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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I'm going to skip asking you to tell us about yourself, I think you're already fairly well known. But are there any stories about yourself that readers wouldn't know? Well done, corrupting the youth. | Oh, I'm sure there are tons of stories about myself. The one my dad told at my wedding is a fun one. My parents, like any normal people, will occasionally let certain words slip through their lips around their children that they probably don't want their children repeating. I was 4 or 5 and I had learned to say, from my father, certain expletives. And I walked around saying them all the time. So my parents had to sit me down and say, "Ok we don't say these words because they are bad words." So I said, "All right, I got it." I'm a Mormon, and in the LDS church children are assigned to talk in their own meeting. Your talk is like 30 seconds when you're a 5-year-old, and you're just supposed to get up and say, "I like Jesus," and that's the end. But I decided I would talk about these words, with nobody knowing, even my parents. So I got up in front of all the little primary kids and I said, "We don't say 'oh rust' because it's a bad word." And then I proceeded to talk about all the bad words I knew-to the other kids. That was my talk. So there you go, Brandon swore from the pulpit in Mormon church when he was a kid. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Have you ever worked on a video game before? How did you get involved with Infinity Blade? | This is my first extensive experience working on a video game. I have sold video game rights on one of my other books, but I haven't begun working on that yet. They approached me. The developers of Infinity Blade were fans of mine. They tell me they spent some six months trying to get hold of me, going through different channels. But they kept trying because they really wanted to work with me. Eventually they realized they had a contact with Isaac Stewart, who has done a lot of art for my books and is a good friend of mine. So through him they eventually got me to dinner to pitch working on this project with them. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So, Way of Kings . Absolutely huge book, standing at 1000 pages. Even then, the book is taller than your average kind of novel. So, the question I had for Brandon was, with people like Patrick Rothfuss kind of realizing their works were too long— The Kingkiller Chronicles for example was one big book that he split into three parts so that it was publishable—what was it about Way of Kings that meant even though it was so big, it still had to be just that one book? I see. The two books in front of you here, obviously being re-released... Which point is it that this cuts off at? | I couldn't do that same thing with this particular book because of the way the plot arcs work. It worked very well with Rothfuss' book—of course, I loved his books—but what he's got going on is sort of an episodic story where Kvothe does this and Kvothe does that and Kvothe does this. And you can kind of separate those as vignettes. With Way of Kings , what I was doing is...I've got three storylines for three separate characters who are each going through troubled times. And if we were to cut the book in half, for instance, you would get all of the set up, and all of the trouble, and none of the payoff. And so what'd happen is you'd have actually a really depressing first book, where nothing really good happens and people are in places that they...mentally, they haven't come to any decisions yet; they're struggling with problems. Essentially, you'd only get the first act; you'd get all of the setup and none of the payoff. This cuts off... We decided we had a fairly good break point, because Shallan's storyline comes to...there's a resolution. And some decisions have been made, and it's kind of... We broke it right at the kind of middle point where people are deciding, you know, we've had these struggles, we've had these struggles; now we have some sort of promise of victory. But the victory or things haven't actually happened yet. And so I do strongly recommend that people read both books—have them both together to read together—because there is a certain poetry to the arcs that are built into this. The second half is lots of massive payoff for the first half. But we did find a decent break point. But conceptually it's one novel, even if you can break for a while and then pick up the second one. Conceptually, to me they are one. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would you say your proudest moment has been along this journey of 10 years so far? You have caused me many many sleepless nights. Like the moment I got Words of Radiance --I think I finished that in two or three sittings. Coincidentally, I did not finish my assignment that was due the next day. | There have been several of them, the same type of moment. It's when people come up to me, and they say to me, "Brandon I was not a reader, and your books turned me into one." Because my story, which people can find because I've told it a thousand times, was that I was a reluctant reader. I didn't like books until fantasy novels changed me. I got into this because I thought, "I have to learn to make people feel like Anne McCaffrey made me feel." So in those moments when they say that, that's when I know I'm doing what I set out to do. A close second is when they tell me I kept them up late at night. I feel nice and evil when I've done that. Excellent. Corrupting the youth again. That is the theme of what I do in my life. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If someone used Hemalurgy to take someones Feruchemical abilities would they be able to use that persons personal metalminds? Most relevantly perhaps to take that person's knowledge from their copperminds? If someone stored their identity in an aluminium metalmind, then had their powers and metalminds stolen via Hemalurgy, then the person who took the powers used the aluminium metalmind to draw out the first persons identity would it permanently overwrite their personality with the original persons ? ( would kind of be a long winded way of stealing someone else's body and becoming immortal ) | Yes. All Identity questions are a RAFO until I deal with it more in the books. (Sorry.) It's complicated, but no. There would be too much of the other person mixed in. Both could use the metalminds of the person the Feruchemy was stolen from, but when they made their own, their own Identity would "muddy" the creation. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How important is Intent to Hemalurgy? If two people who didn't know about Hemalurgy were running and tripped, falling perfectly onto a spike, would Hemalurgy occur? What about if it was a sick psychopath who liked stabbing people with spikes instead of an accident? Would the planet these events occurred on matter? | Location is not relevant to most of the magics. As for those specifics of Hemalurgy, I will RAFO for now. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can "modern" (as in Adolin's) Shardplate be summoned similar to how "dead" Shardblades (as in Oathbringer) can be? | RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Were there any characters you found difficult to connect with when writing the remaining books of The Wheel of Time series? | I've never really been able to get into Cadsuane as a character, and so she was the most difficult for me to do. I love Aviendha and Tuon, but both of them think so differently from the rest of the characters that they gave me a challenge. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In your opinion who is stronger in the the world of dreams? Perrin or Egwene? | I'd say that at this point, it's less a matter of who is stronger, and more a matter of what they're doing. Perrin could probably win a fight, but his raw knowledge and understanding is less--he works on instinct. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Sixth of the Dusk doesn't have much that directly ties it to the cosmere. Is this a world we'll see later? | It is not hugely important to the cosmere. We will see signs and hints of it, but don't expect a book set there. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does a Shard's power being manifested either physically or not (through metals vs through light) have anything to do with its individual abilities/powers? | RAFO. :) |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can a Seeker inside a Coppercloud Seek someone out of one? What about a Soother instead of a Seeker? | It is possible. Yes, again possible. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do all Epics' weaknesses come from things in their past? | RAFO. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | In Elantris the Aon used for healing is Aon Ien, but the definition given in the back of the book says it means "Wisdom". The other Aons have effects and definitions that go together, but "Healing" and "Wisdom" don't seem to match. Is there something there or is it an error? | It's more a cultural thing. When I was naming the Aons I had some of them cross-align like this because I feel that languages, and cultures, are often messy. (Drive on a parkway, park in a driveway kind of issues.) This is the only one that ended up in the glossary that was like this, though, so I probably should have spotted that and changed it. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you get inspiration for the settings in your books from anywhere? | Settings are often inspired by something I've seen in our world, then taken to the extreme. The storm on Roshar, the mists on Scadrial...even Elantris was based on my readings about leper colonies. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When you're writing/planning a new series, how much time would you say you spend on world building? Do you like to have a good sense of the world before you starting writing or do you adapt and evolve the world as you write? | I do a moderate amount ahead of time, but it depends on the series--most importantly, the length of the book. If I'm writing a shorter work, I can develop more on-the-fly, knowing I can make it all consistent after the fact. If I'm writing in a series, I need much more ahead of time. Developing the world for The Way of Kings took years. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | There is certain type of chicken that makes two appearances in Words of Radiance , is that chicken an Aviar? | No, but good question. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If a kandra eats a bead of lerasium, can he burn it? Alternatively can he gain Allomancy via Hemalurgy? | Yes on both counts. |
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 | All of the females in your books seem to be very independent, strong women; do you believe that you write them that way from your perspective, or is that your experience, or...? | There's a couple of things behind that. The first is that my mother graduated first in her class in Accounting in a year where she was the only woman in the entire Accounting department. That was in an era where that wasn't something that a lot of women did, and so I've had quite the role model in my life. But beyond that, it's kind of an interesting story. I discovered fantasy with a book I mentioned earlier, Dragonsbane . Wheel of Time was my *inaudible*, but I discovered Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, and my teacher got me to read this, and I came back to my teacher, and said, "People write books about dragons?" She's like, "Yeah, there's a lot of books about dragons; go read them." And so I went to the card catalog, which we had back then in the Stone Age [laughter], and I flipped to the next title in the card catalog, and it was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery. And so I'm like, "Well, this has dragons; maybe this is good." And it was fantastic! If you've ever read Dragonflight , it's amazing! So I read through all of those in the school library, and I'm like, "Well, what else is there?" The next title in line was Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn, and so I read through all of those, which are also fantastic books, and one of the best magic systems in fantasy, in Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner books. And so I got done with those, and at that point, a friend came to me, who'd heard I discovered fantasy, and said, "Here, you'll like this book." It was by David Eddings. And I told him, "I don't think guys can write fantasy." [laughter] That was—honest to goodness—that's what I told him. I'm like, "I don't know if I want to read a guy writer; I don't think they can get it down." And so, I did end up reading Eddings, and enjoying Eddings, but my introduction to fantasy was through three women who have at times been called feminist writers—all three of them have worn that mantle—and that's still with me as part of what makes a good fantasy book, and I think that's just an influence. My very first novel that I tried, which was not Elantris — White Sand —the female character turned out really bland, and I was really disappointed in myself, and I thought, "the book is terrible." And it took me a long time to figure out—like, several books of work—what I was doing wrong. And what I was doing wrong, and I find this in a lot of new writers across the spectrum, is I was writing people specifically "the Other"; people who are different from myself, I was putting them in their role, rather than making them a character, right? And this is an easy thing to do—like, you get into the head of your main character. They're often pretty much like you, you can write them, they're full of life, they've got lots of passions, and then, the woman is like the love interest, and the minority is the sidekick, right? Because that's...you know, how you do that. And you stick these people in these roles, and then they only kind of march through their roles, and so while it's not insulting, the characters don't feel alive. It's like one person in a room full of cardboard cut-outs, like "Stereotypes Monthly" magazine. [laughter] And then your main character. And women are just as bad at doing this as men, just doing the men in that way. And so it's just something, as a writer, you need to practice, is saying, "What would this character be doing if the plot hadn't gotten in their way?" Remember, they think they're the most important character in the story. They're the hero of their own story. What are their passions and desires aside from the plot? And how is this going to make them a real person? And you start asking yourselves questions like that, and suddenly the characters start to come alive, and start to not fill the role. And you ask yourself, "Why can't they be in the role they're in?" And that makes a better character, always, than "Why should they be?" Flop roles, too, if you find yourself falling into this, you say, "Okay, I've stuck—" You know, Robert Jordan kind of did this. The natural thing to do is to put the wise old man into the mentor—you know, the Obi Wan Kenobi, the Gandalf—role, and instead, Robert Jordan put a woman in that role, with Moiraine, and took the wise old man and made him a juggler. [laughter] And these two...you know, and suddenly by forcing these both into different roles, you've got... they're much more interesting characters. And you know, Thom is named after Merlin; he could have very easily been in that role, and instead he wasn't. And so, it made even the first Wheel of Time book so much better by making characters not be the standard stereotypical roles that you would expect for them to be in. So, there you go. Also, stay away from tokenism. If you force yourself to put two people in from the same culture in your book, that will force you to make them more realistic as characters, because if you only put one in, you can be like, "All right, their whole race and culture is defined by this person." And putting in multiples can help you to say, "Look, now they can't both just be defined by that." Anyway, I went off on a long diatribe about that; I'm sorry. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Would a Returned who bonded an Honorblade have their eye color change when they summon it? | That's a RAFO! (More because I don't have my notes handy than anything else, though.) |
