"Chapter 82--13% cut. I do think that some of these chapters may be combined before the end. I doubt the final book will have 94 chapters."
I really do hope he collapses more than "some" chapters together before the end. For a projected 320k word length, I would suggest no more than 60 chapters at most. And like DomaA, I hope Sanderson reduces the fragmentary jumping-back-and-forth style that was quite obtrusive in TGS. Is Sanderson aware of any of these criticisms? Given that he communicates so freely with fans as to give away a mini-spoiler, I would think there would be some opportunity to let him know we think this is an issue.
The way I read his twitter-posts earlier, though, was that he is now in the process of editing individual scenes. It could be that these chapters numbers are merely a designation of scenes he has to edit, which would mean that the book really consists of 94 scenes, rather than proper chapters. How would 94 scenes in a 320k word book compare to the number of scenes in a book such as KoD or TFoH?
94 scenes sounds more or less right, but I'm purely guessing.
Harriet has a large say in this stage of the process, and the way Brandon speaks, I'm guessing she'll have him combine scenes (and also likely re order some scenes). I remember now the number of chapters went down near the end for TGS to, and involved chopping scenes in two or combining two bits as one continuous scenes etc. That sort of editing was one of the last things RJ and Harriet worked on together before delivering a WOT manuscript. Harriet somewhat was more involved at this stage than usual, as she was the one looking for thematic links between scenes, and coming up with (most) chapter names.
It sounds quite possible the final number falls below 60 or even 55, which sounds a lot more reasonable for a WOT book of around 300k, considering we know it's a WOT that will also regroup a lot of "misc players" because Brandon pushed their reappearances to TOM to stick mostly to Rand/Egwene in TGS.
Hard to tell though, it depends how Brandon works. A lot of writers do 1 scene/1 chapter until they've done and then decide the final order of scenes and start regrouping them as chapters. A lot also don't work that way, rather determining beforehand that a chapter has a start point and the story needs to reach that end point when the chapter finishes. RJ worked the first way (and in complete disorder too - writing scenes that inspired him more then going back and forth in the book, not caring too much to assemble the final book, nor combine scenes into chapters until much later in the process).
This message last edited by DomA on 28/07/2010 at 12:03:48 AM
tGS: Chapter 81 comment from BS (*spoilers*?)
27/07/2010 03:57:34 AM
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Yeah, I saw that.
27/07/2010 04:03:34 AM
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Well I don't think it was too big of a scene or RJ would have written it I think.
27/07/2010 04:11:01 AM
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Re: Well I don't think it was too big of a scene or RJ would have written it I think.
27/07/2010 05:17:22 AM
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Re: Well I don't think it was too big of a scene or RJ would have written it I think.
27/07/2010 09:18:54 AM
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You say that as if RJ was able to write all the scenes he wanted to before he died.
31/07/2010 02:08:51 AM
- 664 Views
Re: Yeah, I saw that.
27/07/2010 05:28:53 AM
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... and 94 chapters
27/07/2010 04:04:51 AM
- 932 Views
Ouch....
27/07/2010 05:48:13 AM
- 937 Views
BS twittered then, though...
27/07/2010 08:15:06 AM
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Re: BS twittered then, though...
27/07/2010 05:20:56 PM
- 768 Views
Re: BS twittered then, though...
28/07/2010 12:01:26 AM
- 849 Views
Don't you mean aMoL: Ch 81?
27/07/2010 08:38:30 PM
- 814 Views
The next book, Towers of Midnight, is meant. *NM*
27/07/2010 10:24:43 PM
- 377 Views
Hmm, Lan's death?
27/07/2010 08:09:25 AM
- 840 Views
sure, why not. my only problem is...
27/07/2010 08:58:06 AM
- 811 Views
I was thinking Cadsuane *NM*
27/07/2010 10:46:26 AM
- 374 Views
Also possible, of course
27/07/2010 10:58:34 AM
- 802 Views
I don't consider it foreshadowing
27/07/2010 11:15:37 AM
- 725 Views
Hmm, I doubt it...
27/07/2010 11:25:57 AM
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Re: Hmm, I doubt it...
28/07/2010 12:47:33 AM
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rand's fake death. from a POV that thinks he died for real *NM*
27/07/2010 07:07:00 PM
- 385 Views
My bets are on Rand's actual death
30/07/2010 07:40:06 AM
- 771 Views
I can resist the urge. It's basically just a survey after all. *NM*
30/07/2010 07:46:52 AM
- 371 Views
Lan's death and Nynaeve's reaction would fit "heart-wrenching", Cadsuane's not so much for most *NM*
29/07/2010 03:50:34 PM
- 329 Views