So, that’s it, right? I think I’ve talked about everything. Now, some of you may be wondering what this means. Is there going to be no solo Brandon Sanderson book released in 2010?
Well, maybe.
As early as last summer, Tom Doherty began asking me if there was any way I could get Tor a novel for a 2010 release. He doesn’t like going years without releases, and he worried that my readers would feel dropped in favor of the Wheel of Time readers. Plus, he really wants to see something more from me.
When he first mentioned it, I laughed. He was asking me, essentially, to finish the entire Wheel of Time book by spring of 2009, then write him a solo book by fall 2009. Even then, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. A Memory of Light was too big a project.
However, now that A Memory of Light has been split, Tom has asked more and more often about getting a Brandon Sanderson solo book to release between the WoT books. He’s very worried about there being a period of three years during which I don’t release anything of my own. And so, with his questions, he got me thinking. Was there anything I would feel comfortable releasing? Liar turned out poorly, Scibbler isn’t epic enough, Warbreaker 2 isn’t written. What else is there?
The answer was simple. The Way of Kings .
The Way of Kings was the book I had just finished when I first got offered a book deal for Elantris . I originally signed a deal for Elantris and for Kings . (And because of that, you can still find an Amazon entry for Kings —which has some amusing reviews posted by readers with too much time on their hands. Note that the book was never released, so these are all just made-up amusing reviews.)
Yes, the original contract was for Kings —but I decided that Kings needed to be put off. Kings is a great book, perhaps the best I’ve ever written. But it just didn’t FEEL right to release after Elantris . The Way of Kings is a massive war epic of legends, mythology, and magical revolution. It’s intricate, complex, and was a bit daunting for me when I thought about readying it for publication. Just to give you an idea, Mistborn has three magic systems, Kings has well over twenty. Mistborn has six main viewpoint characters across the trilogy; Kings has dozens. I wrote about 30k of background material for Mistborn. Background material for Kings is over 300k.
Difference in scope is only one of the reasons Kings wasn’t the right follow-up to Elantris . After a stand-alone novel, I felt that I wanted to publish a trilogy, perhaps two, before I offered my readers the first of a big, multi-volume epic. I also worried that the initial draft of Kings just wasn’t good enough—because my skill wasn’t up to making it good enough.
Working on the WHEEL OF TIME has forced me to grow immensely as a writer, however. Over the last year, the more I thought about it, the more I itched to dive in and do a revision of The Way of Kings . If I could effectively use all I’ve learned, I might be able to make the book become what I want it to be. And so, I told Tom about Kings , and he eagerly offered me a new contract for it. I’ve warned him that it might not be ready in time to come out next year, but I’m going to give it a try.
Kings needs a solid rewrite. I’ve been tweaking it over the years, worldbuilding the setting and so forth. I’ve been planning, working on, and revising this book for eight years. I think that if I do a rewrite now with my current writing abilities, it would turn out very, very well.
Maybe.
The thing is, I can’t be certain. Maybe it won’t work as I want. Maybe I will just have too many things on my mind. Maybe I’m not up to doing this book yet. But, because of the pleading of Tom, my readers, and (most importantly) my own heart, I’m going to give it a try.
As I said above, writing and revising take different parts of the brain. I can only write new material for a certain number of hours a day, usually around four or six. But I can revise all day long. Perhaps it’s the difference between mental heavy lifting and mental long-distance running. Either way, in order to give this a try, I’ve hired a full-time assistant, Peter Ahlstrom, to do all the things in a day that normally take my time away from writing/revising. Usually, when I’m not revising, the ‘non-writing’ hours of the day are spent doing all kinds of tasks associated with being self-employed. Peter is going to be handling all of this, theoretically freeing up a few hours each day during which I can revise The Way of Kings .
This will not take my time away from writing Shifting Winds . If it starts to look like it will delay that book, I will stop working on Kings —not because of any criticism I may get from readers, but because I feel a debt to Mr. Jordan and this project I have agreed to do. I like to keep my promises.
I explain all this because I want you WoT readers to understand that I do have a life beyond the Wheel of Time. I have obligations, both to publishers and to myself. I feel very strongly that the time has come for me to show readers what I’ve been working on behind the scenes for many years. And so, on my blog I will spend time talking about projects other than the WHEEL OF TIME.
I like to be open. I like you to be able to see what I’m doing, and so I feel I should be up-front with you about what I plan. I’ve shelved a lot of books for THE WHEEL OF TIME, and rightly so. But there are two projects I WILL be spending time on this year— Alcatraz 4 and The Way of Kings . I plan to add progress bars for each of them, and link the titles here so those who come to my site later can read this explanation.
Sorry to be long winded . . . again. Occupational hazard.
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