jamesgubera
where do you get your inspiration to create new worlds & characters?
Brandon Sanderson
Inspiriation comes from all over. Often things I see. Color magic in WRBRKR came from watching b/w movies.
The mist in mistborn came from driving through a foggy night at 70mph..
Sazed came from a Buddhist monk I met in Korea.
Sarene came from a friend, Annie, who complained that she was too tall and too smart for men to want to date.
If you want more, send me an email and ask for my “Ideas” essay. @PeterAhlstrom will send it to you.
Graendal
A question that's been on my mind for a while. If Returned can't have children, how are Siri and Vivenna descended from one?
Brandon Sanderson
Excellent question. One I have to RAFO. When I was writing WRBRKR, I was planning on two books.
I seeded two questions to be answered in the next book. One was the origin of the royal family..
The second was how Vasher was able to survive while hiding his divine Breath. I will answer these questions.
Eventually. (It has to do with restoring Breath and life to the child while still in the womb.).
kqrpnb
Brandon, how do you think WoK will read as a complete set with your voice in the last books? Did you plan ahead for that?
Brandon Sanderson
Short answer is yes. We’ll see if I can pull it off. Original plans for my series was for a 36 book arc.
I thought that would intimidate readers. (; But the secret answer is this:
People ask for an Elantris sequel. There is one. It is called Mistborn.
onelowerlight
What first gave you the idea for Warbreaker? What was your first inspiration for it?
Brandon Sanderson
WRBRKR came from a lot of sourcres. Siri and Vivenna were side characters in a book I never finished.
Vasher came from the line that starts the book. No space to post it here, but give it a read.
Nightblood came because…well, I just wanted to have a talking sword.
pfchristopher
Why didn't Vin know the Atium bead Zane gave her wasn't real? Cant she sense how big reserves are?
Brandon Sanderson
Atium reserves always look bigger than they are to an allomancer. It burns so quickly.
She just didn’t have enough experience with atium to realize she’d been duped.
Feifner
Do you think you will ever include dragons in your books?
Brandon Sanderson
Dragonsteel, a series I’ll do someday, has Dragons in it. Hint: This world/series is very important to Hoid..
mnehring
How did you come up with what metal would give what powers in Mistborn?
Brandon Sanderson
The assignment of metals to powers was done mostly randomly.
I started by trying to mix and match colors and hues, but that ended up not working.
I also originally wanted the physical to be more common, and then move toward less common with mental and others.
Hence, iron is physical, Gold is mental, Atium is temporal. The mentals don't quite fit this, though.
rrjr010
Would you be willing to take bribes to start "Nightblood" before finishing WoT!?
Brandon Sanderson
Heh. Nightblood will happen someday. Bribes of cookies or Magic Cards at signings might help. More seriously, I do intend to do this--and post it online as I write it-but it probably won’t be for a few years.
rrjr010
Then you shall have both when you come here this winter. Help turn a few years into six months, right?
Brandon Sanderson
lol. Well, it can’t hurt. But I DO have a lot on my plate... We’ll see. I want an ELANTRIS sequel out for 2015.
rrjr010
Wow, an Elantris sequel would be awesome too. Where would it fit chronologically after the end of Elantris?
Brandon Sanderson
Elantris direct sequel would be 10 years later and use Kiin’s children as viewpoint characters living in Fjorden.
Czanos
Would anything interesting happen if an Allomancer Burned a Hemalurgic spike, or a Feruchemist Tapped one?
Brandon Sanderson
Er, well, it’s possible. But you’d have to be burning a Hemalurgic spike that killed you and took your power…
Just like you can’t gain anything by burning a metalmind unless you infused it yourself.
Feifner
Can Hoid travel through worlds? or, in other words, are all of your "Hoids" one person?
Brandon Sanderson
Well, ‘Hoid’ the name is an alias that a certain person is using, and he stole it from someone else.
But the person named Hoid in Elantris, Mistborn, and Warbreaker are all the same individual..
scarplat
at the end of warbreaker you said that they split up their breaths, how if they can only do all at once?
Brandon Sanderson
I talk about this in the annotations. But Denth was lying to Vivenna at that point.
You can split up breaths. You put some in an object first.
Anusien
Why did Lord Ruler not destroy the logbook knowing what trouble Ruin could cause with it?
Brandon Sanderson
A few reasons. First, Ruin had his fingers in the LR’s soul by then already. Subtle things are easier to influence.
He played off the LR’s natural nostalgia and desire to hold onto something so important to his past.
kikastrophe
So, is Kings in any way like your other books? Shall we expect an unexpected twist?
Brandon Sanderson
KINGS is like my books in some ways. But in order to be grand as a series, it had to start--oddly--more humbly. Yes, there are twists. I wrote it so that the epilogue redefines the entire book and series. Each of the 4 viewpoints has an epilogue. Much as RJ had huge prologues, this series will have huge epilogues. Those epilogues, like the Elantris first lines, are intended to be ‘BANG’ moments.
Czanos
If a Feruchemist Taps warmth, does it actually warm them up physically, or do they just feel warmer?
Brandon Sanderson
It actually warms them. It’s not just a feeling.