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 | Are the "magic fish" of the Purelake the result of symbiotic bonds with spren? | Yes they are. Many creatures on Roshar have such interactions with spren. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | You talked about the prologue and the promise. I am a discovery writer by the way, but sometimes I like to walk outside while listening to epic music to get inspired. The thing is that I don´t really feel comfortable doing a prologue because that could spoil a little bit the story. However, I am concerned about the readers. If I don´t make a prologue and I start with chapter one… well, of course, it will not be that interesting as the magical battle or evil growing on the prologue. So what should I do? Spoil a little bit? Or just start showing my character from 0. I’ve had this dilemma for a while. I can assure you, Mr. Sanderson, that my story is going to be epic and different from the conventional. Just mindblowing. Transcendental. It will have a lot of scaling so I have to start from 0. But how can I lure my readers on the first pages without spoilers? | Well, I’m proud to have been able to chat with you before you make it big! I like how you talk and how you think. Stay confident, but also to be willing to listen to feedback and criticism. If you want to become the great writer you dream of being, you do so (in my experience) by listening. As for prologues, I should say that you certainly do not need them. In fact, many authors use them as a crutch. It is perfectly acceptable (even recommended by some editors I know) to skip the prologue and go right into your story. (Though it’s not something I often do myself, so perhaps this is a “do as I say, not as I do” sort of situation.) The important part is not what you call your opening, but in making certain your opening is making the right kinds of promises. You say you want to start at zero and ramp up–that’s great, and you can totally do that. But try to devise an opening to your story that is engaging, and gives foreshadowing of the type of story you want to tell. Figure out how to start small, but make big promises. Some stories do this with a prologue. But other stories start with the protagonist trying something bold and beyond their skill, to show that they are challenging themselves–and this can be something as simple as running a foot race, or boldly speaking when others remain silent. It doesn’t have to actually include something epic to imply epic turns are coming. Best of luck to you! I suggest just starting where it makes the most sense, then writing your story. Once you are done, you can look back at that opening and see if there are revisions you could make to better align it with the story you ended up wanting to tell. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Will Hoid return as the King's Wit in the next / future [ Stormlight Archive ] book? | Yes. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could Wax, Vin, or the Lord Ruler burn Nightblood? | Firstly, you're assuming Nightblood is not Allomantically inert, but if it was, it would be like trying to burn someone else's metalmind. |
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 | The earring that Wax has. What is it made of? | That is an excellent question. That is a really good question. You've been reading very closely. How about this: it is made of... what you're trying to figure out is, if it has a Hemalurgic charge? It does have a slight Hemalurgic charge to it. So I'll give you that. It does have a slight Hemalurgic charge. [Inquisitor spikes] got melted down and turned into earrings. |
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 | I've been plugging away on the book, slowly but surely. Part Two went longer than I wanted. (Big surprise.) I finished it last week, though, and the full book current wordcount is at 247k. (400k is the goal. Note that of that 247, some 20k or so is for Parts Three and Four, as I wrote the flashback sequences for Dalinar all straight through.) I wanted to be further by the arrival of July, but was slowed down by two things. First, touring in February and March. Writing while on tour is killer, and I tend to be very slow during high-travel times. After that, I spent most of May writing Edgedancer, the Stormlight novella that is going in the Cosmere Collection this fall. (I consider it an apology for not having Stormlight Three out this year.) Everything is still looking good for an Oathbringer release next year. I don't have any major touring until I go to Europe in October/November, and there are no other projects like Edgedancer on my plate. So at my current rate of 10k a week, without any interruptions planned, I should be finishing up right around the middle of October. Part Two turned out well, though it's a slower, more lore-and-character focused section. (It includes some viewpoint chapters I think you'll find unexpected and interesting, though it has less action than other sections of Stormlight.) If you look at the visual outline from the second update, I've finished everything for Part Two. My next task is to do a quick revision of Edgedancer to be turned in this week, and then do a revision of Part Two. I'm doing an unusual thing (for me) in revising each part after I finish it, then sending it to my team for continuity and editing. We discovered that a big slow-down in getting Word of Radiance ready was me waiting for the team to get back with increasingly-complex and detailed continuity notations. This means when I finish the first draft of this book, it will actually be the second draft, which will speed up revisions a ton. (I should be able to move right into them, and do the third draft right away.) The biggest challenge for the book will be making sure I don't go TOO long, as (like other Stormlight books) it's important to me that the book be read as a single volume, instead of as separate books published in a split-up way. (I can't prevent this in some markets, though.) As always, thanks for reading. |
