YouTube Livestream 58

Lasernatoo

You said before that you want to cameo in any adaptations of your books as someone who dies in each one. Assuming you do this, would it just function as an out-of-universe nod? Or would you canonically be playing a very unlucky set of identical worldhopping siblings?

Brandon Sanderson

It wouldn't be siblings; it'd probably be, like, somebody who keeps getting reborn. Somebody who's immortal in some way, and something terrible happens to him every time he goes. A little like the unluckiest planeswalker from Magic, if you guys are familiar with that.

I would be the same person, I think, because we'd want to keep canon, and things like that. Some dude who maybe had a certain Dawnshard that makes him indestructible, for a short period of time (not Hoid), but tries to keep going places to get out of danger and just ends up getting squashed every time.

Kind of like I'd be the cosmere's Kenny.

The Nim

Would a mortician be able to tell that the body in front of them is a worldhopper?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. But not because of the worldhopping. A mortician would generally be able to tell because... I guess it depends. There's some that you would not be able to tell if they were. If someone left Roshar and came back to Roshar and died, a mortician wouldn't necessarily tell. Now, someone who can read their spiritweb might be able to tell. But that's not going to leave an effect on you physically, unless, for instance, they're doing an autopsy of what's in your stomach. And they're like, "Oh, we found offworld food." I would say, a lot of times, there's going to be some forensic sort of things you can do to determine. Or, you might be like, "This person is a different ethnicity than we have on this planet." So, I would say, a lot of the time, but there's nothing that's gonna leave intrinsically... it's not like, "Count the rings, how many times they leave the planet."

Questioner

Now that you're 75% through the first draft of Stormlight 5, how are you feeling as you are quickly approaching the end of the front half of the series? Are you looking forward to the mid-series break and having time to work on other projects? Thank you for your time.

Brandon Sanderson

I am really looking forward to the mid-series break. I don't think more so than I am at the end of any other long, difficult write. Each of the Stormlight books I am happy to be done when I am done. I think you'll find me more so next year when I've been having to do revisions a ton. But I am looking forward to that break. That said, I am very fond of Stormlight, and I don't feel that fatigue right now, as much as I might have anticipated. I think part of it is the way I am writing it. Letting me, basically I go through one group of viewpoints, and then I start back over. It's keeping it kind of refreshing to me, and I get to have that build to a climax experience multiple times. It's also helping that I'm really looking forward to seeing how people respond to some of these things that I'm doing. But yeah, I'm looking forward to the break. I'm looking forward to going back to do some Elantris work. I'm looking forward to writing the next era of Mistborn, since that ones been planned for a long time, and Wax and Wayne kind of got in the way, even though I love Wax and Wayne, of doing this one. This ones been out lying for way longer than Wax and Wayne, and so it will be nice to be able to get to that.

Questioner

With the success of the Kickstarter and those editions of the books, do you think there's any chance of a nicer edition with RP coming available upon the release of future books?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's something that we've talked about. People seem to want an edition in between the regular release in bookstores and the leather bounds. Some people prefer the leather bounds, some people would like something a little bit more like these Dragonsteel editions we've done, so we have had talks internally. The thing is, maybe this is something we'll need to do a poll on. I don't want to overwhelm people with editions, and I don't want to inspire this feeling like you have to own every edition, right? And so, do I want to for instance do yet another release of the Mistborn. Cause we have Mistborn hardcover, paperback, leather bound, and trade paperback, and then a separate YA edition. Do we do yet another? But having a Mistborn trilogy that would look good on the shelf with your Dragonsteel editions of the Secret Projects is appealing to me at the same time, so. <We'll maybe run> a poll, but we would like to hear kind of from you guys, what do you want, how many of you want it, how many of you would feel overwhelmed by product fatigue. There's always the joke about Skyrim, how many different releases of Skyrim can we have? I know I feel that sometimes, like Street Fighter, which I used to play with a kid, and people were like, yeah there's like 80 different versions of Street Fighter 2.

