Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Today, while cleaning out our storage room, I stumbled upon a reply letter from Robert Jordan that I had thought was lost. I wrote to him in April of 1993 when I was 15 and it took until September of 1993 to receive a reply (thus why he apologizes for the delay in response). In the last paragraph he is responding to my letter where I asked about writing. I’d said that I had so many ideas for stories that I felt I couldn’t write or finish them all myself, and asked if it were possible to give the story ideas to another writer.

Dear Jeffrey R. Daniel,

First off, let me apologize for the unconscionable lateness of my reply to your letter. Recently my publisher found a number of letters that had been filed instead of being sent on to me. There isn't even anyone left to berate, as the responsible party appears to be someone who has left the firm. I can only apologize and hope that this reaches you.

That said, thank you very much for your letter. I always appreciate hearing from anyone who likes my work. There isn't much way for me to know how people really feel about my books except for letters such as yours. Receiving one is like getting a pat on the back.

The fifth book in THE WHEEL OF TIME (The Fires of Heaven) should be in the bookstores in November of this year. I hope you will enjoy it. Again, thanks for your letter, and my apologies.

You are going to have to wait for the rest of the series to get your questions answered; if I answered them now, it would certainly spoil the surprises. As for getting someone else to write your ideas, I have never heard of any writers who do that. Try writing them yourself. They probably won't be exactly the way you want them the first time you do it, so you call that a rough draft and do what you think is necessary to make it better. It doesn't matter how many times you rewrite it. That is the way that writing is done.

With best wishes,

I am,

Sincerely,

Robert Jordan

writing advice

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