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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 | Is Hoid human? | Yes... but. Hoid is... you can say that he is still human, but his DNA have changed. Now he is human but you wouldn't call him Homo sapiens anymore. It happens something similar with the Steel Inquisitors |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can an Awakened form a nahel bond with a spren on Roshar? | Depends on the spren! |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Hello, Reddit. As someone else has posted, I have finished the rough draft of Dalinar's flashbacks for Stormlight Three. I consider the experiment of writing his flashbacks for this book, instead of waiting for book five, to be a success. Therefore, I'm proceeding with the Dalinar/Szeth flip. The reasoning for this is something I can't discuss in detail until the book is released. I'd be happy to revisit this topic once you all have a chance to read the novel. But for now, a few statistics. I'm working at about 2,000 words a day on average. That's slow for me (a better rate is around 3,000 words) but Stormlight is difficult to write. The complexity of the worldbuilding and the narrative structure require extra attention and detail. At this rate, though, I should be finishing the book sometime between December and February. We'll see--I have a tour for the new Mistborn book, as well as several weeks in the UK, coming up. They'll impact my ability to write. I'm doing a revision on these Dalinar scenes right now, and I'm very pleased with them. At fifteen chapters and 55k (rough draft) they're significantly longer than the other two sequences--I had a lot more to cover in them. I still anticipate the finished novel being about the length of the other two; Dalinar's flashbacks will simply eat a little into his other narrative. Also, expect the wordcount to shrink as I do revisions. Next step is digging into Part One. I anticipate this book moving well in the coming months; my outline is solid, my enthusiasm high, and I will finally get to write some scenes I've been planning for over a decade now. Thank you for putting up with the delayed pace of Stormlight releases. I know you all think I'm freakishly fast, but the truth is that even if I can get this book in on time, it will be two and half years between Stormlight releases. I've accepted that this is just how my process has to work. The difference between me and other writers (ones I wish readers would disparage less) doesn't seem to be one of actual speed. It's just that the thing that relaxes me for the next book happens to be writing side projects that, hopefully, you all enjoy reading. Edit: As a bonus, here's the first line from the first flashback: "Rockbuds crunched like skulls beneath Dalinar’s boots as he charged across the burning field." |
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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 | Can you be Connected to two locations at once? Will that help with doing Sel magic off-world? | Yes RAFO |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are the "magic fish" of the Purelake the result of symbiotic bonds with spren? | Yes they are. Many creatures on Roshar have such interactions with spren. |
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 | Have we seen a Svrakiss in a book so far? Can you tell us anything about Svrakiss, like are they originally from Sel? | Um... RAFO Um... I'm not going to go into that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Who would win in a fight: Sadeas or Amaram? | I am going to say Sadeas, at his prime. And this is because Sadeas at his prime was more aware of his weaknesses than Amaram was, if that makes sense. And Sadeas was more aware of his strengths and his weaknesses. Where Sadeas runs into problems is: Sadeas did not have the help and the sort of beginnings of cosmere awareness that Amaram had. Amaram had access to way more resources and way more... he was in a better position than Sadeas was because of the allies and friends that he had. Sadeas's vision was too myopic in the series, while Amaram's vision was bigger, but he, himself, did not have quite the capacity. |
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 | Can AonDor heal chronic conditions, like poor eyesight? If so, does it require specialized Aon drawing to work, or will enough Aon Iens do the job eventually? | Yes, AonDor could cure a chronic condition like poor eyesight. But you would have to get the specifics of everything, kind of like they're equations, correct. You'd have to know a LOT about AonDor and a LOT about the body to get it right. *pauses in thought* It's kind of like with computer programming. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Today we're officially announcing Mistborn: Birthright , an action-RPG set in the Mistborn world. To those who have been paying close attention, much of this may not be surprising. The MB:B website went live earlier in the month, and I have tweeted several times about the impending game. In short, we're hoping to do a fun, fast-paced, action game with some RPG elements, cool Allomancy effects, and some (hopefully) killer dialogue. That last part is my job, as I'll be writing the story and most (if not all) of the game's dialogue. The game will take place hundreds of years before the events of the books, during the early days of the Final Empire. People have often asked me if I will do prequels to Mistborn , and my response has frequently been that I won't likely write them as novels–but I might consider them for other mediums. We're going to try it here, and this will let us do some very cool things to expand the world. And yes, you get to play as a Mistborn. The game is scheduled for fall of next year, and we're still very much in the preliminary stages of game design. That means that I don't have much to tell you other than what I wrote above. (Though the game's website will be posting screenshots and the like as they become available.) So, since I can't tell you terribly much about the game quite yet, instead I'll tell you how it came to be. I've been keeping my eyes open for the chance to do a Mistborn game for some time; several chances arose, but they always fell through for one reason or another. I didn't want to give the rights to just anybody. I've been a gamer since my first Atari, and I wanted to do it right. When Little Orbit first approached me, I was skeptical. I didn't recognize the company, and though they had worked on some professional projects, I didn't see anything in their pedigree that screamed Mistborn at me. However, I like to at least talk to people who are making offers on my work. And so, I chatted with them. I met with them. And I was impressed. Not only did they have a love for Mistborn , they had more experience at this sort of thing than I'd originally assumed. The company is made up of people who have been in the business for a long time, and they had worked on a variety of games I really love. (They even have guys who were involved in the original Fallout and Baldur's Gate games.) Their pitch materials were good and very persuasive. But the final thing that convinced me they were right came when we sat down and talked about the type of game we would make. Not only were they eager for me to be involved in the story, our discussions of what would make an awesome Mistborn game were synergistic and exciting. They envisioned the game the same way I always had. The longer I've worked with them, the more impressed I've been. They keep their promises; they aren't just willing to let me be involved–they seem dedicated to making certain I'm pleased every step of the way. They don't need to go so far–I've said before that I feel an author shouldn't usually have control of game design, but leave that to people who know how to make fun games–but they have gone well beyond what is required of them. These guys really, really want to make a great Mistborn game. I'm thrilled by what is coming your way when this thing is done. |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Did the Iriali have inhuman ancestry at some point in the past? | Depends on your definition of human. Most would say yes. |
