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Interview #46: Twitter: AMOL Writing and Editing Process, Entry #62

Brandon Sanderson (15 December 2011)

Scene I’m working on needs to be trashed and rewritten from a different viewpoint. Ah, well.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Okay, the scene is working much better now. Basically, a half-day lost, but it is worth backing up if something isn’t working.

JOE LAVOIE

When you say a scene isn’t “working” what does that mean? Bad mojo, doesn’t feel right, or its there a technical reason?

BRANDON SANDERSON

All three, actually. Mostly, it just feels wrong.

BRANDON SANDERSON

And it is fixed now. Hard to judge my wordcount today, since I spent time fixing, but I’m opening a pack of Magic cards as a reward.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Current length of
A Memory of Light
335,000 words, same size as Towers of Midnight . And I haven’t finished yet, nor have I added in RJ’s ending.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Even with edits, this will be the longest of the three WoT books I’ve done. Don’t worry about it being split, though. That won’t happen.

DANIEL ANDERSON

Is RJ’s ending ready for primetime? Or do you have an outline of how it is supposed to go?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I should be able to put it in without changing anything other than a quick smoothing of the language.

SISTER INFANT

Will there be any indication in the book as to when RJ’s ending starts? Like a footnote from you or Harriet or something?

BRANDON SANDERSON

No, but I will tell you once the book is out, after you’ve read it.

JOHN ANDERSON

Hello! Just wondering, was the Borderland Tower sequence in Towers of Midnight (with Malenarin Rai) originally part of RJ’s prologue?

BRANDON SANDERSON

He wrote most of that scene himself, actually.

JOHN ANDERSON

Cool! Are you allowed to say whether it was part of his prologue (which I gather you split and distributed over The Gathering Storm / Towers of Midnight )?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes, it was.

JOE KOGELMANN

What was the logest of all the WoT books? How many words?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Longest ones have been around 390k words. Books Four and Six. I forget which was the longer.

STEPHEN HART

Any chance of reading these alternate scenes once A Memory of Light is released; on your website maybe? Kinda like DVD deleted scenes…

BRANDON SANDERSON

Maybe.

GREG LINDSEY

Why do you suppose Wikipedia is inaccurate, saying Towers of Midnight [is] 325,998? Should it be edited? Are those word counts reliable?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Likely, theirs is without the glossary, which I just noticed mine has in it.

BRYAN

but but but…Wikipedia says Towers of Midnight is 325,998 words! Who to trust, Wikipedia or the author!? *brain explodes*

BRANDON SANDERSON

Just noticed my edocument has the glossary attached. Maybe that’s the reason for the difference. Mine is pre-copyedit too.

DASUGO

You usually go through a vicious edit phase right?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Yes. I tend to cut 10%, but Harriet’s suggestions have usually added about that much, and we’ve balanced at the end.

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