Questioner
So you've branched out into graphic novels. What about other types of media--?
Brandon Sanderson
So the question is, "I've branched out into graphic novels. What about other types of media? TV and things like that." Well a graphic novel is something we can kind of have enough control over to make it happen ourselves. Right? Like I know the people at Dynamite. We can work directly with the writer. We can work directly with the artist. And so a small team can put together a graphic novel. It's more than required to put together a book, like I do, but it's still a small team. It's basically me, the writer, the illustrator, and then Isaac and Peter working on this. So, you know, five people can put this together.
A movie--have you seen the credits scroll? *crowd laughs* I can't really do that on my own. So the best we can hope for is for me to sell the rights, which I've done for most of my properties, and hope that someone in Hollywood can actually make a film out of them that's good. And that's just a roll of the dice. So, yes we're trying. It is slow. Watch my website--we'll say if there's any news. There really isn't right now. Fox has Steelheart. They've been doing work on the screenplay, which looks good. But, you know, the screenplay is the easy step--the next two steps are the hard ones.
Questioner
Will Emperor Kai get his own book?
Brandon Sanderson
Will Emperor Kai get his own book? So this is Perfect State, for those asking. One of the reasons I write these little novellas is so I can get an idea out of my system without writing an entire novel, but then people will start asking for sequels to... *crowd laughs* I already owe you sequels to Elantris, Warbreaker, and The Rithmatist. So the answer is I am not promising any more sequels, particularly not to the novellas whose whole point is to let me write random things. It's not impossible that someday I'll do a novelization of one, but I'm not--I'm probably not doing any time soon a sequel to Emperor's Soul or things like that, just because the whole point of the novellas is to let me get focused back on the novels. And the--particularly the series that I'm in the middle of. It let's me get my fix of doing something weird, let's you read something weird and different, and then still doesn't take too much time from Stormlight or Mistborn or things like this.
Questioner
...Really?
Brandon Sanderson
Yup. Most of what you see him doing, Renarin did in the original outline, much more awkwardly.
Questioner
Did you keep him in for longer because he has an important part to play?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes. remember, this is the draft I did in 2002, things were very different. Like in that draft Kaladin took the Shardblade and became a Shardbearer and stuff like this, and so it was a very different book, very different themes. I beefed up Adolin's part when I was doing this and eventually he developed into a stronger character. I need Adolin because Adolin is the guy who is not gaining all the magical powers and flying in the air and stuff. I need the guy who is more normal. As normal as the prince of Alethkar can be. I needed him and I really liked where he went after doing that, so.
Blightsong
Is the bond between an Elantrian and Arelon similar to that of a Knight Radiant and it's spren. You've said that zombie Elantrians are similar to dead spren, so I was wondering get if there was a bigger connection there.
Thank you for your time!
Brandon Sanderson
Yes, that is a similar relationship.
Blightsong
Is there a similar Ideal system? Are Elantrians transformed because of their character? Maybe their closeness to the culture of Arelon?
Brandon Sanderson
Ah, now you're getting into RAFO territory. Let's just say that you don't have to have a seon to be made an Elantrian, but in the vast majority of cases, you need a spren to be a Knight Radiant. So there are some differences.
Blightsong
Last question, does this have anything to do with the personification of culture, as spren are personifications of forces and emotions.
Again, thank you for your time, it's always nice to get a response from you on Reddit.
Brandon Sanderson
To an extent, yes.
Questioner
What's your favorite order of the Knights Radiant and why, and which are you most exited to expand upon.
Brandon Sanderson
I would say that my favorite is probably the Windrunners, just because, y'know, they do the stuff that I would want to do but I really want to talk about the Stonewards because the stuff they do is going to be very visually interesting.
Questioner
What made you decide to split Stormlight into two arcs?
Brandon Sanderson
A bunch of things. I'd say the primary one is that when I tried to write the Way of Kings in 2002, the first version of it, the book failed. I finished the whole book, but it failed and the primary reason for that was because I had too many viewpoints doing too man things in too many places and the reader wasn't able to follow it and it didn't give a satisfying arc to anybody because there was like a little piece of a story instead of a complete story, so I spent many years trying to figure out why it wasn't working and one of the things i came up with that i should take some of the characters and tell their stories and then take some of the others and tell their stories later.
