Recent entries

Questioner

Why did you choose the cities you chose for Steelheart and Firefight?

Brandon Sanderson

I wanted to choose cities that I was familiar with. Like cities I had driven in, cities I knew my way around in, and things like that. Which-- It was really just based on that concept, though I've always liked Chicago because as a kid going to Chicago-- that was the big city close to Nebraska. It was the one I knew and it was like the mid-western big city, if that makes any sense. So I always felt a kinship to that. That's why I picked Chicago. I also wanted one with a lake so I could fre-- turn the lake to steel.

Questioner

...Have you chosen one for Calamity?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. I originally chose Montreal, and my publisher-- I actually said "We could do Montreal or Atlanta" and they like Atlanta better. So I decided to go ahead and go with Atlanta.

Questioner

For new writers is there pitfalls in trying to use, like, a more famous story to tell their story?

Brandon Sanderson

You know, I don’t think there are any major ones, just make sure the serial numbers are filed off enough. You know the best versions of these things are like when you realize-- well we talked about-- The Lion King, is Hamlet and when they sat down with Hamlet and said "We’re going to do Hamlet with talking lions" they made it different enough to claim it as their own. And that’s the real thing you have to do, is make sure you're claiming it as your own.

Questioner

On one of your older Writing Excuses you guys talked about doing retellings or reimagining stories. I was curious if any of your--even your short stories-- are either in full or in part retellings?

Brandon Sanderson

I use the bits-- You ever read the Alcatraz books?

Questioner

Actually those are the only ones of yours I haven't.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, so those I actually--don't get weirded out-- but I used the Oedipus myth.  A little bit. Not the weirdest parts. But the y'know--

Questioner

Fate...

Brandon Sanderson

Fate, and being blind but not blind, and prophecy, and things like like that because the character tells you the end of the last book in the first paragraph of the first book and then it's all like it's almost fated to be. And so there is metaphorical blindness, and there's-- things like that. So that's the only one I used any-- and even that's really loosely structured. I wouldn't say I used any specifics, yet, for any of my books.

Unless you count archetypes. Like I like taking certain archetypes and mixing them in. Like Bridge Four is an underdogs sports story. So I use the archetype of something like losers but I made it being killed on a field of battle instead, and things like that. But those are more general, it's a more different sort of thing.

Questioner

The Mistborn video game.  Still working on that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.  We are still working on that.  They are moving very slow.  And I am disappointed by how slow they are moving, and I had dinner with the producer a week ago.  He says it's still coming, but I don't know when.  He says Christmas time 2015.  I'm skeptical.  

Questioner

Do you get to work with illustrators?

Brandon Sanderson

I do.  In fact, the interior artists I hire myself, just to make sure that they look the way I want them to. The cover illustrator, normally author's don't have much control over that.  I'm kind of a special case, and so I've been able to pick my cover illustrator for the last few books, and so I have a lot of influence over these sorts of things.  It's not standard.  I think the artistic design of these books is very important.  

Questioner

Do you get any of yours [inspiration from mythology]?  Like I know you mentioned sciences and physics. 

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah a lot of science and physics is where it's coming from.  A lot of, I mean, having lived in Korea for two years, and speaking Korean, a lot of my linguistics come from Korean, and the idea of Spren comes from Asian mythology: the idea that everything has a soul.  So that's an inspiration.  

Questioner

I want to look into ancient Asian culture, and it sound like something to do.  

Brandon Sanderson

There's that.  I would bet that the three kingdoms stuff has some influence on me, and Sun Tzu's Art of War has been an influence on me, and things like that.

Questioner

We know that 10 is an odd number in the cosmere. And I noticed that the Lord Ruler specifically released 10 Allomantic metals. Was there a reason behind that or is that just a coincidence?

Brandon Sanderson

No, that was a coincidence right there.  Ten is an odd cosmere number for Roshar, and there are reasons why this is. . .

Questioner

Well it wasn't just Roshar, it was also Nalthis in Warbreaker. 

Brandon Sanderson

Nope, that one is a coincidence. Sometimes they just pop up that way. Part of the original reason that Roshar was 10 was I was going for a 10 day like Robert Jordan did, which I thought was cool. But then I ended up writing the Wheel of Time so I'm like 'I have to do something different now'. So it turned into the two five-day weeks. Two five-days becoming a 50 day month.

