Recent entries

Questioner

Are you going to do another book for Perfect State? ‘Cause that sucked me in.

Brandon Sanderson

A lot of people really want more.

Questioner

It made me so mad. "Stop writing novellas! I need more information on this."

Brandon Sanderson

The big secret on that is that Sophie, the one-- is actually his nemesis. So the robot was not actually a robot, it was a VR thing that she was controlling...

Questioner

So are you going to write another?

Brandon Sanderson

I don't know if I will, I don't know if I will. So you didn't actually get to see Melhi, his nemesis getting to play with him in-person and things like that. So there's layers there that are kind of complicated.

Questioner

Like even with the cosmere novella you released Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, that one I was like "Why are these so short?!"  I'm not used to this.

Brandon Sanderson

That world is important to the cosmere, so that world-- Silence herself you won't see any much more of, but that world itself is very cosmere relevant.

little wilson

Are Ruin and Preservation separate in Sazed or are they fully combined together like can he give one of them, or does he have to give both.

Brandon Sanderson

They are not fully combined. I mean that's not the way this works. He could pull off a piece of one even and make-- stuff like that. That's totally, totally viable. I mean it's basically what happened with the spren. The spren existed before even Honor was destroyed and things like that.

little wilson

So, did the-- my gosh, on Sel-- the Aons-- not the Aons-- the seons did they exist before the Splintering?

Brandon Sanderson

They did not. That's a good question. But they are not the majority of the power. They're just little pieces, they are like the sparks when something gets destroyed. The sparks are not the majority but they are the sparks that were thrown off, if that makes sense?

little wilson

Are Trellism and Trelagism the same religion?

Brandon Sanderson

Uuhheha, that's a RAFO too.

little wilson

Is it the same god in both?

Brandon Sanderson

Let's just say that… who Trell is and what happened is a matter of some interest in the cosmere and amusement to me.

little wilson

Which eye did Gaz lose?

Brandon Sanderson

Which eye did Gaz lose? Did I go back and forth on that?

little wilson

I have no idea.

Brandon Sanderson

Okay, that's a Peter. I thought it was the left eye but if i did it wrong… It's entirely possible. I have no idea. It's in my notes.

little wilson

How did he lose it?

Brandon Sanderson

Well that is a RAFO! That is definitely a RAFO.

little wilson

Can a Mistborn turned into a Lifeless still use Allomancy?

Brandon Sanderson

*long-ish pause* Uh, no.

little wilson

So I would assume that is the same for a Feruchemist?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah if you-- taking some-- Yeah.  No they can't.

little wilson

Can a Shardblade-killed body be turned into a Lifeless?

Brandon Sanderson

Can a Shardblade-killed body be turned into a Lifeless.  Yeees, it can be re-Invested. Yes.

little wilson

Are there any side-effects to doing so?

Brandon Sanderson

Uhhh, there would be side-effects. I won't tell you what they are. They would be minor, minor, mostly inconsequential side-effects.

Questioner

The effects of trellium on the bendalloy? Those are going to RAFO'd

Brandon Sanderson

They are. I'm sorry. These are the sorts of things the future series will be dealing with.

Questioner

Will we ever see anything else of Shai?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, someday-- You may not see another novella of the same style but you will at least see her in books somewhere.

Questioner 1

Can you tell me the name of Dalinar's wife?

Brandon Sanderson

Well…  I can but I'm not going to, because it's not that big a deal but it is something for him in the books. I would just rather you read it in the books, but you will find out.

Questioner 2

Will it be in the third book?

Brandon Sanderson

Well in the flashbacks he doesn't have that issue so when you see her from his viewpoint in the flashbacks he can say her name and he can hear it. So the flashbacks involve him meeting her and things like that, so you'll know her name then. And it's not like some big secret like "Oh her name--" but I would rather you just read it there.

