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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Shallan's Memory ability to capture an image doesn't seem to be working exactly like an eidetic memory... ...because she can erase it by drawing. Is that tied directly to the magic of Lightweaving? And if so would other creative Lightweavers have similar abilities. | Yes. If you look at the epigraphs there is a big hint on this, where it talks about it and yes... I have problems with eidetic memory, just because scientifically most scientists say this is not a real thing. So I would say that whenever-- Because of my knowledge of the science of it understand that you would need some sort of magical enhancement to be able to do what she does. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is "Galladon" Galladon's true name ? Yes, I had this crazy idea about "people need to have an Aon in the name to be chosen by the Shaod" and Galladon hasn't it. | It is his birth name, if that's what you're asking. Ah, that's an excellent guess. But no, that isn't the case. It's more about Connection. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does a more Investiture-poor world make it so its magics are easier to use off-world? Because, you said that Scadrial is really Investiture-poor, and it can be used easily off-world, but Roshar is very Investiture-rich, and how can you get Stormlight off of Roshar? There is a correlation? | Yeah. Um, I would say that there is a correlation. Mmhmm. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Shouldn't the rest of Roshar be more Earth-like, more Shinovar-like, kind of, with Cultivation on Roshar? | Um, you are mistakenly assuming that Cultivation means Earth-like flora and fauna. Roshar is very bountiful, and, um, like it's not a barren land. Um, Roshar is very, um... It's thriving. Yeah, it just has a different ecology. Um, you're mistakenly assuming that our ecology is the only sort that can be bountiful. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you ever have trouble keeping your characters straight? How long does it take to get back into them? *audio obscured* | If I stop writing and go back, it is hard. It takes about a month to get back into a story after I stop. I don't get the characters mixed up. I try to, but I don't always manage it, because of deadlines and things. It's always going to cost me, and I know it will, sometimes you can't avoid that. In the old days, I never did it, when I didn't have a publisher, but now it's my job. When they say, "We need this revision done," I stop and do the revision, but it costs me. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When you started writing Cosmere novels, how much of it had you outlined? How far ahead had you thought? Have you ever backed yourself into a corner with it? | When I started writing Cosmere novels? When I started started, I was a teenager. Totally hadn't thought very far ahead. When I was an adult and I was writing them, I wrote one when I was like 20, and I had an inkling, and I played around with things. The first one that I wrote with a real, conscious eye toward the cosmere was Elantris . So the ones that have been published, yes. But when I first started, I had a little bit of an inkling. Not yet! I have backed myself into corners by saying things to fans that I've already changed in my notes and hadn't realized I had, and stuff like that - I do that all the time. But usually when I do that, I just tell them. "Ah, I'm sorry, I just changed this, guys." I'm still convinced that Stayer and Stepper - that [Robert Jordan] didn't know those were two different horses. I'm utterly convinced that he made the mistake, and then just covered it. Because that's the sort of things we writers do. One of the ones I’ve been working on a lot lately is, how much can you affect things that are Invested with other magic systems? Should it be not at all, should it be a little bit, should it be…? But then I have to go back to Mistborn, and I’ve got canon here, where people are pushing and pulling on things that are Invested, but I tried when I was even writing Mistborn to make sure that the someone was drawing on the Mist, or had extra power for some reason before they were pushing on… and so I left myself that room, but at the same time I’ve established that you can do it, so anyway. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your inspiration for Sixth of the Dusk? It feels so, Polynesian or Hawaiian... | I love Hawaiian and Polynesian culture, and it was basically me reading some stories about Kamehameha, and his unification of the islands, and all this stuff, and I'm like, "Ah, I've got to use this someday." It was years later before I got to use it, but I did find a time to use it. And then we got Kekai [Kotaki] to do the illustration, and he's Polynesian, so... |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In The Rithmatist , you mention that Joel actually sneaks into the classroom, is that a spin-off of what you did? | I actually had a teacher once ask, "Who are you?" One of them actually picked me out. Fortunately, that was one that my roommate was going to, so I was able to [pretend I was just there with him]. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | At the end of A Memory of Light , it mentions that Rand is no longer ta'veren - does that apply to Mat and Perrin as well? And if it does, how does it apply to Mat's luck? So you don't know whether they're ta'veren or not? Can women be ta'veren ? Because in the entire series there is not a single female ta'veren . | Everything I'm saying right now is not 100% canon, because I'm only working off of my guesstimates based on his notes. I believe that Mat's luck is a soul attribute that is independent of him being a ta'veren , but enhanced by his ta'veren nature. Part of the proof of this is the Heroes of the Horn knowing him as Gambler, which means in other Ages when he's been born and not been ta'veren , he's still had luck and attraction to things like that. Plus things in the notes, I'm basing on that. So it does not necessarily mean they aren't ta'veren right now, but even if they weren't, I think Mat would still have his luck. I do not know. My suspicion is that if he would have written the outriggers, Mat still would have been, and maybe Perrin, because Perrin was going to be in the outriggers, we know this. But I don't know for sure. But I think it would have been fun, if in some parallel dimension if I were to have written them, which I'm never going to, I would have not made Mat ta'veren, or Perrin, I would have made Tuon ta'veren , and forced Mat to deal with someone else who was ta'veren , which I think would have been interesting. There is not, but I'm very sure that they can be, based on things that I read in the notes. So, that's what I would have done, but I don't know if that's what Robert Jordan would have done. Can you just imagine that, Mat having to think that he's in someone else's story now? |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In The Emperor's Soul - when did you decide to change the beginning? | It was Mary, from the podcast with me, is very good at short fiction. She read it, and she said, "This intro is just holding the story back." And I read it again, and I'm like, I really feel that she's right. I felt at the end of it that the intro was interesting for people who liked Hoid already, but for people who didn't, it was just distracting and confusing. So at the end of the day, I cut it out, and I think it was a good move, even though it was sad. If you google the phrase "killing your darlings". it's a phrase we talk about in writing and storytelling. That scene was what made me want to write the book, it's what started me off in writing the book, and then I cut it out. But sometimes you have to end up doing that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In Sixth of the Dusk , and where that fits in the timeline, are the visitors from anywhere we've seen before? And if I were to speculate more on which one, you'd say... | You have seen people from that place before. Then I would say RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | There was the poem at the end of Way of Kings . How long did that take? | It took an embarrassingly long amount of time. I am not a poet, so mixing poetry with a really rigid form... Yes, the keteks take a long time. Both of them. A ketek? Yes, I probably will do that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Warbreaker . Will we see more? | Yes you will. It is the project that is the most distant right now - the major project that is the most distant. Getting back to that, I feel like I have to do more Stormlight before I can get back to a different epic fantasy. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Elantris , though, how you came out with The Emperor's Soul , it didn't involve any of the magic or anything, I have a feeling they're going to collide? So we'll be able to see the actual Elantris again? Shining and beautiful again? It was very sad, to see them all in pain, the continual pain and... | Yeah, there will be - you will see much more of that. Definitely. Yes, you will. One of the reasons I wrote Warbreaker was that I didn't think I could get back to Elantris yet, but I realized I'd written this entire book about the city of the gods, and you never got to see the city of the gods. So Warbreaker was another take on that idea. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you have any word on the Mistborn video games that are coming out? | I have no official word, other than to say that we did option the rights to the film to the people who are making the video game, and told them, "You have to make the video game or you can't make the film." I actually really like them, and their script treatments on the film are great. And it's not their fault, really, that the game hasn't taken off. It's just that they've had - these things happen in video games. The studio they were working with went under, and another one split, and this sort of stuff happens. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you tell me anything about Kaladin's maternal grandparents? | Let's just say that his mother [Hesina]--you're asking a very astute question--gave up more than most people gave up in that city to go be what she became. She's definitely fallen in social standing since her childhood. She took a hit. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was the main inspiration for Elantris ? | My main inspiration for Elantris was reading in the New Testament, actually, about lepers and leper colonies, and wanting to write a story about a magical leper colony. And that's where the idea for the people who got this disease, and the city, and everything like that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In Sixth of the Dusk , it feels like it's a crossover... So is it a planet that we've seen before, or... And you're not going to tell any more? When will we know? | That is true. Yes. Well, you have seen the people they are calling the "Ones Above". Nope. Yeah, fifteen years maybe? Hopefully it won't take me that long, but I only just finished the outlines for Era 3 Mistborn , which is now what we're calling the 1980s, so I haven't even at the moment got the sketches of the sci-fi one, I don't have the outlines and things. So in other words, we aren't to the science fiction era; we're a ways off from that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would Zane have been like without Ruin? Still has Straff. | Zane without Ruin would have been-- It's so hard to say, is it Zane without Ruin but still having the terrible family life that he has? Then still have Straff but he would probably be more of a Straff heir type thing. Like he would be less crazy, maybe more ruthless and... I mean he would still be his father's son. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How much time elapses between the beginning of the main part of the story [where they start out at the Shattered Plains] and the end of the series? | And the end of the series? Because the end of the series, um, we have a 15-year gap between [books number] 5 and 6. So, the first five will probably be Wheel of Time -ish, sort of, each one picks up where the last one left off; we have a little more time, maybe, than Wheel of Time , but not terribly much, so it will probably be just a couple of years for the first ones, but then we will jump. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you tell us the name of factory from which Tia gets her Cola pouches? And perhaps the city? | Factory is one that doesn't exist in our world, but I believe I have it in Chattanooga. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | At the end of Steelheart , when they're fighting Nightwielder. His weakness was supposedly UV rays and he had Newcago in perpetual darkness. Except the sun produces UV rays. | Yeah when I was building the magic system for this one of the things I realized is large-scale applications of Epic powers could not be subject to their weaknesses otherwise their weakness would become easily manifest. You can see this when Steelheart turns the city to steel, if his fear was manifest far from him every person who-- I'm not going to tell you what his weakness is in case you read the book, it's the big secret-- but anyone who manifested his weakness would have a pocket around them. It would take you about ten minutes to find out what his weakness was. And every large-scale application of power that I was imagining had that big same problem. So what I decided, if it's not immediate to you, if it's not you seeing it and being right there-- That it's your actual-- Something about you that causes the weakness that causes it then it was not going to be manifest. Does that make sense? And in the third book, because enough people asked about this I had David go into a little explanation, he's very technical. But really the reason for coming up with this rule in the first place was because I thought "There's no way you can have this work the way I want to unless there is a loophole there. Unless there's an exception here." So the reason is he's distant from it, large-scale applications it doesn't happen. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What do you think is the difference between SciFi and Fantasy? But wouldn't you say Star Wars is really both? | SciFi works with the improbable becoming reality; Fantasy works with the impossible pretending to be reality. I think the line is between what could be and what can't be. By my definition, that kind of takes Star Wars into Fantasy. I don't necessarily like Asimov's definitions, just because he was very down on fantasy. A lot of the fantasy of his era was very Conan-ish. He was a great writer, I respect his fiction a lot, but I don't think he gave fantasy its fair due. I would count Star Trek definitely science fiction, they're trying to talk about - even though they're using fantastical teleporters and stuff - they're trying to say this is what's possible. It's social science fiction, a lot of it. I would say it’s a mash-up hybrid. It’s a fantasy magic system in a space opera science fiction setting. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When is the second book of The Rithmatist coming out? | I haven't written it yet. I started doing the research, and it was so much work I realized I needed more time to do it, because I'm going to South America in it, and I just needed to know South American cultures better, so I decided I need to take another year to do research. So I'm doing research for it right now, I'm going to write it hopefully after I finish the next Stormlight book, and then we'll release it soon after. So it's a little ways away. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Who/what was the inspiration for Wayne's character? He's the best! | Really, it started with the hats and went crazy from there. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Pat Rothfuss recently worked with the folks from Albino Dragon to create a Kickstarted Name of the Wind deck of cards in which each face card features a character from the book. All those designs were discussed with Pat, and the final result is shaping up to be pretty spectacular. Are there plans, or if not - are you open to planning, - to do something like this for one or more of your own worlds? | I know about Pat's deck, it's really awesome stuff! I can only say that I do have plans to do something similar, but you will have to wait for Words of Radiance to find out more about it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the time between Desolations regular? | No. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I hear... that you teach... If you could, in 2 minutes or less, teach us. *laughter* | One of the requirements for teaching the class that I do at Brigham Young was that they let me record the lectures and put them online. So the entire 2 years so far of my course How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy is online. I also have Writing Excuses, my podcast which is writing focused. If you haven't ever listened to it, it's Hugo award winning, and I would recommend starting January this year. We started kind of a master class of writing a story. And we'll record that live tomorrow morning, 11 am, so you'll be able to hear us doing that. The number one thing I can tell to the aspiring writer is-- This is something I've started talking about a lot recently--remember that you are the product of your writing, not the book, or the story. Now it's a weird thing to wrap your mind around. But it was very important for me, starting out as a writer, that when I wrote a book, I was turning myself into someone that could write better books. So that book was not the product; the book, in some ways, was the side effect, of changing myself into someone who was better at writing books. Each time you do that, you will get better, and the side effect, the side product that you produce will be better. The idea is to keep in mind, "What's going to make me a better writer. What practice is going to help me." Always look at your writing as something you're practicing to make yourself get better, no matter what it is. I mean, I wrote 13 novels before I sold one, perhaps that's why I have that perspective. But I think that a lot of the very successful writers are people who practice a lot, and treat all of their writing as practice. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If an Elantrian drew Aon Kii, what effect would it have? | In the presence of Aon Kii, the guilty feel pain. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Atium was not a basic metal. Does the Era 2 table of 16 have a similar mistake? | RAFO |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | We were wondering whether you could tell us what Jasnah's sexuality is? The internet really wants to know. | Jasnah does not want to be defined by her sexuality. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is Threnody named in memorial of someone/something? | *big smile* Yes it is. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you always know the ending of the stories when you begin them? | Almost always. I'm a planner. Once in a while, I do a short story where I don't. Even that is rare, though. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So for big, big books like Stormlight , what is the ratio of time spent on the first draft versus on revisions, and has that changed over the course of your career? | Oh wow. They take more time in revision. They take more time at every step of the way than the shorter books. So a book like Calamity I can write pretty solidly, I can write 2 to 3 thousand words a day on that rough draft, and I spend two weeks on an outline and whatever that turns into it's only a couple months of writing. A Stormlight book, the plotting is so intricate it often takes me a year before I'm comfortable with the outline I'm working on-- so I will writing other stuff while working on this outline-- 'till I catch what the soul of that book is going to be, but then all of the interludes, and all of the things, and boy, every book we've had big portions we need to knock out and re-write. It just takes a long time. I would say 50% of the time I spend on-- You take the time I spend writing the first draft, cut it in half and that is the time I spend revising on your average book. But it really depends. Like Stormlight I started the outline last year, or a year ago in June, and started my first exploratory scenes--I posted a few of those online--then went back to the outline, and outlined for a year and then I felt good writing it. So I started that in June. I will write this all the way until March and then we will probably be revising it until six weeks before the book comes out, because that is the absolute deadline that Tor needs before they can print and distribute it *camera pans to Peter making a wryly amused expression* So that's about how long it will take to do this book. It's a lot of work. You know I like doing this because I like having multiple things going, right? Like I don't think I can write a Stormlight book every year, in fact I couldn't, that process I just outlined is a two and a half year process. So, it's just not something I could do. But during that two and a half years I can do some shorter books, some novellas, and just experimenting with different types of writing. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the fact that The Way of Kings and rest of the books in the series are going to focus each one on a different character connected in any way to the fact that both The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight focused each one on a pair of characters? | No, not really. Most of my plans for The Stormlight Archive go back years and years to before I was working on The Wheel of Time . I would say that the The Gathering Storm/Towers of Midnight character split happened because of the book split, less than any real planning on my part. I had the character arcs and decided which ones would fit well together if I was only going to be releasing one batch of them at a time. So the answer is no, but with the caveat that with the way my mind works, it may have been working in the same way in both cases. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Brandon, what has been the influence of your LDS religion on your writing? Have aspects of Mormon doctrine been incorporated into your worldbuilding? | I'm very interested in the concepts of religion and the ideas that surround it, and I often find myself writing books that deal with things I'm interested in myself. I allow the themes of books like these to grow naturally out of the world I've built and out of the stories that I want to tell. Specifically, I kind of let the characters decide what the themes of a book are going to be. I don't go into it saying, "I'm going to write about this," but the worlds that I create betray my own interests very strongly. What is it about faith and deity? This is something that is unique about us as human beings, something very interesting to me, and it felt like this area was an open space to explore in fantasy in ways that hadn't been done before. I always find myself gravitating toward things that I feel haven't been explored as much as they could have been. That interests me and fascinates me. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are the Sho Del hordlings and/or a hivemind? | The Sho Del are NOT a hivemind. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I want to know how Hoid travels between worlds. Or, if you're not going to tell me right now, will we ever find out? | Hoid has travelled between the worlds by getting in one Shardpool in Shadesmar and coming out a different one. *pause* Okay? So that is one method he has used to travel between the worlds. The worlds are connected through Shadesmar. Um, things that people don't think about as much reflect very minorly in Shadesmar, so when you-- all the-- most of the space between planets is cut out, and there's some weird, twisted geography going on there. So that's basically how he does it, Cognitive Realm. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | The finale of Hero of Ages is incredibly ballsy. Were you at all concerned about backlash? | Yes, I was. As was my editor. We both agreed it was the right ending, though, and so I didn't have to do much convincing. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I hear... that you teach... If you could, in 2 minutes or less, teach us. *laughter* | One of the requirements for teaching the class that I do at Brigham Young was that they let me record the lectures and put them online. So the entire 2 years so far of my course How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy is online. I also have Writing Excuses, my podcast which is writing focused. If you haven't ever listened to it, it's Hugo award winning, and I would recommend starting January this year. We started kind of a master class of writing a story. And we'll record that live tomorrow morning, 11 am, so you'll be able to hear us doing that. The number one thing I can tell to the aspiring writer is-- This is something I've started talking about a lot recently--remember that you are the product of your writing, not the book, or the story. Now it's a weird thing to wrap your mind around. But it was very important for me, starting out as a writer, that when I wrote a book, I was turning myself into someone that could write better books. So that book was not the product; the book, in some ways, was the side effect, of changing myself into someone who was better at writing books. Each time you do that, you will get better, and the side effect, the side product that you produce will be better. The idea is to keep in mind, "What's going to make me a better writer. What practice is going to help me." Always look at your writing as something you're practicing to make yourself get better, no matter what it is. I mean, I wrote 13 novels before I sold one, perhaps that's why I have that perspective. But I think that a lot of the very successful writers are people who practice a lot, and treat all of their writing as practice. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | They haven't minded that so far. That's not an issue. I think they just want to make sure he doesn't end up leading the Voidbringers or something. | *discussion fades in* ...I doubt they would come to regret that. It depends on your threshold for characters with depression but-- Yeah I think you'll be okay. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the chain in Celebrant made of Dragonsteel? | RAFO! |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would Zane have been like without Ruin? Still has Straff. | Zane without Ruin would have been-- It's so hard to say, is it Zane without Ruin but still having the terrible family life that he has? Then still have Straff but he would probably be more of a Straff heir type thing. Like he would be less crazy, maybe more ruthless and... I mean he would still be his father's son. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Did you switch to the signature after you became an author to make it easier or did you-- | It evolved over time. It used to be a little more legible, but not a lot. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you give us an Oath that hasn't been revealed in the story yet? | No. You'll have to wait for the stories to get those. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is neurodiversity a requirement to become a Radiant? Like do you have to be non-neurotypical? | Read the back of Words of Radiance for your answer, the back of the cover. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What are the basic requirements for a chalking to function in the Rithmatist world? | I'm going to RAFO that because I'm working on the second book right now and I don't want to-- Yeah. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How did koloss-blooded people happen? | Koloss-blooded people-- A koloss-blooded is the result of two koloss having a child. A full koloss is only made once you accept the spikes and are mutated into the final form. And so a koloss-blooded-- The koloss can breed true now but that's what you get. And so they actually have a ritual at coming-of-age where you can accept the spikes or you can leave. And so all koloss in the wastes-- in the Roughs that are in the koloss tribes are-- have chosen that and outsiders can choose it too. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Since Returned come back as kind of an idealized form of themselves, if somebody was transgender in their original life would they Return as the sex they had been assigned the first time or the gender they identified as? | I would think that a transgendered person could definitely come back as how they identify. Perception is very important in these sorts of things. It would really depend on the person, but yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do Rosharans just refer to all birds as chickens and is that a translation error from the Shin? Or do the Shin call them all chickens too? | No, the Shin do not call them all chickens but Rosharans, outside of Shinovar, call them all chickens. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | We were wondering whether you could tell us what Jasnah's sexuality is? The internet really wants to know. | Jasnah does not want to be defined by her sexuality. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What are David and Prof's ethnicities, from Steelheart ? | David and Prof... I have both of them being Caucasian. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | You said that you liked video games. What would you say is one of your favorites? You said you played Infamous, have you played Prototype? Yeah... | One of my favorites, I like the Dark Souls games quite a bit. And I've been playing those since they were called King's Field, it's the same company. So I've played all of them since way back when. And I really like the Infamous games, and I really like Civilization, all of those, I've played every single one of those. Y'know I've been tempted a lot, but what I've read from Prototype is that-- Like I played Infamous because I knew you had the choice to not be the bad guy, and I've heard that Prototype you basically don't really have that choice. Yeah, my brother's been suggesting Dishonored, but I'm not-- When I play video games I like to play people that I would admire, you know what I mean? Like I am-- If I have a moral choice system my character is a boy scout. I don't... Yeah, those little walking pixels, I'm not going to, y'know I'm going to mourn if I accidentally run over one of them. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How do you-- Like both Shallan and Kaladin obviously haven't had good lives, but like-- How do you write these really tragic backstories without them feeling kind of gratuitous or forced? | Good question... This is really about the whole idea of making sure you are avoiding melodrama ... And melodrama-- the defining aspect of a melodrama is a story in which each character only exhibits only one emotional state. A great example of this done poorly is--despite me liking a lot about it--there was a show called Lost ... So there's a character whose son gets kidnapped, and from that moment on the only thing he cares about or talks about is the loss of his son. And it's a very tragic thing for him. Losing your son, I can imagine how tragic that would be, and yet this character became so defined by that one attribute that it turned into melodrama for him. The rest of the characters will be standing around saying "Alright we need to do this thing, these guys are over there with guns, they are going to take us down. What do we do?" And they're like "We should do this." "We should do this." and this guy is like "My son!" They're like "We know you want your son back but--" "My son!" "What do you want for dinner?" "My son is gone! How can I eat dinner?!?". And so having a character exhibit only one emotional state is always going to feel like you just set-- It's going to ruin the character, whatever that is. So a tragic backstory-- People joke about Batman. When Batman is written poorly it's always about "My father's d-- My parents are dead" and when he's working well that's an aspect that influence things he does but it's not the only thing about him. And so that would be my warning to you. You can do all of these sorts of things but make the character's not about -- You know we are in part defined by things like this but as real people we are not about the bad things that have happened to us, we are about so much more. And make that the case, alright? |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Shallan's Memory ability to capture an image doesn't seem to be working exactly like an eidetic memory... ...because she can erase it by drawing. Is that tied directly to the magic of Lightweaving? And if so would other creative Lightweavers have similar abilities. | Yes. If you look at the epigraphs there is a big hint on this, where it talks about it and yes... I have problems with eidetic memory, just because scientifically most scientists say this is not a real thing. So I would say that whenever-- Because of my knowledge of the science of it understand that you would need some sort of magical enhancement to be able to do what she does. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | We have a lot of Renarin questions just because he is a character we both care a lot about, just another what could you-- give us a tidbit about Renarin's relationship with Bridge Four? I can live with that. | I can tell you this, here's a good tidbit. You know the books are about ten characters. Renarin's one of them. But Renarin, you know the first five, he's not one of. So Renarin is one of the main characters for the back five, which are focused more on the Heralds, and he is one of the characters with the flashbacks there. So Renarin, you are not going to get everything you want about him until the back five books. So just keep that in mind. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could you spike Elantrian-ness? Like, could you Hemalurgically spike Elantrian-ness? Could you out of a Reod Elantrian? The zombie ones? You could? Okay. Yeah, so it's gonna take two spikes. Alright. | Theoretically, yes. Um, yes you could. So what you would be spiking there is their Connection to...to the planet, first. That's gonna be the big important thing. So you're going to overwrite your Connection. Um, and then you're going to....it's going to be a complicated process because you're going to have to spike the actual ability to have been transformed, that's gonna be harder. Does that make sense? It's gonna take two spikes. And you gonna have to get the right Connection to the right place. Let's say you spike somebody from MaiPon, and then you spike an Elantrian, you're not going to be able to use it, you're not connected to the right area. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would a Shardblade do to [a "zombie" Elantrian]? It might cut the arm off... | Um, a Shardblade would...oh boy. A Shardblade...a Shardblade would still be dangerous to them, um, the trick is, um, the Shardblade's gonna treat them half alive, half dead. So, it probably would be kind of a flicker, so it depends on when you hit them. It might cut the arm off. And it might just leave it dead. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Shouldn't the rest of Roshar be more Earth-like, more Shinovar-like, kind of, with Cultivation on Roshar? | Um, you are mistakenly assuming that Cultivation means Earth-like flora and fauna. Roshar is very bountiful, and, um, like it's not a barren land. Um, Roshar is very, um... It's thriving. Yeah, it just has a different ecology. Um, you're mistakenly assuming that our ecology is the only sort that can be bountiful. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does a more Investiture-poor world make it so its magics are easier to use off-world? Because, you said that Scadrial is really Investiture-poor, and it can be used easily off-world, but Roshar is very Investiture-rich, and how can you get Stormlight off of Roshar? There is a correlation? | Yeah. Um, I would say that there is a correlation. Mmhmm. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So can you affect [a "zombie" Elantrian] with Emotional Allomancy? | Yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How easy would it be to Pull metal through ["zombie" Elantrians]? Easier than a regular human? | Pull metal out of them.... Easi er . Yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How quickly are you able to get back into the storyline flow when you begin another book? e.g. Do you have to review notes extensively for a few days? | This is one of the most difficult things for me to do. I wish I had a better way to do it, actually. I usually lose a few days or more while trying to get into a book I've stopped for some reason. My primary method is to read what I've written before (or, if it is a new book in a series, the last part of the previous book.) That tends to help get me into a mood, so to speak. But it can take days of thinking, working, and throwing away my work to get into the groove. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your inspiration for coming up with Szeth? | So... I designed his culture first, one of the odd cases where I was working on the culture, and out of that grew his character, at odds with his culture. So I wanted somebody who was both the paragon of his culture and the person who was at odds with it. That concept just worked for me. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When you're writing YA do you ever feel-- Because I was feeling this while reading the Alcatraz novels-- Do you ever feel like you're limited in what you can explore by not wanting to go too dark or too complex for a certain audience? Or when you are writing that sort of story does that not really... | Complexity does not enter into it, for me, except for the fact that I generally focus on one character. And so there is a complexity issue there, in that, you know, it's like I'm doing one, maybe two, viewpoints. And I think it's basically coming because when I'm choosing a story I'm matching a story to an age, I'm not matching an age to a story, does that make sense? So when I say "this is a YA story" that's because it exhibits the sorts of things I want to tell-- exhibits the sort of things that work for that market. I don't tend to write down but I do tend to keep the number of viewpoints more limited, just to keep the books a little less thick. So yeah, yes but not really. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So when Renarin was writing the countdown to the Everstorm, how conscious was he of what he was doing and how in control was he? | He was not terribly in control, he was somewhat conscious. But you will find out a lot more about this, that-- Yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is neurodiversity a requirement to become a Radiant? Like do you have to be non-neurotypical? | Read the back of Words of Radiance for your answer, the back of the cover. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the time between Desolations regular? | No. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Finally, what point, usually, is society at when a Desolation comes? Because Taln was prepared to introduce them to bronze... ...and Alethi society is so far beyond that. | Yes. Yes. Historically a lot of the-- What would happen with the Desolations would destroy all civilization and then the Heralds would leave, and leave people basically in the Stone Age again. And they came back numerous times and found humankind still in the Stone Age, after having left. And so they are prepared-- Sometimes they would come back and they would already be in the Bronze Age or-- and things like that and get them beyond that but frequently they had to be ready, the Heralds learned they had to be ready to try and bring humankind forward several thousand years worth of technology in a year. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could a sentient Invested object take up a Shard? | Highly unlikely, probably impossible--but impossibility is hard to judge. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you give us an Oath that hasn't been revealed in the story yet? | No. You'll have to wait for the stories to get those. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How big is the Roshar supercontinent? | [Peter Ahlstrom] or [Isaac Stewart], can give you a specific on that, if you need one. I don't have the scale map handy. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is "Galladon" Galladon's true name ? Yes, I had this crazy idea about "people need to have an Aon in the name to be chosen by the Shaod" and Galladon hasn't it. | It is his birth name, if that's what you're asking. Ah, that's an excellent guess. But no, that isn't the case. It's more about Connection. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Epigraphs in Mistborn & Stormlight : did you wrote them before, during or after writing the rest of the book? | Almost always after the book is done, with notes before certain chapters of what to include above that one. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Who/what was the inspiration for Wayne's character? He's the best! | Really, it started with the hats and went crazy from there. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What's the book you've enjoyed the most writing? | Hmm.... Probably one of the Alcatraz books. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you think pantsers grow up to be planners? Or, are pantsers forever pantsers, & planners forever planners? | I think that both pantsers and planners generally learn to use the tools of the others side on occasion. And some do swap, particularly for given books. But neither is the other in embryo. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Was atium truly one of the 16 metals, or can it be used by anyone just like lerasium? | Atium has some screwy things going on. It's not one of the 16, but not just anybody could use it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If Kelsier had visited Roshar, what spren would have been attracted to his character? | Gloryspren because he pretty much always feels like he's done something awesome. :) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Hoid, Wayne, Kelsier and Wax are playing cards. How many aces are there? | Only Wayne and Hoid are likely to cheat, and they'd be in cahoots. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How do you go about designing new magic systems? Because that's one of the most amazing things you do. | I've written several essays about this, so if you go to brandonsanderson.com/writing-advice, you'll find my essays on magic systems. Basically, I'm trying to look for something that I can explore in a way I haven't seen people do before. It doesn't have to be a new power, it just has to be a new take on a power that I can explore, that I can have fun with, that I can find some sort of scientific rigor. I like to have this sort of have one foot in science and one foot in superstition. That's what is fun for me in worldbuilding, this idea that-- I often say a lot of the old scientists, like Isaac Newton, believed in alchemy. Like "If only we could figure out..." and they started applying the scientific method to alchemy. Which is so cool! It's like "If we keep trying, we'll eventually figure out how this works." But it doesn't work. I like this idea of applying the scientific rigor to something superstitious, and finding that it does work, and then what do you do with that. So that's what I'm really looking for, particularly in my epic fantasies. It's also got to be the gee-whiz, the wow, "This is really exciting. This is really interesting." |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I hear... that you teach... If you could, in 2 minutes or less, teach us. *laughter* | One of the requirements for teaching the class that I do at Brigham Young was that they let me record the lectures and put them online. So the entire 2 years so far of my course How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy is online. I also have Writing Excuses, my podcast which is writing focused. If you haven't ever listened to it, it's Hugo award winning, and I would recommend starting January this year. We started kind of a master class of writing a story. And we'll record that live tomorrow morning, 11 am, so you'll be able to hear us doing that. The number one thing I can tell to the aspiring writer is-- This is something I've started talking about a lot recently--remember that you are the product of your writing, not the book, or the story. Now it's a weird thing to wrap your mind around. But it was very important for me, starting out as a writer, that when I wrote a book, I was turning myself into someone that could write better books. So that book was not the product; the book, in some ways, was the side effect, of changing myself into someone who was better at writing books. Each time you do that, you will get better, and the side effect, the side product that you produce will be better. The idea is to keep in mind, "What's going to make me a better writer. What practice is going to help me." Always look at your writing as something you're practicing to make yourself get better, no matter what it is. I mean, I wrote 13 novels before I sold one, perhaps that's why I have that perspective. But I think that a lot of the very successful writers are people who practice a lot, and treat all of their writing as practice. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So are you planning to do anything like the Rysn interlude where you record and post videos again? | Yeah, I would like to do that. For those who haven't seen them, I did record myself typing one of the interludes and then I posted it on Youtube. And I will try to do another one of those. I think it's fun. I sometimes get jealous of Dan-- err Howard I mean, who can sit and draw while he's talking with people and do a demonstration. A demonstration of writing is *pantomimes writing/crowd laughs* But this can be put on and sped up, so you can watch it in speed and with cool music in the background and stuff. I'll try to do another one of those. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So I know you talk a lot about the length of the Stormlight books before and how Tor has had some interesting worries there. How do you balance, you know, wanting to extend a scene or wanting to do more flashbacks, or do more characters, while still making sure you get the plot and turn out an incredible book? | Oh yeah . They were more worried about it-- They would like me to write shorter, but they were much more worried before they became the explosive smash hit that they are. *laughter* Now they're just like-- They've learned. "Do what you want Brandon" *laughter* Right, right. So epic fantasy does have this issue of spending so much time dallying with side stories that you lose, sometimes, focus of the main plot. So I've tried to do this thing with the Stormlight books where I consciously made two decisions. One was I would do a flashback sequence in each book that kind of focused on one character that hopefully gave a kind of soul to that book that allowed you to remember "Oh whose flashbacks was that book. Oh that was this one." and that one lead you to understanding the theme of that entire book. Hopefully that will help keep that. The other is that I try to confine my time to the side characters to the interludes, which are slice-of-life glimpses of Roshar. And if I can confine myself to little stories there, then I have a set amount of room-- It's like giving yourself this ground to play in that is bounded, so you finish when you're done with that. I get three interludes between each part, so I can write a bunch of little short stories to explore side characters. But I have to be very careful, you know, "I don't want to do this character yet because I've got this new character" I've got to balance that. And those two things together, hopefully, will help me. Now the issue is most books that-- the series that have had trouble with this in the past don't have it until books 3 or 4, so we won't know if I'll be successful until we get through books 3 or 4, where it starts to appear. So watch me for the next couple years and we'll see if it manifests. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How did you get started with Writing Excuses? | So Writing Excuses. My dopey brother, who barely reads any fantasy or science fiction or anything-- he's a computer programmer, I love him, but he is not a big reader. Who now has a Hugo award *laughter* He came and said "You know I'm taking a podcasting class, these are getting really popular. You should do one of these. You and Dan should get together and do an old-school radio drama and I'll record it." And I was not interested because "This is just like writing my books. I'm not interested." But I thought about that for several months and thought "You know--" I started listening to a lot of podcasts and thought "You know there isn't a really good writing podcast" I couldn't find one. Now since then I've found others who are good. But I wasn't able to find one, particularly one that had the quick and efficient style that I wanted. A lot of podcasts, I love them but they ramble. They just go on . You just listen for hours and hours and they sometimes get to the point. I wanted something focused. So I called up Jordan and I said "What about a writing podcast? People ask me for writing advice a lot. I have this degree, I've been trained as a teacher but I don't teach very much. What can I do to help people with writing?" And so I pitched it to Dan, got Jordan to do all of the editing and producing, and then went and grabbed Howard, who we didn't know that well at that time but I had seen him speak and knew he was clever and fun and I'm more of the dry professorly type. So I could play straight man and having Howard kind of be-- he calls it "I'm the bonehead I don't know anything" but he does know what's going on, he's just good at playing that role. And then we added Mary after we realized we were three white, Mormon dudes *laughter* with kind of the same view on life. Now granted Howard and Dan are insane so that's different *laughter* So we brought in Mary, who we fly in, or we fly to her, we don't like the Skyping podcasting thing so we do them in person. Just to make sure we were adding more variety to the podcast. Plus she had been the best guest we had had on, her puppeteering episode was great. So that's kind of the evolution of it. This year is the year we decided to give it a different sort of structure. "Okay we've done this now for nine seasons, let's try something new with each subsequent season." |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Have you ever thought of teaching at Clarion West? | Have I ever thought of teaching at Clarion. The reason I teach the class I do is because I can drive to it and it's one night a week for three hours. *laughter* They work very much around my schedule. The other thing I like about it is they put it in a lecture hall so I mentor 15 students, I read their writing and things like that, but then any student who wants to take one credit-hour of "you get a free 'A' for listening" can come sit-- So I can have like a hundred people in my class while still mentoring 15. The university really bends over backwards to make it work for me. So I might consider doing Clarion or something but man it takes a bunch of time out-- Peter what did you-- There is the cruise. We do a Writing Excuses cruise which is Clarion-like a little less workshop focused than Clarion, Clarion is very workshop focused. But yeah we do the Writing Excuses cruise. So if you sign up for that when I'm going on the cruise, which I can't promise I'll do every year, but I'm doing this year, then you get the opportunity to come hear the lectures and things like that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | For The Reckoners series, it's my understanding that the Epics appear after they've had some sort of life threatening experience to gain their powers is that correct? That's what I thought after Firefight . | No, not always. Not necessarily. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | At the end of Steelheart , when they're fighting Nightwielder. His weakness was supposedly UV rays and he had Newcago in perpetual darkness. Except the sun produces UV rays. | Yeah when I was building the magic system for this one of the things I realized is large-scale applications of Epic powers could not be subject to their weaknesses otherwise their weakness would become easily manifest. You can see this when Steelheart turns the city to steel, if his fear was manifest far from him every person who-- I'm not going to tell you what his weakness is in case you read the book, it's the big secret-- but anyone who manifested his weakness would have a pocket around them. It would take you about ten minutes to find out what his weakness was. And every large-scale application of power that I was imagining had that big same problem. So what I decided, if it's not immediate to you, if it's not you seeing it and being right there-- That it's your actual-- Something about you that causes the weakness that causes it then it was not going to be manifest. Does that make sense? And in the third book, because enough people asked about this I had David go into a little explanation, he's very technical. But really the reason for coming up with this rule in the first place was because I thought "There's no way you can have this work the way I want to unless there is a loophole there. Unless there's an exception here." So the reason is he's distant from it, large-scale applications it doesn't happen. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | *inaudible* this thing I have fallen in love with *inaudible* when you're the only one that knows that you can only talk about... Will it ever be in print or will it always be a backstory... | I end up RAFOing a lot. "Read and find out". I do a lot of that. There will be several series about the cosmere, but they're a little ways off. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | During the Steelheart tour you mentioned you were trying to work with Tor to get free ebook copies for every hardcover, did anything-- | Yes something is coming, I'll tell you about it... So, I think the first chance we're going to have to do this is for my next Tor book which is going to be Shadows of Self , a Mistborn novel. And if you watch we're going to-- we're coming up with something-- it's still-- I think in about five years, maybe sooner than that, this will happen with every book you buy, but I'm going to try and jump the gun because I'm tired of waiting and I'm going to be impatient. So when I come to UBooks for that book there should be an option to get the book with the ebook. I can't promise 100% but I have a half-go-ahead from Tor on coming up with something to do with this. I can't give you details because we're being recorded. *laughter* I could trust you, all of you. And the all the people you have on Twitter that you are tweeting to but I'm not sure I can trust him. *gestures to camera* But no, it should be coming. And so watch, if I can get this together we should be able to announce what we're doing and how we're doing it before too long. It's something that is very important to me, I want to be able to do bundling like this. What I really would like to do is be able to sell you a copy that has, for a slightly higher price but not super high, the ebook, the audiobook, and the hardcover. That's what I'm trying to make work. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | At the very front cover of the Arcanum Unbounded there is a constellation map, that has a lot of the cosmere stars on it. What point-of-view is that from? | So the question is, in Arcanum Unbounded ... Yes, the cover of Arcanum Unbounded has a star chart in it, a map. And the question is, is this from a specific viewpoint, and if so, what is that viewpoint. So, yes, it is from a specific viewpoint. It's the sky as seen from-- Some of the stars are enhanced a bit-- But it's the sky as seen from a specific point of reference that Isaac came up with when I told-- gave him this assignment. He's my illustrator for a lot of the interior art of the books and he RAFO'd it when we were asked at the release party. So I'm going to RAFO it until he decides he wants to reveal it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When is The Emperor's Soul set relative to Elantris specifically and the other cosmere books? | The Emperor's Soul is set after Elantris but not so far that the characters from Elantris would not still be around. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Was there an Allomantic power that didn't make it into the book? | Was there an Allomantic power that didn't make it into the book. Oh... Yes, but I'm trying to remember. I had like two dozen of them? Oh boy I can't even remember the ones that I discarded. I was going to do a lot more stuff externally, stuff that like wasn't inside of you and it didn't end up working out. The big thing that I talk about with Allomancy that changed is originally I was using...silver as one of the metals, this is-- this is because... Dumb story time, so when I was a kid I painted these little miniatures that you do in D&D so your little guys can actually fight each other, right? And my brother still does this, they're awesome, I was terrible at it, but I painted these little guys. And at one point I went-- and they used to be lead, and then they realized that lead kills you *laughter* and so--or maybe it just makes you strange, I can't remember--I went and all of the prices had gone up, like by a double, because they had made them out of pewter instead. And I said to the guy "What is up with this, you are totally ripping us off. My figures now cost us 50 cents instead of--" I don't remember what it was and he went "Uh yeah it's because pewter has silver in it man. You're buying little silver figures now" and I went "Oh. That's cool." And I bought them. And so for years I thought pewter was an alloy of silver and I wrote an entire book. An Entire Book . The whole first Mistborn book with silvereyes and pewterarms until it went to my beta readers and like "There's almost no silver in pewter Brandon, you don't even really need it. Everything in this magic system works except that." and I went "Well maybe we can just pretend in this world pewter--" "No that's stupid" *laughter* So I had to change it to tin which is actually what you find in pewter. To this day my assistant Peter, who is my continuity editor, came to me and said "You realize you wrote silvereye instead of tineye in the newest Mistborn book that you just finished? It's been ten years Brandon get over it." *laughter* Still happens. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Did Nazh fall in with Khriss before or after the Forests of Hell were colonized by Patience's people? | RAFO. (Sorry. I am toying with a book on Threnody, and don't want to lock myself into anything yet.) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Katarotam was an evil guy who owned Kaladin as a slave. He beat his slaves + killed friends of Kaladin's. *on the receipt it goes on to elaborate* Katarotam cheated Kaladin of both food and clothing… |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How do you like to do internal monologues or thinking between different characters who are very similar to each other. | How do I like to do internal monologues and thinking between different characters who are distinct from each other. I just try to make it be in their voice. I am a person who likes to put thoughts directly in someone's head, so you'll see them in italics. And I try to keep to their voice as much as possible, so if they have linguistic quirks I put them into the thoughts. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can a person who dies but somehow hasn't passed Beyond the Three Realms (a la Kelsier) serve in place of a spren for Radiant purposes? We know that the Stormfather is a Cognitive Shadow and is also acting as a spren for Dalinar but is he able to do that because the "unusual sequence of events" took place or is there something else going on specific to the nature of the Stormfather? | This is theoretically possible, but it would require an unusual sequence of events. RAFO. :) RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Title Page You'd be surprised how much can be said about the title of this book. Naming books is one of the most frustrating, and most fulfilling, elements of writing. I'm more fortunate than some authors I know–for most of my books, the names came easily. Sometimes, I even came up with the title before I wrote the book. (This has actually only happened once, when thought up the phrase "The Way of Kings," and thought "Man! That would be a great title for a book!") Elantris has had several titles. During the rough draft phase, I simply called it "SPIRIT." I knew that the main character's name would be based on the character for Spirit, and that would also be the name he took for himself when he was in exile. I never intended this to be the final title for the manuscript, but it was what I named all the files when I was typing the work. Those of you who've read the book realize the special significance of "Spirit" (or Aon Rao as it eventually became known) to the climax of the story. I'll talk more about this in a bit. Well, as I was writing the story, I realized I needed a better title. The most obvious choice was to somehow work in the name of the fallen magical city that was the focus of the book. Now, I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but the city "Elantris" was actually originally named "Adonis." I'm not sure what I was thinking. Sometimes, when you're coming up with a lot of fantastical names, you create words that have a certain, unforeseen connotations or connections. In this case, I wasn't even thinking of the Greek myth. "Ado" was simply the Aon I chose to base the city’s name around, and "Adonis" (Pronounced with a long "A" and a long "O") was the word that came out of that Aon. So, I named the book The Spirit of Adonis , hoping to play off of Raoden's name. It was, however, actually a three-fold pun. I included this line–"The Spirit of Adonis" at the climax, when Raoden realizes that the city itself formed an enormous Aon Rao. I didn't realize what I'd done until my writing group met for the first time, and they said "I like the beginning of the book. I'm having trouble figuring out what this has to do with the Greeks. Is it because the god-like people were so arrogant?" Then it hit me. Adonis, from Greek mythology, was a beautiful man loved by Aphrodite. The word has become a kind of paradigm for a beautiful–almost perfect–specimen of the male species. And I had unwittingly named my book after him. Let's just say I changed that pretty quickly. However, I needed a new name for the city. I played with a number of different combinations of Ado, but somehow ended up trying up different sounds and combinations. Thankfully, I came up with the word "Elantris." As soon as I wrote it down, I knew this was my city. It sounded grand without being overbearing, and it had a mythological feel to it (hearkening slightly to "Atlantis".) I renamed the book " The Spirit of Elantris ," and proceeded.</p> Then came time to send out the manuscript. I had had some comments on the book–people liked "Elantris," but the "spirit of" was less popular. I tried several iterations, and even sent out some query letters calling the book "THE LORDS OF ELANTRIS." That just felt too cliché fantasy for me, however, and I eventually returned to " The Spirit of Elantris ." Finally, the book got sold. At this point, my editor (Moshe Feder) suggested that we shorten the title to simply Elantris . Remembering how other people had been unimpressed with the "spirit of," I agreed. Now that I've seen the cover lettering and worked with it as " Elantris " for some time, I'm very pleased with the change. The new title has more zip, and makes the book sound more majestic. I still get to have a reference to my old title, as Part Three of the book is called "The Spirit of Elantris." Of course, even this title isn't without its problems. People have trouble spelling it when I say the title, and some think of the car named the "Elantra." At one panel, I even had one person miss-hear me, thinking the name of the book was "The Laundress." That would certainly be a different book... |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In Stormlight Archive what inspired you to come up with the idea of bridges & how they carry them across chasms? | I wanted a form of siege warfare that was different from anything that readers had seen before, but had the same despair to it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you tell me how long it was from the Shattering of Adonalsium to the prelude of The Way of Kings when the Heralds abandoned the Oathpact? 'Cause I've looked at the current chronology and it's very, very spotty... That one takes place before Way of Kings doesn't it? 'Cause I know one of the worldhoppers from there shows up in Way of Kings ... | Current timeline, which I have NOT canonized, is around 6,000 years... I have not finished with my outline document yet. Yes it is... the real trick is... making sure that I fit in, for instance, White Sand and things with the proper amount... because I haven't released that book series yet, I have to make sure while we're doing the graphic novel, that it fits the chronology, which is why I can't quite canonize things yet. Yes Yeah, White Sand is one of the very earliest. |
Subsets and Splits