That natural division became very obvious to me when I was re-outlining the series using this idea. That I could do a Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan type thing and then save the Herald's viewpoints for the second half, does that makes sense. So that will... it should feel very natural. It should be some changes that indicate separate series but same... anyways, I'm please with how the outline looks.
Questioner
The spike at the end of Shadows of Self, does that have anything to do with Endowment.
Brandon Sanderson
That is not from Endowment, I can go ahead and let you know that.
Questioner
The more benevolent Shards, like Cultivation or Endowment; how do they feel about Sazed holding two Shards?
Brandon Sanderson
You'll have to ask them. That's a RAFO. I want to stay away from too many questions, about the interaction between Shards beacuse that years off, and I want to be careful not to be saying too much before...
Questioner
For Epics: if you had an Epic that was around their weakness all the time would that make them more like an other person so that they could be gifted other Epic powers?
Brandon Sanderson
You can already be gifted other powers if you're an Epic... no, it interferes, you can't. You can already... Maybe, maybe.
Questioner
Alright, we keep seeing a title for Breeze: The Counselor of Gods. Whose idea was that?
Brandon Sanderson
So some of the ones that survived may have enhanced their reputations over the years of their lives, and so Breeze might have had a hand in how he has his own name.
Questioner
When Wax is talking to Harmony he mentions 'the radio' and other things. Are there already societies that have things like that and how is he getting that information. Is it like a Spiritual Realm..
Brandon Sanderson
He knows things from his Ascension. He gain an innate knowledge of the universe in interesting ways. In addition, Preservation had some minor innate progno... he could see the future a little bit, and so could Ruin in a little different way. Let's just say that there are a bunch of things mixing together that give Harmony some knowledge that most people wouldn't have.
Questioner
But will we see some of societies soon or is that further in the future?
Brandon Sanderson
*RAFOes* You'll find out.
Questioner
In Elantris, when the Elantrians want to die they go into the Shardpool. Are they unconscious, unintentionally world traveling. If they are, have we seen them yet?
Brandon Sanderson
All I'm going to say is: I'm surprised it took people this long to start asking me this question.
Questioner
I was thinking about it, do you have any characters that you've set aside to do maybe some spin-offs down the road, just that you don't want to let die off into obscurity. Like Shallan, she is my favorite character that you write so far. I don't know, is there kind of a side group that you maybe want to revisit later?
Brandon Sanderson
I could see myself doing that. The thing is, the ones I've set off I've done intentionally like in Elantris, Sarene's uncle, right. Her uncle, I always intended his family to be the next one I wrote a book about, and so it's already planned in, and like Lift from Stormlight. She's getting her own book later on so I've seeded her in it, you already knowing about it. I don't know that there is any I'm waiting for now, specifically. I'm sure it will happen to me.
Questioner
So, are we going to learn more about Cultivation here in book three?
Brandon Sanderson
You'll see a bit. You learn a bit. There is a couple if events in Dalinar's life that...
Questioner
The Old Magic? Alright.
Brandon Sanderson
...might be involved in his flashback sequences. No promises.
Questioner
I asked this of Pat. Money system wise, a standard, like, equivalent to U.S. dollars kind of thing. Is a clear mark? I usually think of a clear mark as a dollar.
Brandon Sanderson
If you email through my website, Peter keeps all of this. I actually, these days, just write "worth about this much" in dollars and he figures out a monetary for it, because this just takes, y'know, I have to reach into the wiki and be like "Alright, how much is this worth again? How much is this?" The commodities are of different values an so he just factors it all out. I remember giving him instructions once, that sounds about right.
Questioner
I figured as much, for slaves to...
Brandon Sanderson
We're like, what does a slave make... it's, yeah.
Questioner
Shallan's photographic memory, is that due to her Connection to Pattern?
Brandon Sanderson
Shallan's memory is not, um, her memory has a supernatural component.
Questioner
My question for you is: if you had to live the life of one of your characters from life to death, knowing what they will go through, their powers, their struggles, how they die, and what their legacy is. If you had to chose one character, male or female, who would you live the life of.
