, note... it is much better for the last book to be great than it is for it to be out fast. If he spends more time on it, it gets polished more. Anyone remember how there was talk of a Robert Jordan documentary and it was going to be called The Wit of the Staircase. This means that you have your best ideas when you are coming down the staircase. Or doing something other than working.
Why let this get to you? I am one of those WoT fans that is half dreading the last book. Then it will be over. I am about the same age and Brandon and started reading WoT in High School. I remember when one of the books came right around my college finals. I read the book instead of studying. I don't want it to be over. It will probably take me months to make it through the last book since I don't want it to end.
I don't know why people even bother getting upset over this.
100% agree, its going to be depressing. As part of the "new generation" of readers. Seeing Harry Potter go by through my childhood, and then the final book arriving my Senior year of High School was just... depressing. I read it in one sitting from 1~ am to noon. It was nice to be done, but it was also depressing to know I'd never read anymore of it.
Long book series are like going on the journey with no goal in mind. The desire comes from the journey itself, the sense of unknown ahead of you. When the journey ends, you feel accomplished, but with a sense that you wish it would have lasted longer.
-
Journey before destination! ;D
-
There are always haters out there. I don't see why you let them get to you. They are in the minority. Just ignore them. Didn't Brandon say he was starting on Book 14 January 1st? He wrote the Mistborn book last year. He is also a known and diagnosed workaholic.
Also, note... it is much better for the last book to be great than it is for it to be out fast. If he spends more time on it, it gets polished more. Anyone remember how there was talk of a Robert Jordan documentary and it was going to be called The Wit of the Staircase. This means that you have your best ideas when you are coming down the staircase. Or doing something other than working.
Why let this get to you? I am one of those WoT fans that is half dreading the last book. Then it will be over. I am about the same age and Brandon and started reading WoT in High School. I remember when one of the books came right around my college finals. I read the book instead of studying. I don't want it to be over. It will probably take me months to make it through the last book since I don't want it to end.
I don't know why people even bother getting upset over this.
Agreed. I think I'm going to cry when the series ends. Partly because the series will be over, and I wont know what to do with my life, and partly because i really didn't want Rand to die, after reading ToM i''ll be surprised if he doesn't. As far as I'm concerned Brandon can take his sweet time.
-
There's a certain sensation that comes with reading the last page of a good book, and closing that cover... it's hard to express, but it's not a bad feeling exactly... quite the opposite. Maybe bittersweet, sometimes?
-
There's a certain sensation that comes with reading the last page of a good book, and closing that cover... it's hard to express, but it's not a bad feeling exactly.
I don't know about you, but I get a feeling of accomplishment when I finish a book. I know it kinda sounds silly. Seeing as I Had no part in writing the book.
-
I don't know about you, but I get a feeling of accomplishment when I finish a book. I know it kinda sounds silly. Seeing as I Had no part in writing the book.
It's like when you finish one of those gargantuan meals at restaurant – you know, like the hamburger the size of your head that you get for free if you eat it in one sitting. You didn't make the thing, of course, but you're pretty proud it's all in your belly now.
I don't think this analogy really applies outside of novel the size of Brandon's, though. Heh.
@Inkthinker: I think bittersweet is perfect. As much as you want closure, it's always a bit sad to know the story is never going to change, now. I think it's especially powerfull for fantasy readers, because we spend the space between books in a series imagining and fantasizing about how it's all going to happen – how plots will be resolved, how your favorite character will finally land his or her love interest or defeat the dark lord. Once you've read the real story, you realize all your little tales don't mean anything; this is how it happened.
-
Huh.
It depends on the book, really. It also depends on where I am. If I'm with family, I can chat and philosophize for hours on what the book is about. That usually ends up pretty well.
If I'm not, it can be kind of lonely, kinda like leaving somebody and knowing you'll never see them again. More so if the ending was a downer or bittersweet. The ending of "Well of Ascension" was a serious downer for me. Left me depressed. (Not seriously so, though.) It didn't help that I'd read it in one sitting late at night.
-
Yeah, I've been following his tweets and I'm amazed that he accomplishes as much as he does in a day. I know if I tried to do this it would take me at least twice as long as Brandon and it wouldn't be half as meticulous. The man is amazing!
Didn't you know? Brandon's the one who holds the 16th shard, Creativity.
Somehow, we wouldn't really be surprised.
He's actually on an Atium burn...
[Strange side thought...could you imagine the squirrel from "Hoodwinked" on both coffee AND atium? What a trip!...okay, you can go back to what you were doing.]
-
Yeah, I've been following his tweets and I'm amazed that he accomplishes as much as he does in a day. I know if I tried to do this it would take me at least twice as long as Brandon and it wouldn't be half as meticulous. The man is amazing!
Didn't you know? Brandon's the one who holds the 16th shard, Creativity.
Somehow, we wouldn't really be surprised.
He's actually on an Atium burn...
