Is there any new information on Dark One? As a lover of your books, graphic novels, and podcasts, I'm very excited for this!
Dark One is proceeding nicely behind the scenes, and we're about ready to go take it around the town for pitches. I'd be doing that this week, actually, if I didn't have a book release coming up that I have to prepare for.
Have any chain restaurants started up on Scadrial?
Yes, chains have begun on Scadrial--but the idea is very much in its infancy.
What is a song that you really love that a lot of people who know you would never expect?
Hm. Most people don't expect me to be enjoy Metallica as much as I do--but that tended to be more in the past, when Metallica was considered somewhat edgy before it became classic rock.
I love writing and it is what I feel I am the best at. When I finish this life, I want to leave behind a positive legacy through writing Fantasy and Science Fiction. Particularly, I would like to write in a way that will lead to greater depth of thought regarding paradigm shifting philosophical questions. I honestly believe that some of the worlds biggest problems are rooted in the rapidly increasing superficiality of thought among societies.
The problems that I encounter the most when I try to write are self-doubt and depression. I find it difficult to actually sit down and begin writing, as I have a bad habit of immediately beginning to over-analyze and over-criticize every word that ends up on the page. Have you ever dealt with similar issues, and if so, how were you able to overcome them?
I always love to get a writing question mixed into these, so thank you! This is actually an extremely common problem for new writers--perhaps the most common. (Though the second most common is the one I had, which is the reverse--that of never wanting to do revision.)
What's happening here is that your ability to recognize good writing has outstripped your actual skill at making it. This can be super frustrating, because you know stories--and you can physically do the act of writing. You've been learning that since grade school. Yet, the story you write doesn't quite live up to it.
Mixed with that is likely an over-critical eye, treating your work like it is worse than it actually is.
I often use this metaphor: I played trumpet in high school. I'd played since fourth grade. Senior year, I took jazz band, and fount it extremely frustrating. I knew how to play trumpet, and I could hear the improv jazz riffs in my head--so why couldn't I make them come out of the horn? Everything I actually managed to produce felt pedestrian at best.
The answer is both mental and procedural. The mental side this this: Recognize that what you're doing right now (by writing) is NOT producing your grand masterwork. It's the equivalent of sitting down in your garage with the trumpet and stumbling through riffs until you start to get that important connection between brain and instrument that lets the vision in your head actually flow unimpeded.
Don't think of this writing as something you're going to sell, any more than you'd tape and record your practice music sessions. Don't think of what you're writing as "wasting" an idea or "failing" at a story--you can and will re-use these story ideas in the future after you figure out your process. Remove the performance anxiety, the need to be great from the get-go, and the expectation that your first draft needs to look like your favorite authors' final, published draft.
As for procedure, try some strategies that work to limit self-revision while writing. Try writing stories longhand, both to separate yourself form computer distractions and to make it harder to revise. Try going to a specific place to write, like an office or library, and treating your hour or two there like work time--a destination for writing. Make good habits, be consistent, and note the things that work on some days to make you achieve your goals.
Good luck!
Four clues you've given over the years about unknown Shards: 1) One that wants to hide and survive. 2) One that's not on a planet, but not Ambition 3) One that Hoid would have taken 4) One that would have been used for Rithmatist
I'm not looking for a new clue. I'm wondering if there's any overlap between the clues. Are these four separate Shards? If not, which hints apply to the same Shard?
Also, since clue #3 was from before Ambition was revealed, was Hoid going to take Ambition? He certainly is an ambitious individual.
I'll tell you this--those aren't necessarily four different shards. But I do have to RAFO which one Hoid might have taken.
You've changed so many lives, including mine, with your stories, and so is there anything we as a community can do for you in return?
As for what you can do for me in return, I'm not sure. I mean...I already get to write books for a living, which is the thing I wanted most in life.
What made you decide to release chapters in advance for Skyward and Oathbringer? I personally don't like reading books in this format and haven't for either novel since it's harder for me to get sucked into and lose myself in the story when it's split up, so I'm wondering what gave you the idea for it.