Questioner

Do you ever find you own stories, your own characters, coming back and influencing you?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah.  More, it's like I have these things I'm really interested in.  And so I find myself rounding those things again and again.  And I've actually started a list of 'You've covered this thing, Brandon.  You can't do this one anymore'.  Just because I work in the cosmere where everything is connected, so the underlying physics of the books are sometimes very similar.  And so I just have to be very careful not to repeat myself too much.  

Questioner

How many drafts do you usually go through for a book? 

Brandon Sanderson

It really depends on the book.  The highest number I believe was one of the Wheel of Time Books, which would have been 14, and I would say more commonly 5 or 6 is what's normal.

Questioner

Do you read non-fiction at all?  I'm a history grad student.  I'm reading some of your stuff.  I was kind of wondering if you ever did get inspiration from history or things like that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes I do like them.  I really like pop history books.  So if you've got any good suggestions, just like you know, history of war, history of. . .  Honestly, I end up at the Barnes and Noble browsing their discount things for pop history and pop science books, and you find really interesting ones there a lot of the time.  

Questioner

So, if someone went to Shadesmar on Scadrial would the whole ground-water inversion, is that a Cosmere wide thing?

Brandon Sanderson

That you will have to read and find out about.  I will say that there are places in Shadesmar that are different and there are places that are the same as what you see on Roshar.  

Questioner

So the Cognitive realm.  Is Shadesmar a Roshar specific term?

Brandon Sanderson

Shadesmar is Roshar specific term, but when I translate from what other people are saying in these books I just translate it to Shadesmar.  So for instance when Wit is talking about it he's going to call it Shadesmar.  He's just going to use the Roshar term. But no, Shadesmar  is what it's called there.  

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He wrote three drafts of The Final Empire, two rough and one polished. He may do another book in the Mistborn world, but it would be in the far future as opposed to being a sequel, and the world may actually progress scientifically.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

On Allomancy, he said that tin and pewter are opposites in a sense, that they strengthen different aspects of the body, and that there will be a published poster to explain some apparent inconsistencies among the last four metals.

Questioner (paraphrased)

Was Elantris intended to be a zombie story?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

Yes, but he disguised it so that it would not be typecast as a horror story by potential readers. He wanted to do a story about heroic zombies, since he had never heard of such a tale.

Questioner (paraphrased)

How do you find an agent?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

One way is to go to awards ceremonies or writing conventions, such as WorldCon. Brandon stated he met his agent while he was attending the Nebula Awards in NY. He was at a bar, drinking sprite, and talked to someone nearby who happened to be Jim Mintz, an editor at Tor, and also met his agent, Moshe Feder (who was at the signing as well).

Questioner (paraphrased)

How much pre-writing do you do for each book?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He wrote 50k words backstory for Mistborn, and 200k words backstory for The Way of Kings. It takes about 8 months to write a novel. Though it only took a month to write Alcatraz, which was a parody of conspiracies, and included bad super-powers, an anti-epic fantasy (and that a possible movie from Dreamworks was in the works at the time).

Questioner (paraphrased)

Someone asked about corrupt religions in Elantris & Mistborn.

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

He mentioned that he teaches one class/year at BYU on sci-fi writing. He fears the misuse of religion, but that he presents "fair and balanced" viewpoints in his books. He also stated that "fiction helps you see through other people's eyes" and quoted Robert Jordan: "I really like when my books raise questions, I just don't like giving the answers."

Questioner

Are you going to release more of your online lectures?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. As I do them, or at least in this year, and kind of collecting them on my website this time to make it a little bit easier to find them and things like that. I actually have a substitute teaching right now who is being recorded, and those will go up this time, too. So you'll get a lecture from Howard and a lecture from Eric, who has been *inaudible* short story writer who has been published in Teen.

Questioner

Is Wit a Herald?

Brandon Sanderson

Wit is NOT a herald.

Questioner 1

That question I asked, I've been wondering about it a lot, how do you do misogyny *inaudible*? I think the message of the book...isn't really right wording.

