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Shannara author Terry Brooks doesn't need to remember the details of his books, other people do that for him
"If someone else is wiling to do the research, I’m willing to let them do it!" Terry Brooks says about others helping keep the small stuff straight in Shannara
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When you’ve been building a mammoth post-apocalyptic fantasy epic for more than four decades that spans more than 40 books, it would be understandable if some of the minutiae slipped through the cracks occasionally. Thankfully, award-winning author Terry Brooks has a solution for this problem: let other people fix it.
Speaking at his Emerald City Comic Con 2025 spotlight panel — the same panel where he announced that he was stepping back from writing the Shannara books solo, with Delilah S. Dawson coming on board to write future volumes — Brooks was asked how he keeps all of the small details consistent in the Shannara saga, which launched all the way back in 1977. His response was laced with his trademark sarcasm: “I have appendices and everything that tell me all this stuff!” (He added, by way of explanation: “There’s no point in putting yourself out there unless you absolutely have to.”)
When asked whether he was responsible for writing those appendices himself, he quickly set the record straight.
“Other people did! I was always alright with that. I don’t mind people helping me,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s what you go to school to learn, do you remember? You go to school to learn to research! Well, if someone else is wiling to do the research, I’m willing to let them do it!”
We’re not going to say that he’s cracked an eternal lifehack code or anything, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if the key to becoming a successful author on the level of Brooks may rest on having his approach to not having to do everything yourself, in addition to whatever level of talent you may possess. After all, as he says, “I think you should take help wherever you can get it.”
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