I’m not English and I hope you won’t mind too much the grammar and spelling errors left 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. ;)
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 three 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.
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