An update by Brandon Sanderson on MOL

[CUBAREY]

The following is copies from Brandon's log. Please note that the publish date of November 2009 is becoming problematic:

 

Q4: So...release date?

 

Sorry, but I really have no firm idea on this. I'm still hoping to get to 400k by December 31st. (Watch the website and see if I make it--it's going to be very close. I could make it still, but it will take some hard core writing through December.) At that point, I think it will be time to fly out and see Harriet again to go over the outline for the remaining portion of the book. (What we talked about during my last visit in April will bring us right up to about the point where I'll be ending in December.) At that point, we'll decide whether to press forward with the rough draft until the book is done or do some heavy revising on the first 400k to stabilize it before moving on. We'll have to talk this through, as I can't really decide which would be better. I'm of two minds on it.

 

If I press forward, I could have the book finished by March or April. If we revise, it will probably be until June or July. But even that is probably an optimistic guess, since I have no idea how much time the book will need to spend in revision.

 

I keep saying that I'd like to have the book out by November next year, and that's not outside reason. But we'll have to see. The last thing we want to do is release a book that feels rushed and thrown together. One thing I do know is that Tor is poised to get it through production at record speeds once we turn it in.

 

[Alderthal]

That's not the complete post, here's the first part of it...

 

Q1: Does it really feel like 300k is 75% of the book?

 

No. Not at all. I've said from the beginning that I'd write the book as long as it needed to be to tell the story the right way. My progress bar has always been set at 400k words, which is roughly the length of the longest Wheel of Time books. Very early in the process, I had thought that maybe I could bring it in at that length, but I realized the truth very quickly. There's just too much going on in this novel to constrict it to any artificial length. It will be as long as it needs to be.

 

How long will that be? I still can't tell for certain. For a while (since July) I've been saying 600-700k. That still feels right to me. The point I've reached right now does feel vaguely halfway, perhaps just a tad less. It's hard to tell because I've never done a book like this before. I also don't know how much we'll be adding or editing out in revision even after I get the rough draft done.

 

600k!! At least. That's roughly double A Crown of Swords. That he's even considering a March/April completion date (not editing) is amazing.

 

And that's along with the decision that Tor and Harriet might decide to publish a single book and not two books. If they go with a single book, then I expect it will be released sometime in 2010, and will then proceed to thank Brandon Sanderson for the monumental effort he placed in getting this book completed. If they do divide it into two books (which I rather hope they will), then a november 2009 release date for the first half (which Sanderson already wrote) isn't so herculean.

 

Still, seeing as the guy's contract has him writing the last book, then I'm sure he'd prefer to finish it in its entirety first, rather than publish half, and work on another half later.

 

[Charlz Guybon]

 

600k!! At least. That's roughly double A Crown of Swords. That he's even considering a March/April completion date (not editing) is amazing.

 

And that's along with the decision that Tor and Harriet might decide to publish a single book and not two books. If they go with a single book, then I expect it will be released sometime in 2010, and will then proceed to thank Brandon Sanderson for the monumental effort he placed in getting this book completed. If they do divide it into two books (which I rather hope they will), then a november 2009 release date for the first half (which Sanderson already wrote) isn't so herculean.

 

Still, seeing as the guy's contract has him writing the last book, then I'm sure he'd prefer to finish it in its entirety first, rather than publish half, and work on another half later.

 

 

I think it's doable. Sanderson wrote that on November 26th and the completion bar has since jumped from 75% to 84%. That's 36,000 words in 8 days.

[lordofsoup]

THATS 15 POUNDS!!!!!!!!!

[Darth_Andrea]

I was just checking Brandon's site and got a hell of a shock looking at the status bar for AMOL. As pictured below

 

 

Things are looking good :D

 

 

 

Darth_Andrea       

[demonspawn]

I cannot see AMoL being split into two books as both RJ AND BS have said that this will be one book "No matter how long it will be" and I for one am happy with  this... Even if it is a good while yet before it sees the business end of a printing press.

[DhaiMon]

No. Not at all. I've said from the beginning that I'd write the book as long as it needed to be to tell the story the right way. My progress bar has always been set at 400k words, which is roughly the length of the longest Wheel of Time books. Very early in the process, I had thought that maybe I could bring it in at that length, but I realized the truth very quickly. There's just too much going on in this novel to constrict it to any artificial length. It will be as long as it needs to be.

says he himself, and I hope he will go for a realistic option here, and I think splitting the book into two volumes and thereby reaching the magic 13 would be more preferable than trying to release one huge tome of a book. That might go against Jordan's- blessed be his name -last wish for AMoL, but I think that he himself would have come to realize as much had he been able to continue his work.

 

That aside...hats down, Sanderson, hell of a job.