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 | Vasher has shown us that he can substitue his need for Breath with another investiture (presumably Stormlight). To what extent is investiture interchangeable between magic systems? | Very interchangeable, but not always simple to apply. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Chapter Two Wax Ties a Cravat In the original draft, I conceived this scene specifically because of how strong a contrast it would provide to jumping around in the mists in the previous scene. This has always been a theme of the Mistborn books, and I hoped that some familiarity in that regard would provide a connecting tie between this book and the previous trilogy. Mistborn was about balance—balancing the life of a thief (and then assassin) in Vin's case with the life of a noblewoman. I wanted Wax to be dealing with some of the same concepts, but from another direction. Instead of a young person discovering high society, Wax is returning to it after abandoning it. But, as Vin never truly abandoned her street-thief roots, Wax never abandoned his gentleman's ways. |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Where did the surviving Elariels end up after HoA and in the Wax and Wayne Era? | All over, really. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Did you have the ending planned out for the Reckoners series when you started writing? | Then I build a series around the ideas and themes that worked in the first book. I had the ending of the first book well in mind. Once I finished it, I sat down and plotted the next two books. This is very common for me in a series. Writing the first book, making sure I have the characters and ideas down first. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Everyone's here to find out more details about what's going on with the state of Sanderson. What can you tell the fans that you haven't said yet? How are things going, what's in process, and what can we expect? Can you give the fans a hint, maybe, about character groupings? I know that's been a big question among the fans. Do you have a favorite you've already announced that's in Rhythm of War that has been your favorite character to write in this book? | I started the fourth draft of Rhythm of War today. This is the big beta read revision. I spent the last week taking a break from Rhythm of War and working on the novella that's going to go in between books 3 and 4 (theoretically, if I actually finish it). I did one of those between books 2 and 3, and I really liked it. But I only got two chapters of that done, about 10% of it. So, who knows how long it will take me to get that finished after this is done. I've got about two months of work to do this revision, and then one month left for the final polish, which will be June. Right now, just digging into that. Beta reads have given me a lot of useful feedback. A lot of things I'm changing are just slight tonal tweaks here and there, just to balance out. One of the things that happens, particularly with a Stormlight book, is: I write a lot of viewpoints separately and then interweave them, and that ends up creating generally some tonal problems here and there, and some pacing problems that just need to be smoothed out. Either chapters need to be rearranged, or the tone of a chapter needs to change, because I have too many heavy tone chapters in a row and one of them needs to be lightened up, or vice versa. Things like that. I'm not sure if I can give too much of a hint about that. What I can say is, start to make people's expectations: this is the Venli/Eshonai book. But really, it's the Venli/Eshonai flashbacks, and the main book is focusing a lot more on another character. This just naturally happened during the writing process; there was another character that ended up taking a lot of the time. It's not a person who has a flashback sequence in the books. So, you can theorize on who that would be; it's someone who does not have a flashback sequence, so it's not Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Szeth, Eshonai. But, really, it's this character's book, mixed with flashbacks for Venli/Eshonai. It really turned into that character's book a lot more than I was expecting, and it was one of those happy accidents where I really liked how it turned out. But fans who go into this expecting something that's as much Eshonai or Venli's book as the last book was Dalinar's book are probably going to be disappointed, because it's more of a split between these three characters. Venli/Eshonai in the flashbacks, and then someone else in the present. So, hardcore fans, expect another character to really be the focus of this book. It has been this character that I'm not going to tell you who it is. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do darkeyes feel the Thrill? | Yes, they do |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I asked what Kelsier thought of them putting Elend on the throne/how that changed. | He wasn't thrilled but he came around. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was it that inspired you to write a superhero series in which all the super-powered heroes had become so corrupt? | I did it exactly because I hadn't ever seen anyone do it! I've enjoyed the superhero genre quite a bit during my years, and as a writer I'm generally looking to do something similar to stories I've loved in the past. At the same time, something in me rebels at just doing "the same thing" again. This is the conflict of fan against artist inside me and the result is usually that I spend time thinking about a genre of stories, and try to find a take on it that feels fresh and original. It's like eating my cake and having it too! I feel that I can add something to the genre, giving people a new story, yet also incorporate some of the things I love about the genre the things that make it really work. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Does the metal on [Scadrial] contain within it any sort of spren-like being, or anything similar to that, and also, does the Splintered nature of the Shards on [Sel] have anything to do with how the magic manifests itself without a physical representation? | Scadrial did not have an analogous, self-aware Invested set of entities. The power has to be "let go of" in a way. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | How often (if ever) do you reread your own books to make sure the content stays fresh in your mind? Or do you just rely on your notes and timelines you have for your books? | Depends. If it's been a long time, I'll reread. (Or at least look up specific chapters.) It depends on how much the story is "present" in my mind as well. The Stormlight Archive and The Reckoners have been solidly in my mind these last five years, and I have enough a grasp on the story that I'm in control of it and can work with it the way I need. When I get back to The Rithmatist , however, I'll need to reread the whole thing. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Having completed the The Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordan. Who would you want to complete your books if anything should happen to you? | Boy! Let's hope that I make it. But, having done what I did for The Wheel of Time , I've had to consider this. I think right now, I'd like either Brent Weeks to write it (as he and I have very similar styles, and I like his books a lot) or Brian McClellan, my former student who is now writing excellent fiction. (I can't take much credit for Brian, as he was an excellent writer before he took my class.) I haven't asked either of them to do this, though, so it's more just idle consideration to me. |