Brandon Sanderson

No, I know exactly what you mean. How do you write misogynistic characters without writing a misogynistic book? That is tricky. You know, one thing that I didn’t bring up a lot is to have people on a spectrum. If every--‘cause even if you go back to, for instance--if you went back to 600 BC, there would be certain people who think different ways than everyone else. We think that cultures are monolithic, but they're not. And if you go back most of my characters are not acting like they would in the mid-1800’s. If you went back then you would find people who are anti-racist, even back then. So it’s legit that you can have certain...

Yeah. The trick is you can’t make anyone just a super paragon, like Ghandi was racist but he was really powerfully influential in what he did.  Everyone has got their biases and so if you make someone with no biases then they’re a bad character, but if you make people’s biases shine a light on each other you’ll have a stronger story.

Questioner 1

*inaudible about Kaladin* He does have that deep-seated prejudice against the lighteyes, but in every other way as with everyone else its a subtle reminder.

Brandon Sanderson

Except the Parshendi.  He’s been getting better.  But that’s the whole point of relaying this. This person has.

Questioner 2

Like you said, there's the stereotypes about Herdazians.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah. Herdazians. And most people don't pick it out that there's like this deep racism against the Herdazians.

Questioner 1

Do people ever accuse you of being <misogynistic>?

Brandon Sanderson

Not yet. I know it will happen. It probably has happened and I haven't seen it, but no, I haven't been upfront accused of it. My worse thing is there's some unconscious sexism in Mistborn. Vin works very well but there aren't any other women. I kind of fall into the one woman in the whole world sort of thing. But part of learning about this is we all have these biases, we're all going to these make these mistakes. You have to be okay to fail. Better that than wrong. Why is that wrong? What about is it? In what way?

Questioner

With The Bands of Mourning, now that we understand flight with potassium, or whatever alkali metal that actually was... So is that part of where we’re starting with the Faster Than Light travel? Something along those lines with potassium and maybe like--

Brandon

I’m not going to tell you, but this is the bridge into the next Era, which the Era beyond will be FTL, but this sort of stuff needed to happen first.

Questioner

Right, right exactly and the good stuff and the technology trying to get them up to speed and plus with Kelsier going to that other realm and the glimpse of Sel and stuff.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep, yep, there will be so much fun stuff in the next series.

Questioner

Have you ever been busted by security while signing your books in airports?

Brandon Sanderson

So for those who don't know, in the States, I have to fly on tour. It's actually a lot nicer here, you have very good trains. I don't know if you guys complain about them, but compared to what we got? These trains are great. And I really like sitting and writing on the train, it's a great thing. I wrote on the train today, here. In the States, though, you've gotta fly. And that involves going through American security, which is annoying. But I do get to visit bookstores in the airports. Most airports have a bookstore, and I can go in and find my books and sign them. When I do, I post little, "Hey, I signed my books here!" And, if the bookstore employees aren't paying attention, I just kind of sign my books and sneak out. *laughter* I ninja sign. These days, the problem is, I fly into the same airports so often, the people-- like, I walk in, and they say, "Oh, Mr. Sanderson!" and go get my books. It really confuses them when I sneak in, sign the books, and sneak out, and then go post on Facebook, "Hey, there's signed books here." Like, people flock to the bookstore. They're like, "What happened? Where was he?" So, have I been busted? I have never actually been busted. I've had one person ask me for my ID, where I turned the book open to the last page and said, "Here I am." The thing is that signing in airports happens frequently enough, most authors don't do it, but enough authors do, that if they see someone signing books like that, they just assume you're an author. It's that whole, "pretend you're in charge and people assume." So, I can go in there and I can sign all of Joe Abercrombie's books and fake an accent, I guess. But I have never actually been busted, I have only been said "Oh, are you the author? Can I see ID?" Something like that. That happened only once.

Questioner

Could non-Scadrians use Southern Scadrian medallions, and if so, could Drabs, too?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, the amulets? Yes, yes they could.

Questioner

And Drabs, also?

Brandon Sanderson

Could Drabs use one of the amulets and make them work? Yeah, Drabs could. They're missing a little bit of something I'll explain eventually, but they could make those work.

Questioner

What's your favorite book to get inspiration from?

Brandon Sanderson

What's my favorite book to get inspiration from. Probably Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo.