I've always disliked doing summaries of my books--I feel that I'm not nearly as good at it as I am at just writing them. My instinct going back to when I began trying to break in was that if I could skip the summary and just get someone reading the story, it would be more efficient.
The releases done this way are, hopefully, to get people talking about the book. I realize that a lot of readers who like my work are just going to wait and read the book when it comes out, but (particularly with Oathbringer) releasing chapters like this was a good way to get some conversations about it started.
Is Adonalsium a kind of godmetal to the 'real Adonalsium being'
RAFO.
In Bands of Mourning, there are a bunch of runes that they press in to open the door in the temple. Are these an actual writing system or did the Sovereign just do a bunch of doodles?
I didn't intend them to be doodles.
And lastly, a cosmere point of contention. You've said before the Moon Scepter works as a Rosetta stone? Is this literal, as in translating one Aon to it's MaiPon counterpart, or more metaphorical, IE allowing use of a Selish magic outside of its country?
The Moon Scepter does not "unlock" regional use of Selish magic, but those who wanted it believed it was a vital step in figuring this out. It's more the first, but has implications for the second.
From a writing/world building perspective, - how much of the maths/science do you do in the background? US hardback copies of Oathbringer had a map with an inworld long/lat system, for example, and Shagomir and Jofwu worked out (with help from Peter) the amount of land on Roshar, and how much of the planet that the continent takes up. What inspired you to go to this depth? Is there anything you decided /not/ to do the maths for and just went with hand waving it away?
This is a thing I do more and more of as I gain access to the resources for it. (I have a few very large-scale mathematical issues I'm using people smarter than myself to solve.) I did a lot more hand-waving before I had these resources. I'm not horrible at math, but didn't go beyond college calculus, and just don't have the time to get everything right on my own.
It's something I do want to be right, however. It's more of a personal desire than anything else--but I think it's going to be important the further we move toward a science fiction cosmere.
Have we seen any character connected in some way to actual Kelsier (era 2) in any of the Stormlight Archive books?
I'm going to RAFO that for now.
Irich had that degenerative disease. If the Set still had Miles available, could he have cured Irich's disease by giving him Compounded health with a primer cube?
This requires more steps than it would appear, but this is the sort of thing people will trying very hard to figure out in coming novels.
If I stab someone with a steel spike to steal their physical Allomancy, what determines which power I steal? Where the spike is stabbed into, my Intent, or some other factor?
Intent is at play once you get to the finer points of Hemalurgy, but that can get wonky, as evidenced by some certain events with Spook and even Vin.
Skyward question: What actually IS the proper procedure if you think a vat of algae might have been contaminated by a coworker?
Ha. That's one I didn't think I'd get. You'd get your superior, prevent any blending between the vats, and record in a form exactly what the contamination would be. They're not worried too much about sabotage. This is focused on sanitary food-preparation ideas.
I was wondering if we can take the Death Rattles as written? So night is night, not knight. Reigns is reigns and not rains or reins, etc? Since they're written down by someone who is listening to someone else speaking, there could be confusion there. Then again, they're speaking Alethi, or the local tongue, and being translated to English, so their homonyms would be different. Also, are they always about the future, or can they be about the past?
So, this is a tricky one. I was tempted to go into it during the reigns/rains one--but since there is a follow up, let me see if I can explain it.
You note the mechanism I've said before that I rely upon, that of the idea that the books are done "in translation" from their original tongues. This is to give us another layer of plausibility in the linguistics--but it does introduce a kind of wildcard here in the interpreter. (Who is me.)
I am not against using word usages similar to homonyms as plot points, so long as the characters themselves are capable of making the misunderstanding. (The ending of the Mistborn trilogy involves some of these types of word and definition related issues.)
So you're not wrong to asking questions like this. I use them very sparingly, but I do use them. In that specific case, however, I was not intending there to be confusion.
