Recent entries

    Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 ()
    #10702 Copy

    Questioner

    So, when I was reading this, Prof's power manifested, and I'm just curious, Limelight, that became his name. Were his powers green before he met David?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. So, they picked the term "limelight" in part because his powers were green.

    Questioner

    But didn't David already plan to call him Limelight before? When David initially came up with the plan for getting over Steelheart, he already had the name Limelight picked out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I don't think he did. But if he did, we'll just say happy coincidence. Prof did not use the name Limelight before that point. They started using it as the way that they were going to... yeah.

    Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 ()
    #10704 Copy

    Questioner

    What led you to want to write a fourth Wax & Wayne book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right, when I wrote Alloy of Law as an experiment, then I said, "Oh, I really like this series, this turned out really well. I will now plot a trilogy with these characters." So, Alloy is the outlier, where I view Shadows, Bands, and Lost Metal as a trilogy. And this is, like, the prelude to the trilogy. And I do think that because... this was an experiment, I really think it was a good experiment. I'm better when I have more of a framework, so I think these two [Shadows and Bands] turned out stronger than this one [Alloy], because when I have a framework, but... at the same time, you need to always be trying, experimenting, new things as a writer.

    Barnes & Noble B-Fest 2016 ()
    #10705 Copy

    Questioner

    I was gonna ask you for advice on writer's block.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Advice on writer's block, all right. My experience is that with writer's block, write anyway. Even though you don't feel like it ,you will write yourself through the writer's block nine out of ten times. And if you don't know what to write, that's not a problem. The way to get out of writer's block is to start your subconscious thinking about it. So, if you like to say, "Ninjas are attacking." Just do something. Write it the wrong way first. A lot of newer writers have a lot of trouble with writing something that's not gonna end up in a book, when they know it's broken. But if you write it anyway, your subconscious will be like, "Oh, what was wrong was, I had the wrong viewpoint for this." Or "Oh, I really need to be pushing from this character's motivations" or something. And if you just write this chapter poorly, you'll get that. And, one out of ten times, you'll do that, and you'll be like, "What was I worried about? This chapter turned out great! I should have had ninjas attack. This is how my book is now." Best thing is to do that, and kind of turn off your internal editor and just learn to go.

    How do you get past writer's block, Isaac?

    Isaac Stewart

    How do I get past writer's block? Caffeine. What I have found is I just have to bully through it. Reread what I wrote before, think about things, maybe do some bullet points of what you've seen that came before that, where I wanna get. Sometimes I skip ahead and write a scene that I really want to write.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, that helps, too. Or saying, "Okay, the scene that I'm trying just isn't working, let's just put it in a completely new location that's exciting and interesting to me."

    Isaac Stewart

    If you have several different points of view, try a different point of view for that scene if that person's there.

    Brandon Sanderson

    And if it's the "I don't know what to write at all" writer's block, then just do something silly and goofy, 'cause you're practicing your skills, right. If a pianist doesn't know what to compose, they'll just sit down and play something to get themselves going.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10707 Copy

    Questioner

    Miles spoke about people in red and gold, is that to do with Lightsong's colors is that connected in any way?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay he spoke of people where?  

    Questioner

    While dying, Miles spoke of people in red and gold--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh red and gold.  

    Questioner

    Is that to do with the fact that Lightsong's colors are also red and gold?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, good question.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10709 Copy

    Questioner

    In Rithmatist there's a Tower in Nebrask, why don't the Rithmatists just build a big moat of acid around it?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    You'll see, when I get there. They have tri-- Number one, a big moat of acid is really hard, you think about how much acid you would have to get in there? It's got to be enormous. Because remember the Tower moves.  

    Questioner

    Okay, didn't know that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, the Tower moves, and so there's this huge swath they have to keep defended, it's enormous. But that's one of the big things, the other thing is you can't just leave them there because they will find a way across, 'cause they know how to cross boats and things now. Because they can get between the islands.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10715 Copy

    Questioner

    Have you ever thought about writing a horror novel?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    A what?  

    Questioner

    A horror novel.

    Brandon Sanderson

    You know, I've had little, vague things about, but never anything big enough. Like I'm most attracted in horror to the kind of cthuloid, dark eldritch style stuff, so if you saw a horror novel from me it would be along those lines probably.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10716 Copy

    Questioner

    In Shadows... did we see a Shardpool? And was it Harmony’s or some other mysterious god who...  

    Brandon Sanderson

    So where do you think it is in Shadows?  