Questioner

Was there any one character that-- I know you said all of your characters are your favorite, but was there ever one you were really excited to kill?

Brandon Sanderson

Any character that I was really excited to kill. Masema, from The Wheel of Time. Spoiler. I was so happy to kill that dude. He was hanging on forever, annoying me.

Questioner

Anyone from the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

Anyone from the cosmere? I'm never eager to kill anyone specifically. I don't even really regard it as killing characters off. I build the outline, I let the character grow into who they are and let them kind of guide-- take the chances that I feel that character would take, and then deal with consequences of it. Does that make sense? So in a lot of ways, it's interesting to me-- Like I already generally know what's going to happen in my books before I write them. I'm an outliner. And so I'm very comfortable, if not happy, with the idea that certain characters aren't going to make it. Meaning, I'm usually sad that they aren't, but I know that they aren't from the beginning so I'm very well prepared for it. Unlike you guys.

Questioner

In the first three Mistborn books, and Elantris and Warbreaker, you focus a lot on sort of gods and religion, is there a particular reason for that?

Brandon Sanderson

Why do I focus on gods and religion in my books. Well there's a couple of reasons. The main one is the kind of overarching story of the cosmere, which all my books are connected, there is some divine force named Adonalsium that was broken apart long ago and the scions of that-- people who have that power are showing up and causing problems and things on planets. So that's kind of the hidden epic behind the scenes, and so because of that religion is a very big part of what happens there.

I'm also a religious person. For those who don't know, I'm Mormon, I'm LDS. And so religion is important to me and whatever I'm fascinated by works it's way into my books. Now I'm generally the type of writer who doesn't feel like I should go into a book with a theme, I should explore what the characters are passionate and let the theme manifest naturally. And so I do that a lot, I don't go in saying "Oh I'm going to teach people this" I say "Who is this character, what are they passionate about" But the things I'm interested in you see. That's why you end up with stories about a god who doesn't believe in his own religion, from Warbreaker. Or you end up with these different things, with Kelsier founding a religion to use it, or having people with different types of faith. And I really think that part of the point of fiction is to, for me, to explore different ideas from different angles and try to just tackle them. And so you'll see me coming back to some of the same concepts again and again, because I want to try them from a new angle, see how this person thinks, see how this character deals with it. Because that's just really interesting to me.

Questioner

About Ien, Raoden's seon. I was wondering what happened to him.

*brief sidebar for translation*

Brandon Sanderson

So, still around, but suffered some effects of what happened in the books, but still around.

*brief sidebar for translation*

I'm trying not to give spoilers, but when I go back to the series I do intend to answer that question.

Questioner

I watched all of your Youtube videos of your university lectures, that you put up. Found them really useful specifically because they are more focused on sci-fi/fantasy than other tutorials in writing. My question is, do you have any plans to write a book, in-between your hundred other books, a book on the craft of writing?

Brandon Sanderson

So the question is, am I ever going to write a book on the craft of writing. He notes that I did-- my university lectures I do post online, for those who are curious you can just go to Youtube and look for Brandon Sanderson lectures, but if you want them all in order you go to brandonsanderson.com/writing-advice and I think we have a link to the whole playlist and things in there. So yeah, if you are a writer and looking for some writing advice that's one of the resources I have, and those are pretty in-depth. It's How to Write Science-Fiction and Fantasy university course. I also do a podcast called Writing Excuses, which I would recommend unto you. It is fifteen minutes of writing advice every week. If you haven't ever done a podcast you can just go to the website writingexcuses.com and punch play or you can go to itunes, or however you do podcasts. And that one, if you do it, I would recommend starting with January of this year [2015], the later episodes are better than the earlier episodes.

I do not have any immediate plans to write a manual on writing. I just have so many other things to do and the Writing Excuses and the lecture, these are excuses for me to go interact, right? To get out of the house. To not be sitting in front of a keyboard typing. And so I use them to keep myself a little bit grounded, so I'm not just always alone. Which kind of defeats the purpose if I just go in and write a book about it. Plus there are some pretty good writing manuals out there yet, I don't think I have it figured out yet. Maybe in another 20 years I'll have this writing thing figured out and maybe feel like I should write a book on it.