These recent AMAs have made me wonder about something. With the kind of public presence and interaction you have with your fans, you create a imbalanced sense of familiarity between yourself and us, your fans - we often feel like we know you well (or at least know much about you), while you, for the most part, don't know us beyond the few words we exchange at events. With this in mind, have you had to change the way you interact with people, online and off - and if so, how?
I recently watched a video essay on the idea of parasocial relationships, which is a topic getting some attention on things like Youtube right now. And, while I thought the essay was interesting, I have to say...I kind of disagreed with everything they were saying. (Not the data, but the conclusions--which generally centered around the idea that these relationships were somehow false or dangerous.)
Yes, the relationship is imbalanced like you say. But the video essay was making these relationships as some kind of scary or false thing--and I just don't see it. I do think you know me by reading my work and by interacting with me here. I don't think you see a false version of me, and I think you probably do know me pretty well, all things considered. And part of the reason I read book (and why I write them) is because it lets us get inside of the mind of someone different from ourselves.
If there were big things I wanted to change, I'd talk about them. Honestly, most of what I see from the fans seems pretty healthy to me. We in sf/f can take things pretty seriously, but we do it because it's fun and we like to obsess about things--but most everyone can step back when we need to and deal with real life too.
So...don't know if that answers your question or not, Argent. But I think you're used to that kind of thing from me by now... :)
As a lady who enjoys romances, is a Kaladin romance coming soon?
Three (kind of three and a half) failures so far. Maybe fourth time is a charm? Let's just say it's not off the table.
We know Scadrial is speeding on its way to modern, Earth-like technology, including computers. So what is the internet like in the Cognitive Realm? Is it connected to Scadrial's Cognitive aspect? Does it form into its own standalone location? Do memes become spren?
This is going to be really fun to write some day. But RAFO until then.
It's noted in Oathbringer that Taln was the only Herald who was not supposed to have been one, and that he was not a king, general, scholar, or anyone "special" as it were. So what occupation did he hold before becoming a Herald?
He was a soldier and bodyguard.
Skyward question! The light line is mentioned as using two fingers to shoot it out. Are they the middle two fingers, and was this inspired by any jovial community arachnid folk?
First draft didn't have specific controls to shoot it out, and during revisions, I thought, "Oh, what the heck. It's not a big part of the story anyway." So yes. :)
Adonalsium, did he have his own world before?
Yes, that world is the book Dragonsteel, which will be written as Hoid's backstory. That's a ways off, but it will still come. Chronologically it's first, but I'm going to write it right before I write the last Mistborn series, which is Mistborn Era 4.
Do you know the movie order? I know you signed a deal, and I've been looking at it and it said they were going to do Stormlight first--
Well, they're co-developing Stormlight and Mistborn, and I’m not sure which one will end up working first. It's going to depend.
Will there be a Mistborn in space?
There will be, yes. Era 4 of Mistborn right now is in space, we’re on Era 2 though so we got a ways.
Would Hemalurgy work on an AI?
RAFO.
Could an AI bond a spren?
RAFO
Is there one true Shardblade form for a spren?
"True" in this sense is mutable and it can change, based on perception. I would say yes, but it is not a kind of platonic truth, it is a momentary truth.
Will dead Shardblades change, when an owner has them for a long time will they slowly change or will they stay the same?
Shardblades have changed before that were considered dead.
Why are all the dead Shardblades blades?
That will be answered eventually, so I'm gonna RAFO that for now.
If all the practitioners of the Dor but one just died, for whatever reason, would that remaining practitioner have access to more power?
No. Good question. There is magic systems that work that way but it is not the Dor-based magics. I've got an unpublished book that works exactly that way called Mythwalker. The magic system of that was called the Septs, and your family divided the power of the magic, but it was not a one-to-one ratio. If you had a total power, if one person had it was at a 1, but if two people have it each of them were at like a .8, and so suddenly it became this thing of, how many people in your family do you want to have power and things like that. It was really interesting. But the rest of the book was terrible.