[Strange side thought...could you imagine the squirrel from "Hoodwinked" on both coffee AND atium? What a trip!...okay, you can go back to what you were doing.]
So if there was a loud bang nearby, the squirrel would jump twenty feet in the air about three seconds before it happened?
-
Nah, it would probably be more like Hammy from Over the Hedge on an energy drink.
-
My kneejerk reaction is; shouldn't WoT fans be thrilled that the series will be finished at all?
At the end of the day, I know I'd prefer a book that took as much time as it needed to be finished, and was the best it could be. That said, at almost 20 I know some people have waited my whole lifetime for this, so a little impatience is understandable. I sometimes wish I could just read it now, but it's not something I'd go saying all over the Internet.
We don't always think before we type. Should they pause to think about it, I'm sure the 'jerks' in question would realise Brandon's been almost superhuman in finding a balance between the two, putting a phenomenal amount of hard work into very little time. I don't see how anyone could ask more from the guy! The sheer scope of WoT is incredible. I wouldn't have a clue where to start in Brandon's shoes. :-\
-
I agree. Whoever it is that whishes to complain about Brandon not writing fast enough when he is working his butt off can just shut their mouth.
-
From 5% to 10% done with the first draft? Yeah, he's working all right. I'll admit to being just as impatient as the rest, but then I think about what this must be like for Brandon. I mean, he's only writing A Memory of Light. It's not like there are any expectations or anything. The fanbase is totally reasonable and sane. And nobody has invested roughly three-quarters of their life to reading it or anything. So it's a stroll in the park, I'm sure. No pressure!
Yeah. I just keep my mouth shut except to point out that it may be a leetle bit trickier than some of the fans seem to think.
-
Brandon's steady stream of updates and tweets are keeping me content for now. I do have to say that I'm loving the behind the scenes peeks that they give. It brings a whole new depth to the book.
-
My kneejerk reaction is; shouldn't WoT fans be thrilled that the series will be finished at all?
At the end of the day, I know I'd prefer a book that took as much time as it needed to be finished, and was the best it could be. That said, at almost 20 I know some people have waited my whole lifetime for this, so a little impatience is understandable. I sometimes wish I could just read it now, but it's not something I'd go saying all over the Internet.
We don't always think before we type. Should they pause to think about it, I'm sure the 'jerks' in question would realise Brandon's been almost superhuman in finding a balance between the two, putting a phenomenal amount of hard work into very little time. I don't see how anyone could ask more from the guy! The sheer scope of WoT is incredible. I wouldn't have a clue where to start in Brandon's shoes. :-\
Well, a lot of the negative reaction from WoT fans was after the announcement of the split, but before the release of TGS, so many of them had not yet read anything of Brandon's or discovered many of the reasons we already trusted him as an author. There was definitely a perception that the split was a commercial thing to make more money by filling out the book. (which will seem ridiculous to anyone who's read TGS or TofM, but that's what people were worried about)
As for the fans now who think that Brandon should be writing faster and only working on AMoL, it's probably just deep ignorance of the way the writing process works for an author, especially someone finishing up a large series like the Wheel of Time. There are many people who just don't consider that Brandon will need to continually re-read the books to stay anywhere near as familiar with the series as Robert Jordan was, and they probably don't even understand that writing fiction involves a lot of false starts, writing group and alpha-reader feedback, re-writing, and more feedback. Many people just think you sit down and bang out however many hundreds of thousands of words and you're done, lol.
-
That is true. Writing is no mean feat. :-\
-
Ah, that would make sense.
People took it seriously because of certain infamous epic authors who (for whatever reasons, often valid ones) take decades to write a handful of (admittedly phone-book-sized) volumes, and maybe run out of time on the Big Clock before they finish. It's a real and very present concern for fantasy fans in these days of lengthy multi-volume novels.
Brandon has always struck me as being more in the mold of authors like Pratchett or Butcher, who put out good work at a steady pace. He likes to write more (I think) than he likes Being A Writer, and we're all damn lucky that's the case.
In related news, George R.R. Martin's new Song of Fire and Ice book comes out on July 12th. 5.75 years is pretty long between books though. Not that you named any names, and you may not even have been thinking of him.
Pratchett's pace seems to have been effected by his disease. I wonder if Butcher is a Pratchett fan too. I sometimes wonder to myself which is the nerdier author, Brandon or Butcher. Maybe I just need to read more authors, and then I'd realize that the competition for nerdiest author is far more than I could ever have imagined.
-
Ahhhh... George is a poster-child for delayed gratification, but he's not alone in that particular corner.
Pratchett... before the disease, the man banged out a Disc novel every year like clockwork. Since he was diagnosed, he's had to change his writing style but his output doesn't appear to have slowed. He missed a year in 2008, but since then he's had a new one every fall again. This year we get a new Vimes ("Snuff") and then after that it looks like a new Moist book ("Raising Taxes").