    Questioner

    In one of the newspaper articles.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I am RAFOing that, the whole newspaper article. So the newspaper articles, who knows what’s going on in them. They're tabloid-ish so maybe, maybe--

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10717 Copy

    Questioner

    How did you come up with the idea of windspren?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Windspren in specific? I was thinking about the way the wind is often anthropomorphized, right? It's treated as if it's something alive. And that, for years, just stuck in my head. For a while there were only four windspren, one for each of the quadrants: the north spren, the south spren, the east spren, the west spren, or the west wind and things. But eventually I split them into many more, because I was working with the honorspren and things like that.

    Manchester signing ()
    #10718 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    This Jasnah sequence I might release in-between books as just a short little thing, like we did with Mitosis and Emperor's Soul, just to tide people over. It is something that I felt I needed to write so that I knew what Jasnah was doing, because these kinds of events are important to character development and things like this. It didn't belong in Book Two, for obvious reasons. There had to be that question. So I have this, and it's not 100% complete, in fact it's a pretty rough draft. But I feel I can't write Book Three until I know exactly what Jasnah went through.

    Manchester signing ()
    #10719 Copy

    ChocolateRob

    With the Vorin religion split between men and women... do you tend to get women sneaking into the army-- *laughter*

    ChocolateRob

    This does not happen as much on Roshar as it apparently happens in Terry Pratchett novels. I'm sure that on Roshar they have their legends, 'cause basically every culture has their legends and one thing you have to remember is that whole thing is specifically Vorin. That's Alethkar, that's Jah Keved, that's Kharbranth, and Herdaz to a lesser extent and in there they probably have some of those myths and things like that but I don't think it actually happens that much in Roshar. That's my take on it, but I'm sure that they have their mythology.

    Questioner

    I was suspecting that the girl Kaladin mentions a few times may have snuck in.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh right, you've got some-- I've left her intentionally vague.

    Manchester signing ()
    #10720 Copy

    Questioner

    ..One of things I had difficulty with was coming up with names for the characters and seeing how your names are more than just random collections of letters, a lot of them actually have meanings behind them. I was wondering how you were able to do that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's actually a very good question and number one you should keep writing, even if you feel like what you are writing is a rip-off, it is better to finish that first book and be acknowledging your influences because you want to be practicing. And sometimes it is very useful to lean on something else while you do it. In fact this is how Great Masters did artwork, you can find-- I don't know if you guys know this-- various different versions of the Mona Lisa, we saw one in Spain, my wife and I, that was done by DaVinci's student while DaVinci was painting the Mona Lisa. "Here's what I painted now you do it too"  That was the means by which the Great Masters would train their students, so leaning on someone is just fine. You just can't publish it like that, but it can teach you a whole lot. Don't feel bad about that.

    Names, I use two general methods, and this is not going to give it the justice it deserves, I'm giving you the five minute version. One version is I look for the linguistic attribute that is interesting to me that will visually distinguish these people on the page. So when you are coming across them and you see that name, I want you to say "I bet that they're from this country". That is really tough because that means they all have to feel similar but you can't let everyone get confused over who's who and that's the real challenge, it's the getting confused. For instance in Warbreaker I tried using some different things like we don't in our world. In Warbreaker I used repeated consonant sounds, so you get someone like Vivenna, when you see that double v, you are like she must be-- Llarimar, there's a double L, you pronounce them both out. T'telir. And when you get double repeated consonants you are like "Oh they are from this region, that makes sense to me even though they start with different letter there is something to them" The same sort of thing is supposed to happen in The Way of Kings, you see names that are mostly symmetrical. When you see something like Shallan and her name is a derivation of Shalash, who was one of the Heralds and its a symmetrical name. When you see something that reads almost, or does read, forward and backward the same way you are like "They must be either Alethi or they must be-- They've got to be Vorin because that is the Vorin religion influencing this". And hopefully it will give you some subconscious cue when you run across those names and you'll get it.

    Now a way to do this that is easier is than doing all of that is going to take a lot of work linguistically is to go get yourself a nice atlas and say everyone from this country is going to have names that are analogous to this region in our world and I am then going to take this atlas and look for these names and use baby names from that culture... I did this in Emperor's Soul, I just picked ancient Persia, I picked people who lived there in this era and what they named their cities there and I'm going to take those words and I'm going to screw with them until it is not actually a word but it feels like it might be one. That way everyone from this region is going to feel like they've got a similar name. Or I can just-- For that book it was much easier because the linguistics were not as big a deal.  I could basically just crib off the bat. And that works very well also.

    Sometimes I do it intentionally, Mistborn was supposed to evoke a sense of 1820's Paris, or London, that was what I was shooting for with the grime and the dirt, the ash falling. So I used French names and Germanic names and Spanish names and things like this, so when you run into Vin, Vin is just wine in French and Kelsier [Kelsi-ay] is how they would say-- you can say Kelsier [Kelsi-er] if you want-- and they have Kelsier and Demoux so you can go "Oh this is a French sounding region" so when you get some like Elend and Straff you are like "They are from a different region. They sound like the eat meat and potatoes and they try to conquer Europe periodically, those guys" *laughter* That helps you distinguish the regions very easily.