Questioner

As Dragonsteel expands and you have other writers like Janci and Dan telling stories in your worlds, how do you manage the difference in approaches to writing?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, so this is something we're kind of finding our way through. You'll notice that I experimented with this a bunch with side projects before I decided to do some mainline projects. And I picked two of the writers that I'm very closest with and know the best. I don't anticipate going a lot further than that, right? I do like the idea of seeing what a few other writers can add to things like the Cosmere, but I don't want to turn into Forgotten Realms, where there's always a new book coming out by a new author. I do think that some places have done a  better job of this though. Like, Black Library tends to have a very good reputation with the authors that they invite in and cultivate a stable of authors rather than just, you never know who's going to be writing one. I know that I didn't necessarily like this in comics, when I read more comics, not knowing when an author on a book was gonna be fired or when you were not gonna start seeing the original creator anymore. You will never not be seeing me writing books.

How do I approach it differently? When I hand it to someone, like with Skyward, I do envision it as being Janci's now. That I am overseeing. These are now her stories. It's kind of like how I felt... Harriet told me when I took over the Wheel of Time, Harriet came to me and said, "You are the author now, Brandon. You need to follow your instances as a writer and do your best job. You do want to look at what Robert Jorden was going to do and you want to try and fulfill his vision too." But she was very clear with me, it's like, "You are the writer now." And that gave me a certain level of ownership that I feel I needed. And despite some things about what I did definitely being... You know, I'm not without criticism, and deserved criticism. I think that me taking over that series went better than the vast majority of this happening in the past. You can just look at that both in aggregate reviews, you can also look at that at sales, you can just kind of look at... Really trying not to blow my own horn, but I think Wheel of Time is the gold standard in sci-fi/fantasy for an author passing away and someone else taking over the series. And part of the reason, in fact, I would say one of the biggest reasons for that, was Harriet coming to me and saying, "You need to be the author. You need the freedom and flexibility to treat this like your own series. You're not writing this for someone as just a work-for-hire; get this, chop wood, be done. We are handing you the keys to the house." And then, of course, the fact that she was also the editor to keep me a little reigned in in the right places was a big key.

But I bring that same sort of feeling to the authors I'm working with, with: "I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna help you outline. I'm gonna help you worldbuild. I'm gonna give feedback on the drafts. I'm gonna do everything I can to make this really excellent." But when you read Dan's Cosmere book, it's Dan's Cosmere book; it's not Dan writing Brandon's Cosmere book. It's Dan writing Dan's Cosmere book with Brandon deeply involved and trying to help out. And I think this is gonna lead to just better books. I think it's gonna lead to much better books.

I remember when I went to Blizzard once. They had me in (they had Pat Rothfuss in a separate time), and one of the reasons they had me in is they're like, "We would like you to write this story for us." They wanted to investigate having me write books for them. And it was a wonderful experience, everyone there was great, but I very quickly could tell I was the wrong person for the project. Because they already knew the exact book they wanted. They had every bit of lore that they wanted in that nailed down. The level of flexibility that I could have in telling a story in the Warcraft world was just almost nil. (They were actually investigating people for Overwatch back when it was Overwatch, but they also talked about Warcraft stuff.) It was like, "You could tell this story. This is what happens in it: boom boom boom boom boom boom boom." And it's all just completely already done, they just need someone to put the words on the page. And that is not me. That's not a project I was the least bit interested in.

Adam Horne

Seems like a lot of movie experiences are built like that.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, a lot of movie experiences are built like that, too. And because of that, I politely declined that opportunity. And I have learned (particularly in these kind of collaborations) that the best things that we came up with were things where I said, "Here is my world. Here's what makes it exciting. Here's what I love about the characters. What do you want to do in this world?" And together, developing something that really matches them. Particularly when I can kind of hand off characters that I have not spent a lot of time on or have them invent all new characters.