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 | I've heard you are a plotter, yet chose to write The Reckoners as a pantser. What were some of the unexpected difficulties or advantages of pantsing? | I "pantsed" the first few chapters of Steelheart , but I quickly went from there to creating an outline. The early part was exploration, the first three or four chapters. That's not uncommon, even for an outliner. However, I did then stop and produce a really solid outline for the book. (Actually one of the most solid I've ever made.) When you're discovery writing, you often have a lot more success creating and discovering characters, in my experience. That's why I often free-write a few opening chapters to a book, so I can get a feel for who these people might be.However, a difficulty with discovery writing (pantsing) is plotting it's very difficult to create a tight narrative without an outline. (That said, many people who love to discovery write can fix this problem in revisions.) |
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 | In Shadows of Self a few characters use some variation of "Hell!" as an exclamation when things go awry. I don't recall any reference to "Hell" as a place or philosophy in the religions of the Mistborn series. How does this word fit into their world, does it differ from our own? | The characters in Mistborn have been using "biblical" curses since book one. This was a specific choice made on my part, as I want the "feel" of Mistborn to be like London in the early 1800s. All of my books are to be read as if there's a phantom translator who took it from the original language and translated it into English. In many cases, there isn't a word that is an exact translation—so the translator does their best. In The Final Empire , there was indeed a kind of "hell." Though there wasn't a specific idea of a devil—it was just the punishment ascribed to the souls who failed or disobeyed the Lord Ruler. Even the skaa knew of this, though religion was forbidden them. So it was a more vague sense, than specific theology, to them. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What would you say is the best approach to battle the growing apathy, greed, violence, corruption, pollution and misery in the world today―using Sazed's wisdom, education, research on religions and unity through equal- mindedness or Kelsier's way of personal example, sacrifice, and unity through action? | I am more a Sazed than a Kelsier. Sazed is focused on patience, careful change, and thoughtfulness. But we need Kelsiers too—people who are willing to act decisively, to become the type of person that others follow, and to make things happen, even if sometimes there are terrible consequences. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If you could have an Epic power in your everyday life—you know, just every once in a while, not enough to corrupt you—what would it be? | I would love to be able to fly. It's not the "right" decision, which would probably be some kind of healing/comforting power to make myself and those around me more healthy. (Even if it is to get rid of the common cold.) But…flying! |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is Wayne sick? Like, terminally ill kind of thing? | Is Wayne sick? In what way? No. Good question. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Do you have any advice for new fantasy writers to smooth out any road bumps on the way to getting published and how do you juggle success with the life you had before your books took off? | I have a ton of advice, but most of it I can't put here. I have a couple of resources where I go into depth. The first is Writing Excuses, my podcast. I suggest that you start listening the with January 2015 episodes—it will be very helpful. For something more in-depth, I post videos of my writing lectures on YouTube. This is the class I teach at BYU, and goes very in-depth on publishing. Here, I'll just say this: Practice a lot. Write the kind of books that you wish were being written. Make good habits, and learn to be a writer long before you publish—own being a writer. Do the work, learn to think like a writer, and guard your writing time as if this were your job. Then when it actually happens, it will be more like "Hey, it finally happened" than "Wow. What do I do now?" |
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 | I know you have your masters in creative writing, as do many authors, though some do not. How much has getting your masters helped you as a writer? | No class, even the one I teach, can take the place of writing on your own and practicing. That will be the most useful thing to you in your career—practicing lots of styles, lots of writing tools, and lots of types of stories. Your job is to learn for yourself what works for you, and develop your own mix of strategies—writing methods, outlining methods, viewpoint/tense decisions, prose decisions—that help you consistently create great books. A writing program does several things. First, good writing classes should give you tools to try out, and explain to you what they normally do in writing, and why you might like this too. They give you feedback from established writers. And they give you a writing community to be part of—people to make into a writing group, to bounce ideas off, and to help you along your path. The danger of a masters in creative writing is that some professors are determined to help people create only one kind of fiction, very narrowly defined, and will try to shove you away from other types of writing. Don't let them do this to you—they should be a resource to you, rather than a force that tries to homogenize you into a single type of storytelling. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | So my question is how'd you create the Legion *inaudible*? | Ooh! Good question! So, Legion is a lot of fun, and it's very weird. What happened is, I really do think, as a writer, I have all these weird voices in my head who are telling me to do different things. One day, I was talking to a friend of mine who writes a lot of psychological horror, and I was talking about schizophrenia, and I said, "Hey, what if all those voices helped you out instead of drove you crazy?" And he said, "That doesn't sound like a horror story. That sounds like a fantasy story, you should write that." So I did. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Reading this [ The Amulet of Samarkand ], with a djinni viewpoint, really makes me want to write a book I've been planning for years, one told from a magic sword's VP. |
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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 | As we get ready for the release of The Alloy of Law , I find myself wondering what the teenage me would think of what I’m doing in this book. You see, I became a fantasy addict when I was about fourteen, and one of my mantras quickly became, “If it has guns, it’s not good fantasy.” Now here I am, adding guns to my most successful fantasy series. Despite the ways I’ve changed over the years, despite my belief that fantasy should be (and is becoming) something more than the standard “guy living in idealized chivalrous England leaves his farm and saves the world,” a voice inside of me is screaming that nobody will buy this book. Because it has guns. I don’t believe that voice, but I think it says something interesting about me and others like me. Perhaps we fantasy readers sometimes mix up correlation and causation in our fantasy novels. In fact, I’m more and more convinced that taste for a specific genre or medium is often built on shaky ground. An example may help. I have a friend who once claimed he loved anime. Over the years, he consistently found