As you said, you’re a fan of the series, and there are thousands more around the world. Is there an added pressure when writing them, or do you just have to blank it out and do the best that you can?
Certainly, I do the best that I can. There is added pressure. Again, when I write my own books, I’m not beholden to anybody. I write it, and if it doesn’t work out, or if it’s not my best book, that’s actually okay because I like to try lots of different things. I like to be bouncing around and experimenting with things. But with the Wheel Of Time books, that’s not appropriate, I am beholden to people, I am beholden to all of these fans that you’ve mentioned. It’s not appropriate to just take this series and go wherever I feel. I have to take this series and be true to Robert Jordan’s vision, while being true to myself as a writer, while also making sure that I’m being very respectful to the fans, to the all of the people who have been following the series for 20 years. They rightfully have a stake and a passion in the series, and it’s a lot different from writing a standalone novel. I do feel a lot of pressure—the series belongs to the fans much more than it belongs to me.
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.