Brandon Sanderson
That is a hard question. I don't know that I want to be any of them! I would pick that one random farmer guy they pass on the road who lives a normal, peaceful life and doesn't have to end up going through all of this stuff.
Questioner
Can Shardblades cut Aluminum?
Brandon Sanderson
You're gonna have to... yes they can, well yeah. They can cut aluminum but... yeah.
Questioner
In Shadows of Self, I was wondering if there was a reason that Wayne wanted to ride with Hoid on the exterior of the carriage.
Brandon Sanderson
He just thought it would be fun, and he likes Hoid, but he doesn't know who he is.
Brandon Sanderson
Good question. So Mistborn, [he?] is complimenting the way it all kinda comes together at the end. So the question is, did I have it all planned out, and for Mistborn I did. I had a big advantage, and this is what i'll usually do for a series: I'll come up with a plan that really details the first book and has just a little bit about the next book. So I'll write the first book, then create a really intricate outline for the next two, then use that to revise the first book to match the next two, so the first one I get to explore a little bit further and go a little farther afield from where the outline was without impacting things too much. Then i can lock it in and write the other two. There are plenty of things I didn't have locked down when I wrote the first one, but then i did the two outline, revised the first one, and then wrote the second two books.
Questioner
What would Zane have been like if he hadn't been tainted.
Brandon Sanderson
He would've been a lot more like Kelsier.
Questioner
What is your favorite Dresden Files book?
Brandon Sanderson
I am going to say that I prefer Codex Alera. I read those and [?]. The second one? yeah, I don't know. They are all very good. I'm reading The Aeronaut's Windlass right now and I'm liking that a lot, but i really like Codex Alera.
Questioner
Of all the magic systems you've written, which is your favorite.
Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn. Yeah, I'd say Mistborn. It's had to pick. The world of Stormlight is my favorite but the magic system of Mistborn is my favorite.
Questioner
What did you do to get into the head of the opposite gender?
Brandon Sanderson
This is an excellent question. She is saying that Vin turned out really well and it's hard for her to write male characters. This was actually really hard for me at first too. Several of my first unpublished novels had really lame, weak female chaarcters and it was one of the big transitions I had to make in transitioning from aspiring to professional.
 The biggest change was just a mindset change for me, and this might not be your problem, but I found that I was sticking people into roles rather than creating character who had a life outside of the story and then saying what happened when the story happened to them. It was this transformation in my head where I'm like "Wait, everyone is the hero in their own story, what would they be doing otherwise, what are they passionate about, how are they weird, how are they quirky."
 This is the problem with a lot of people who are kinda aware of this issue who write the other gender: they don't make the other gender weird and quirky. You'll see this: female writers, the men will just kinda be this paragon. Male writers: the woman will be up on this pedestal. They don't feel real because of that. Try to say, "if they were staring in the story, how would I design them. What makes them weird, what makes them passionate, why don't they fit their role?" That's the best thing you can ask, "why dont they fit their role."
Questioner
In Stormlight will there be anymore insight into what happened to Dalinar's wife?
Brandon Sanderson
Yes.
Questioner
I thought that three years ago you wanted to write a book with Tad Williams and have George R.R. Martin finish it. Is that still just a pipe dream?
Brandon Sanderson
That's still a pipe dream.
So the question is; I had this goofy idea one time, and I thought "what if I get this other famous fantasy writer and together the two of us wrote"... and we would write a book together, but it wouldn't be a 'Brandon Sanderson and', it would be a 'Brandon Sanderson versus' where we each create a set of characters who have contrasting roles, who are against each other, and who would try to achieve this, they would both be on opposite sides and they would seduce each other's characters or murder each other's characters and thing like this and we would write it almost to the climax, and then we would go to George Martin and we would say "you have to adjudicate how we would write the ending" and so the cover would be like 'Brandon Sanderson vs. Pat Rothfuss with guest judge George R.R. Martin".
