Recent entries

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2951 Copy

    Questioner

    Do your kids read your books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. They read my kids books. They've read Skyward, they've read Starsight, they read Rithmatist. They haven't tackled the adult books yet. 

    Questioner

    How old is your oldest?

    Brandon Sanderson

    My oldest is 12.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2952 Copy

    Questioner

    Has an unborn child ever been Ascended?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ascended to be a Shard? No, that has not yet happened.

    Questioner

    Maybe not a Shard but...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh. Ascend to like a... No. I would say no. It hasn't ever happened. It's not implausible that the mother could Ascend and the child would... But it hasn't happened.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2954 Copy

    Questioner

    I was wondering when are we going to get Doomslug plushies?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We are really considering it. We've heard horror stories from our friends who have made plushies. That the prototypes just all turn out terrible. That it's really hard to get someone to make a good plushie. So, we've been scared to try, but we've had some people come and offer.

    Isaac Stewart

    On the JordanCon website, Deana just posted instructions on how to make your own. 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Okay, there you go.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2955 Copy

    Questioner

    You've talked a little bit about scripture readings contributing to your writing earlier today. How do you keep that separate from the worlds you're creating?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've really never had a problem with that. It's easier than keeping myself separate from other fantasy writers' things and that I've had to learn to put a line in place where I'm like "Ooh, this is a cool idea. Remember that this was someone else's cool idea." Because I consider the scriptures history, I don't mind if they influence me. Like, history does a lot. In Roshar you'll find the Mongolian invasion being a big basis for where the characters for the Alethi come from and in the same way, King Benjamin's speech is a bit of an inspiration for Nohadon's Way of Kings. I don't mind getting inspired by history.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2956 Copy

    Questioner

    There are Allomantic savants, are there Feruchemical savants?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Much harder to do. My feeling on Feruchemical savants was because it was your own power in the first place, you can't steep in it so much in the way. But, if you can get someone else's power or if you are fueling your Feruchemy another way, you would become one. So, the Lord Ruler is a good example.

    Questioner

    Was Miles a...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. Miles would be the same sort of thing.

    Questioner

    Is that why he didn't die as quickly in the execution?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    So yeah. Normally no but if you can Compound you become... basically that is how I am explaining part of the Compounding abilities. 

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2957 Copy

    Shqueeves

    Similar to how holding Stormlight and Voidlight causes an emotional reaction, does holding a lot of Breath create an appreciation for beauty?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, I would say that it does.

    Shqueeves

    Does every form of Investiture create an emotional reaction?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would say yes. 

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2958 Copy

    Questioner

    You talk about dragons, are you ever going to write a book with a dragon in it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. There are dragons in the Cosmere. Hoid has talked to one. If you read the letters in the beginnings of the Stormlight books, there's one where he's talking to someone he calls, "You old reptile." That's actually Frost ,who's a dragon. The planet that Hoid comes from, there are dragons on. It's where I got the word Dragonsteel which is the name of my book. I just didn't end up publishing that book but they're still in canon. So eventually I'll do a new version of that book and release it. There are actually dragons off world even, but they can shapeshift in the Cosmere.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2959 Copy

    Questioner

    Is reincarnation a thing in the Cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Reincarnation is not a thing in most of the Cosmere.

    *Small exchange*

    You could call the Returned reincarnations and there are other things along those lines. You could call the Fused are straight up reincarnation. It happens in some places. If you've read Stormlight, there's a group that are reincarnated time and time again. In general, no but there are groups that reincarnate.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2960 Copy

    Questioner

    Why is Spensa's dad a coward? Why does everyone make fun of Spensa?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He's not actually a coward. Read the book and you'll find out. Everyone makes fun of Spensa because their society focuses too much on a false version of what is a hero. They focus too much on the idea of if you're a hero, then you're good; if you're not a hero, then you're bad. They're basically kind of building themselves up by tearing her down which is a bad way to do it and don't follow their example.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2962 Copy

    Questioner

    If you had a group of Elantrians on Roshar and they wanted to set up an Elantrian complex similar to the city of Elantris, what would they have to do to get that set up?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The only way they know how to do it is to get Investiture from Sel and pipe it, basically. That's not the only way you could do it but that's the only way they know how to do it. You've seen them doing that in Secret History. Basically if they want their powers to work, they have huge workarounds they have to put in place. That's not all of it but that's basically... Yeah.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2964 Copy

    Questioner

    What do you when all your characters seem to think and act like you do?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What I do if I were in that problem is, I try to pick some attribute that's very different from me. A belief system, a way of acting, a psychology. And then go read a whole bunch of blogs by people who are talking about dealing with that issue and then try to do a steelman, is what they call it. The opposite of a strawman, make that person's argument or life philosophy as strong as you can make it in that character. And see what happens.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2966 Copy

    Questioner

    When do you think Alcatraz... The next one... Do you have a release date for that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I hope it's next year.

