Questioner
How are you prepping Dan Wells to start working in the Cosmere?
Brandon Sanderson
We are working closely on Dark One, the novelization. (It's not really a novelization of the graphic novel. It's my original outline.) And this the main way: we're working on a novel together that is not Cosmere to get our feet underneath us. He is also reading the whole series and kind of being brought into dealing with how crazy a bit of this is in the business. He'll have, probably, a year before he starts writing novels in the Cosmere, would be my guess. We'll do some short stories; we've got some cool ideas for some short stories that we'll have him write. And one of the key things is, as I've said: for the most part, we want him writing that have worldbuilding like the Cosmere, but that play to Dan's strengths, that are books that I would not be as good at writing. So the Cosmere just has a little bit more breadth to the types of stories we're telling. Hopefully it won't be too jarring to have Dan writing some Cosmere stories.
We'll present it all to you once we know what we're doing, which we don't even know yet. We haven't come up with... Basically, we'll sit down and do some brainstorming and look at some of the things we need to have happen for the final endgame of the Cosmere, and then design some stories to fill out some of the things we want to have happened. I'm being very vague on purpose.
Joel
Are the Heralds from Stormlight inspired in any way by the watchers/angels from the Book of Enoch?
Brandon Sanderson
Well, yes, there's a roundabout answer to this. The Heralds started as me wanting to do fantasy angels, some sort of fantastical angel thing, because I knew I was gonna be doing the Shards of Adonalsium and things like that, and I wanted something that was basically lower tier. And the first idea was for someone who thought they were one of these mythical angels come back to save the world, and then we weren't sure if they actually were one or weren't. And this ended up in Way of Kings Prime, and I (for a long time) was not sure if I was gonna make this person actually an angel or not. So I'm gonna say "yes" to this one, because it was a direct attempt to build something like "servants of god" sort of thing that go and work among people was the inspiration.
William Brawl
If he didn't shave, what color would Sazed's hair be?
Brandon Sanderson
If he didn't shave, it would be black.
Isaac Betsold
When we will see the Edgedancers in midwifery? They would be great at it?
Brandon Sanderson
They would be great at it, and I think you're going to start seeing a lot of that sort of stuff happening in the near future in the books.
Andrew Stirling Macdonald
Could a drab become a Returned?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO!
Mason Wheeler
If you had to have another author finish your work, who would you pick?
Brandon Sanderson
Historically, I've said Brian McLellan. He never gave his consent to this. But Brian and I write very similarly, he's a great writer, he's a good friend. That said, if we get Dan really steeped in the Cosmere and he starts writing books that have the right feel... Like, we're not sure how much his books will be Dan books and how much will be Brandon books. We do want them to feel like Dan books, but it's possible that Dan or Isaac might be the right answer as we get further along in the Cosmere.
Questioner
What would Lirin do with the trolley problem?
Brandon Sanderson
I think Lirin's pacifist nature would not let him pull the lever. So he would have the greater number of people die because he was not behind it. Which, I think, is kind of the only way that he could answer it and stay true to the things that he rationalizes and believes in.
Kyracall
In a recent Intentionally Blank, you mentioned a Lift food heist book. Any chance of the novella between Stormlight Five and Six being that book?
Brandon Sanderson
There is a chance for that, yes. That is definitely something that I would consider doing.
Padan Cain
Could you maybe trap an Unmade in one of those paintings from one of your Secret Projects?
Brandon Sanderson
That is a RAFO. It's an excellent question.
Rover678
Did the decision of adding a whole new era of books to the Mistborn saga change the plans for the plotting of the two remaining eras?
Brandon Sanderson
It did a little bit. So, basically, things that I thought I was gonna have to squeeze in to the 1980s era, I was able to get some foreshadowing in in Wax and Wayne instead. So it kind of made my job easier. It hasn't changed the actual outline that much for the story, but it has let me put in a bunch of foreshadowing ahead of time.
Questioner
Did Taln actually give into torture? Or was it just the collapse of the [Oathpact] in general?
Brandon Sanderson
RAFO. It is one I will answer eventually.
