Recent entries

Questioner

I was wonder when all the continuity will come together?

Brandon Sanderson

You'll see it coming together all through the series. But the series that's really important for that is the third Mistborn trilogy.

So when I pitched Mistborn to my editor. This was years ago, almost ten years ago now. I sent him Elantris. It sat on his desk for eighteen months. He finally read it, called me the next day, and is like, "I need to buy this!" I'm like, "Great, finally." This was the early days, when I was trying to break in. He said, "What else do you have?" And I sent him The Way of Kings. And then he called me terrified. Because, if you don't know the story, The Way of Kings was the book that I wrote after I just assumed no one was ever going to publish me. I was sending out books and getting rejected. My thirteenth novel (I had written thirteen unpublished books), and I'm like, "No one's gonna publish me. They're telling me my books are too long. I'm gonna write one that's even longer. That has all this screwy stuff. And it's gonna be, like, my opus. And it's gonna be my 'Too bad for you guys you'll never publish this.'" And then someone wanted to buy my books. And I'm like, "Oh, great." And so I sent them Way of Kings, and he was just like, "What do we do with it? This is awesome, but I can't publish this by a new author." Because, if you look at The Way of Kings, the endpages, those cost a lot of money per copy to print. The nice paper we use so you can see the artwork costs a lot of money as well. Every copy costs a little bit extra. And that really cuts into the publisher's profit. And so they need to be printing a lot of copies for it to justify itself. That's basic economics, right? So, for a new author, either I had to decide to cut it and not include all this artwork, or I had to do something else.

So I said, "I've got this idea," and I pitched him Mistborn. And my idea on Mistborn was that it was going to be a set of three trilogies. An epic fantasy trilogy, a contemporary modern-day trilogy, and a science fiction trilogy set in the same world where the magic had become the means by which space travel happened. And so, I built into the magic systems space travel. Which is another discussion. I won't talk about that one. So, I pitched him this grand epic of nine books. Which the Wax and Wayne books are not part of, by the way. They are just me having fun with the world. So, you will eventually get to the official third Mistborn trilogy, which is a space opera. Science fiction. And then you will start to see a lot of things coming together that have been seeded for a long, long time.

Questioner

Would you consider doing a Kickstarter for the Mistborn movie?

Brandon Sanderson

I would not consider that right now. The reason being that I think that Kickstartering movies can happen, but it would need to be done by somebody who knows how to make movies. Or at least who has produced movies. It doesn't have to be done by the director, but it needs to be somebody who knows you can guarantee put it together. If I did a Kickstarter... I don't know. I can't promise you that I know how to use all this correctly and make the film the right way. I think you will see this happening more in the future, and if it starts becoming a thing, maybe I can approach the right people who would be interested and we can make it happen. But currently, it is not something that I would consider doing.

Questioner

If an Elantrian brought a seon with him to another planet, could he use that seon's Aons to change their Aons to use the magic better?

Brandon Sanderson

It would be very hard to do.

Questioner

But not impossible?

Brandon Sanderson

Not impossible.

Questioner

Tarah. She shows up late in The Way of Kings. Kaladin's fighting his inner wretch, as you call him. And he goes through the list a few times, and then near the end of the book a new name comes up. I'm wondering if she's important or is left out of the first book, or if we're gonna hear more about her in the second.

Brandon Sanderson

This is a person that is important to Kaladin. Definitely. From his past, and it is... Yes, a woman who is important to Kaladin. So, it's from his past. You will find out more eventually. Light RAFO.

Questioner

If one mark is worth five chips, does it hold five times as much Stormlight?

Brandon Sanderson

Where's Peter? Peter! Five chips does not hold the exact same amount of light as a mark, correct? Correct. So, they do not hold... I just have to check with my continuity guy. They do not hold exactly five times as much.

Questioner

So a mark holds more or less?

Brandon Sanderson

I believe a mark holds more. Peter, am I correct? Less. Mark holds less. He keeps the money. Actually, because it is such a deal to keep the money straight, it's so important. I just put in "Worth about this much." And then he actually puts in a value. I'll say, "Oh, about the same amount as three meals." And he's like, "Eh, that's this much." Which is something that I can go do, because I can go find that. It's in the wiki. But it would take five or six minutes of searching, which is five or six minutes of breaking my momentum and doing the plot and characters. So now one of the reasons why I hired Peter was so that I could do things like that, and he could keep track of it all. I don't work like... For instance, Robert Jordan was famous for keeping almost all of it in his head all the time. It was all up there. I put it all in wikis so I don't have to remember it. And this was really actually kind of awkward with the Wheel of Time fans, who would come ask me this questions, and I would say "I can look that in Robert Jordan's notes." And they'd be like, "But you don't know the answer?" And I'm like, "No. When I want the answer, I will go look it up in his notes, and then I'll use that and write the scene."

