Recent entries

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4601 Copy

    Questioner

    Have we seen Kelsier outside of Mistborn yet, and will we see him outside of Mistborn?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No you have not. And RAFO, but realize, he is-- The way Investiture works, you would consider him similar to how you would consider a spren. It's gonna be hard for him to get off-world.

    Questioner

    It also means that he can still-- He gets kind of close, he gets really close--

    Brandon Sanderson

    I considered him still--

    Questioner

    Still on this side.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, but he got close to the line. But I would say he did not get off [Scadrial].

    Questioner

    So it's gonna be hard.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4607 Copy

    Questioner

    Where do you lie on the "BrandoSando" versus "Branderson"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would probably go "Branderson", but I don't mind either of them.

    Questioner

    Because I'm firmly in the BrandoSando camp.

    Brandon Sanderson

    BrandoSando? What about "BrandySandy"? I get that one too... No one goes with the cool ones. "Oh, the Sandman". I'm not cool enough.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4608 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a maximum speed a Coinshot can propel themselves or something else?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. It will vary slightly based on the strength of the Coinshot, but there are maximum velocities, just kind of-- you would burn yourself up at certain points.

    Questioner

    So imposed by the laws of physics.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, laws of physics are going to-- Those aren't normally going to come in play in Allomancy, because Pushing that hard will be really difficult... But, as we are getting into more mechanical uses of Allomancy, those laws of physics become more and more relevant.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4612 Copy

    Questioner

    What's your favorite guild in Ravnica?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably Dimir, probably. I mean I'm Esper, but I'm more interested in Dimir than I am in Azorius.

    Questioner

    That's exactly where I am, actually. I have an Esper Commander deck, been drafting Dimir heavily. Thank you so much!

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm glad Dimir's finally good, 'cause in the previous two, Dimir has not been a place you wanted to be, either in original or in returns.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4613 Copy

    Mr Fancy

    The Returned. When they come back, they appear really attractive. Is that based on their own idea of what's attractive, or society?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is going to be society. But they are definitely having an influence over it, so let me say both in that case... Yeah, there could be a short, bald one. That is totally viable, but it's maybe what the person views as a societal ideal, how about that, an easier way to explain that.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4614 Copy

    Questioner

    How has your worldbuilding changed over time to date.

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, it's become a lot more deliberate. And it has become more-- One thing is I've let myself push further. I've found that worldbuilding is one of those areas in storytelling where I can let myself kind of off the chain, off the leash, and go steps further than I thought I could, and it still turns out well. A lot of times if you do that with story, for instance, if you do that with plot, the way to kind of go off the leash and do something unexpected with plot is to do something that's not foreshadowed and is not satisfying, which can make for a really interesting story. Go watch Into The Woods if you want to go see something that-- Yeah, half the audience groaned when I mentioned Into The Woods, for a good reason. That's not a reason to not tell those stories, but experimenting with plot can, in many ways, be something that fails pretty spectacularly. Good to do it, it's good to learn those things, but worldbuilding, I've found, I haven't found that I've gotten ever too far where it's failing because the worldbuilding is too different. I've failed with my worldbuilding because I haven't brought the elements together. In fact, Apocalypse Guard, one of the reasons I pulled it is the worldbuilding was not working. And I can't release a Brandon Sanderson book with bad worldbuilding, right? *crowd laughs* That's like the baseline, "No." It's not the only thing that was broken in it, but it was one of the things that was broken in it. So, more deliberate, allowed myself to stretch further, and I would say I'm always kind of looking for those conflict points, nowadays, in the worldbuilding. The points of conflict are really interesting to me.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4616 Copy

    Questioner

    For the Saint in Skyward, I just love the funny prophet character. What was your inspiration for that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, the Saint in Skyward. Not giving any spoilers. When I was working on this character, I was really looking for something-- I look for linguistic cues. Because if you can have linguistic cues to who's talking and what the character's like, and something that'll characterize them through their language, that makes it so much better in storytelling, because you don't have to put that in narrative, you can put it in the flow of a conversation. And you'll notice, at least I've noticed, that a lot of the great screenwriters look for these sorts of things, so they can tag who is speaking, even if it's offscreen, by the way that they are talking, and I just love to do this. And a lot of these things come out of me taking a scene and working with it and casting different people in the roles and trying their voices until I hit on one that I say, "That's interesting, let's dig into this further", and that's what happened there.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4617 Copy

    Questioner

    What's your favorite Wayne one-liner?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably "defecation of character". My favorite Wayne moments are the ones that you could conceivably miss. Like, there's one for the next book where he calls being pressed into the army, "corporal punishment," that I'm just totally over the moon over, that I think people will probably miss, and that's what makes them fun.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4618 Copy

    Questioner

    When you do the big twist at the end of a book, do you always have that twist in your mind when you begin writing the book, or do you do the twist after?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I generally have it ahead of time. I am an outliner. I like-- Writers tend to fall into two camps with a lot of variety in between--they're not polar opposites--between what we call "gardeners" and what we call "architects." I'm more of an architect. I like to build a structure and then hang my story on it. That said, you need to be flexible and willing to take something better if it comes along. For instance, Secret Project, which I can't tell you anything about, had a different ending than the ending I just put into it, because the ending just didn't land, right? I'm like, "Alright, I need to go back to square one and I need a better twist for this story," and I dug into it and came up with one. That causes a lot more revision to have to be done, but at the end of the day, I think you need to be able to do it. Sometimes when you're writing you just come up with something better, you're like, "I need to try this instead 'cause it's stronger".

