The Wheel Of Time - 5 Ways To Differentiate From Game Of Thrones

5. Map Out The Full Series In Advance

A Dance With Dragons, George R.R. Martin’s fifth book, came out just a few months after the first season of Game of Thrones aired. It was expected that he would finish the sixth and seventh books in plenty of time for the show to adapt them given that it had five years to catch up with what he’d already written.

How wrong that expectation was. The Winds of Winter has still yet to drop nine years later and Martin has experienced a huge backlash from his fans. The writers of Game of Thrones were forced to draw their own conclusions when they ran out of source material towards the end of season five and to many, this was where the show began to go downhill as major plots were invented or rushed into, in contrast to Martin’s slow-build approach.

By contrast, The Wheel of Time has been completely wrapped up on the page for years already. The showrunners can therefore have their full journey completely mapped out from day one, knowing what is going to happen to their characters and when without having to improvise and make decisions (such as omitting plots or killing characters off prematurely) that could prove problematic down the line.

This advance knowledge can and should be utilised to make a fully cohesive creation.