Rechan
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Since you didn't want to release Age of Myth until you had all 5 books written, and Age of Myth is out... what have you been working on since those five books were finished?
Michael J. Sullivan
I finished book #5 on April 7th 2015 and officially turned in Age of Myth on 4/28/15. Of course there is a difference between written and done. So what have I been working on? Well let's see.
I wrote, edited, and released The Death of Dulgath (Riyria Chronicles #4). It came out BEFORE Age of Myth but that is because it had to (in order to not conflict with the Del Rey release).
But the majority of the last 15 months have been taken up with doing my post-alpha re-writes. You see, after I write the books, my wife reads them and she has amazingly good eyes for structural editing (that type of editing that looks the "big picture" aspects. She deemed book #2 and #3 in really good shape, but had some pretty major issues with book #4 and book #5. Many of thee were things that I already thought might be an issue, and the fact that Robin thought so verified that they needed more work. It's not too surprising, Book #4 was rushed so I could get Robin a Christmas present, and book #5 was likewise rushed to give her a birthday present.
Anyway, she has a long list of issues with book #4 and #5. During the original writing I wanted to end book #4 on a particular scene, but that would have made the book too short. Interestingly, as I did the editing it grew substantially and by the time I got to that scene it made even more sense to end it there. Plus the book was well over 100,000 words so I decided to end it where I had wanted to originally. So 1/2 of book #4 was moved to book #5. I knew book #5 would be a big book because of that (last books always are). But once again when I got to about 1/2 way through there was another logical point to break that book. The more I looked at it, the more it became clear that I was "smooshing" two books together artificially. Anyway, I "tentatively" decided to end book #5 where it really should have been and started a new book #6. I figured if it turned out too short, I'd reabsorb it into book #5. At some point in the rewrite for it, I became more and more convinced that #5 was ending where it should have so I bit the bullet and expanded to six books.
As I write this, I'm six chapters away from the end of book #6's edits. I hope to have it done in a few weeks, but don't want to rush it.
So, the TL:DR answer is:
* Writing and releasing The Death of Dulgath
* Incorporating alpha-read feedback in book #2 - #6.
Thanks for asking.
I wrote, edited, and released The Death of Dulgath (Riyria Chronicles #4). It came out BEFORE Age of Myth but that is because it had to (in order to not conflict with the Del Rey release).
But the majority of the last 15 months have been taken up with doing my post-alpha re-writes. You see, after I write the books, my wife reads them and she has amazingly good eyes for structural editing (that type of editing that looks the "big picture" aspects. She deemed book #2 and #3 in really good shape, but had some pretty major issues with book #4 and book #5. Many of thee were things that I already thought might be an issue, and the fact that Robin thought so verified that they needed more work. It's not too surprising, Book #4 was rushed so I could get Robin a Christmas present, and book #5 was likewise rushed to give her a birthday present.
Anyway, she has a long list of issues with book #4 and #5. During the original writing I wanted to end book #4 on a particular scene, but that would have made the book too short. Interestingly, as I did the editing it grew substantially and by the time I got to that scene it made even more sense to end it there. Plus the book was well over 100,000 words so I decided to end it where I had wanted to originally. So 1/2 of book #4 was moved to book #5. I knew book #5 would be a big book because of that (last books always are). But once again when I got to about 1/2 way through there was another logical point to break that book. The more I looked at it, the more it became clear that I was "smooshing" two books together artificially. Anyway, I "tentatively" decided to end book #5 where it really should have been and started a new book #6. I figured if it turned out too short, I'd reabsorb it into book #5. At some point in the rewrite for it, I became more and more convinced that #5 was ending where it should have so I bit the bullet and expanded to six books.
As I write this, I'm six chapters away from the end of book #6's edits. I hope to have it done in a few weeks, but don't want to rush it.
So, the TL:DR answer is:
* Writing and releasing The Death of Dulgath
* Incorporating alpha-read feedback in book #2 - #6.
Thanks for asking.
More Answered Questions
Cows
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
You have said in the past you write the entirety of a book series before you even publish the first book and that this lets you go back and add things in easier if you think of something great later. The question is, what is the latest you have gotten in writing a series when you had a brainstorm and had to go back and add something that ended up changing a lot in the series itself?
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