Does Harmony have any Splinters?
Do you mean like in his fingers? *Brandon has a coy smile. Questioner looks at him like "you know what I mean you fool". Brandon laughs.* No, he does not have Splinters right now. Good question.
Any hint on how Nin got a hold of Nightblood, or how Vasher lost Nightblood?
Vasher and Nightblood had something of a falling out...
Will we see all of the Heralds doing things in the upcoming books?
The back five books are all about the Heralds. Two of them claim to be Heralds... Two of the point-of-views will be Heralds.
So, they're all in... Urithiru, and that's safe from the Everstorm, right? Because they're trying to get everyone there, right?
It is definitely safer than the Shattered Plains.
So what makes it safer? Is it just the location?
They are on the east side of a mountain. It's coming from the other direction. They also think they might be high enough to be over the storm, judging based on the fact that Kaladin was able to hop over it, so he knows generally how high up they go.
What are ReLuur's spikes made of? Marasi thought they were pewter, but that doesn't make sense.
It doesn't.
If you tap Connection in one area, for location, would that remove your Connection to your original place, where you're actually from?
Um, RAFO.
Could someone who's never been to Scadrial be Connected to Ruin, Preservation, or Harmony?
Possibly. Depends on the strength of the Connection. But yeah, Connection's not an on/off switch.
Can you store any sort of Temporal Connection?
Um, most.
Can you store....like if there is a Twinborn, who is a gold Allomancer and a duralumin Ferring, would his goldshadow change based on what his Connection is?
I'm going to RAFO that.
Can you store different types of Connection at different times? Like can you store Connection to people versus location?
That is possible.
Can you be Connected to two locations at once?
Yes
Will that help with doing Sel magic off-world?
RAFO
The Expanse of Broken Sky, is that Sel?
RAFO
Is the Cognitive Realm flat or spherical?
The Cognitive Realm is this weird thing, where it's flat, but it's distorted.
Yeah, 'cause I was going to say, if you make a globe flat...
You can walk from one planet to the next. So it's got really weird...the spatial reasoning doesn't work the same way.
Have we seen a Svrakiss in a book so far?
Um... RAFO
Can you tell us anything about Svrakiss, like are they originally from Sel?
Um... I'm not going to go into that.
What was your motivation/inspiration behind the Alcatraz books?
- They're weird and modernist.
- His goal was to do something so different from what he was working on.
- He uses different books like this as breaks in order to keep the momentum up for writing and yet let himself rest.
- Still has a wacky magic system, so it's still one of his books, still what he likes writing, but it's still different.
- Inspired by like, The Emperor's New Groove sort of off the wall storytelling (gave the example of the fact that the opening scene is cut by a flashback and then never addressed again anywhere in the books)
Do you plan are having anymore full Mistborn in your books?
You'll have to read and find out! :)
Will Michael Whelan continue to do cover art for The Stormlight Archive?
That will be up to him, and his schedule. We will always ask!
What has been the proudest moment of your career?
A tie between winning a Hugo award and releasing the last Wheel of Time book, so far. Excellent question!
How many books do you read each year? Best you've read lately?
I real maybe a book a month. Much less than some people, but I have to fight to make time!
What stage of the writing process is most difficult for you?
Revision is the most difficult, by a long shot.
Were there any people present at the Shattering of Adonalsium other than Hoid and the 16?
RAFO.
Do u have plans for a Lurcher character? Orbiting a bullet/coin around them and back at shooter would be awesome .
Some day, I'm sure I'll do a Lurcher character.
Did the Ire form before the events of Elantris or do they form after the city is healed?
This is an excellent question! :) (And one I'm not going to answer yet, I'm afraid.)
Do you feel confident with the producer/directors making slight changes to the movie?
The best film versions of books make changes to fit the media. So I plan on this happening here.
Were you influenced by Tad Williams at all? I see some elements of his writing in your work.
I think Tad is an excellent writer, and have loved much of what he's written. I'd happily call him an influence.
Have you ever designed a character based upon a loved one in order to honor their memory?
Yes, I have--but it's almost always a side character, more a cameo than anything else.
Is there a genre you think you couldn't/wouldn't write (within fantasy)? Or might your writing take us anywhere?
I could see myself doing pretty much anything, within certain bounds of harsher content.
Any plans for any adaptations in the near future?
