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JordanCon 2016 ()
#3552 Copy

KalynaAnne

In The Rithmatist you previously confirmed that Lines of Vigor behave a lot like light waves.

Brandon Sanderson

Mmhmm.

KalynaAnne

So if two lines of vigor collide do we have wave interference patterns? Does it matter if--

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I am planning some wave interference patterns and things like that, definitely.

KalynaAnne

Does it matter if they come from the same Rithmatist?

Brandon Sanderson

Eh... It should not, no.

Bands of Mourning release party ()
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Questioner

I was wondering, how often are [???] life imitating art or intentionally put into place?

Brandon Sanderson

It's rare that it's intentional. Once in a while it is, for instance Nohadon is based off of King Benjamin.

Questioner

Nohadon?

Brandon Sanderson

The author of The Way of Kings, the original author. But more often it's just unintended

White Sand vol.1 release party ()
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Questioner

If the Liveborns are just brains in a jar, how... How do they procreate?

Brandon Sanderson

So they-- the Wode believes it's important. They will then use methods of... gene--

Questioner

Biochemical?

Brandon Sanderson

--biochemical... 

Questioner

Okay. But the brain has to generate that signal in order to do it, or...?

Brandon Sanderson

They believe that they need the people to meet. It is a cultural thing and not a physical limitation.

Subterranean Press Interview ()
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Gwenda Bond

The mysterious Sandra plays a big part in this final story—did you know from the beginning what her role would turn out to be or was this ending a surprise to you? (Without spoiling anything, of course!)

Brandon Sanderson

With my shorter works like this, I tend to let the story evolve over time more than I do with longer stories. This means more discovery, as I'm not sitting down with a framework—the goal, often, is to practice other skills in my writing. (Things that my novel writing doesn't teach me.) In this case, I had ideas for Sandra, and some of those ended up going all the way through—but some I discarded over time. I'm not one who is "surprised" by my writing, however. I don't generally like that phrasing. Sometimes as you're working on a piece, you discover a thread or theme that intrigues you—so you dig into it further, then develop it. Sometimes this means the final piece of art doesn't match the outline. It's not really a surprise so much as a common side effect of the writing process.

Calamity Seattle signing ()
#3562 Copy

Questioner

So with the depth of the novels, and the number of novels, that you create, do you have an assistant, or some sort of system--

Brandon Sanderson

Do I have an assistant--

Questioner

Well I mean--

Brandon Sanderson

A system to remember everything... Yes I do. What I use is a wiki. I use a personal wiki, just like Wikipedia that is called-- I use an open-source software called wikidpad... and I have someone whose job it is to read my books after I write them, go make all of those notes into the wiki with page references so when I write the next one I can look them all up in the book and things like this. They have a very fun, yet tedious, job.

Skyward release party ()
#3565 Copy

Steeldancer

When a Feruchemist stores their charge in a metal, where is that going? Is that going into molecules, is that going into the Spiritual essence of the metal, is that sort of a Cognitive - what is that?

Brandon Sanderson

It is charging it in...in cosmere terms, more on the Spiritual level, but there are connections to the Physical as well. It's not 100% on the Spiritual.

Steeldancer

It's not changing the molecular structure?

Brandon Sanderson

It is not going to change the molecular structure. If you brought that metal to Earth, somehow, and tested it, you wouldn't be able to tell any difference. Because we just don't have that element.

Steeldancer

You can't test for Investiture on Earth

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. In the cosmere, you can.

Firefight Chicago signing ()
#3566 Copy

Questioner

Why do you do interludes? What possessed you to go that direction instead of just including it as another chapter?

Brandon Sanderson

I felt that one of the foibles of the large series epic fantasy genre is the tendency of authors to go afield down paths of side characters. It happened to Robert Jordan, it happened to George R.R. Martin. And so reading theirs I hoped to learn from them and say "I'm going to do this thing that gives me a pressure valve to tell these stories that are outside the main line but I'm not going to give myself enough room that I can just turn this into a full character, yet." That allows me to do goofy stuff around the world but have a form for it built into the book.