    Do you have any idea?

    Isaac Stewart

    We're probably a year to a year and a half away. 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. We have to wait on the art. Whatever the art takes. Tor hasn't seen it yet either. We have just finished it and Janci wrote half and I wrote half and it turned out pretty well.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2973 Copy

    Questioner

    Has Hoid ever died before?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Define died. He has had his head chopped off. It just, like, didn't work.

    Questioner

    Didn't work?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. He actually ends the book Dragonsteel - that's unpublished - being beheaded. That event happened, although that book didn't happen as the book was written.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2975 Copy

    Questioner

    Could you rewrite Elantris to make Allomancers?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Could you rewrite Elantris to make Allomancers. If you really knew what you were doing, could you create a program?

    Questioner

    Right.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would be way easier with Forging and even that would be really hard. I could see you imitating the powers the right way, that you could end up with something that was functionally the same. It just wouldn't be an Allomancer.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2976 Copy

    Questioner

    I have a theory. Because the center of gravity for a female is naturally lower, but when Vin burns iron or steel, the blue lines come from her chest, does that come from her center of self, rather than the center of gravity?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. That's probably a more accurate way to put it. 

    Questioner

    Would it be possible for that to change, then? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, that is possible. I should say it like that, because it's not going to actually be... Because center of gravity, where you would actually put it, is not where I'm having those lines come from. You came in costume. You can just make that canon now and we will put that on all of the lists that that is what it is.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2978 Copy

    Questioner

    In the Sixth of Dusk, where does the magic come from?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The magic comes from the same place that the magic comes in all of the Cosmere.

    Questioner

    That doesn't help. What Shard or Splinter of Shards...

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's a RAFO.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2981 Copy

    Questioner

    Can you explain the difference between a singer and a listener? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Singer is the name of the people in their own language. Listener, this group that split off from the singers and did not want to be called singers anymore, called themselves listeners and that name perpetuated. You could say that singer is the name of race and listener is the name of the nation.

    General Twitter 2019 ()
    #2982 Copy

    Jofwu

    So should we *not* read into the colors [on the Warbreaker leatherbound Nalthis symbol]? Or are Tears of Edgli purple and yellow? (and some black?)

    Oh wait, they come in several colors of course. Nevermind.

    Isaac Stewart

    Yeah, don't read into the colors of the symbol. :) That's just what looks good on the leatherbound.

    Stormlight Book Four Updates ()
    #2984 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hey, all! Dropping in to give you another quick Stormlight Four update. (See the previous update here.) Though most of my team is gearing up for the Starsight launch in a few weeks, I’m buckling down for the final push to finish writing Stormlight Four.

    I didn’t get a ton written during my tour last month, but I didn’t expect to. I did, however, have a little time--and I’ve focused lately on getting the last parts of the outline hammered together. There’s still some work to do on book five’s outline, but I’ve had the team move the outline progress bar to 100%--indicating that the book four outline is completely finished.

    Right now, Parts One and Two of the book are done as well. Parts Three-Five have been finished for everything but the main, core viewpoint cluster. (So, if you’ve been following along, that means viewpoint clusters two and three are finished.) I’ve also done some work on the interludes, getting a nice chunk of those done, most notably the "through line" viewpoint for the Interludes.

    Remaining to do are a handful of interludes and the core story for the second half of the book. Together, that should be around 100k words, though it’s possible I’ll go longer.

    Now comes the toughest part of the push for me. I’ve got just under two months left before January first, which is the deadline by which I’ll need to have the rough draft done if we want to publish in 2020. Since the book is looking really good, and the outline is solid, I’m confident that we won’t run into any problems. By this point in a book (the 75% mark, which is where I am right now) I’m generally aware if the book will require any major edits or revisions. This one shouldn’t, which means if I do hit that deadline, we’re going to be in really good shape.

    This means I need to write 100k(+) words in two months, with a book launch in the middle as well as two major holidays. So...we’ll see. I was wise enough to know ahead of time that I’d need these weeks for writing, so decided not to do a tour for Starsight. I hope everyone will support the book anyway; my publisher is really worried that by not doing a tour, we might be leaving the book without support.

    I, however, am confident that the majority of my readers would rather have me working on Stormlight than traveling about trying to persuade you to buy Starsight. (I assume this is particularly true for those of you on this subreddit.) I’m not terribly worried; from the reception Skyward has gotten, the second book should do just fine. So other than the launch party (which should be quite the extravaganza) I’ll be keeping my attention on Stormlight.

    As always, you can follow along via the progress bars on my website for more clarity. Also, Adam should be posting pictures there from my tour in Europe the next few weeks, along with some shots of me on the set of the Wheel of Time television show. (Assuming they ever get approved.)