Questioner

In terms of character development, I've noticed you you tend to be concentrated on Twinborns and Mistings, in your new series. Are you going to be exploring the full Mistborn?

Brandon Sanderson

Am I going to be exploring full Mistborn in other books. That's kind of a RAFO, which means Read And Find Out. I will-- I am very interested in telling these intimate stories in the Mistborn world right now and Mistborn have kind of fallen out of the world. There aren't many, if any, of them left, but who knows what will happen in the future. So that's what we call a RAFO.

Questioner

So you've obviously done these talks before, what is your favorite question you've ever had and what was its answer?

Brandon Sanderson

What is my favorite question? See people ask me this one, so I have a glib response. My favorite question is "How can I buy more of your books?" *laughter* And my answer is "Talk to the wonderful booksellers." But no I always have trouble with those questions because I get, y'know, I don’t know if I have favorite questions? People also always ask what should I be asking you? and I'm like "I don’t know, that's your job. I wrote the books, come on. Give me a break."

Questioner

What was your favorite book to write so far?

Brandon Sanderson

The question is what's my favorite book to write, I actually don't have one. They're all my favorites and all of my characters are my favorites, just like all of my children are my favorites.

Questioner

As someone who's taught people to write and studied creative writing, and obviously you're a writer, very much into writing, do you read *inaudible*?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh do I read science fiction and fantasy journals. I do not spend a lot of time in the journals, I spend a lot of time reading fiction and nonfiction. My reading time is so, so hard to come by these days that I feel like I need to be focusing on what my peers are doing, and on good nonfiction books to give me ideas. A lot of my ideas come from nonfiction. I do get a bit of reading done, and people ask me for recommendations…

Questioner

Do you find it difficult when you have to jump between the worlds when you write about like Mistborn and Stormlight do you find it difficult to transition like that?

Brandon Sanderson

Is it hard to transition? Is it hard to transition, the question is, between the different worlds that I write in. A little bit yes, but mostly no. The reason I jump so much is my writing style kind of requires me to do something new after I finish a big project. That's why I--  People ask me a lot how do I-- how am I so productive.  It is actually because that I found out if I jump to something new-- Like a lot of time a writer finishes a book it just wears them out for six months, right? Or if you're certain writers you're worn out before you finish it somehow. Naming no names. But really it happens, you get worn out after finishing a book. I found that if I jump into something very different I immediately get excited about that and get going on it. And it is a big part-- That is why you see those little novellas like Emperor's Soul and Legion and things like that, because I finished a project and jumped into something new. And it makes me really, like I said, excited. So yes it is a little hard to switch gears, but more so it is exciting to switch gears and it just keeps me excited and enthralled through this whole process. Which is why you see me jumping around so much. I tell people "Oh can't you just write on my favorite series", I tell them if I did that they actually wouldn't come out any faster, because I would hit that kind of lull that happens after a book where it's hard to write and you get slowed down by any little thing and if I switch to something else you just kind of get books squished in-between.

Questioner

If you were to die tomorrow, who would continue your series?

Brandon Sanderson

If I were to die tomorrow-- The issue is, being only two books into the Stormlight, then I'm not sure it would be right to finish it? I would probably just have the outlines get released. Because having someone finish eight books for you is a little bit different. But let's assume I get a little further in it, I do think the best choice right now would be either Brent Weeks or Brian McClellan, they write very similarly to me and Brian I trained... I would probably pick Brent, if Brent were willing to do it. We're friends, his books are very similar to mine, he's a great writer. So yeah, but let's hope I get a lot more books done. I hope I get through all of them, but it is wise to plan because I have had in my own life something akin to this.

Questioner

Which one of your characters do you think is most like you?

Brandon Sanderson

Which character's most like me. You know I always have trouble answering this because I put a little of me in every character and every character is different from me. And so it's really hard to say who is most like me. Sometimes I think it's someone-- I don't know, the hard part is like who do I want to be or who am I actually? I think I'm a little more Kelsier and I would like to be a little more Sazed.

Brandon Sanderson

To forestall the other inevitable questions. Movies have been sold for: Mistborn, Emperor's Soul, and Steelheart. They are all in development, none have started filming. Be skeptical of any film deal until someone starts shooting a camera, okay? Right? Just be aware of that, when something starts filming, you can get excited. Until then, just know that people are paying me lots of money to not make movies from my books. *laughter* Which is very nice.