Words of Radiance release party ()
#3568 Copy

scm288 (paraphrased)

So, I don't actually own a hardcover copy of The Way of Kings, but I did notice when looking at one that there's a map of Shadesmar... And that the map shows that Shadesmar geography is precisely aligned with Roshar's geography... So I'm just going to assume that other planets we've visited so far also have realms of Shadesmar that are aligned geographically.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

That's very clever of you! *smiles* Very clever...

scm288 (paraphrased)

So I guess my follow-up question is: is Elantris a Dawncity?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Hmm. I could see where your reasoning could come to that conclusion, but no. No, that's not it. But your earlier extrapolations are in the right direction.

Skyward Seattle signing ()
#3570 Copy

Questioner

The people on Scadrial have innate Investiture from Preservation. If someone from another planet, say Roshar, were to get Allomancy, from Hemalurgy or Feruchemy, would that person have to have Stormlight as well as the metal in order to do their--

Brandon Sanderson

No, good question. They would just need the metal if you were Hemalurgically getting the ability. Remember, Hemalurgy is basically ripping off a piece of someone else's soul and stapling it to yours. Short circuiting the soul, so to speak... All the pieces of the soul you would need, it is giving you. It has dangerous ramifications, but you wouldn't need Stormlight also.

Children of the Nameless Reddit AMA ()
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Aurimus_

From a writerly perspective - as part of your process, how do you come up with magitech solutions that feel like they're a natural part of the magic system - IE fabrials, medallions?

Brandon Sanderson

As for magitech, I try to make them still have a sense of mystery and magic to them--but also have those who, in world, do understand them. To walk that line between science and the fantastic.

Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide ()
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Czanos

Preservation can fuel Allomancy, (minus atium.) but can Ruin fuel Hemalurgy? (Or atium?) And could Sazed fuel all three Metallic Arts?

Brandon Sanderson

Both gods could, if they wanted, fuel all of the Metallic Arts. Preservation is stronger at fueling Allomancy, Ruin stronger at fueling Allomancy or Feruchemy when it has been given via a spike. Both are balanced when it comes to Feruchemy. But this rarely comes up in the books, as it required expending power in a way that the gods were hesitant to do.

Chris King interview ()
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Chris King

Will Southern Scadrians have their own series? Or will they just be something mentioned in the next Mistborn trilogies? Does anything major take place?

Brandon Sanderson

We will have to see. Originally they did not have a series but it will depend on how much time I spend deviating with interesting Mistborn side-stories before I jump up into the second trilogy. Because by the second trilogy, this has all been discovered and it's a different world. I have loosely plotted a smaller series visiting the southern continent.

Bands of Mourning release party ()
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Questioner

In the beginning of Way of Kings, the first one, you start and Gavilar has a sphere that he passes off to Szeth and says "Give this to my brother, keep this safe away from them". It says it's dark but has its own inner light, but it hasn't been brought up again.

Brandon Sanderson

No.

Questioner

Is it going to be brought up again?

Brandon Sanderson

It will be brought up again.

Questioner

How-- Is it important? Or is it more mi--

Brandon Sanderson

It's important… ish.

Questioner

Ish? Does it have anything to do with Odium?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.

Skyward release party ()
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the.fulgid

During his conversation with Shallan, Wit said that, "Failure is the mark of a life well lived," and I'm glad that you shared that because this question has been on my mind a lot, and he says, "And in turn the the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone." Is there anything Hoid has failed at that we haven't seen on screen that you would be willing to share?

Brandon Sanderson

There are certain people he thought he was going to be able to help who ended up not surviving.

Firefight Chicago signing ()
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Questioner

How did Kaladin heal his Shardblade wound without the power of Regrowth?

Brandon Sanderson

That's partially a RAFO. Remember that healing in the cosmere usually has to do with how you view yourself. And as long as there is some outpouring of Investiture you are usually capable of healing. More the weird thing is not that Kaladin healed it's that Szeth couldn't.

Skyward Pre-Release AMA ()
#3583 Copy

meramipopper

What would be Spensa's favorite food?

Brandon Sanderson

Her diet doesn't have a ton of variety, but I'd say she would pick anything that isn't algae paste or rat meat.

meramipopper

Obviously Spensa would love anything that isn't what she normally eats. However, if Spensa could afford food, what would be her favorite?

Brandon Sanderson

I think she'd SAY she wanted "warrior's food." She'd imagine that as big hunks of meat. In reality, most of what we find delicious, she would find so overly-spiced that she'd never be able to stand it. I think you'd find her finding simple, but flavorful, foods as her favorite. Rice and beans. Mashed potatoes. Something that doesn't have a lot of spice, but still has flavor. Crepes might completely overwhelm her.