It is really just a pipe dream, especially when it's a matter of 'when are we gonna do that', and it's really just a pipe dream. Maybe I'll make it happen, the trick is I'd have to find...like I can't do Pat because his fans would kill me for slowing him down. So it would have to be someone like Brent or Anya. Somebody who is a little faster, but I could totally see a 'Brandon Sanderson vs. Brent Weeks' right, you guys don't have to root for him cause he lives here. Yeah, something like that. We'll see if I can make it happen.
Questioner
is the title 'Shadows of Self' a reflection on the character development if Wax, or another thing like Kandra.Â
Brandon Sanderson
The answer is yes. If you look through the previous Mistborn books, I actually used the phrase 'shadow of self' at some point.
Questioner
Was there an author that inspired you to write?
Brandon Sanderson
Barbara Hambly wrote the book Dragonsbane. It would be her or Anne McCaffrey, who is the first person I read.
Brandon Sanderson
I draw from a lot of distinct and different things, mythologies and things like that and the question is "how do I do that, where do I find material on those." I like primary sources, so I like to find people from the culture that they come from, who believe in that specific religion, or have studied it and I like to interview them or hang out on their forums and read how they are talking and things like that. That has been a lot more recent for me, although I will often, (this is where i'll use audiobooks) I will often go grab books on the subjects and listen to audiobooks of them while I'm signing big stacks of papers or something like that.
Questioner
I love the reader for the Mistborn series and the Way of Kings, an I was wondering if you pick the reader and how you collaborate for the reader tell him how to pronounce the names.
Brandon Sanderson
His name is Micheal Kramer, and in the Way of Kings his wife, Kate Reading, reads the female viewpoints. i did ask for them on purpose because they also did the Wheel of Time books and i was very fond of their treatment of the Wheel of Time novels, and so when they said "who do you want" I said "can I have Micheal and Kate" and things like that. The question of how I work with them? Most of the time I send them a pronunciation guide. It doesn't always get there in time for their schedule, which is why sometime the names are a little off, but i do send them a pronunciation guide and i do know Micheal now, we've done some signings together. He actually does a reading when we do a signing together, its really cool. Them i did [?]. Most of the audiobook readers I've never met, and I'll usually pick Micheal and Kate for my main-line. For Mistborn and Way of Kings i did that intentionally. i sometimes pick different people for different ones just to have some variety and things like that.
Questioner
Are the Skybreakers going to go after Adolin for what he did?
Brandon Sanderson
You're going to have to read and find out.
Questioner
How many smacks would it take from a Shardblade to break, say, a metalmind?
Brandon Sanderson
A metalmind? Depends on how much it's invested.
Questioner
So are the long-necked horses llamas? In the Allomancer [Jak]...
Brandon Sanderson
*laughs* OK, he's, I think, just talking about giraffes. I'd have to go look at it again and see which one I was referencing. It's possible it was llamas, but up there it's more African, I mean they talk about lions and things all the time. It's meant to have a slightly African feel to the Roughs.
Questioner
I've noticed that seons and spren are very, very similar but I haven't seen anything like that in the Mistborn world.
Brandon Sanderson
In Mistborn the Investiture took other forms. It never obtained sapience in the same way. Its theoretically possible that it could have but it.. yeah.
Questioner
So it wouldn't be like the mist?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, you could say that the mist has a bit of sentience to it, so yes. But there are a bunch of different things going on. On one hand, you've got, right up to the end, Preservation's Cognitive Shadow is still around doing stuff, he's basically still there, so that's preventing it. You've got— it's just a very different situation.
Questioner
What powers would David have gotten if he would have become an Epic?
Brandon Sanderson
That's a read and find out!
Questioner
Supposing that a skilled Hemalurgist got hold of a Shardblade or some Shardplate, how would he best use it assuming that the best way isn't to put it on and kill people with it?
Brandon Sanderson
That's probably the best way, is to put it on and kill people with it. I'm not sure why a Hemalurgist would want one more than anyone else would because the metal is already invested, which makes it so that it's not useful to him.
Questioner
So there is no way that he could use a Hemalurgic spike to take some power from the spren that's crafting it?
