wotwiki

Interview #45: Twitter: TOM Writing and Editing Process, Entry #38

Brandon Sanderson (6 July 2010)

Back at work. 14% or so cut from the next scene. These are various parts of the prologue, if you’re curious.

BRANDON SANDERSON

12.6% cut from the next scene. Two more to do in the prologue.

BRANDON SANDERSON

3.5% and 8.2% from next two [scenes]. Many are asking if I can, someday, show what I cut. Maybe someday.

BRANDON SANDERSON

This book belongs to Harriet, so releasing anything—even lists of cut words—must be done carefully. Easier to show you with The Way of Kings .

BRANDON SANDERSON

Hello first paragraph of Chapter One. I guess I’m not cutting any words from you….

BRANDON SANDERSON

Sigh. For those complaining that you don’t want me to cut the book at all, the next chapter GREW by 1.7%. Added more than I cut.

BRANDON SANDERSON

14% cut from next one. Editing is not much fun. Maybe I need to buy more Magic cards to motivate me. Open one pack per five chapters? Hm…

BRANDON SANDERSON

760 words cut from the next chapter. It’s a big one, though, so that’s only 12%.

BRIAN CARBIN

Ever thought of doing unabridged i.e. not cut spec-eds of your books? It worked for King and Feist.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Thing is, none of these edits are forced on me. These are edits I want to do. If I were ever forced to cut, Maybe.

BRANDON SANDERSON

For @ramhiser and others wondering, I run a spreadsheet to tell me how much I’ve cut. I find if I measure, it makes me more rigorous.

Contributing

If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.