I am inclined to wonder whether there is, at some level, something about structuring a really long wavelength story that is as much different from novels as novels are from short stories
Very much so. And I do think TV series with arc-plots can offer some instructive lessons on the subject; among other things, they are required to hold to a structure whether they like it or not. Twenty-two episodes (or whatever), forty some-odd minutes per episode, no wiggle room. They get jerked around in a lot of ways novelists don't (you'll get another season! Wait, you won't!), but they have to figure out how to tell a good story within the space allotted.
For what its worth, while the Malazan books did not strike me as doing the scale of pacing mess that WoT rturned into, they are still really a mess by any less extreme standard, particularly book 8 in which even the ox standing on the side of the road gets a POV, and a goodly chunk of the ongoing plotlines just get dropped, seemingly largely for Ian Cameron Esslemont's series in the same world to pick up.
Heh. Well, like I said in the post, I haven't read them. But do you think it would have solved any of Erickson's problems had he stretched the series to twelve or fifteen books instead? :-)
no subject
Very much so. And I do think TV series with arc-plots can offer some instructive lessons on the subject; among other things, they are required to hold to a structure whether they like it or not. Twenty-two episodes (or whatever), forty some-odd minutes per episode, no wiggle room. They get jerked around in a lot of ways novelists don't (you'll get another season! Wait, you won't!), but they have to figure out how to tell a good story within the space allotted.
For what its worth, while the Malazan books did not strike me as doing the scale of pacing mess that WoT rturned into, they are still really a mess by any less extreme standard, particularly book 8 in which even the ox standing on the side of the road gets a POV, and a goodly chunk of the ongoing plotlines just get dropped, seemingly largely for Ian Cameron Esslemont's series in the same world to pick up.
Heh. Well, like I said in the post, I haven't read them. But do you think it would have solved any of Erickson's problems had he stretched the series to twelve or fifteen books instead? :-)