So, Taravangian has his changes during the night while he sleeps. Has he ever thought to pull an all-nighter and see what happens?
Yes, it still happens.
While he's awake and conscious for it?
Yes.
Could one, using a Hemalurgic spike, acquire a Divine Breath from one of the Returned?
...This should be possible.
Soul Forging. Emperor's Soul. If one created the stamp properly, could you, using it, say, Windrunner you stamp, rewrote past to be Lightweaver. Possible?
That is possible and a little easier than a lot of other things. It's gonna run into problems... in that the Oaths are gonna be hard to align.
Probably require some very fine crafting on the stamp.
Very fine crafting on the stamp. And there are certain people that they're just gonna have a hard time fitting into certain Orders. This is a lot easier though than just taking a random person and making them into one, because you're gonna already have Investiture that they've got.
And have the basis of the First Oath.
Yeah. So this is not as hard as it might at first sound. It's the sort of thing that people in the cosmere are looking at. Like, being able to transfer magics between-- and things like that is one of very much interest in the cosmere.
Could you spike the ability to grow a gemheart out of a singer?
Yes, I think you could. Yeah.
If you had a giant pool of milk or mercury, or some other liquid, on a cosmere planet, how would that manifest in the Cognitive Realm?
I will RAFO that. I've actually thought about it. You'll have to see. Those two things are slightly different, the two things you just mentioned.
lWhat if you mixed-- ike in Alcatraz, what if you mixed like a Windbringer's Lens with like a Fire--forgot the name.
Oh man that would be terrible. You'd have a big black firestorm. It'd be awesome. Someone should do that.
So they are allowed to mix?
They can. It's very hard.
So I'm wondering, how omniscient are the Vessels?
This is a difficult question to answer because they don't know everything, but they could theoretically. And so, the actual Vessel needs to apply the power and learn things. And they don't know the future exactly. Particularly, you'll notice some hints of this in Oathbringer. There are certain things that really foul with their ability to see the future. It's whenever we kind of get the equivalence of an atium shadow right? Reflection that reflects that someone sees the future, and then suddenly you end up with this kind of difficult chain to follow.
Can you tell me who might be the most all-knowing out of all of them?
I will say the older they are the more they generally know.
So probably not Harmony then?
Probably not Harmony.
In Mistborn 3, when Ruin is controlling Inquisitors. Before, they said that Inquisitors were bald. When Ruin is controlling them, does he still have them shave and stuff like that?
They still kind of go through their daily life. It's not like he's-- His control can get stronger, and weaker at times. And so they mostly kind of just do what they would normally be doing, until he moves that one right there at that moment where he seizes them, if that make sense. So yes, but it's less like he's like "I am now going to puppet-control them to go to the bathroom," right? He just lets them do that, and when he needs them he seizes control.
Do you have anything else in mind for this world, besides the Skyward trilogy?
I always know where a story would go after I finish, but my focus right is on making these books the best they can be.
I'm sooooo curious about the whole Krell thing! Is there something big hiding behind their identity?
Yes.
Where did the idea for the light bands come from? I think they are pretty neat!
I started with my desire to have starfighters changing directions quickly by using energy ropes to spear asteroids - and worked backward to have something that could foreshadow this.
Should I brace myself for any love triangles?
Nope.
Is Spin based off of someone you know?
There's nobody specific I based her on, except maybe the side of me that really loves pulp action.
What was Skyward inspired by and how long have you been working on it?
I've been working on it since about 2012, on and off. It was inspired by my love of stories about kids finding dragon eggs.
Will Rig ever fly again?
I can't answer this without going into spoilers... so you'll have to wait and see.
Will we see more animals like that strange slug?
You will indeed see more of both Doomslug and creatures like her.
In the second series of Stormlight Archive, are they going to be about the same characters?
