Jump to content

Stormlight 4 Reddit Update #3


Windrunner
 Share

Hey all, Brandon just dropped his third update for Stormlight Four, tentatively entitled The Rhythm of War on Reddit! He's given us a look into the potential release dates for his next few major titles, Starsight and Stormlight 4, as well as a look into how the writing itself is going and the structure of Rhythm of War.

If you want to go check out the full version to hear what the man has to say in his own words, it's right over here, but here is an abbreviated version. The beginning of Stormlight 4 got off to a slow start in terms of writing after Brandon decided that Starsight needed a medium-sized overhaul before he could begin working on something else. Brandon's very pleased with how that went, but as a result expect Starsight around the first week in December of this year.

As for Stormlight Four, Brandon has about 15,000 words written so far with a target of around 400,000 or so. He says if  he has it completed by January 1st of 2020, it should be ready for release by around Christmas of 2020. However Brandon is clear that he isn't rushing to meet arbitrary deadlines and things can always come up to slow the process down. Brandon's also shared a general plot structure for Stormlight 4. As he has discussed a few times, Brandon plots each Stormlight book like a trilogy contained in a single volume. In the case of Words of Radiance and Oathbringer, this trilogy broke down along the part lines, with each (or most) character(s) having an arc throughout the book. For instance, Part 1 of Oathbringer served as the first "book" for Oathbringer, with Part 2 and Part 3 combined as the second volume and the Part 4 and Part 5 serving as the end to the trilogy.

Rhythm of War is looking like it will be plotted more like The Way of Kings. Each "book" will be defined by story arcs rather than part breaks (although they will still exist). For instance, in the Way of Kings, the three books of the "trilogy" were Kaladin's, Shallan's, and Dalinar's POVs. Brandon has said he envisions Rhythm of War like this, with a Primary Arc following four characters in a distinct location interacting with one another, as well as a Secondary Arc following three other characters in another location, and a Tertiary Arc following two more characters in yet another location. These plots will be more self-contained, although we will still see some minor interaction between plots. Brandon has also said that we can expect a return to the more interwoven style of Words of Radiance and Oathbringer in Stormlight Five.

Brandon says not to expect another update until around mid-summer, but he'll be sharing the piece of art he had commissioned specifically for these updates. It will be a movie poster style depiction of Bridge Four, so that's something else to look forward to until then! There is also a community Spotify playlist of epic tracks that remind people of Stormlight, with Brandon working on a shorter tracklist of his favorites still to come.

 Share


User Feedback

Recommended Comments

Off to go tell my uninformed father he can get me a hardback copy of Rhythm of War for Christmas.

(I'll buy the Kindle edition as soon as it comes out, obviously)

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is quite intriguing- the descriptions of the primary, secondary, and tertiary arcs have given me oodles to speculate upon. Rhythm of War is also growing on me as a title- I was initially firmly in the 'Song of Secrets' camp- but it's starting to feel right for the novel.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Wyndlerunner said:

This is quite intriguing- the descriptions of the primary, secondary, and tertiary arcs have given me oodles to speculate upon. Rhythm of War is also growing on me as a title- I was initially firmly in the 'Song of Secrets' camp- but it's starting to feel right for the novel.

Agreed. They will have been at war for over a year when the novel picks up and the war won't be over by the end because there is another book in the front 5. Has a "daily life in wartime" feel to it. 

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's so much great music on that playlist! Thomas Bergersen, Hollow Knight, Final Fantasy...

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not to mention The Planets, Horizon Zero Dawn, Christopher Tin, Project Destati's Kingdom Hearts, Undertale, Sam Dillard, Zimmer, and somehow Muse got on there too :D

I'm just happy to see Apocalypsis Noctis from FFXV. 

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 17/04/2019 at 10:36 AM, Dr. Dapper said:

Off to go tell my uninformed father he can get me a hardback copy of Rhythm of War for Christmas.

(I'll buy the Kindle edition as soon as it comes out, obviously)

I’d be more happy to be wrong on this one, but Brandon’s previously mentioned that he writes about 30k words a month.

At that speed, it’s mathematically impossible to meet the 1 Jan deadline.

Here’s to hoping that Brandon can turbo charge with vol. 4.  But, I am thinking late September 2021 release at this rate.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/19/2019 at 6:13 AM, Wax said:

I’d be more happy to be wrong on this one, but Brandon’s previously mentioned that he writes about 30k words a month.

At that speed, it’s mathematically impossible to meet the 1 Jan deadline.

Here’s to hoping that Brandon can turbo charge with vol. 4.  But, I am thinking late September 2021 release at this rate.

He’s said on Writing Excuses that he tries to write at least 2000 words a day, so I’d assume he’s able to hit that January target.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Jaywalk said:

He’s said on Writing Excuses that he tries to write at least 2000 words a day, so I’d assume he’s able to hit that January target.

Assuming he takes the weekends off, that still works out to 20 working days / month ie 40,000 words per month assuming he doesn’t work on anything else or travel, etc.

On a 400,000 words target, it will take him 10 months, which makes it challenging to hit the 1 Jan target as he started in April.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought it was going to be divided into 5 book parts, but this looks more like it is going to be a trilogy of trilogies, or something similar. Is one of the main characters going to be a Parshendi? That would be cool.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 5/3/2019 at 9:34 AM, _Edge_ said:

Is one of the main characters going to be a Parshendi?

The main flashback character for this book is a Parshendi.

Share this comment


Link to comment
Share on other sites



Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...