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Oathbringer's First Draft is Complete


Chaos
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Shortly ago, late this night, Brandon has completed the first draft of Oathbringer, the third Stormlight Archive novel. This draft weighs in at a tiny word count of 461,233 words--which, as a comparison, is longer than Way of Kings (which was 387,000), Words of Radiance (at about 400,000), and the Lord of the Rings trilogy (at 455,000 words). So, you know, it'll fit right in your pocket. Brandon says, of course, there is much work to do and that it will be out November 2017. In the process of editing, generally the word count is trimmed quite a bit as prose tightens. 

What's next for Oathbringer? Peter Ahlstrom, Brandon's assistant, explained on Reddit the process:

Quote

So, when Brandon hits 100% he'll take a few days to polish Part 4 and 5 a bit, then turn it in to the editor. Parts 1 and 2 are fully edited now, so Brandon will start revisions right away. When he has revised Part 1 it will go to the beta readers. I'm envisioning 6 weeks to beta read the whole book. Then final revisions could take another month.

After that, copyedit and its approval will take two months. During this time the artwork will also be finalized as best we can get it. Some final artwork revisions will be done during the next step.

First pass proofs and their approval take another two months. During both copyedit approval and first pass approval I will chase down remaining errors. There will be a second and third pass proof probably. But these are not for finding new errors, only for looking to make sure the previously marked errors were fixed correctly, so in total maybe two weeks. Then the book goes to press.

Tor will also most likely start printing an ARC at the same time the first pass proofs come. These ARCs will go out to reviewers maybe three weeks after my the first pass approvals start.

So that's the process! There really is much to do still. (An unrelated, but interesting fact in that Reddit thread is that Brandon sells twice as many ebooks as print, which is pretty insane, I think.)

Needless to say, after Edgedancer I can't wait to see what is in store in Oathbringer. If it ends up being longer than Words of Radiance--which I imagine it easily will--I can't wait to have an even bigger epic doorstop. Er... I mean, blunt force weapon. Er, I mean... paperweight! All of those things and more. It will be very multifunctional, I'm sure.

Edited by Chaos

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Wow Brandon wasn't kidding around when he said he was almost finished earlier tonight.

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17 minutes ago, The Honor Spren said:

Lifting that book will be my exercise routine. :P

It wouldn't be very good exercising, since you'll never put it down. :P

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4 minutes ago, Glamdring804 said:

It wouldn't be very good exercising, since you'll never put it down. :P

No way! It's the perfect way to exercise. I'll be burning calories like nobody's business.

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Yeah, I carry it to school. As you may imagine, my arms hurt like Damnation by the end of the day

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Can't wait until November! I wonder what sort of secret goodies he'll release to tide us over this year.

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4 hours ago, Glamdring804 said:

It wouldn't be very good exercising, since you'll never put it down. :P

3 hours ago, The Honor Spren said:

No way! It's the perfect way to exercise. I'll be burning calories like nobody's business.

3 hours ago, Talanelat'Elin Stonesinew said:

Yeah, I carry it to school. As you may imagine, my arms hurt like Damnation by the end of the day

 

Rock would make fun of you all. :) "Is not heavy, is lighter than bridge, air-sick lowlanders."

 

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1 hour ago, IntentAwesome said:

 

Rock would make fun of you all. :) "Is not heavy, is lighter than bridge, air-sick lowlanders."

 

Are you completely sure it would be lighter than a bridge? I'm starting to have my doubts. 

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2 hours ago, IntentAwesome said:

 

Rock would make fun of you all. :) "Is not heavy, is lighter than bridge, air-sick lowlanders."

 

Let Rock tell that to my storming arms

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Man, half a year of basically no progress ( on Oathbringer) and then BAM, hes done. Seems like yesterday - and at the same time it feels like an eternity.

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6 hours ago, Disorganizer said:

Man, half a year of basically no progress ( on Oathbringer) and then BAM, hes done. Seems like yesterday - and at the same time it feels like an eternity.

'm just glad he got it done! ^_^

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Pssh. Wusses, the lot of ya. I carry WoR practically everywhere, I read it so much, and I'm fine. 

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Also, I can't wait for an even larger book to carry around and read. 

Besides being a great book, WoR gives me an excuse to not talk to people if I'm feeling especially introverted. 

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@Chaos Lord of the Rings is NOT A TRILOGY! It is a single novel broken up into six books printed in three volumes for convenience. Sorry, just couldn't resist. 

Yay Oathbringer! Hopefully it will fit in my locker!

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4 hours ago, Ookla the figberts said:

@Chaos Lord of the Rings is NOT A TRILOGY! It is a single novel broken up into six books printed in three volumes for convenience. Sorry, just couldn't resist. 

Yay Oathbringer! Hopefully it will fit in my locker!

Well how would you like me to phrase Lord of the Rings so I exclude the Hobbit and Silmarillion, and other things like that? :P 

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The Hobbit and the Silmarillion are written by Tolkien and take place in the same world as Lord of the Rings, but are not the same book. :P

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On 12/9/2016 at 3:04 PM, Talanelat'Elin Stonesinew said:

Let Rock tell that to my storming arms

"Arms of Talanelat'Elin Stonesinew, book is not bridge. Should call you Papersinew. Ha!"

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