YouTube Livestream 6

Pagerunner

Your original five-part Tor pitch when they first signed you. You posted three on the blog way back in the day: Elantris, Mistborn, and Oathshards. What were the other two? And can we see 'em?

Brandon Sanderson

Oathshards... is that what I called Stormlight Archive, before it was Stormlight Archive? It probably was. That might have been what I pitched them as the name of the series. I only vaguely remember that.

What else did I pitch to Tor? We're stretching back 20 years now. I have no idea. I literally have no idea. It was probably Dragonsteel, would be my guess. And probably White Sand. It would've been two other cosmere books, so the only other one is Aether of Night. And I didn't really have any other big cosmere books planned in my head, other than those, at that point. I've since added the Threnody novel, but that's a newer thing. So, probably that. Man, I have no idea.

Questioner

I want to know if Kalad's Phantoms made it to Idris to stop the Lifeless.

Brandon Sanderson

This is a spoiler—it spoils Warbreaker—so I have to be very careful, but what appears to happen at the end did happen.

Michael

Do you plan a novel for Renarin, Lunamor, or even Lopen?

Brandon Sanderson

I do plan a Lunamor—that's Rock—novella between [Stormlight] books four and five. That is very likely to get done. I would like to do a Lopen novella that's set between books one and two. That one's not guaranteed, but I do plan to do that.

Kelly

You mentioned once upon a time that you had an idea for a book based on certain viruses, bacteria, illnesses giving characters powers. Has the current crisis of COVID-19 given you any new ideas or inspiration for said idea to blossom and build on?

Brandon Sanderson

It has, it definitely has, and it's been really kind of helpful for that reason. I think I'm more likely to write Silence Divine than I've ever been before. But I've learned I have to really be careful to curtail my side projects, particularly when a Stormlight book is due, and a Stormlight book is due on July 1st. That is creeping up real quickly.

I actually got an email from someone today that just is begging me to release Rhythm of War now, while they're trapped in quarantine, because they need something to read. If by some chance you (the person who sent me that email) are watching, the book's just not ready! I can't release it, it's not done. I'm not holding it back because I'm cruel. These books, we go right to the deadline on these books, and this book will be turned in like the hour that is it required to be turned in and not before. The last hour it can be turned in and still be printed and shipped is when we will we turn the book in. There's just lots to do - going through all the beta reader comments now, and while several of the plot lines work just fine, there's some of the plot lines that need some work. You're going to be a much happier person with this book with me doing that. I cannot stop and write Silence Divine right now, I gotta keep my eyes on the goal.

Naomi

Are you going to do a sequel for Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

There will be a Warbreaker sequel eventually. I am confident that I will write it; I know what it's going to be about, and what the plotline of it is, and who the characters are, and all of that stuff. I just have to make sure that it slides into the right place.

Brandon Sanderson

Axies the Collector would probably be fine. We would just have a chat.

But bad luck follows him because of the Curse of Kind, so maybe not. Maybe I wouldn't want to be around Axies the Collector, he is channeling the wrong kind of Fortune. Channeling is not an actual term - don't take that and put it in the wiki. 

Questioner

Have you ever considered writing one of your books primarily from the villain's point of view?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, I have considered it. I do think that that is an interesting and fun thing to do, particularly if you play with "What does it mean to be a villain? What does it mean to be antagonist?" And "What does it mean to be protagonist?" The classic example being Infinity War, in which Thanos is both the villain and the protagonist of the movie at the same time. Which is really cool to see. There's also this sort of... people are the bad guys, but they're also the hero and the protagonist. This is the thieving crew, sort of thing, which is not what you're asking.

The short answer answer is yes. I'm more likely to do a novella from that viewpoint, most likely, because of various things. But there's a decent chance I will sometimes do an actual full novel from the villain's viewpoint.

Questioner

We know carpentry is a masculine is a masculine activity, and art is feminine. Where does something like carving fall? Would it be a form of art? Or more like carpentry?

Brandon Sanderson

Most cases, it's gonna go carpentry, it's gonna go craft, it's gonna go masculine. Most crafts, however, in Vorin culture can kind of go each direction. And you will find a lot of husband/wife teams, where who does what gets very tricky based on their own feelings socially, and things like that. So a pen like this, I can see a team making. I can see either gender making it on Roshar. It's gonna depend on devotion, how conservative your personal culture is, and all of those sorts of things.

Brandon Sanderson

Ishikk. Good Herald-derived name there.

Questioner

Will Kaladin and Kelsier ever meet? Will they get along if they did meet? Even if they don't meet, I am fascinated by the possibilities a Mistborn and a Windrunner could create by working together.

Brandon Sanderson

Whether they'll actually meet or not is a RAFO. I do not think they would get along very well. It takes a very special kind of person to get along well with Kelsier. Though you will, I promise, see Windrunners and Allomancers interact. (Technically, you already have, because Hoid is an Allomancer, but that's not what you're asking about.) You will see large clashes between various different magic systems in the future of the cosmere.