Skyward Seattle signing ()
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Shallan's Ward

Could Soulcasting be used for cosmetic surgery?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes... *sigh* Boy... *hesitantly* Yes, but give it a very shaky yes. Indicate that Brandon is wincing a little bit about that one.

Hoiditthroughthegrapevine

Could you give a brass nose like Tycho Brahe?

Brandon Sanderson

That, definitely, you could do.

Shadows of Self San Jose signing ()
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Questioner

You mentioned networking. Which, I've always wondered, for things like this, is there any point in me trying to make a connection with you *inaudible* ten years?

Brandon Sanderson

It's very hard to make any kind of meaningful connection with the established authors. If you want to network, you can try, but I just don't have the time. People will ask me out to dinner on tour, and I've already got, like, five friends and family I've got to say no to. I can't even go to dinner with Jason. (Hi, Jason.) One of my long-term friends, because I'm just popping all the time on tour. At a convention, you can usually grab an author, if you're at a con, and be like, "Hey, can I ask you questions for a few minutes," and it's less about networking then, and more about getting information. People you should be networking with are your colleagues.

Here's an interesting story. So, I took a class in 2000 at BYU as an undergraduate. And it was taught by David Farland, who's a fantasy novelist. I'm like, "Oh, there's a real novelist teaching a class. I'm gonna take that." Some of my friends felt... people I didn't know, but other people like me, went and took this class. In this class, I met a man named Dan Wells. I met another man named Peter Ahlstrom. A woman named Kaylynn ZoBell. A group of our friends, the people who became my friends, I started a writing group with them. Well, I sold a book, went full-time. Dan sold a book and went full-time. Peter became an editor at TokyoPop and went full-time. And Kaylynn sold a book. She hasn't gone full-time because that panics her. But, of the people in that class, we are the only ones who went pro. And all of us did. Which should tell you something. And that is, having a community of people who support you as writers... I don't think we were the best writers in that group. I think we're the ones that supported each other, kept practicing, and we became the best writers. But that's that support group. And what happened is, Dan came up to me at a con, and said, "Hey, I found this guy, Moshe Feder. You should come talk to him." So Dan pulled me over and I talked to Moshe. I sold a book to Moshe. Years later, Dan had written a book I thought Moshe would like, and I called Moshe and said, "Hey, the guy who introduced us has a book. You should read it." And Moshe bought Dan's book. And you kind of help each other out, and things like that.

You should be networking with those people. And the other people are the editors and agents. They're at conventions and conferences to work with new writers. That's the purpose. They're always hunting for new talent there. An editor and agent, because they love science fiction and fantasy, and are looking for people to bring out to the world. Every editor wants to be Hugo Gernsback, who discovers these new writers, and things like that. So those are the people to network with.

/r/books AMA 2015 ()
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Boogalyhu34

I asked you at minicon if Roshar had always been the only large landmass on the planet and I think you said that there was once no large land mass on Roshar. Did I hear you correctly? I've been kicking my self for months for not recording that small q and a.

Brandon Sanderson

You heard me right.

FatalTragedy

Does this mean Roshar was once an archipelago?

Brandon Sanderson

Not necessarily.

Arcanum Unbounded release party ()
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Questioner

The universities of Silverlight, where is that headquartered?

Brandon Sanderson

In the city of Silverlight.

Questioner

Does that happen to be in Shadesmar like the IRE are?

Brandon Sanderson

A lot of people think that it is what they call (the fans) The Restaurant At The End Of The Cosmere. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I haven't talked about where it is yet.

Questioner

Will we see more of that in novels?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, Silverlight will be referenced. I have a story brewing set in Silverlight.

General Reddit 2018 ()
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simon_thekillerewok

I just finished my copy of Skyward (I got it at launch, but I've been finishing up your other books) - did the story of The Eyes (Fermi's Paradox space opera novella) end up being rolled into Skyward?

Brandon Sanderson

Yup, it did. I actually still imagine The Eyes mostly being in continuity, with tweaks.

simon_thekillerewok

Is this to say we should expect a tweaked The Eyes novella to come out in the Skyward universe sometime in the future? Or were you just saying that The Eyes was basically the first draft of Skyward?

Brandon Sanderson

I imagine the characters from The Eyes are still around. (You'll see the alien race from the story in the second Skyward book.) It requires a few tweaks because of how humans are regarded, but otherwise, the story could have happened--so maybe I'll eventually finish it and release it.

