Art and Outlines

[jasnahsward]

In the epilogue, Wit waxes poetically about how art lies in the improvisation. On the surface level, this is obviously connected to Dalinar. But a few of the lines felt like a meta commentary of “wind and truth.” Wit talks about diverging from and filling between the outline, and we know that so much of this book was predetermined by the prior books in stormlight and the cosmere. In fact I’d wager that the Brandon has a detailed outline for major plot points of  the rest of cosmere books. 

What is does this chapter say to us about the joy, or purpose, or art within these books? Part of me feels like this is a plea not to focus solely on the plot points and lore and hints to the future but the language and storytelling and emotion within these characters, the bits that diverge from the outline. Is Brandon telling us what he values in his own books, or am I reading into this too much?

[KaladinWorldsinger]

That definitely is possible. We know that Book3 was supposed to szeths book, that Tara becoming Odium was a book 4 decision. It's very likely that Book 5 has diverged majorly from the original outline.

Like who would have predicted that Sigzil would have an entire plotline in book 5? I am sure if he hadn't written TSM, this arc would have been a few chapters(maybe Venli would have taken center stage instead)