If, by this, you mean film adaptations--we're trying very hard. Unfortunately, it's up to Hollywood more than it is me.
Would you prefer film or TV adaptations? (If the choice was magically yours)
Depends on the series. I'd like to see Mistborn and The Reckoners as film, Stormlight and Wax and Wayne as TV.
Will all 10 Stormlight books be relatively close time wise, or separate centuries like Mistborn?
They will be relatively close, time wise. Across twenty years or so, rather than hundreds.
Why can non-Scadrians use Hemalurgy? Don't they need Ruin's sDNA, like Allomancers need Preservation?
Hemalurgy is built to be able to be used by anyone. It's about taking and breaking. Ruin doesn't care who does such things
Would you mind giving a width for the Final Empire as well? Thanks! :)
Still work to do on that... Maybe before the end of the year.
Ah, for the book with all the starcharts [Arcanum Unbounded]? Looking forward to seeing it then :).
Not necessarily for that book. :)
When you write certain characters, do you envision them as anyone in real life? Ie. I see Dalinar as Liam Neeson
I don't generally envision them as real people. But A Liam Neeson Dalinar brings a smile to my lips.
How many books/short stories did you write before you were first published?
I wrote thirteen before I sold one. I was pretty bad at this when I started...
What is your routine as a writer? How do you stay motivated to churn out pages?
I write every day. My motivation is the same now as it always was: to tell stories. Not much has changed. :)
What's the best order for someone to read all the books in the Cosmere?
It depends. Publication order is just fine. However, I often start people with Mistborn.
If Kaladin were to write a self-help book, what would the title be?
Being a man, Kaladin would avoid writing anything, as it wouldn't be proper. :)
Are there any other time periods you would like to explore with the Mistborn series?
I'll be doing a 1980's level tech, and a future tech, in upcoming series. So you could say that there are. :)
Before Ruin and Preservation showed up on Scadrial, was aluminum already antimagical? Also, is [The Alloy of Law] between Stormlight 5&6?
Yes, [The Alloy of Law] is after Stormlight 5. Specific timing will depend on how long I make the 5/6 gap once I get there.
Did you have the ending planned out for the Reckoners series when you started writing?
Then I build a series around the ideas and themes that worked in the first book.
I had the ending of the first book well in mind. Once I finished it, I sat down and plotted the next two books.
This is very common for me in a series. Writing the first book, making sure I have the characters and ideas down first.
Atium is the best metal to use for Hemalurgy. Does *burning* atium help you figure out where to put the spikes?
Anything that gets you a glimpse of the Spiritual Realm could help with placing spikes.
Would flaring iron and steel also help?
No, not without additional help.
If you could have any of the Epics' powers, who would it be?
Hm... I mean, Steelheart is invulnerable, can fly, and can shoot lasers out of his fists. It is hard to go wrong there.
What do you think of the New Adult category?
I'm reserving judgement. If the readership likes it, then it will take off. If not, oh well.
Darn! I was hoping you'd say you loved it. Everything I write (almost) is NA. :)
I think it's a cool category; I'm just not convinced that the public is embracing it.
For Terris names, is it safe to assume the first vowel is always long?
This is frequently the case, but it's not 100%.
Could a Brass twinborn compound to effectively be a human flamethrower? Also can a compounder store faster?
RAFO!
Does the Divine Breath's Healing work with someone without a Breath (like a Drab or someone not from Nalthis)?
Yes, this would work.
I know you have your masters in creative writing, as do many authors, though some do not. How much has getting your masters helped you as a writer?
No class, even the one I teach, can take the place of writing on your own and practicing. That will be the most useful thing to you in your career—practicing lots of styles, lots of writing tools, and lots of types of stories. Your job is to learn for yourself what works for you, and develop your own mix of strategies—writing methods, outlining methods, viewpoint/tense decisions, prose decisions—that help you consistently create great books.
A writing program does several things. First, good writing classes should give you tools to try out, and explain to you what they normally do in writing, and why you might like this too. They give you feedback from established writers. And they give you a writing community to be part of—people to make into a writing group, to bounce ideas off, and to help you along your path.
The danger of a masters in creative writing is that some professors are determined to help people create only one kind of fiction, very narrowly defined, and will try to shove you away from other types of writing. Don't let them do this to you—they should be a resource to you, rather than a force that tries to homogenize you into a single type of storytelling.