That's what you should expect with the collaborations I'm doing. Quality control, hopefully by Brandon, hopefully really great stories, but stories I could not have written, because just handing people my outlines hasn't really worked. The best example of that being White Sand the Graphic novel. Isaac has made that book great, by kind of taking some real ownership over it. The first stuff that we did (even before he did this latest revision that you guys can now get), it felt like my outline got really stiff when someone else played with it, and some of the stuff that makes reading a Brandon Sanderson book really fun and enjoyable didn't end up in there.

There's a long rambling answer to you; I hope that's relevant and helpful. But, that's the way I am approaching this.

Adam Horne

This first one is from ArgentSun.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh! Our good friend Argent.

Adam Horne

He says, "Frugal Wizard: I was going to try to craft some clever question, but instead I'll just ask straight - how did Logna travel to an upstream dimension? I feel like that's what the epilogue implies."

Brandon Sanderson

The epilogue does imply that, and it's not supposed to be possible. I will say that what Logna was when she travelled upstream allowed it to happen. So, there you go.

Adam Horne

This next question is from our good friend Katie Payne.

Brandon Sanderson

Ooh! Yes.

Adam Horne

She says, "I really want to ask Brandon about John's low self-esteem. What was [Brandon] thinking about for the source of that?"

Brandon Sanderson

It was a character attribute that I hadn't delved into, that I found matched him really well. It made him feel distinctive. He, again, is not your standard Sanderson protagonist, and I like how that worked. It gives a different feel and tone to who he is and to his voice and to the storytelling. But, Katie, [for] almost all of my characters, it's a natural outgrowth of as I'm writing and exploring who they are, I lean into certain things. Sometimes I pull those back and revise them out, and other times that leaning into works. And this is one I leaned into that ended up really working for him.

Adam Horne

The next one is from LewsTherinTelescope.

Brandon Sanderson

Hey! Our old friend.

Adam Horne

"Is there a sequel planned to Frugal Wizard? The main character's stories seem wrapped up, but that epilogue."

Brandon Sanderson

If there is a sequel to Frugal Wizard, it will almost assuredly be Titanic 2: Sink Harder, as we've talked about on the podcast, and we would find a way to work in some nods to what's happening in the Greater Universe there. Seeing as how Frugal Wizard is in the same universe as A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells, and in the same world as Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians -- the same universe -- by me, all connected by Cecil [G. Bagsworth the Third] who's in all three of them. Dan and I have that shared character that we've both been using for decades. It would probably be Titanic 2: Sink Harder. I love that title. That title just cracks me up. It's probably too much of a joke, right? Like, do you go into the bookstore and see a book that says Titanic 2: Sink Harder, and think that that's a real book that you want to buy and read? But, anyway. 

ado-will-rem-our-plight-ev

In the Frugal Wizard preview you released last year, Runian was a fish-hater. Now he's a fish seizer, why the drastic rise in his fish affinity?

Brandon Sanderson

[A] couple reasons: One of the reasons was that early feedback I got when I did beta reads and things like that is I wanted to make sure that the tone promise at the start of Frugal Wizard was correct. And it was a difficult needle to thread because it is a humorous book but not a comedy. And I was getting feedback that made it feel like the opening chapters were just a little too ridiculous, and that was giving a wrong sense of the tone of the entire book. So I looked at those first few chapters and said: "Alright. Can I pull back on non-sequiturs, just ease back on them? Can I focus a little less on things that are just, you know, silly is the wrong term, but things that were non-sequiturs", and as I re-read those opening l go way to much on this fish idea—it's not relevant to the book, it's just giving the wrong promise—and so that was a tweak I made to try and ease that back a little bit, and the hating fish was a casualty of that. Anyway, I feel like I got that tone better. I'm not sure if I 100% nailed it, but yeah.

Adam Horne

This next one is from Fakjbf. "In Frugal Wizard, which magic system did you enjoy developing more: the wights', the gods', or the augmentations?"