Questioner

How do koloss breed with humans, because you say in Alloy of Law that one of the--

Brandon Sanderson

What happens is the koloss breed with each other and a koloss-blooded is the result, because a koloss needs the Hemalurgic spikes to make them full koloss.  So if two koloss breed you get a koloss-blooded, which is basically a human with some weird genetics in them and if they choose to go through the transformation to full koloss they will become one.

Questioner

So you initially said that you had started the first third [of Shadows of Self] and then you took a break for two years.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, mmhmm

Questioner

I kind of get the feeling that in the first third The Set was supposed to be the Big Bad villain of the second book and then you massaged it into the kandra.  Is that the case or--

Brandon Sanderson

No the kandra was always planned as the second book villain. When I sat down to do the outline of the three, that is when I decided-- So yeah it was the kandra. The big change is that Marasi wasn't working at all, that's probably one of the reasons I stopped it. I had to rebuild her from the get go in that one, and she works much better in the revision. I was pushing her in the first draft more toward lawyer/attorney stuff and it just wasn't working, it's not where she wanted to go.

Questioner

Not to bring up Rithmatist, do you think it is just going to be the two books or--

Brandon Sanderson

I plotted it at three, so it is probably going to be The Rithmatist, The Aztlanian, and then I-- The Nebraskian? But I have to find some goofy thing so it's not necessarily Nebraskan...

Questioner

So are any characters, like Vasher, going to be in any of your other books?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, Vasher is in Words of Radiance.

Questioner

Yeah, I knew he was in Words of Radiance. Is he going to show up more in that? Have more importance?

Brandon Sanderson

He is not going to have a huge role, he'll have a little one. Normally I try to confine people who are interfering in other series to their own series, if that makes sense?

Questioner 1

I just notice that in the newer Mistborns that some of the older Mistborns, on the metals, aren't there a couple metals that are missing?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. There are. They didn't quite understand the-- all things, just like we don't understand all science, and as the series progresses you will see that table become even more intricate as it becomes more and more scientific.

Questioner 2

So this series is a step modernized? I've only read the original.

Brandon Sanderson

This one is a step modernized, still all the magic and stuff, but it's kind of mixing gunslinging and Allomancy. There's going to be another series that's going to be 1980's level technology where you'll really see things start to modernize, and then there's a science fiction series. Eventually.

Questioner

If you were to place yourself in the...  what Knight Radiant-- what Radiant Order would you be?

Brandon Sanderson

Mmmmm.

Questioner

It's a hard question.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah that is a hard question. I probably naturally, I think the best fit would be Lightweaver but it could be Bondsmith depending on what mood I'm in. You'll have to read that one… Dalinar becomes one at the end.

Questioner

We don't know much about them yet. What do they do? There's only three though, right?

Brandon Sanderson

Right now? There's-- yeah. But there's also Lift, who's an Edgedancer--

Questioner

No, I mean three Bondsmiths.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, yeah. There aren't very many, ever.

Questioner

How hard is it to write about the death of a character? Like when you wrote about Kelsier, and Vin had to go through the aftermath--

Brandon Sanderson

It's, to me, pretty hard. The thing is, it's harder for me in the planning because by the time I reach it in the books I'm usually well-prepped for it because I'm an outliner so I know before I start. It's not like in the moment. Once in awhile, I'll have to go and rebuild the outline, y'know, this person has to not make it but usually I know it very early on. But it can be hard, for sure. But it helps like, that I know their whole life, you know what I mean? I don't just get the glimpse of the story, I know everything about them. And you do know that there are hints of Kelsier in Book 3 Mistborn, he was around doing some stuff.

ccstat

Prior to Words of Radiance, when did Wit last get a hug?

Brandon Sanderson

It had been a long time.

ccstat

Does the Everstorm deposit crem? If so, is it the same as highstorm crem?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO!

KalynaAnne (Paraphrased)

I asked for something about Kaladin.