The video game's kind of just in limbo. The guys who are working on it--there's a Mistborn video game--they're great, but they had setback after setback. So I would, if I were you, not hold my breath on that one. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. If it does it's a happy surprise.

Questioner

When might we expect a sequel to Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

When might you expect a sequel to Warbreaker. Okay, let me go down the list. I have finished three books, alright? The finished books are: Bands of Mourning, which is the sequel to the one you-- many of you bought today; I have finished Calamity, the last book of The Reckoners; and I've finished, a while ago, the fifth book of the Alcatraz series, for the middle-grade series.  Which I finished a while ago, but we had to wait for the contracts to run out before I could release it, it's a big complicated thing.  So those are in the queue, and they are coming.

Now I am writing, right now, Stormlight 3. Yes working on that.  It's actually-- Anytime I mention Stormlight people are contractually obligated to shout in my crowds. So I'm finishing that and my goal is to have it done by May or June. If it is done by May or June the publisher has said they will publish it Christmastime, so November/December next year. If I miss May or June then it gets pushed back to the Spring sometime. So just watch the progress bars on my website and you'll see-- you'll be able to gauge.  It's slowed down a lot because of revisions and touring but they should pick back up as soon as I get home.

After that I'm going to write a book called The Apocalypse Guard, which is my follow-up to Steelheart. Not the same world but the same style, fast-paced, frantic action sort of things. In the US those are published as teen books, here they're published as adult books, I don't even know what they are but I want to have a follow-up for my teen publisher. Something that's similar. So we're going to do that, then I'm going to do Rithmatist 2, and then I will do finally the fourth Wax and Wayne book which will wrap up Era 2 of Mistborn. Then I will do Stormlight 4.

If the book, such as Warbreaker sequel, is not in that list it means it is coming post-Stormlight 4. So we've got a little ways to wait, but I will get around to doing them, I promise.

Questioner

The second question is about dragons! One race, on Yolen, are dragons with the ability to shift. I'm positively sure that we haven't seen any dragons in dragon form around yet. How about in human form, and would it be possible to actually recognize a human dragon?

Brandon Sanderson

So, the question is, I haven't written the book yet, but one of the books I've talked about that is the origin of all of this is called Dragonsteel, and there are dragons in it! 'Cause, like I said, 'Why not? Why wouldn't you?' And she's asking about Dragonsteel. Have we seen dragons hidden among the characters in the books that we have seen. You have very likely seen -

Questioner

A letter.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you have seen a letter from a dragon. And you... there are some that are off-world, and so you might have seen them. I won't tell you for sure, but you would not recognize them.

BlackYeti

With regards to the Dor, whereabouts is it located exactly, with regards to the Realms.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, you're the first to ask this one. It is in the Cognitive Realm... I think you might be the first one to crack that one. So, that's something that I've been dancing around for a while, waiting 'til people started to figure that one out. Now, that's not where most of them are.

Questioner

Odium has, as I understand it, something like the meaning of God's divine wrath. How is wrath on its own able to cause such terrible destruction? I  mean, he primarily attacked di-Shardic worlds like Sel and Roshar, so could he just have sowed discord between Shards there to an extent of them actually fighting against each other and then just *inaudible*.

Brandon Sanderson

That is a good theory, that he got them to fight against each other. I won't tell you whether it happened or not, but it is a very valid theory. It's fully within his capacity; that's the sort of thing that he does.

Questioner

Is Wit, or Hoid-- Is he an Allomancer

Brandon Sanderson

He did steal a bead of lerasium off of Scadrial. If he were to make use of that bead, certain powers could have been gained.

Questioner

Okay. "If he were to have used it."

Brandon Sanderson

If he were to have used it.

Questioner

Is the sword at the end of Words of Radiance, is it the actual Nightblood from Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

It is, actually. It's fun because when I first wrote Way of Kings in 2002, Vasher was one of the main characters. And then when I wrote Warbreaker in 2006, I wrote a book about him to do his past. And then when I re-wrote Way of Kings it's like, "Well, time for Vasher to come back." So he's been in Roshar, in my head, since the beginning, for some 20 years. But he wasn't-- He didn't originate there, but... He was one of the worldhoppers that I hid in the very first version. Which was a lot of fun to then be able to go write a book about him and come back.

