Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Well, now that The Way of Kings rewrite is finished, I've moved on to the next thing on my plate: Alcatraz Book Four. (And if you're wondering why the heck I'm working on this instead of on WoT 13, I did a blog post warning about all this earlier in the summer.)

I was planning on putting off Alcatraz until September/October, but over the summer I realized that I needed to do it in July. It's time for a break. I've been working on the WoT straight since January 2008. Eighteen months is the longest I've ever spent on the same project, and I'm feeling that I need to step back from it for a short time and let my mind recharge. So I won't be doing any new WoT material for the next month or so. (Though I will be working on outlines and plans for the next sections.)

You can track the progress on Alcatraz via the progress bars. My goal right now is to be done with Alcatraz by the time I'm back from Worldcon, and be through with the new outlines for WoT 13 by September 1st. The book is almost 2/3 done, so things still look good for getting it in by January.

It's kind of interesting, sometimes, to step back and look at the process of how this writing thing all works for me. I think that my early years of writing have had a lot to do with how I now write. People talk about my productivity sometimes. I think a lot of it has to do with how I jump from project to project to stay fresh. The first Alcatraz book came from me needing to do something new between books two and three of Mistborn, and over the last few years, they've been wonderful opportunities to renew myself.

Perhaps I've got writing ADD. (Of course, I don't know if you can call it that, since I generally stick to a project for six or eight months before hopping to a new one.) But I think this all goes back to the fact that I wrote thirteen different books (most of them in different worlds) during my unpublished days. I always hopped to something new every few months, and that kept me excited about writing.

Though, oddly, I'm thinking I'm going to have to do another re-read of the entire WoT here pretty soon. It's been over a year since I finished the last read-through. (Whew. Hard to believe I've been at this a year and a half already.)

In a small bit of WoT news (and in answer to a lot of emails I've been getting) I've been lobbying to Harriet for the chance to keep A Memory of Light for the final volume of the WoT. If you don't remember the backstory, we were planning all three of these final books to collectively be known as A Memory of Light. Each would have the title A Memory of Light with a subtitle. (Gathering clouds for the first one, which became The Gathering Storm.) Well, now that we can't use this idea (for various reasons) and the first third is coming out as simply The Gathering Storm I want to use A Memory of Light for the final of the three. I think it's a beautiful title, and it is something that Mr. Jordan left for us.

Harriet seems agreeable, though nothing official has been set yet. Really, we need to get on the ball and choose a title for the second book. I'm working on that. (Though if you're passionate about the topic, you can feel free to email me.)