    Skyward Seattle signing ()
    #4619 Copy

    MarShadow

    What new statement can you give us about the cosmere that would give us a bunch to speculate on?

    Brandon

    I'm not sure if there's something new I can say. Um, I think rampant speculation about the Threnody novel would be cool. So, you have seen a hint in the books about the Threnody novel that no one has asked me if this is the thing.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4625 Copy

    JoyBlu

    At the end of Oathbringer there is an agreement between Odium and Taravangian.

    "If you help me, I will save your family.  Anyone within two generations of you."

    Taravangian says "Not enough."

    "Then we have no deal"

    And so then they go on and they make the deal that says "The city itself, and any humans who have been born into it, along with their spouses."

    Was the grandchildren included in that? -- or was it meant to be ambiguous?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Depends on where they were born.

    JoyBlu

    And then, Grandchildren. There are three listed of Taravangian's: Gvori, Karavangia, and Ruli.  There is also the one that Shallan drew the picture of which I think is a different one.  Is that right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *nods head in agreement*

    JoyBlu

    So far we have four granddaughters.  Karavangia is obviously named after her grandfather, Right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *nods head in agreement*

    JoyBlu

    Does he have more grandchildren named after him?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *shakes head no*

    Why are you asking?

    JoyBlu

    I was wondering if Tarah was somehow related to Taravangian.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Good question, no.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4626 Copy

    OrangeJedi

    In several instances of the highstorms, several characters mention seeing large creatures walking in the highstorms; they don't seem to be super fazed by this. Do they know these creatures exist, is it part of their lore?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. But you've got to also remember that people who are out in highstorms, they expect it to be... they expect to see odd things. When you're out in a highstorm, it does not faze you in the same way that if you go to a horror movie, you expect something horrific to happen.

    OrangeJedi

    Do they have a name for said creatures?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There are names in various parts of the lore, but there is no one name.

    OrangeJedi

    Could you give us one of them?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4629 Copy

    JoyBlu

    As I was reading about nightmaws, I thought that nightmaws were like dinosaurs. Is that...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, but they are feathered.

    JoyBlu

    Like a pterodactyl?

    Brandon Sanderson

    More like a giant...

    JoyBlu's Daughter

    Chicken!

    Brandon Sanderson

    Giant chicken. We're looking at a giant evil bird.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4631 Copy

    JoyBlu

    I dressed up as Kokerlii from Sixth of Dusk. I want to know, red and green are in the book are these [rainbow-colored array of feathers] appropriate, or not?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Kokerlii I had not imagined as fully rainbow colored.

    JoyBlu

    So red and green, were there other colors?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I was imaging red on green.

    JoyBlu

    What about the green Aviar? If I wanted to make a green aviar costume? Green and white?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes that would work.

    JoyBlu

    Is it just those two colors? Are there different shades of green?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There are aviar that are like this *gestures to JoyBlu's costume*, full parrot. Totally legit. But There are a lot of breeds of aviar.

    JoyBlu

    *inaudible* What would be the best <pattern>?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Solid colored feathers *inaudible*

    Skyward release party ()
    #4634 Copy

    Ethour

    Would an Aviar be capable of a spren bond?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What they do is the same thing, by cosmere terms. It is not as powerful; because of that it is easier to shift between people. What you gain is not as strong, but you also gain flexibility. But it would be, cosmerologically, considered the same thing.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4636 Copy

    Questioner

    Mistborn Era 3. Are you going to make a steel Twinborn?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's a very dangerous combination. Let's just say that certain elements in-world are very, very interested in finding and/or making them.

    Skyward San Diego signing ()
    #4637 Copy

    Questioner

    What has been the craziest, most off-the-wall, unexpected kind of feedback you've ever gotten--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ooh. *crowd laughs*

    Questioner

    ...you know kind of how it sent you in the right direction.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Wow, craziest off-the-wall feedback I've ever gotten and what direction did it send me. I have so much trouble with these things. Some people ask me the line "what's the weirdest thing a fan has had you write in a book". And I know, if I took the time, I could think of it, but off the top of my head it's kind of hard. I'm not sure what the craziest, most off-the-wall sort of feedback I've gotten. I've given a lot of crazy, off-the-wall feedback. Legion... came about because I was trying to convince my friend Dan Wells to write this book. *crowd laughs* "Oh, you could do this thing, and it could be like schizophrenia but not really, it could be a superpower," and he's like, "Brandon, that's not a Dan Wells book. That is a Sanderson book". And so I ended up writing the book, but that has happened. I've given weird feedback. I'd have to think about that one a little more.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4639 Copy