Brandon Sanderson
Oh, that's what you're saying. You want to grab something off the spren? That's gonna be way harder than grabbing one that's not already made into something. So I don't see why he would want the Blade, just go grab it from them. Even then its going to be worse then just grabbing, probably in most cases, a person. Maybe, its possible that spiking yourself with a spren would be valid, but you don't want to take it out of the Shardblade. That's gonna be harder, but you would probably have to go to the Cognitive Realm either way to make it work, so yeah.
Questioner
Do you have a preference for Windstance when writing the Stormlight Archive? It seems like that one comes up the most.
Brandon Sanderson
The people that I'm writing tend to like it. It is very Alethi because the Windrunners and things like that are connected with the Alethi people. It's disproportionately represented by all of the Alethi.
Questioner
Next up: can Feruchemical storage store stormlight?
Brandon Sanderson
You will find out exactly what it* does coming up
Questioner
How do you envision Pattern and Syl looking when they are in their Shardblade form?
Brandon Sanderson
We're going to do sketches eventually, mhmm.
Questioner
Okay, cause I'm getting a tattoo at some point and I want to make it relatively accurate.
Brandon Sanderson
Send to Peter and to... well Peter can be in touch with him. Ben, who does a lot of the... Ben is the one that we have canonize the Shardblades, and so after I write a book he does a bunch of sketches for us of what I describe and we kinda pick one, and I know we've picked one already, but I don't know... I can't draw it for you or something like that, but if you go to them they can give it to you.
Questioner
If you could cross over Mat Cauthon into any other story which one would you do?
Brandon Sanderson
Let's say Twilight. Yeah, Mat plus Twilight would be lots of fun.
Questioner
Yesterday you said that crem was actually Shard poop?
Brandon Sanderson
No, I said it was more like that than what they were saying.
Questioner
It's not really poop?
Brandon Sanderson
No, its not.
Questioner
Dang it, I like poop jokes! Can you make it poop so I can have a poop joke?
Brandon Sanderson
Ok sure, for the next thirty seconds it is.
Questioner
We know the Shattering was done on purpose. Is it breaking up into Intents the only way that it could have shattered, or could it have actually shattered into like sixteen pieces [where] each one has all sixteen Intents?
Brandon Sanderson
I'm going to RAFO this, because this is a book I'm not going to write for many years and I do not want to start giving spoilers about it.
Questioner
Is Hoid using the lerasium as a metalmind?
Brandon Sanderson
That's a read and find out, but I'll give you a card!
Questioner
If you weren't a writer, what would you be?
Brandon Sanderson
A professor.
Questioner
Really?
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, my second love is teach. I like teaching, I like speaking, I like being in front of a crowd. its enjoyable to me and so I'm pretty sure that's where I would have ended up. If I hadn't found myself in another art, which is entirely possible.
Questioner
I was reading Shadows of Self and I think his name is Douglas Venture, how does that work out? I'm not quite sure. I know, so, Elend is not around anymore, and I know his dad wasn't the nicest of people, so is he like a direct descendant?
Brandon Sanderson
He is not a direct descendant of Elend. The Ventures were an entire house, so there would have been dozens and dozens of them.
Questioner
Did you have inspiration for Wit? I just think he's totally funny.
Brandon Sanderson
Yeah, it's just hard because Wit started, I started thinking about Wit when I was like fifteen or sixteen. He evolved over all that time. Every time I've laughed a piece of that became Wit, if that makes any sense.
Questioner
How do you schedule your time?
Brandon Sanderson
These days its based on deadlines, so for instance Rithmatist is a side project, I don't have a contract for that. I just write them, give them to the publisher, and say "its time to publish this". Steelheart i sign a three book deal that has dates in it: when i have to turn them in, if that makes sense. So when I have extra time I do something like this, when i don't, you know, when the contract comes through I've given my obligation to the publisher that i'll do certain things, so i write those. That's how it is these days. It used to be more along the lines of whatever i felt like at the time. You know, its now my job when then it wasn't my job, and as my job there are certain things I need to do.
Questioner
I have an "all the Shards" question. Is how they obtain the Shards the first time affect what kind of magic their Investiture affects?
Brandon Sanderson
That's gonna be a RAFO.
Questioner
Does [Iyatil] use the Shardpools to get between various worlds?
Brandon Sanderson
The Shardpools are the primary method that most people use to get between worlds.
