[Tobytwo]

This is a tricky one, but I agree that ultimately what is being sold tends to depend on what people want to buy. Whether or not you like it, much fantasy these days is to some extent Tolkeinesque*, and part of that Tolkienishness comes from the books being really big.

And people like that: they must do because the books sell. Personally I'm all for shorter books: just think of the power and number of ideas crammed into an old SF novel like The Island of Doctor Moreau. But fantasy in particular is about creating an entire world, and that takes pages to do properly. I myself find this odd, as the worlds are often rather similar, but when done well (as I'd say Tad Williams did in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn), you really can get "lost" in the created world. Cliche, but true.

As regards writing too much, I've always done that. I think writers should digress and waffle as much as they want when they write the story. It's the editing that counts.


*By which I mean set in a classic DnD-type world influenced by European medieval myth, etc.