Brandon Sanderson

Kaladin has known multiple Lightweavers.

ccstat

In Shallan's drawings during the course of The Way of Kings, she sees multiple Cryptics. Were there other Cryptics accompanying Pattern in those drawings?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

ccstat

Were they approving of Pattern's choices.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. The Cryptics are much like what is happening with Lift, where there is more of a conscious effort on their part. As opposed to what is happening with Syl or Jasnah where there is hesitance. What the Cryptics are driven to do is in part because of what a few of their members have been experimenting with.

ccstat

Vasher uses Awakening in a very interesting way, off-stage, to modify the memories of the girl he rescues. Can Hemalurgy do the same thing if used carefully?

Brandon Sanderson

*long pause* No, I don't really think that it can. Nobody has asked that before, but just looking at the way the magics work, I don't think that is something that Hemalurgy is capable of doing.

ccstat

Have you considered publishing the rules for Tarachin?

Brandon Sanderson

...I have not, but it's possible.

ccstat

Can a skilled Smoker choose what they mask?

Brandon Sanderson

No one's figured that out yet.

ccstat

Can a Seeker, standing outside a Coppercloud, that is between them and another Allomancer, can he sense the person standing on the other side of the Coppercloud?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, but he might get some interference.

Ben McSweeney

Would you sense the cloud itself, like "Hey, there's a cloud between me and what I'm looking at"?

Brandon Sanderson

If you know what you're doing, you might be able to say something is interfering, but you wouldn't be able to determine what. There are multiple things that could cause that, for instance-- Most of them are only-- That they would be able to-- Yeah, there are multiple things that could cause that. Like, for instance--

Ben McSweeney

Big buildings?

Brandon Sanderson

Well, aluminum.

ccstat

Are spren equally visible to native Rosharans and worldhoppers?

Brandon Sanderson

Are they equally visible-- It is cognitive things that pull them out, not the native investiture of the people who live on Roshar.

ccstat

In Mistborn, Vin had a set of sapphire jewelry. If Demoux had brought those to Roshar, would they be infused by a highstorm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

ccstat

Are gems in those mined or exclusively from gemhearts?

Brandon Sanderson

Some are mined. Mining is not easy on Roshar.

ccstat

There's been some discussion about spheres, on Roshar. Are they made by glassblowing or by Soulcasting?

Brandon Sanderson

They can be made either way.

Questioner

When you do get around to giving us Hoid's story is it going to be like Ender's Shadow type of thing where you're filling in the gaps?

Brandon Sanderson

You know I know that stuff, but I don't plan to do it that way. I plan to do his backstory more as his own story because while I really like Ender's Shadow, most of the things like that I haven't enjoyed as much. Plus, it would take me books and books and books to do it. We'll see. I haven't closed the door on that idea, but I'm not planning on it right now. There are parallel things like that I am planning to write, but it's not Hoid.

Questioner

Apparently that’s the southern continent, are we going to see the northern continent?

Brandon Sanderson

What, on Roshar? Roshar is only-- it is a pangaea. On Scadrial, you've got a lot more going on-- That's the Mistborn world. So you will see multiple different continents there.

KalynaAnne

Lines of Vigor, do they behave like light waves?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

KalynaAnne

So a higher frequency means it’s better at penetrating, lower frequency transfers energy and moves stuff?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Ben McSweeney

Nice, I didn't know that one.

KalynaAnne

So, when they bounce off Lines of Forbiddance, do they follow laws of reflection?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Ben McSweeney

They should always reflect at the same angle.  Think of, like, a pool table.

KalynaAnne

If a Line of Vigor is moving from concrete onto asphalt, is it changing?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to act like light transferring to a new medium.

KalynaAnne

So it refracts?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to-- Yeah, it's going to refract.

KalynaAnne

So it changes speed as it moves?

Brandon Sanderson

Yep. So you get a different wavelength, or whatever, once transfers onto a new medium.

KalynaAnne

If you use different circle centers rather than the orthocenter, you can do 9-point conic constructions and make 9-point ellipses?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

KalynaAnne

Is that valid?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say yes, that could be valid.

