That battle’s inevitably violent, and Jordan’s own background in the military has enabled him to bring a paradoxical perspective to the subject.
I know what it’s like to be in the middle of a battle and I know what it’s like to have somebody try and kill you… I can put that in. There’s a balance between the moments when you can look back and say that was a magnificent thing and when you say, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ In the aftermath you’re so relieved you’re still alive that you can walk among the dead laughing, and people who haven’t been there will say that’s insanity. It’s not; it’s the sort of thing that happens…
Which presumably makes it easier to understand characters’ motivations in combat?
I try to get into their heads. Sometimes it’s difficult—it’s hard for me to imagine being a five-foot three female, but I work at it and think I’ve done a fairly effective job. When I was touring for The Dragon Reborn a group of women told me I’d settled an argument they’d been having about whether Robert Jordan was a pen name for a woman!
But I can get into anyone’s head—I’ll walk out of my study and my wife will say, ‘Been into someone nasty today, haven’t you?’
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