James Islington

It's just what the story has taken.

And I don't think there's wasted space or anything like that.

I don't think they're bloated books by any stretch of the imagination.

But, yeah, I mean, like you said, part of it's world building.

That's the reason fantasy is so big because fantasy books are so big because you're trying to –

convey this entire world or in the case of the second one, three worlds to the reader as well as progress your plot and as well as develop your characters.

And so it all takes space.

But yeah, I would love to write shorter books.

We don't want that.

Yeah, I...

Yeah, I never regret having finished them.

I never regret them being the length that they are.

But, you know, when I'm writing them, I'm like, oh, man, if this was a normal book, this would be like done six months ago sort of thing.

I draft a lot.

I draft a lot.

Yeah.

I mean, despite the fact that, you know, I do plan out, um, I do change a lot sort of in between the key points as I go.

Uh, so, um, you know, I'll end up with 50,000, a hundred thousand words scrapped in a, in a book because, uh, I'll either go, ah, this isn't working or, um, this is boring or, uh, you know, I can combine this scene and this scene into one scene.

And that actually just makes it more interesting.

Um,