Ben McSweeney

Wasn't there a rule about ellipses being a little--

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, they are a little less strong.

Ben McSweeney

--they're weak because the long sides are weaker than the short sides.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, but this would work. There's not much reason to use it because the other is naturally-- has a stronger integrity than this, but you could theoretically do that. The defenses that make use of an ellipse make use of the strengths of an ellipse already. But yeah that would be possible.

Ben McSweeney

With an ellipse you are asking for your opponent to flank you and come at you from the sides. And then if he pushes your circle out you're in trouble.

KalynaAnne

So when you have multiple points, that are like a point where there are multiple things, could you bind multiple things to that point?

Brandon Sanderson

Um yes, and you can always bind multiple things to a point--

KalynaAnne

Oh you can always bind--

Ben McSweeney

So you can bind a chalkling and a circle to the same point?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, but it's going to make it weaker, so you don't usually want to do it. 'Cause you are better off to just stick circle on and get multiple points on of that...

KalynaAnne

But if it had multiple ones, would that make it less bad to join two?

Brandon Sanderson

No.

KalynaAnne

So it doesn't--

Brandon Sanderson

It doesn't. Good question!

KalynaAnne

So, 9-point circles are important... You can get all the different point placements as special cases of the nine point circles.

Brandon Sanderson

Uh-huh.

KalynaAnne

You can also get 5 point; is that valid Rithmatically?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that would work.

KalynaAnne

And 8-point?

Brandon Sanderson

8-point they haven't done very much experimentation with.

Ben McSweeney

But you could!

Brandon Sanderson

But you could, yeah.

Questioner

We got a RAFO ticket so--

Ben McSweeney

Did you actually get a card? Those are so cool. I've only gotten one, and I've been working for this man for five years.

Questioner

You have to ask more questions

Ben McSweeney

I basically have to hit him at a signing and then I'm not supposed to be taking them from the fans.

Brandon Sanderson

Right. The thing is, he can have the answers he wants.

Ben McSweeney

I get some. You RAFO'd me once.

Brandon Sanderson

I RAFO'd you once.

Ben McSweeney

I actually think that's how I got the card. 'Cause I did it and you were like "No."

Questioner

If you had to be stranded on an island with Patrick Rothfuss forever, who would drive the other one more mad?

Brandon Sanderson

Ummmm, boy...

Ben McSweeney

That's a pretty good one.

Brandon Sanderson

It is a pretty good one. I don't know who'd crack first. We're both kind of quirky guys, we both have our writer's egos. I would just fear for a third person trapped with us. *laughter* We'd just go to our separate sides of the island and write books for each other.

Ben McSweeney

You'll just yell at each other about where is your next book. "I finished mine, where's yours!"

Brandon Sanderson

It's in the sand over here, where's yours...

Questioner

...the giant South American glyphs.

Ben McSweeney

Yeah that is super RAFO.

Ben McSweeney

*in response to a discussion about RAFOs* There was the one about what painspren look like.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, what do painspren look like on the Cognitive Realm.

Ben McSweeney

That's a RAFO.

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO because it is actually relevant to future stories.

Ben McSweeney

It'll be important.

Brandon Sanderson

Not that it's a big deal, but I got to hold some stuff back.

Questioner

She wanted to know, the safehand, is it always the left hand or is it--

Brandon Sanderson

It is.

Questioner

That's what I thought, she thought it was just the non-dominant hand.

Brandon Sanderson

Nope, it is the-- So it's rough on lefties. But remember, most non-nobles they just wear a glove, so it's not such a big deal for them. It's when you're noble and left handed that you kind of have a problem.

Questioner

What’s the hardest power you've created to find a balance for?

Brandon Sanderson

Hardest power to create a balance for? I'd say first is Wheel of Time, but I didn't create that... Hardest to balance… They've all been fairly easy so far. My guess is that it will end up being Stormlight just because I am doing so many books in that world, and I'm not resetting characters as much as I am in Mistborn, that I'm going to have to be careful about power creep... That's an excellent question.