    I’ll try to keep you updated as the deadline approaches, but it’s likely the next big update you’ll get will come at the annual State of the Sanderson blog post on or around my birthday next month. This should also be the last reddit update until you get the "It's done" update, hopefully right before the end of the year. (And, if you'll forgive me, I'm unlikely to be answering a lot on Reddit these next few months--and likely won't be saying much in this thread either.)

    As always, thanks for your support and enthusiasm. Journey before Destination!

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2985 Copy

    Ben McSweeney

    The major mandate for the entire Rosharan environment is "coral reefs above water". We leaned into it hardest in the first book, partly 'cause we were still working out what's what and partly 'cause Brandon wanted to put that design theme up front.

    So the luckspren and windspren are evocative of fish and schools. The prickletac rockbuds are actually shaped like branch coral, and the leaves of the stumpweight trees are seawead. Markel trees gots clamshell leaves. Axehounds are turtle-faced lobster-dogs, chull are giant hermit crabs, skyeels are so Moray they even got pharyngeal jaws.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2986 Copy

    Araedox

    I’ve read the books several times and still can’t imagine what grass not in Shinovar is like.

    Ben McSweeney

    it looks like a tall, terrestrial grass, shades of green to gold depending on the variety and life cycle... grass which suddenly whips down into the ground whenever anyone gets too close (probably sensing ground vibrations).

    The actual plant is a sort of shallowly burrowed seed pod with room enough inside to hold moisture and for the long leaf to coil up... any excess leaf will get trimmed by exposure. Pretty sure it tops out around 3 feet, but if it grows longer some critter will eat it. Seeds emerge from the leaf tip to be either consumed and then redeposited in faeces, or blown away and redeposited by the winds.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2988 Copy

    dark-winter-knight

    What is the difference between a person's Spiritweb and their spiritual DNA? Is there a difference?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Soul, generally used in the cosmere, is a spiritual or philosophical term. It refers to the part of a person that continues to exist after death, or to the "being" of the person in a philosophical term.

    A Spiritweb is a measurable, quantifiable thing in the cosmere. (Granted, it's not easy to do either to one, but it can be done.) It is a scientific term, though because the cosmere hasn't reached modern scientific understandings yet, there is a lot of overlap between science, philosophy, and spirituality.

    This way, acknowledging that a person has a Spiritweb does not require an atheist/humanist to affirm religious ideas or concepts--like acknowledging that the Vessels/Shards exist does not require also affirming that a capital G God exists.

    The separation of the two is necessary to allow people like Jasnah to not be undermined by the text. It wouldn't be right of me to work for having representatives of viewpoints contrary to my own if the very foundation of the magic systems and physics proved them wrong.

    So, in short, you can measure a Spiritweb. Whether a person actually has a soul or not (even in the cosmere) is subject to your own personal philosophy on the idea. Even ghosts and other persisting personalities after death, like certain individuals who shall remain unnamed, have a very real and rational magic system explanation for their existence.

    aravar27

    Is a Cognitive Shadow essentially Investiture filling in the molded pattern of a Spiritweb to the point where it resembles the initial person?

    I'm interested in the implications with respect to personal identity--the "soul" would be one of the competing answers for the question "what am I," but some argue for psychological continuity and others for biological continuity. A Cognitive Shadow seems like it might better fit the Psychological Criterion, since it seems like Investiture replaces the biological body as the source of living and experiencing things.

    Brandon Sanderson

    You're getting into things that are subject to debate among people in the cosmere. Most shadows would insist that they're the same person. Others would dispute this, saying they're essentially a spren--a bit of the power that came alive like you said, taking on the personality of the person when the person themselves died.

    BipedSnowman

    Like uploading a brain to a computer. Made of Investiture.

    Brandon Sanderson

    A fitting analogy.

    Aurora_Fatalis

    Does it matter what kind of power it was that filled the gaps? Like, if you were a normal human and made a Cognitive Shadow fueled by AonDor, would you be more able to "possess" a modern computer than if you were made a Cognitive Shadow by - say - Odium?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This can matter. Shades from Threnody, for example, work differently from Returned, who are different from Heralds. But all are Shadows.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2989 Copy

    Shuaroo

    Have I gone crazy or did he misspell Kal's mom's name twice [in the Stormlight Four preview chapter]? It's Hesina, is it not? But its listed as Hessica twice.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, I always write her name the way it was in 1.0 of the first book, not the place one I changed it (to be more in line with Alethi naming conventions.) So Karen or Peter always have to go through and change it several times for me.

    At least I've stopped writing tin as silver these days. Whatever I do in the first draft tends to get embedded into my muscle memory as far as names.