    Manchester signing ()
    #10721 Copy

    ChocolateRob

    There’s a character again that you've talked about in other signings-- That character has more information than Hoid about the cosmere. How does she have more information than Hoid?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, she is a very detail oriented person and takes the time to research very deeply into things. Where Hoid will often research enough as he needs to know to sound really smart and get what he wants. It is a matter of depth, if that makes sense.

    ChocolateRob

    Have we seen her?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uhh, I don't know if you've seen her or not. I'm sure I slipped her in somewhere but I'm not sure... I think I may have, but I can't guarantee it.

    Manchester signing ()
    #10722 Copy

    Questioner

    Again in Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, there are characters from different books. Some of these books have sequels, like the people from Elantris. So when are the sequels coming out? Are they going to come out before the big book? Or…

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's going to be a while before we do them. The sequels, I want to do them. Part of the thing that is holding me back with Elantris and Warbreaker is that I like having them as standalones right now, because so much of the rest of my work is so involved, I want to have these introductory books. Eventually I probably will do them, but it is going to take me a little while. I want to number one get further in The Stormlight Archive, I feel that we've had too much delay. Book One and Book Two there was a four year delay.  Which is-- That's like George R.R. Martin level delay, and granted I did two Wheel of Time books in-between. I should be cut some slack there but that's too long, I want to be consistently doing them every 18 months to two years. Then I can stop and say, "Okay do I have time to write an Elantris sequel or a Warbreaker sequel?"

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10723 Copy

    Cemci

    Have we-- I think you mentioned in a previous signing that we'd already met one member of every Order of the Knights Radiant.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, I think you have.

    Cemci

    My question is, have we met two Edgedancers? And is one of the Dustbringers a viewpoint character?

    Brandon Sanderson

    One of the Dustbringers is eventually a point-of-view character.

    Cemci

    Haven't been yet?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, not yet, I don't think. But it depends if you count the Heralds as members of their order.

    Cemci

    I don't.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, see I would, because they're kind of heads of their Order. If you don't count them you have not met some from every Order.

    Cemci

    Have we met someone from the Dustbringers?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well-- Dustbringers are really complicated. Really complicated. So that's the weird one. Okay? So let's shelve that one. You'll see why it's really weird later on.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10724 Copy

    Questioner

    What's the most cosmere-icly-significant in Shadows of Self?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    In the latest book Shadows of Self? Shadows of Self is not terribly cosmere-significant, the next book has a lot more.  

    Questioner

    So the middle series?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, no, no, The Bands of Mourning, the actual next one has some relevant stuff. Oh, what's the most relevant in this? The fact that Hoid is eavesdropping--

    Questioner

    On the carriage?

    Brandon Sanderson

    In the carriage. That's pretty cosmere relevant, but there's not a ton in this one. I wanted this one to stay really focused on Wax. You'll see some more worldhoppers in the next one and stuff, so keep your eyes open. They're hard to miss, honestly, in the next one.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10725 Copy

    Questioner

    How come you don't have any gay, lesbian, or transgender characters in your books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I do! This one [Shadows of Self] actually has one. Ranette is lesbian. Let's see, transgender is awkward because I have the kandra who are kind of no-gender and both, that doesn't really count, but it's kind of me testing the waters and seeing whether I can write someone who has fluid gender and not be offensive with it, does that make sense? So keep an eye on what I do with the kandra through the books. The other gay person is Drehy from Bridge 4, he's based on my good friend Ryan Dreher who is gay, and so you will see his husband appear in the series eventually as well, but we really haven't talked about that one yet, there really hasn't been an opportunity, but Ranette we've talked about and it becomes more and more obvious as we talk about it in the books.

    Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide ()
    #10731 Copy

    Chaos

    When did Preservation decide to imprison Ruin in the Well? No need to be specific, I should think. A simple "Near Alendi's time" or "Way before Alendi's time" would suffice, or whichever time of reference you want to use.

    Also, this one is not a question, but nice Hoid reference in there. I especially like it how the Ars Arcanum refers to Slowswift as "bears a striking resemblance to a well-known storyteller." I'm on to you...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Way before Alendi's time. Hence the need for the prophecies. But Ruin managed to corrupt them.

    Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide ()
    #10732 Copy

    Chaos

    How were the Terris Prophecies created in the first place? Every other magic related thing is quite logically explained in terms of Ruin and Preservation, except that one.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Terris prophecies were created by Preservation before he attempted his imprisonment. He knew that he wouldn't be able to do much for the world after he did what he did, and he foresaw a LOT of what was to come.

    Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide ()
    #10733 Copy

    Chaos

    Do all three Metallic Arts still exist after the events of the book? Are Allomancy and Hemalurgy slightly degenerated now that Ruin and Preservation are dead, or does Allomancy still draw upon Preservation's power (just held with Sazed now)?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy all work as they once did. However, now they are more directly affected by the presence or absence of the mists, which will slowly return to the world but not be of the extent they once were. (The mists are now an extent of Sazed's power, and where they roam, he is better able to influence things. There will also be two kinds of mists.) Note that in the future, Feruchemy powers will start to fracture and split, creating Feruchemical "Mistings."

    Yes, this means that in the future series, it will be possible for a person to have one Allomantic power and one Feruchemical power. It will create for some very interesting mixing of powers.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10734 Copy

    Questioner

    I read online that you stated that Instabam's power was over mashed potatoes. Is that actually true in your mind, and if it is would you ever consider writing that story in the same vein that J.K. Rowling did Fantastic Beasts? As a comic relief--

    Brandon Sanderson

    As a comic relief? I could totally see doing that. I just keep thinking that if people got to get superpowers, there have to be stupid ones, right?  People've got-- They can't all be “I can fly”, some of them are "I can control mashed potatoes" or something like that...

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10735 Copy

    Questioner

    Wayne's ability to heal himself, obviously doesn't mimic his natural ability because he can regrow fingers. So if he lost a limb, could he regrow the--just heal it roughly until he stored up enough Health and then regrow the limb at a later time? Does it have to be an instantaneous--

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, he could totally get that back.

    Questioner

    And if say somebody was born with an extra finger, could they cut that off, heal that up and have a whole fingers-worth of Health saved?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It depends on how they view themselves. Healing in the cosmere is based on replacing-- returning you to the state you view as your natural state... Almost every cosmere magic is going to work that way, unless-- There’s certain ones that-- Yeah almost everyone is going to work that way.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10739 Copy

    ParadoxicalZen

    How exactly is the Moon Scepter linked to the Dor?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Moon Scepter is-- I suppose I can canonize this, now. Okay you're getting one out of me. So the big thing about the Moon Scepter that it was-- It is a Rosetta stone for the [Selish] magics. Meaning it translates them from one to another, and what the different symbols mean, does that make sense.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10746 Copy

    Neuxue

    And I have one more question that sort of relates to The Wheel of Time, which I’m reading right now. So Shai in Emperor's Soul has a couple of different personas, right? And some of them have versions of her name. Were she to create a version of herself that is as chaotic and evil as possible, an embodiment of chaos that is capable of reaching throughout the multiverse and--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh Shai'tan! *laughs* I did not think of that, there you go Shai, that's where she came from.  

    Neuxue

    The most powerful character ever apparently.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's right. *laughs* Shai, the Dark One.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10747 Copy

    Neuxue

    Does Roshar have a magnetic field?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um, Roshar, magnetic field, yes, it does. Yes. Yeah it does  

    Neuxue

    You said at one point that it is all one plate--  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Neuxue

    --that there's no tectonic activity. What is the interior of the planet like?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    That’s a good question... You're not going to get an answer on that one. It's a weird planet, let's just say that. It's a pretty weird planet

    Neuxue

    Are the diamonds naturally occurring?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, but most are going to be-- They aren't-- all gemstones are naturally occurring, but most of, many or most of, the gems they are getting they are getting from creatures that grow them, not from the rock. Though there are mines on Roshar, you just have to-- most of them are on the leeward side of mountains, where the crem isn't being deposited.

    Neuxue

    So, diamond mines are about tectonics--

    Brandon Sanderson

    It was a created planet, keep that in mind.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10748 Copy

    Questioner

    Can Odium or any other [Shards] edit text like Ruin could? ...Or is that a special Ruin thing.  

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is possible for others as well. The trick about it is, [Ruin] saturated everything on Scadrial in a way that not all Shards saturate their planets.  

    Questioner

    Okay, what do you mean "saturate"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Creating it, does that make sense? And so this was partially an aspect of the fact that everything on that planet, every atom was, y'know, had him in it... I mean he didn't create the atoms, let's say that, but yeah... The whole planet's existence and particularly the people on it are [Ruin], attuned to [Ruin].

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #10750 Copy

    Questioner

    Are the Unmade seeking anything on Roshar?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Unmade, are they seeking anything? Technically yes.  

    Questioner

    And are they attracted to something on Roshar?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um, yeees.  

    Questioner

    They are both of the above. And also you said--

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Unmade are not all necessarily sapient. Keep that in mind. Not sapient always in the way that we think of sapience.