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 This is a habit I fell into during my early, unpublished years.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 AMOL
2011: Half of AMOL
2012: Legion , Emperor’s Soul
2013: Words of Radiance , Steelheart 2 (hopefully)
More recently I’ve noticed myself writing on something different than my main projects when I need a break. Wasn’t sure it was the best thing to do, but after reading your post I’m convinced it may be! I have yet to have a chance to read one of your books, BUT I intend to as they sound awesome. They’re on my list of “stuff I need to read when I have money to buy books again”. :D
Cool! If you do the ebook thing, Warbreaker is free on my website.
http://brandonsanderson.com/book/Warbreaker/page/20/WARBREAKER-Rights-and-Downloads
There’s an html version on there somewhere too. My assistant posted it.
Best of luck with your writing!
Confused: Steelheart —written in 2007, Amazon says it won’t be released until September 2013. Are you re-writing an early project?
I finished a good chunk of it back then, but had to put it on the shelf and leave it alone. The Wheel of Time demanded all of my attention. Now that I’m finished with AMOL, I have time for side projects again, and have taken this one off and given it a solid polish to be released this year.
I’m pretty sure Brandon has Steelheart misplaced ; he wrote it in very early 2010, before Alloy of Law , though he came up with the concept earlier than that. 2007 should have Liar of Partinel in it, which Brandon talked about above.
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