    Sharuu

    Ha! I figured it was something like that, but started getting paranoid that I completely misremembered anyway. Besides, I imagine that, especially writing at the speed you do, it's easy to overlook the smaller details.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's also something about the way my brain works. I still have trouble writing Galladon instead of Galarion, which was his original name. Often, near the end of a book, I'm making tweaks to get the languages and naming more consistent--and some names just don't fit any longer. But my brain rarely wants to accept the changes. (Notably, though, I took easily to Kaladin--who was originally named something else, but a name I never really liked.)

    Protaokper

    Huh! Sorry if you’ve answered this before, but what was Kaladin’s original name?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Merin. I know. In my defense, it fit the linguistics at the time.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2990 Copy

    classicalkhlennium

    A while ago I was talking with my friend about the presence of isotopes in Mistborn, and we thought surely the metals have ions and isotopes like they do in the real world, otherwise how else would they exist on an atomic level? We wondered if there were radioactive isotopes on Scadrial or even in the Cosmere as a whole, else they would never discover nuclear weaponry and fuels. None of the non-god metals in Mistborn have radioactive components, but that isn't to say that radioactive metals don't exist in the cosmere. Radioactive elements such as uranium (a necessary discovery for the 3rd and 4th Eras of Mistborn if they want to have long term fuel sources/weapons) and radium (necessary discovery in the field of medicine) seem necessary to the advancement of civilization. This also raises the question of where would the god metals, lerasium, atium, and harmonium, fit on the Periodic Table, and would all of their isotopes be stable, would they perhaps have radioactive isotopes that can somehow affect their Allomantic properties?

    Brandon Sanderson

    These are things we'll start answering in the modern day Mistborn novels, so RAFO for now.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2991 Copy

    havoc_mayhem

    I'm sure others have spotted this already, but I just noticed that the titles of the first 5 Stormlight Archive books are on track to form a palindrome.

    • (The) Way of Kings
    • Words of Radiance
    • Oathbringer
    • (The) Rhythm of War
    • ...

    WoK.WoR.O.RoW...

    This is really cool! Whether coincidence or deliberate, I hope that Sanderson continues the trend.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Let's just say that abandoning the title of book two way back when let me rebuild the title sequence to do something I hadn't been able to make work in my original series draft. Stones Unhallowed isn't likely to be the last book's title any longer.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
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    KingKaliYuga

    Children of the Nameless sequel, when?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Sequel someday. But not until after I've caught up on Stormlight and Mistborn.

    KingKaliYuga

    Catch up as in finish or catch up as in get up to date on release windows? Cause I can't spend like 10 years waiting to see what happened to that girl after she disappeared, even if I get some radical Stormlight books while I wait

    Brandon Sanderson

    I put off writing Wax and Wayne 4 to do Children of the Nameless, and so I need to make sure I've finished that at the very least--and it has to come after Stormlight 4.

    General Reddit 2019 ()
    #2993 Copy

    Swedish_Doughnut

    Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor, his nickname. Its Rock. And do ya know what he does? He cooks. THE ROCK COOKS. Adonalsium damn you Sanderson! Why would you do this to me, WHY? Why would you make a character just to have an IN UNIVERSE "what the Rock is cooking?" joke? why?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Would you believe me if I told you this was actually a coincidence? I DID notice it, though, when writing the first book way back when.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2994 Copy

    Questioner

    If something is heavily Invested, it's harder for a Shardblade to go through it, right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Kind of. It depends on the kind of Investiture and things that are going on. But yes. If you want to block a Shardblade... Like a metalmind would be a good thing to use to fight a Shardblade.

    Questioner

    A person with a lot of Breath, like the God-King, would you be able to chop them with a Shardblade or no?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's going to get very tricky on that, so I'll RAFO that for now. Let's just say that there are things. For instance, a Shardblade excising someone who's been Hemalurgically spiked is a theoretical possibility. 

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2997 Copy

    Questioner 1

    So the white hair. Did she have white hair or did Shallan just imagine that she had white hair?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is another RAFO.

    Questioner 2

    There are a lot of RAFO's about The Girl Who Looked Up

    Brandon Sanderson

    There are a lot of RAFO's.

    Questioner 1

    So, the girl who looked up, could her hair change like the royal locks?

    Brandon Sanderson

    RAFO.

    Questioner 1

    Was her hair long or short? Or does it not matter?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is long.

    Starsight Release Party ()
    #2998 Copy

    Questioner

    Why are there no spren in the prelude chapters for Way of Kings?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No specific reason. There's nothing happening there. Mostly, what happens is I write the initial write-through without very many spren and then they have Karen go through and say, "this would be a good place." Just kind of like special effects for a movie. It might just be that I've already released those and read those so much she doesn't want to add as many.