Date: 2005-11-02
Type: Paraphrased
Location: San Diego, CA
Reporter: Phoenix Hunter
Even though I still have a signed, and mostly unread copy of Crossroads of Twilight sitting on my shelf, something compelled me to drive over to my local book store for the Knife of Dreams book signing. I got there early enough to hear Robert Jordan answer a few questions, including my own regarding whether or not he would take a break after finishing the Wheel of Time series (short answer, no).
However it was about two hours later when I finally got to step up and get my copy signed that I asked the one question I hadn’t thought of asking until the moment he turned his head up to receive me.
When did the first inklings of the Wheel of Time come to mind?
His answer (paraphrased): “Some time in the mid 70’s, though I didn’t start writing it till the mid 1980’s.”
I then quickly followed up with, “Did you make any notes in the beginning?”
“No.”
I had asked mostly because I’ve had bits and pieces of a fantasy book floating around for around 8 years, but pondering on it, and the series on the whole, I found a greater understanding (or huge opinion as it were).
Robert Jordan, or James Rigney at the time, envisioned a world continually cycling through various phases. He saw how it would end, and that is what compelled him. In time he fleshed that world out, to the point that he wanted to explore it, he wanted characters to go hither and thither, touching it, experiencing it. But when he finally got around to penning it down all of those characters and that world that he envisioned came back as ghosts to haunt him until they ended up written down. There was no method to the madness, there were not plot lines, there was a line from A to B….and two dozen strings thrown in to fill in the tapestry.
Thinking back, when someone had asked him if he was going to wrap up all of the extra plotlines to which he basically said ‘no’, the idea started to make more sense on the whole.
Well I’m going to get started on Crossroads of Twilight tonight and work towards closure on the Wheel of Time series.
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