I now remember why Robert Jordan’s books are so good. I’ve spent a majority of the last forty-eight hours reading his newest book, a prequel to his endless Wheel of Time series. In the regular books of the series, Mr. Jordan seems to have lost focus, meandering through books where little happens and you question the point of his writing it (since all of his books are bestsellers, it shouldn’t be about the money anymore). The release of a prequel before the regular series is finished shows this failing. But regardless how useless the books are in moving the story forward they are all a joy to read. In reading “classics” over the past two years, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to stay up until four in the morning reading a novel. Mr. Jordan’s book brought that back to me. I fret at the length of his current book, the shortest of his shortest books by half. I know it will be finished in the next two days and I already miss it. This is the power that Mr. Jordan has over his readers.

As a writer, Mr. Jordan is adequate. His descriptions are not flowery and rarely clever, but his character and world building are phenomenal. You care about every character (and there are hundreds that are introduced and recycled through each of his books). The world that is created is very real and you feel like an intricate part of it as you live with characters as they face wars (both the political and male vs. female variety). You look forward to the beginning of every chapter to discover which story and character you will revisit, and you regret the end of the chapter when you have to leave the story and character, wondering when (if ever) he will return to that aspect of the story. You can identify geographic areas and political organizations. All successful epic fantasy novelist share (to a lesser or great degree) Mr. Jordan’s abilities in world building.

Besides reminding me of the joy of reading epic fantasy, I’ve had the opportunity to analyze Mr. Jordan’s writing style and what makes it work so well. Two themes permeate: the first is the viewpoint of the narration. It is narrated in third person. The narrator shares only what the character sees, thinks, and feels. This style puts you in their mind as well as first person, but allows Mr. Jordan to jump around to different character’s viewpoints without losing the sense of immersion. The narrator has no thoughts or feelings of her own. The reader is also given information that only that character would have, allowing you to learn about new aspects of the world along with the character.

Which leads into he second theme: how Mr. Jordan teaches the reader about the world and its inhabitants. Since his worlds focus on fantasy, there is a lot to learn. But the fantastical aspects of the world are only a small part of this slowly constructed puzzle. Information about who the characters are and what they believe, their interaction with other characters, the political intrigues, the different nations, and the geography are meted out in small bits. There is a special focus on the power structure between different characters. For example, Mr. Jordan spends an incredible amount of time discussing the different ranks and relationships between Aes Sedai (female sorcerers). The intrigues, politics, and ceremonies are similar to sororities. These power structures enable the reader to cheer when your favorite character (and there are many favorite characters) advances.

I enjoy reading Mr. Jordan’s books too much to not want to incorporate some of his techniques into my own writing. I’ve attempted (rather feebly) to write with third person single character narration. Both the OGG story (second author is me, in case you couldn’t figure it out) and the Grelko story are in this style. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but it something I want to focus more on.

For the most part, in my stories I don’t narrate the thoughts and feelings of the characters for a consistent purpose. Instead, most of the asides or internal thoughts are incorporated because I thought they were clever and would make the story longer. I’ve known for a while, but haven’t admitted, that I need to ensure that every paragraph furthers the story or the understanding of the world or characters. Cleverness in and of itself (usually) is not a sufficient reason to include words, no matter how well they’re drafted.

To have something to say, I need to understand and identify with the characters and the world. You see that in the OGG story: since the world is pretty much defined (from the Highlander movie, television show, and my discussions with Chuck, Scott, and Chris about the characters), I had information about the world and characters that I could disclose. That’s one of the reasons it’s my favorite story (it would have been even better if it was finished).

The slow disclosure of this information helps make the reading addictive. You want to know more about the world. For example, in my favorite fantasy epic (the first one I read), David Eddings introduces the rules about how magic works slowly. I don’t think I put down the book when the main character was learning about magic. I wanted to know as bad as the character did. This is what keeps you up late at night reading. That’s what I want to add to my stories.