Brandon Sanderson

I would say that it was the Wights for me, because I was able to dig in some actual Anglo-Saxon kind of mythology and play with that. The Gods are kind of barely there in the rune system, but the rune system's the Wights. Just reading up and really enjoying that time period and seeing what they believed. One of my favorite things to do with fantasy is be like, "Okay. What if mythology or lore or folk magic really did work, and worked in a way that works with my storytelling sensitivities?" This is where the Warbreaker magic came from, and that's where this magic came from. And I had a lot of fun looking at the historical record, reading what landswights [Land Wights] were like. Looking at mythology and trying to build something out of it. That was probably my favorite part of the book, doing that. Big surprise, the magic system was my favorite part of the book.

Adam Horne

This one is from heavyraines17. "What history meta-joke was your favorite to write, and why was it 'What is a zero?'"

Brandon Sanderson

It was "what is a zero?" I've always been fascinated by-- how could people not have a concept of zero? I can get negative numbers not really making sense, but having no concept of zero as a mathematical concept was really interesting to me. That joke was a lot of fun. Otherwise, it's less -- the jokes I had the most fun with were the 'marketingspeak' jokes in the Interludes. The stuff historically that I had the most fun with were was bringing out some of the things I'd gotten through my research that have been there, present, in the back of my head for a long time.

The fact that people in olden days did not have mouths full of teeth rotting out, which a lot of people assume they did. They wouldn't have straight teeth, but generally our archeological record shows that you might lose a few teeth, but maybe not, because you're not eating a lot of foods that destroy your teeth. Colors and dyes and paints being really vibrant is another things that we often get wrong, particularly when you see a depiction. If you go watch a depiction of any Anglo-Saxon or Viking sort of era thing, what are you gonna see? You're gonna see dark, gritty. You're gonna see lots of browns. You're not gonna see orange. You're not gonna see some of these things that they legit had, and you're not gonna see really good hygiene. A lot of the Vikings in particular had really great hygiene and were not these -- not like we depict them. They were brutal, you did not want to be where a Viking ship can get to you, but there's all these sorts of things that over time, you pick up reading historians' accounts and things like that.

It was really fun to bring some of this into the story.

Adam Horne

And last question from jamcdonald120. "How does travelling up the dimension stream give the Wights actual magic? Shouldn't they be less powerful than they were in the original dimension, not more powerful?"

Brandon Sanderson

This just depends on a lot of factors that I'm going to RAFO for now. We'll end with a nice good ol' fashioned RAFO. I hinted earlier, but we'll give this one a full straight-on RAFO. If we do Titanic 2: Sink Harder, we will try to explore some of this some more.

Adam Horne

Phillip Denny from the chat says, "What was the storytelling purpose for not allowing the protagonist to regain his armor by the end of the book?"

Brandon Sanderson

Good question. Excellent question. You might guess that as I started working on it, I'm like, "Oh yeah, this is just a thing that will happen. He'll get his armor back." And the more I wrote, particularly as I did heavy revisions on the character, the more I realized that the whole armor, the platings thing was a huge crutch for him, because who he was is this person who kept trying these things and never giving them his all and relying on the trappings of a job. Like, "I want to be a cop because being a cop is like my friend does and that's cool." But then getting into it and not really giving it his all. And I realized by the end of this book he needs to give it his all, and he can't be relying on basically anything. Not even the crutch that is in most Sanderson book [where] you would have this moment where he gets his armor back and goes all awesome. And I love scenes like that, don't get me wrong, but it felt really wrong for this book, because it just didn't match it.

I don't want to fall in a rut of doing things the way that I do them just because they're the way I do them. One of the last revisions I made of the book was cutting [him] getting any of his armor back at all, really. The original intention [was] a bit [for] him to get it, and I cut that. I did a big revision to make that work, and I love that revision. Leaving him without -- leaving him just completely exposed and having him go forward anyway, was the thing he needed as a character to really fulfill his character arc.

It's one of the last tweaks I made, and the tweak and revision that I'm most pleased with.