Questioner

As a writer, what are your feelings of altering characters' race and gender when adapted for TV or movies.

Brandon Sanderson

I am generally going to be against this. Because normally what's happening is, they're whitewashing the characters. Normally, they are taking books that are more diverse and they are making them not as diverse, and there is a problem with Hollywood with... even when we've talked about doing Stormlight, they are really resistant to casting Asian characters in the main roles in Hollywood. This has just been a hard thing to get across to them. I think there are situations where it is appropriate, depending on the property. This is probably a bad example, because it's a terrible movie, but I know a lot of people were up in arms about Aang being cast as a caucasian character. But then a lot of the fandom said, "No, he's kind of supposed to be. This is who he is." But then they also recast, what, Katara and her brother as white characters? When they weren't supposed to be, and are very clearly not. That is just insulting.

I am totally fine with it in the instance of the Wheel of Time. The reason is specifically, with the Wheel of Time, what's going on is, Robert Jordan really wanted to build a society that indicated that our world is this same world, many thousands of years in the future. And he wanted to have metropolitan cities have become rural areas again over time. Sort of this regression from giant city into rural countryside. He also has a main theme in the Wheel of Time that culture is more important than race in the Wheel of Time world. They are very, very biased toward one another based on nationalism. Nationalism is a huge thing. But not based on skin color. And so because of this, the changes to, say, make the Two Rivers have black people in it works really well with Robert Jordan's worldbuilding and with the theme of the story he's trying to do.

Plus, I am generally in favor of diversifying stories, rather than the other way. That is a political leaning of mine; I understand that people have arguments against this. And I can understand those arguments. I can understand the argument of "You should not have changed the races of the characters in the Wheel of Time; this is going contrary to..." The best arguments against say, "If you're looking for diverse stories to tell, find diverse stories that were written that way and adapt those." Which is a pretty good argument. I can't fault people for saying, "Why buy the Wheel of Time and then do this? Why not buy a story that already is like this?" I think in the instance of the Wheel of Time, it makes perfect sense. And having met the actors, they are perfectly cast to the characters. And so kind of having a race-blind casting process in that case just really worked out. But, like I said, I can see arguments on that.

The place that it's hit me is that I have written some stories that star mostly what we would call on Earth white characters. And I'm totally fine with those stories being adapted with that cast. They all come from the same country; that makes sense. But Stormlight Archive? Getting such resistance on that really bugged me. They're like, "What if we cast this character?" I'm like, "That's great, but that character's not Dalinar, because that's not how Dalinar looks."

You hit a nerve there, let's just say.

Matthew

One big thing in epic fantasy books that I find too hard to swallow: nobody has the same name.

Brandon Sanderson

This is for convenience's sake. I've actually done it where I used the same name before. It gets so confusing to readers. So confusing. In fact, when I do it on purpose, my editors usually change it, because it is so confusing.

Like, in Stormlight, what I'll end up doing, is I'll say, there are core names. Kaladin's name is based off Kalak, the Herald. You've got two characters basically with the same name, where one is based off the other. Kaladin's name is the Rosharan's version of, like Matthew. There is this saint: this Herald. But the way I do it so that we don't get too confused is I change each one a little bit. Kaladin is their version of Matthew. Shallan is their version of Mary. She's named after Shallash. So you'll see a lot of Shalla- names and Kala- names. And, as we had earlier, we have Ishikk, who's named after Ishi. You'll have a lot of Ishi- names. This is my acknowledgement to you that, in a real fantasy world, more of them would probably have a lot of duplicate names, like we have now.

Granted, there are cultures where there are much fewer duplicate names than exist in, say, English and Chinese and things, where a lot of duplicate names are used. But you are noticing a correct thing, and I just have to say, for writing convenience, this is one of those things where fiction has to be stranger than truth. Because otherwise it just gets so confusing.

But I bet you could write a book where you did it, it was a plot feature, that a lot of people have the same name, that you could make it work.

You've requested a couple of characters in Stormlight that have the same name. Well, I've done that... kind of. That's about as close as we'll get. I do have some minor characters that I'll use the same name for. But like I said, my continuity editor really, really, really likes it when I don't do that, and asks me to change them.

It is fun that you noticed this, because this is one of those things ('cause I love linguistics) that I notice a lot. And I'm like, "Is there a way around this?" And I try to find ways that work both for the convenience of telling stories, but also work for worldbuilding realism. Maybe I'll put two characters of the same name in just for you in the future. We'll see.

Michael Walton

Which of the villains from your books would you vote for as President of the United States

Brandon Sanderson

Ummm... Hrathen, probably. Hrathen is probably your best shot at someone who, at the end of the day, you would be okay with them having been President. Do not let Taravangian anywhere near the Presidency. Lord Ruler, better than Taravangian; still a pretty bad choice. Let's just go with that, Hrathen.