That's an excellent question. So when I sat down to build The Stormlight Archive, there were a couple of things that I learned from The Wheel of Time. One was that the further an epic fantasy series goes, the more important it is that you have a structure to the series. It's very easy for the books to start blending into one another, and it's also very easy to let side characters take over books. This is very natural for us as writers, particularly in a big epic fantasy, and I felt that when I approached The Stormlight Archive there are a couple of things I did. One is that I said "All right, I'm going to confine all my side characters to these things called interludes, where I can just go crazy and do whatever I want, but they have to be like, isolated in their own containment unit called the interludes to prevent me from turning from the books just going in all directions at once."
The other thing I said is, "Each book is going to be about an order of Knights Radiant, and it's going to have a flashback sequence directly tied to that order." So that when you say "All right, which book is book three," you're like, "Oh, that's Dalinar's book, that's the Bondsmith book." All of the characters are in all of the books, but each book has kind of its own soul and theme that helps me as a writer structure where I'm going to release information, and what it's going to be about. And so when I set down this, I said said "I'm going to pick 10 characters, 10 orders (and they are not always going to be exactly what you expect), but I'm going to build each book to have a theme based around those things."
The first five were Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan, Eshonai and Szeth. So those are the five books you are going to get in the first arc. And the second arc is Lift, Renarin, Ash, Taln and Jasnah, right. Now, all the characters from the first five will be in all those books, and some of them will still be main characters. You can expect it, like it is one series. All the ones that survive *crowd groans* no spoilers. But you can expect in the back five, people that you are expecting that are main characters now will still be main characters, and you will have a lot of space dedicated to them still, but the flashback sequences, and the themes of the book, will focus on those five. And so it hopefully will help it all have a structure and a feeling.
Between book 5 and book 6, in-world, there will be a time jump of about 10 years, so just be expecting that. But I can't say anything more without getting into spoilers, so I won't. But that's what you can expect.
Based off of your previous question, the first Kaladin became Adolin?
Adolin was actually in that book, and so the first Kaladin wasn't even-- didn't even become Adolin, like the first Kaladin was like-- you've read this book before probably. The young peasant boy trains to be a knight, that sort of thing and was just too familiar, it was too-- I was playing the tropes and hitting the nails on the head, but in a way that was not interesting. Adolin and Renarinare both in that book basically as the people that they ended up being. Shallan and Kaladin are the people that I basically pulled out and replaced with new characters, because neither of them were working. I'll someday release that book and you can read it and be horrified about this book where really, really different things happen, and the characters half feel like themselves and half don't. Bridge Four isn't in that version of the book, Bridge Four is actually in Dragonsteel. Which is another book I wrote, which is where Dalinar started too. I wrote 13 books before I sold one. Dragonsteel was number 7 or 8. Half the ideas for the version of The Way of Kings you read came from that and half the ideas came from the original Stormlight Archive.
On Roshar, if there was an AI would it appear as a soul or a bead?
In Shadesmar assuming there is an AI, would it appear as the soul of an object or a being? Most likely as a being, depending on various things going on.
Do you have any plans of writing any prequels for the Mistborn [series]?
No, not right now. One of the reasons that-- I have to put an asterisk on that. I did write out a prequel story happening hundreds of years earlier that was going to be the video game, that ended up never getting made. So there's a chance I will do something with that,a graphic novel or something. So there is a chance. What I won't probably tell is the story that you read in the epigraphs, the story of Rashek and Alendi and all those things, because I feel like that story is told best the way it is in the books, that you get it revealed as it's going along. If I told it again, I feel like it would just be a rehash of that. I can see myself telling other stories potentially, but I am the type that generally likes to keep moving forward. There are some great prequels out there to books that I love, but mostly I like sequels, so I like to move forward. Not impossible, but yeah.
In Oathbringer, Kaladin was with Sah and the other parshmen. Are you going to release the rules for the game that they were playing?
I've been tempted to release the rules for that game. I can't promise I will, but I would like to.
