Quistion for RJ or anyone with the knowledge.

[Jarred Darque]

ok the copyright in my tEotW says febuary 1990 for first edition. I am reading through book 8 right now. There are hints in book 1 and 2 and 3 and so on that are not answered until the later books, and some not until book 12. so obvioulsy books 1-12 where pre-planned before book 1 was published

 

at least the basics, but for all this small minor details to be in, well took ALOT of work. unless RJ is going through the earlier books and finding things and applying them to later books, which I doubt.

 

anyways, my quistion. when did RJ start plotting the books out, when did he start with the final plot-chart, I just want to see an idea of how long all this took him. I recon it would take me more than a few lifetimes to do all the work he has done on these masterful books

 

I mean, to have something in place in book 1 or 2 that does not come back around or is not explained until book 12, almost 20 YEARS LATER!!!!!! 20 YEARS!!! must take alot of planning!

 

BTW RJ curse you for making us wait this long for the end! I will rejoice the day book 12 comes out and I had touched the books for the first time only 7 or 8 years ago, with aprojected release of 2009 for book 12 :/ that is 10-11 years, I feel sorry for the guys, and gals, who picked up tEotW when it first came out, having to wait 19 years for the finale if 2009 holds true....even if it doesnt, it will still be a long wait if you release it tomorrow :P

 

Anyways. RJ, I love your work. I know people who are reading this who where not born before it came out...

 

‡Jarred Darque‡

[Guest Egwene]

Good sentiments there, Jarred. Exactly the reasons why in my books RJ is one of the greatest writers of fantasy, ever.

 

If you look through RJ's Blog, I think there are some answers on there. Also in Q&A sessions elsewhere, RJ has talked about it. From memory, I think he started thinking about the story something like 20 years before actually writing it!!

[Jarred Darque]

that is about what I figured, was that he started putting ideas to paper in the early 70s or so

[Ludmian]

This is what we know from various interviews and blog entries. RJ started writing TEOTW in 1984, and the idea of the series had come to RJ, maybe, 10 years or more before that. He picked up some fantasy novel in which a woman wasn't allowed to do magic just because she was a woman. It made him think what it would be like if men were forbidden to do magic and what the reasons for that could be. This led him to the ideas of the One power, the taint and eventually to the last scene of the series. The last scene is what made him start writing the series in the first place.

He was thinking over the plot for years, and when he actually started writing the series he, naturally, knew how it should begin, the last scene and the main events that lead from the beginning to the end of the series. Some of those events are as big as the one that happened at the end of book 9, some of them are things like 2 people meeting each other. Though he didn't know the exact order of those events and how to move from one event to another at that time. He left thinking about those things till the time he actually needed to write about them, so that the actual writing wouldn't be too much pre-planned and therefore less interesting.

When he starts writing each new book he considers which of the main events he can include in it, judging by the positions the characters are left in at the end of the previous book. So far he's proved wrong every time and has never been able to include in one book everything he wanted (for example, when he started writing TEOTW he thought that TEOTW and TGH would be one book).

TEOTW took him 4 years, because he realized that he had to think of a lot of things (mainly concerning world-building)that he had thought he could leave for later. Each of the following 5 books took him 14 month on the average. When writing LoC 14 hours a day without a day-off for many months nearly killed him he was advised to slow down, which he did.

That's what I remember. If anybody here can add something, please, do it.

[algspkr]

Where did you get 2009 from... I was expecting 07 or 08 at worst?

[Kadere]

Well, if you add in his current health, and the fact that the book will most likely be over 1000 pages, possibly WELL over, a good 2 and a half years of writting plus 6 months to publish would place it in 2009. Hopefully earlier, but who knows.