Questioner

And are there established trade routes between Epic-controlled areas?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Questioner

Are they patrolled by Epics?

Brandon Sanderson

Umm, yes to an extent. For the most part you know that if you hit an Epic's trade caravan you're all dead, y'know? So they don't have to worry about it that much. But some are patrolled. Not by the Epics, but by their people.

Questioner

What do painspren look like in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

That's a RAFO.

Questioner

In the book [The Way of Kings] you discuss that if you were to lose a piece of Shardplate you have to regrow the part back, or else someone takes it and tries to regrow the entire plate. One thing that has been bugging me for a while now is if you were to take a small piece of the armor, such as a glove, and fuel it with Stormlight to regrow the whole armor, does it retain the original armor? Like does it retain how it looked before, the glove?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes

Questioner

So it just transfers over.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, and the original glove will disintegrate.

Questioner

Was all of your work on Firefight, is that based on the Butterfly effect?

Brandon Sanderson

It is a little bit, definitely.

Questioner

There's a huge movement in the genre, almost away from heroic, truly good figures and it seems to me like a lot of your books are kind of, there is some darkness in them but you are holding really tight to the light… What do you think about the idea of the true heroic character and where they're going?

Brandon Sanderson

I think that people can be truly heroic and I'm happy that the genre has lots of room for different types of storytelling, but the books I'm most interested in are the ones that are people still trying to do what is right, and so that's what I want to write about.

Questioner

I've been watching some of the videos online and you say writing-- ideas are cheap, and they are, you can get ideas pretty easy, but how in the world do you get-- I can get the beginning and figure out an end but how do you do get all the stuff in the middle?

Brandon Sanderson

So if you've got your end, try and say what things, try to get a brainstorming session where you write with bullet points underneath it what things will help me earn this ending so that it feels-- that it has the emotion that I want. And try to brainstorm five or six things and make those waypoints along the way, if that makes sense, between-- Where it's not just one point and two points, it's five points, "I'm going to hit this one, this one, and this one" and if you can come up with four or five interesting things to happen through the end of your book that you can earn that way you're going to have a sequence of like twenty touchstones that can each form a chapter or a couple of chapters that you can work on to get to that ending.

Questioner

Why did, when Alcatraz got his father's soul back, why did he poof back wearing his suit? Since when you get turned into one they're incinerated, your clothes are gone. Why does he have his?

Brandon Sanderson

Why did he have his? Because he was prepared for this. He was ready and he had done something so it wouldn't go that way.

Questioner

Are going to do anything else in that world [of Dreamer]

Brandon Sanderson

Probably not. She [Charlaine Harris] wanted me to write a horror story, and I'd never written one before so I said, "All right, what is the most frightening thing I can think of?" The most frightening thing I could think of was the kids who play Xbox having power over real people’s lives, and that’s where that story came from.

Questioner

As a physicist I appreciate you being so consistent with your magic systems.

Brandon Sanderson

It is something I try very hard to do, though I do recognize that we do bend a lot of rules. When we were doing the time-based one in this [The Alloy of Law], I'm like, "Oh, boy, redshifts. Oh, no, conservation of energy." We had to do some bending to make it so that the radiation from the light passing out of the time bubble wasn't deadly.

Questioner

I was deployed in Afghanistan when I read The Way of Kings. And I was wondering how do you put yourself in the mind of a soldier?  Because it was very--

Brandon Sanderson

I have a good friend and I asked them when I interviewed them and that was a big help to me.

Questioner

When they got to the Shattered Plains it felt like I was reading a story about myself--

Brandon Sanderson

Oh really?

Questioner

Reading about how the rank structure, that was really-- It wasn't quite the same but--

Brandon Sanderson

I've got a good friend. His name is actually Skar--he's the bridgeman Skar, I put him in the book because he helped me so much--who is in the army. He had lots of advice for me on how to make everything work.