anime shows superior to what he found on television. But as he started to find more and more anime, he told me that he discovered something. He liked the anime he’d seen at first because these were the shows that were successful and well made, the ones with the quality or broad appeal to make the jump across cultures. He found that he didn’t like all anime—he only liked good anime. Sure, the medium had something important to do with it—but his enjoyment came more from the quality of his sample than the entire medium. Likewise, I’ve come to find that what I enjoy is a good story. Genre can enhance this—I’m probably going to like a good fantasy more than a good thriller or romance because worldbuilding and magic appeals to me. In the end, however, it isn’t the lack of guns (as my young self assumed) that draws me to fantasy stories. It’s the care for setting, pacing, and character development. This is actually a correlation/causation fallacy, and I wonder if I’m the only one to have made it. Many of the books in the fantasy section we love (perhaps because of the setting attention or the types of writers attracted to fantasy and SF) have dragons. Do we therefore make the assumption that we only like books with dragons? These two things (the dragons and our enjoyment) are parallel to, but not completely responsible for one another. On the other hand, maybe I just think about this kind of thing too much. Either way, I present to you The Alloy of Law . A look at the Mistborn world several hundred years after the events of the original trilogy, where the industrial revolution has finally hit and knowledge of gunpowder is no longer suppressed. That means guns. Lots of guns. And magic too. The young me might have been horrified, but the thirtysomething me finds the mix to be exciting, particularly in a world where the magic is directly related to metal |
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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 | Why do you have so many series going on at once instead of finishing one of them? | A couple of reasons. The main one is that it's the way I stay fresh as a writer, I find that I get burned out on things. Another main one is that I feel if I'm not practicing different styles, I'll get into a rut, and my writing will repeat itself. It's kind of like a philosophical reason and an instinctual one. I tell people who are annoyed that I'm not writing Stormlight that you wouldn't get Stormlight any faster if I weren't writing these other books in between - you might get it more slowly, because it's working on other things that really rejuvenates me as a writer. So I would be writing at a [Patrick] Rothfuss speed if I weren't jumping between things. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Riddle me this: Why did the Horneater couple stop after four kids? They didn't want to get heir -sick. A Rioter, a Soother, and a Coinshot all go to buy a car. The Soother goes up to the salesman and is like "hey can I buy a car" and the salesman goes "No, every time I sell to you people I always end up wanting to please you too much: I don't want to sell you the car, get out of here." The Rioter walks up. He's like "hey, can I buy a car?" and the salesman goes "No, every time I try to sell to you folks I always end up wanting to try and *garbled* too much, get out of here." The Coinshot walks up and the salesman goes "No you gotta *garbled* too, get out here." The Coinshot's like "what!? I can't mess with your emotions." The salesman goes "well yeah, but you guys are way too pushy ." | *Playing along* Alright, go for it. Wow. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Hi! I just finished Warbreaker, and I caught my mind that they have animals that exists on Earth (at least by the name, like monkeys, panther, and so). Is this a common thing in the all the planets of the cosmere? | It is common on many of the planets, though it is more likely to happen on a planet (or an ecosystem on a planet) created by Shards, as they're often basing the animal life on creatures they've seen before. That said, some planets with life predating the splintering had Earth-like ecosystems too. The writing answer is that this was a way for me to control learning curve in my series, so that I could have some (like Roshar) that take a lot of effort to get into, and others that are a little more easy to get into. This lets me save the really crazy worldbuilding for a few specific series. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | I asked Brandon if it was any coincidence that Sadeas's name sounds suspiciously similar to the word sadist. | In essence his answer was no, it's not a coincidence, but he didn't consciously choose the name for that specific reason. More like his brain decided it sounded good for that character because his subconscious heard the similarity. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is the Cognitive Realm flat or spherical? Yeah, 'cause I was going to say, if you make a globe flat... | The Cognitive Realm is this weird thing, where it's flat, but it's distorted. You can walk from one planet to the next. So it's got really weird...the spatial reasoning doesn't work the same way. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What was your premise behind the main character David [in The Reckoners ]? Why did you create him as he is, scared yet fearless at the same time, smart about specific things yet totally ignorant about others, etc.? | I built David around two pillars of personality. One is his interest in the Epics, which balances between hatred and fascination. The other one is his fierce determination, which leads him to be impulsive and bull-headed at times, but also pretty inspiring at others. I feel that as people, sometimes our greatest strengths are also our greatest liabilities. In this respect, every human being is a conundrum in at least one or two ways. With David, his fixation on the Epics is a huge strength but he's been so narrowly focused in his interests that he neglected many other areas of study. So he's both smart and stupid. At the same time, he's impulsive and determined, which leads to acts of great bravery, but he lives in a society that beats people down so if he stops and thinks too long, he can often psych himself out. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Why can Kaladin Surgebind with any gem type but Jasnah and Shallan need specific types? | A lot of that will be explained as the series comes along. It is really the difference between Soulcasting and the other forms of Surgebinding. It's more a quirk of Soulcasting than it is something that is different about about Kaladin. So you've kind of got it reversed a little bit though; Soulcasting has this additional restriction that the other ones don't. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | It would be an honor to even have a passing mention in any of your works.... My real name is Lyndsey, I'm about 5'4", 29 years old, pretty plain looking really, brown hair/eyes, not fat but not skinny either (about average in most respects). Huge tomboy though... | Got it. Be aware, it will be a good while before the second book is out--next year sometime, if we're lucky, spring 2013 if the writing takes more time than expected. Look for someone who has a name like yours, and who looks like you. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | One of my favorite moments in The Way of Kings is when Dalinar is having the vision of the Knights Radiant and they're descending from the sky and going into battle. I'd like to know the origin of that scene in your head. | I wanted to provide a contrast. This scene is one I came up with in outlining, it's not one of those scenes that I hang everything on. Most of what you do as a writer, you discover as you do, even if you're an outliner like me. And this was a scene where I'm like, I need something to show the contrast between the world that Dalinar is seeing and the world he is living. And that scene was kind of the metaphorical starfall, that felt like it would express the drama of the contrast, the dark night with the monsters and the bright Radiants from the sky. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you store different types of Connection at different times? Like can you store Connection to people versus location? | That is possible. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When doing your worldbuilding and plotting work prior to writing do you ever work with maps and soldiers? Do you build out your fights with models etc? | I don't build any of my action sequences with models, though that's an excellent question. I have a vivid imagination, and generally don't need to place things on a map to create an action sequence. In fact, I think doing so might be dangerous, as I'd be tempted to describe things happening across the action sequence all over, rather than what is immediately happening to the viewpoint character—which is where my focus needs to be. Often, the only map-based worldbuilding I'll do is a general sketch of a continent or city so I know broadly how everything is related. But then I write the book, and let what has to happen in the book happen—good storytelling trumps cartography. I can always rebuild the map to be accurate once I write the book. The exception is large-scale battles, like some of those in The Wheel of Time , where I had to involve real warfare strategy and tactics. In those cases, I need to know enough that it's best to draw it out and have a full battle map. |
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 | Can you store....like if there is a Twinborn, who is a gold Allomancer and a duralumin Ferring, would his goldshadow change based on what his Connection is? | I'm going to RAFO that. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Can you store any sort of Temporal Connection? | Um, most. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What are your plans with Legion ? | We will eventually be doing a collection of those on my website, so if you want to wait on those, I'm going to do three novellas, and then we'll collect them into a three-novella thing, so it's a regular book size. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Could someone who's never been to Scadrial be Connected to Ruin, Preservation, or Harmony? | Possibly. Depends on the strength of the Connection. But yeah, Connection's not an on/off switch. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | If you tap Connection in one area, for location, would that remove your Connection to your original place, where you're actually from? | Um, RAFO. |
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 | Have we seen the Ones Above before they gained space flight and when does Sixth of Dusk take place cosmere timeline wise? | Yes,+it is the most "future" you have seen. |
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 | Does the metal on [Scadrial] contain within it any sort of spren-like being, or anything similar to that, and also, does the Splintered nature of the Shards on [Sel] have anything to do with how the magic manifests itself without a physical representation? | Scadrial did not have an analogous, self-aware Invested set of entities. The power has to be "let go of" in a way. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | When you tap the nicrosil portion of a medallion, will it run out over time? Or is it like a coppermind, where something discrete is taken, used, and returned? | Good question! Like a coppermind. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Are Seons Splinters of Aona? | He said that that line of theorising is very close and that we are figuring it out. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | What Is Altered Perceptions? This anthology will collect "altered" versions of published stories—deleted scenes, alternate endings, original concept chapters, and that sort of thing. For it, I'm letting people see—for the first time—a large chunk of the original version of The Way of Kings , which I wrote in 2002–2003. This version is very different, and involves a different course in life for Kaladin as a character—all due to a simple decision he makes one way in this book, but a completely different way in the published novel. These chapters are quite fun, as I consider what happened in The Way of Kings Prime (as I now call it) to be an "alternate reality" version of the events in the published books. The characters are almost all exactly the same people, but their backstories are different, and that has transformed who they are and how they react to the world around them. Roshar is similar, yet wildly different, as this was before I brought in the spren as a major world element. |
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Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | The entire time I was reading through The Rithmatist I couldn't help but think it was inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist and Tor recently posted something on Facebook comparing a lot of your works to Final Fantasy, so I was just wondering how much video games and anime you *audio obscured* | Good question, I've played all of the Final Fantasies, I have never watched Fullmetal Alchemist *crowd goes woah* ...I know... *crowd laughs* Peter, he worked for TokyoPop, he was a manga editor and so he is very proficient in his anime and manga and he's told me Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is my must-watch sort of thing. I've never seen it, but it sounds like they are doing the sort of stuff I like, so I need to make sure I do that. But I have played all the Final Fantasies. I mean, I've been a gamer for forever. My fun story about this, and we might have to end here is, when I was 11 my dad sent me out on an airplane to visit my uncle for the first time I've been away from my family on my own, I was so excited. He handed me two hundred dollars, like "Pay for your food, don't let them pay for anything. This is so you can pay for your keep." And so then every time we went out for food or something my uncle insisted on paying for everything, he wouldn't take my money. I'm a little eleven-year-old I can't get him to take the money. So at the end I'm like "My dad is going to kill me. What do I do with this two hundred dollars?" He took me to the mall and said, "Alright! Find something to do with your two hundred dollars." *laughter* That's where I got my Nintendo. *more laughter* This was, what '86? Or something like that. I got my original Nintendo Entertainment System which when I-- No, I sold that and bought a Super Nintendo, my brother sold that and bought himself a Playstation. We sold each system to pay for the next one, so in my brother's PS4 there's a little bit of my original Nintendo. |
Answer the following question the ebst you can about Brandon Sanderson's works and the Cosmere | Is Raoden unable to use the Shardpool like Vin because Devotion is Splintered? | That is part of it, but not the main part. |
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 | Do synthetic gemstones work in fabrials too? | Synthetic gemstones should work. It's a combination of color and chemical structure that's important. Just like metals from off Scadrial would work for an Allomancer, synthetic gemstones should work. |
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