    Questioner

    If Vin had not killed the Lord Ruler. I would think that the Lord Ruler would take up the Well of Ascension a year later. Would he have just fixed the world to be what it was pre-...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think there are various theories of where this could have gone. Some, it would have been okay. I think that assuming things would turn out the way the Lord Ruler thought he was capable of doing would be assuming a lot, for what his state was at the time that he was *inaudible*. It is possible that things would have gotten much much worse. I'll just say that. I'm not gonna canonize either way, but I think there's a good argument in both directions.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4641 Copy

    Questioner

    There are honorspren and cultivationspren on Roshar. The other spren that are tied to orders of Knights Radiant, do they have any relationships with any other Shards?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They are all going to be a mix of the Shards on Roshar. Some weight a little further one direction or the other. They are not off-world Shards. Good question.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4643 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you have it planned out to a final ending?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I do. It's interesting how the outlines work. The further you get in a given series, the middle books have the least, and the last books have the most. It's the same for the Cosmere. Last books of Era 4 have a lot more than the first book of Era 4 does.

    Questioner

    Is there a point where you foresee basically ending the Cosmere and moving away from writing the Cosmere, start doing prequels?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The fact that I will probably not finish this until, like, my 60s if we're lucky. I feel like that point, I could do more jumping around, but that will be an endpoint. I like things to end. So I won't write off doing some other things in the Cosmere, but that will be an endpoint.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4644 Copy

    Questioner

    What made you want to write Skyward?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Skyward is a weird book in that it is a science fiction book based on a fantasy idea. Some of my favorite books when I was growing up were stories about a boy who finds a dragon egg or a dragon, and raises the dragon and then flies on the dragon, all sorts of fun stuff happens. And I've always wanted to do one of these stories. One of the very first books I ever read in fantasy was Dragonsblood by Jane Yolen, which I just reread so I could write a little review of it. And it's great. One of my favorite books of all time is The White Dragon, by Anne McCaffrey. And you'll find some Anne McCaffrey references in this book, you won't have to look that hard. But the idea was I wanted to do one of these books, but I never felt like I could give a good spin to it. And it is when I combined it with some other worldbuilding I had done in a science fiction universe and changed it from "a boy and his dragon" to "a girl and her spaceship" that the story really started to connect, because the worldbuilding that I had built for this galactic science fiction really clicked with this story. And that was kind of the breakthrough that I made, was combining these two things together.

    So, Skyward came from me wanting to write a story about a dragon. It just turns out the dragon is a spaceship with a really weird AI.

    Skyward release party ()
    #4645 Copy

    Questioner

    Do you have any updates on the Dark One TV series?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's got an interesting history. Dark One is one I've been working on for a long time, and I actually wrote out a big pitch for it when I pitched Apocalypse Guard to Random House, and I said, "Here's one of the other ideas I'm gonna write someday." They're like, "Woo. We'll keep this in our binder." And that binder made its way to their TV department, who read the pitch and was like, "We have to have this!" and came to me and said "Can we buy this?" I'm like, "Well, I haven't written the books yet." They're like, "We don't care. We want this pitch." And the pitch, the idea is that a young man in our world, a knight shows up to assassinate him, and he finds out that there's kind of a Narnia-esque fantasy world that his father visited when he was a kid and screwed up, and they are super mad. And they have prophecies that this kid is gonna be the next Dark One, and so they're gonna assassinate him before the whole epic-fantasy-thing can happen, and the Dark One tries to conquer the world. They're just gonna take him out first. And so it's kind of this twisting the story on its head idea. And it's a really fun pitch.

    So they bought it from me. I expanded it to a 30-page outline, sent it to them. I can't tell you who they got, but they've got somebody very big attached to it, which I'm very excited about, someone who I was excited about that my assistant Peter just about fell over dead when he heard the person attached. And we should be flying out to do pitches to studios and places early part of next year. We wanted to be doing it now, but I have a book launch, and they want me there with them.

    It's going really well. It's been a wonderful experience. I'm very hopeful with that, I think it will be a very interesting story if it happens.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4649 Copy

    Questioner

    I had a question about [steel] Ferrings. So, I saw that you had mentioned in a previous talk that you could only move so fast with air resistance, like eventually you'd start burning up. If you were to become an Edgedancer as well?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If you can combine those two powers, Edgedancing and [steel] Ferring, then you are able to do things that would circumvent that restriction. Yes, indeed.

    Skyward San Francisco signing ()
    #4650 Copy

    Questioner

    When are you going to tell us about your Secret Project?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, I have an NDA that I have signed, which says I will not tell people what it is. So, because of that, I'm staying just far away from it. I have said before, I'm letting them announce it when they want to announce it. It will be announced probably, and released, before the end of the year, is my expectation. I can't say anything else. Even if you guessed right what it was, I would have to say, "I don't know." Or "That sounds like it would be fun." But I will have to imply that I don't have any idea what you're talking about, even if you guess right.