Brandon has written 18 books in the last 8 years.
Robot jokes aside, there are three possible explanations for this:
Brandon writes just over two books every year for 8 years. That’s not impossible, but given the size of the work in question it’s very difficult.
Brandon had already written lots of these books in draft form prior to the publication of Elantris/Mistborn. These currently published titles were written in that time period. (He alludes to this in his writing of The Way of Kings ).
(Tin foil hat time!) Brandon isn’t just one person, but several people working under the Sanderson name with him having the final say/edit. This one is entirely unsubstantiated and given that it’s 18 books and not 30 I’m not inclined to believe it.
You’re pretty close on several of these points. I generally write two books a year—a big one and a small one. This is a habit I fell into during my early, unpublished years. I’d do one longer epic fantasy and one shorter “breather” novel to try something new or to keep myself fresh.
Off the cuff, here’s how I think it breaks down. ( Elantris was finished long before, in 2000.) There’s one year of three shorter books instead of an epic. (That was the year I tried to write a book called the Liar of Partinel , and it just didn’t work. Wrote The Rithmatist instead. This is also the year I got called and asked to work on the Wheel of Time.) Also, note that the year of Towers of Midnight and The Way of Kings just about killed me, and is the busiest I’ve ever been.
A Memory of Light —last book of the Wheel of Time—took by far the longest of these all, particularly with the revision demands during 2012 (which is why I had no epic fantasy that year, only the two novellas.)
2002: The Way of Kings (early draft)
2003: Mistborn
2004: Mistborn 2, Alcatraz 1
2005: Mistborn 3, Alcatraz 2
2006: Warbreaker , Alcatraz 3
2007: Steelheart , The Rithmatist , Alcatraz 4 (Alcatraz was a 4-book contract.)
2008: The Gathering Storm , Part of Towers of Midnight
2009: Towers of Midnight , The Way of Kings (New draft from scratch.)
2010: Alloy of Law , half of A Memory of Light
2011: Half of A Memory of Light
2012: Legion , Emperor’s Soul ,
2013: Words of Radiance , Steelheart 2 (hopefully)
Thank you for taking the time to address some of my points!
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