Brandon Sanderson Admits "Story Scope Expansion" And Being "Rushed As A Team" Led To Fan-Perceived Quality Problems In Wind And Truth
Brandon Sanderson has been under fire by fans of his The Stormlight Archive ever since the release of Wind And Truth. In a long-winded Reddit rant about editing, the epic fantasy author admits to problems because of “story scope expansion” and being “rushed as a team.”
Fans have largely criticized Brandon Sanderson’s new offering in his The Stormlight Archive as having forced modernisms and having a lot of forced pandering to the LGBTQ+ lobby, but much of the narrative fails, according to reviewers, because of a rapid expansion of perspective characters that are unnecessary.
This has led, as Sanderson admitted on Reddit, to fans speculating that the author like many others who get to high status in mainstream publishing, that the author isn’t being edited to the extent he used to be.
It’s been a criticism levied at many authors in the fantasy genre, including J.K.Rowling and George R.R. Martin, as, when the author reaches a level of fame, it seems like editors may be afraid to pare down their work, and as a consequence later works are sprawling with loose narratives that don’t match the quality of prior works.
Brandon Sanderson addressed these concerns on Reddit with a wall of text,
Re: Brandon needs to be edited more. (u/mattykingkillah92 mentioned this with a very helpfully constructive tone, and it's an idea I see popping up elsewhere.) I assure you, I'm edited more now than I ever have been--so I don't believe editing isn't the issue some people are having. Tress and Sunlit, for example, were written not long ago, and are both quite tight as a narrative. Both were edited less than Stormlight 5. Writing speed isn't the problem either, as the fastest I've ever been required to write was during the Gathering Storm / Way of Kings era, and those are books that are generally (by comparison) not talked about the same way as (say) Rhythm of War.
The issue is story scope expansion--Stormlight in particular has a LOT going on. I can see some people wishing for the tighter narratives of the first two books, but there are things I can do with this kind of story I couldn't do with those. I like a variety, and this IS the story I want to tell here, despite being capable of doing it other ways. Every scene was one I wanted in the book, and sometimes I like to do different things, for different readers. I got the same complaints about the way I did the Bridge Four individual viewpoints in Oathbringer, for example. There were lots of suggestions I cut them during editorial and early reads, and I refused not because there is no validity to these ideas, but because this was the story I legitimately wanted to tell.
That said, we DID lose Moshe as an editor, largely, and he WAS excellent at line editing in particular. I see a complaint about Wind and Truth having more than average "Show then Tell" moments (which is my term for when you repeat the idea too many times, not for reinforcement, but to write your way into a concept--and do it weakly as you're discovering it, so your subconscious has you do it again a few paragraphs or pages later and do it well, then you forget to cut the first one) and this is something I'll have to look at. Plus, I feel that we have been rushed as a team ever SINCE Gathering Storm. That's a long time to be in semi-crisis mode in getting books ready the last few months before publication. We largely, as a company, do a good job of avoiding crunch time for everyone except a little during the year, depending on the department. (The convention, for example, is going to be stressful for the events time, while Christmas for the shipping team, and I don't know that Peter or I could ever not stress and overwork a little at the lead-up to a book turn in.) However, part of the reason I wanted to slow things down a little is to give everyone a little more time--and hopefully less stress--so I can't completely discount all of these comments out-of-hand, and I do appreciate the conversation.
Contained in the comments, Sanderson admits he lost his primary editor Moshe Feder, who retried in 2020. With this, he also claims that “scope expansion” in Stormlight might be a cause for the narrative feeling too loose and long. With the final volume being 1,344 pages, it feels to many readers like this scope expansion might have been unnecessary and a harsher editor would have been useful to make the book feel more compelling.
Sanderson says “this is the story I wanted to tell,” which lends credence to the theory that the editorial might be taking more of a back seat to Sanderson’s vision, but he also admits, “I feel that we have been rushed as a team since The Gathering Storm,” which is the beginning of final Wheel of Time sequence Brandon Sanderson worked on to complete Robert Jordan’s epic work after the famed author passed away.
He also replied to a question about modernisms in the book, saying, “Good question, and I have noticed this criticism. I'll watch it in future Stormlight books, but I can't say that I think Wind and Truth is much beyond my other novels. I just went back and re-read the first few chapters of Elantris, and to me, they use the same conversational, modern tone in the dialogue as you see in Wind and Truth. I feel like this hasn't changed--and I've been getting these criticisms since the early days, with phrases like "Homicidal Hat Trick" in era one Mistborn or even "okay" instead of "all right" in Elantris.”
While it doesn’t explain the LGBTQ pandering, it does give fans a glimpse into why Wind and Truth didn’t appear to meet the quality standards of prior installments with this defense of the work.
What do you think of Brandon Sanderson’s explanation as to the lower quality of the end of The Stormlight Archive? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Well, if what Sanderson says about the editing is true it seems it is not the quantity of editing that is the problem but the quality.
"Sensitivity editing" is worse than worthless: it does harm to the story and makes anything it touches less enjoyable.
And that is apparently precisely the kind of "editing" that was (exclusively?) done to and inflicted upon the disappointing 'Wind and Truth'.
I don’t buy it, it appears to me he’s trying to play both sides to avoid a mass exodus, his writing has clearly declined and went woke… he’s try to please everyone, which will end up pleasing no one. Trying to please these woke activists like he’s been doing will never work, they will never be happy and will suck him dry as we are seeing now.