Questioner 1

When Sazed is fighting Marsh he hears a voice telling him about his rings, in his head.

Brandon Sanderson

Mhm.

Questioner 1

Whose voice is that? Can-- Can I make some gueses?

Brandon Sanderson

Sure.

Questioner 1

Is it Kelsier?

Questioner 2

*Brandon hands RAFO card?* What does that mean? *laughing*

Brandon Sanderson

That means I'm not gonna answer that. 

Questioner

Do we ever get to see a good banter between Wit and Shallan?

Brandon Sanderson

Um, you uh... She is not quite ready yet, to be on his level. And if you watch the series, her use of humor will mature. Um, in fact you should be able to notice a difference between these two even. By later books she will be able to stand a little bit better. Right now he would rip her to shreds.

Questioner

So for Calamity, like about these others that you mentioned, are we ever going to figure that out? Or is just going to be...

Brandon Sanderon

Oh yeah, so the next series I’m doing deals with the greater-- kind of interdimensional travel and who are these people.

Questioner

Okay good, because I was like “You can’t leave me like this” at the very end.  I really liked how it was put together and stuff. My own theories were that David was actually, like his powers were actually figuring out Epics’ weaknesses...

Brandon Sanderson

I considered that, I really did. At the end of the day, when I brainstormed the trilogy I said you know what would be most fun for me in this series is to do a trilogy that is basically an origin story, for a character and then when I come back to The Reckoners, if I do, because the next one’s a parallel dimension, right?

Questioner

From where Firefight is, or from like other?

Brandon Sanderson

That -- we will get into why certain ones are stable and certain ones aren’t and why you can pull from and we’ll do something there with a new character. And if I come back, then Mizzy will be the main character in the sequel series.

Questioner

Awesome if you ask me, because I was always looking forward to more Mizzy.

Brandon Sanderson

Does that make sense? That’s where the plan for these is, we’ll see how the new series goes, they’re announcing it next week. And the entirety of the magic system is based on interdimensional stuff.

Questioner

Right, especially with Megan and her--

Brandon Sanderson

Yep.

Questioner

--multiple hundred personalities coming together and stuff.

Brandon Sanderson

So it’s kind of like Megan has opened up this idea of a quantum multiverse, and now I’m going to do a quantum multiverse, which is not something I can deal with in the cosmere so it’s exciting for me to be able to do it.

Questioner

Yeah ‘cause the first one we see about the others I was like (okay cosmere fandom, but wait) this is not cosmere, don't worry about that.

Brandon Sanderson

Not cosmere.  Going straight-up quantum multiverse, in kind of a classical sense. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on string theory and things. It’s so hard, string theory breaks my brain.  Quantum mechanics break my brain.

Questioner

So that bit at the end [of Words of Radiance] with Szeth. Getting that black sword...

Brandon Sanderson

That's setting up for book 3, which is going to be crazy.

Questioner

There's another book with a black sword...

Brandon Sanderson

It's the same sword, yes. In fact I wrote the original version of the Way of Kings involving the character who has that sword. He's in the first draft from 2002, then I wrote Warbreaker about him, then I wrote this.

Questioner

Is Jasnah's book going to be one of the backstories?

Brandon Sanderson

It is.

Questioner

Yessssss. Favorite character.

Brandon Sanderson

She's on the back five.

Questioner

What was Jasnah's last thought? Just pure curiosity, it's been on my brain for whatever *inaudible* been reading.

Brandon Sanderson

Have you read the book?

Questioner

Yeah, I'm on the last ten pages [of Words of Radiance].

Brandon Sanderson

Last ten pages.

Her *pause* last thoughts were of escaping.

Questioner

Why did you gloss over *audio obscured* for Jasnah?

Brandon Sanderson

Again you'll want to read on, but Jasnah-- that was not going to happen in this book. In the initial plot it didn't happen, and Shallan was unable to, in the initial scenes I wrote, be able come into her own and so I had to make major revisions to the plot for this outline, the biggest thing I did was that. And once I did that the story started working.