Firefight Chicago signing ()
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Argent

In terms of timeline-- So The Way of Kings and The Stormlight Archive takes place 1173-74 right now, how far ago, approximately, was the Recreance?

Brandon Sanderson

So you-- Let's see-- Heralds leave at what, 4500?

Argent

That's what it says.

Brandon Sanderson

So the Heralds leave at 4500 and we're at 11--

Argent

So we are at 5500 years after--

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. So Recreance is more recent than late.

Argent

So... In the thousands--

Brandon Sanderson

I'm going to have to pull out the timeline.

Argent

But it's not like three hundred years ago.

Brandon Sanderson

It's not like three hundred years ago, but it's also not like 4000 years ago.

Argent

Okay, so from the middle--

Brandon Sanderson

The Hierocracy happened after and the Hierocracy was a couple hundred years ago. It's longer than that even, it's like five or six hundred years ago I think.

Footnote: Argent makes a small math mistake here, Aharietiem ended 4,500 years before the events of the book, not 4,500 years before the start of the calendar the Alethi use.
#chronology #roshar
Words of Radiance Houston signing ()
#3591 Copy

Questioner (paraphrased)

In the chapter 84 code, does the sequence 111 denote a special character such as a space between words?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

I do not believe there is a 111 to separate words unless it was added by Peter when I wasn't looking. I will say this, the key is in another epigraph.

Bands of Mourning release party ()
#3592 Copy

Questioner

Was the Rose Empire ever under threat from Shu-Dereth? And can you speak a little bit on fitting The Emperor's Soul into a world you'd already created?

Brandon Sanderson

So was the Rose Empire ever in danger from Shu-Dereth and could I speak a little about fitting The Emperor's Soul into a world I'd already written. So when I designed Elantris, I knew where I was going, and I knew a lot about the world. This is how I am in building. So when I wanted to do The Emperor's Soul I already knew where I was going to place it, I knew which magic system I was working toward, and things like that. So it wasn't terribly hard since I already knew what was over there.

The fun about that is that you should go look at the map commissioned, the one Isaac drew, that's done by the Derethi and see how they view the Rose Empire and where they put it on their map. And then you'll eventually get a map of the whole world, and let's just say they don't have a really accurate representation of the world and their place in it. As was very common for a lot of early societies, early European maps are hilarious.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing ()
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Questioner

On Sel, it seems like a lot of the magic is tied-in to the location on the planet. Could you take something like Soulforging and do it on another planet, or is it just tied into Sel?

Brandon Sanderson

It is tied into Sel, and there's this distinct reason for that, and it has to do with one of the big differences between the magic there and other places that people haven't picked out of me yet.

Questioner

So is that tied into how you can get Investiture there?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. It's all tied in. I’ve only made it vaguely - It's not obvious, but I think you could pick it out if you worked at it.

Footnote: We now know that the reason magic on Sel is tied to location is because the investiture there comes from the Cognitive Realm (where location is important), and not the Spiritual.
#magic system #sel
/r/fantasy AMA 2011 ()
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Chaos

Can Hoid jump through time? If so, can Shards jump through time?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid, so far, has only moved forward in time. He has not 'lived' all of those years, but has used some time dilation techniques. That said, he is far older (both in relative and real time) than a normal person can live.

JordanCon 2018 ()
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Argent

Khriss believes that the reason Preservation is experiencing a slow death is because Ruin is not strong enough to Splinter Preservation.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that is a theory.

Argent

Yeah, that's what she thinks. Does she think that this is because of Ruin's trapped power, or because of an inherent difference in the strength levels of Shards?

Brandon Sanderson

She thinks it is more along the lines of a matter of leveraging power as the power is-- The things that happen made it harder for him to leverage his power.

Trapped is a good enough term.

Stormlight Three Update #4 ()
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Argent

Recently, somebody came up with a very clever theory about the meaning of The Way of Kings endsheet, and I liked it very much. I suspect you want to keep most of that a secret, but maybe you can answer this also vague question - is there another chart, in-world, similar to the ones on frontsheet and endsheet, that we haven't seen?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm afraid that the first one is RAFO territory. Let me point out that most charts in Cosmere books are human attempts at understanding the world. There are fundamental principles to them, but also human groupings and perspectives worked in.