In plotting an epic like The Way of Kings, to what extent do you outline the whole story? How does that compare with the outline and notes provided by Robert Jordan for the remaining volumes of WoT?
Robert Jordan and I plot differently. In the notes he tends to talk about scenes that he’s working on at the time, whereas I tend to plot out everything, kind of in reverse order. His outlines do end up looking like my outlines in some ways, in that he talks about important moments. I tend to start from those important moments and move backward from them. He seemed to be much more of a “I work on this scene because I’m passionate about it” writer, where I am a “I build a framework for the entire book and then start writing” writer.