So, while there's a lot I know, I keep the plots and a lot of the characters and things like that going. When I want to find out how much something's worth, I just go to my own wiki. And I'm like, "Oh, this." By the way, this is a wiki you can't get to; it's an internal wiki. You're wondering. But there's a very nice wiki kept by the 17th Shard. Theirs is pretty good.

Questioner

Does Syl hate Dalinar's Shardblade specifically, or is it Shardblades in general? Or only specific ones?

Brandon Sanderson

Uhh... yeah, okay. There's no way for me to answer that in full without RAFOing, so I'll just RAFO. There are lots of answers in [Words of Radiance].

Questioner

Where on the timeline is the next Mistborn book, and will it continue the story arc of Wax and Wayne, that started in The Alloy of Law?

Brandon Sanderson

I signed for two more books with Tor, direct sequels to Alloy of Law. So, Wax and Wayne books. I was planning to write that one in the fall. Tom Doherty, the president, called me and said, "We really would rather you do the next Stormlight first, just because people waited so long for the second one, we don't want to get in a pattern of waiting so long." So, it will probably be my next book for older people after the next Stormlight book. Shadows of Self is what it's called.

Questioner

What are your plans for Alcatraz 5?

Brandon Sanderson

I am working on it. I really want to do it. The books are getting rereleased by Tor next year, so that's kind of my deadline. I'd like, once they get all the rereleases out, to have the next book. But I'm planning to do that one, too. That one's looming over me a bunch more than Warbreaker 2 is. I wanna do Warbreaker 2, but it's not like it's immediate. I kinda ended Alcatraz 4 with a cliffhanger. Which was this great idea, I'm like, "Surely the publisher will want a fifth one if I end on a cliffhanger." And then they didn't! And they wrote at the end, "And that ends the Alcatraz series." They added a line about that at the end, or something. I'm like, "What!" So, I bought the books back from the publisher, which is why Tor is now going to be publishing them. So, yeah, you will get the fifth book eventually. It involves all sorts of lunacy, I promise. And I'm telling you, the scene that Alcatraz mentions in the first book, in the first paragraph, actually happens in the fifth book. That's me telling you, not him. So you can actually believe it.

Questioner

I've seen online, but I haven't been able to find an actual confirmation. In Way of Kings, it describes Shin Warriors as being bought and sold by means of small stones. Are those Oathstones?

Brandon Sanderson

Those are very similar to Oathstones indeed. You will find out a lot more. But yes, you're on the right track.

Questioner

I want to know when we're gonna hear of Denth and his further adventures?

Brandon Sanderson

Further adventures. Denth? You probably mean Vasher. Oh, that's... you will get more. It's not in the immediate future, because I feel like spending four years to get the second Stormlight book out was too long. I will write more Warbreaker in the coming years. More is coming. There's very important stories to be told, but I have to... It's not in line until at least I finish Stormlight Three. Which will be my next adult book that I'm gonna write. I'm writing Rithmatist 2 next, during the summer, and then I'm doing Stormlight next. It will be a couple years. But when I do write the sequel, which is called Nightblood, I will post the chapters online as I write them, just like I did with the first book.

Questioner

Is there any chance that we could get a lexicon or grammar book high Imperial?

Brandon Sanderson

I can give you a few basic rules. Put everything in the present progressive, number one. Then, you're usually gonna go verb first, and you're gonna throw lots of "to be" in, and you're gonna add extraneous words in order to confuse the people who don't speak it. They actually do this. If you look in the books, it mentions they put in extraneous words. There's one other rule I'm forgetting. But you kinda go through that, and then you say whatever feels right to you as you're speaking it. The thing about High Imperial is it's supposed to evolve, and each little group that was speaking it was kinda making up their own slang of it as they went. And so, even if you met someone from another city who spoke it, you would have a lot of trouble. Now, now it's all been nailed down. But you can get pretty close by doing those things I said to you. There's one other one, I can't remember what it is.

Questioner

*inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

So, ideas bounced off of my editor? I needed epigraphs for Part One that increased the tension for the book. Because I was really worried that Part One was very establishing, and I wanted to ramp up the tension. And so, a lot of ideas we bounced off of him. I eventually came up with what to do, but I did a lot of talking on that.

Failing continuity? Keeping track of how many Shardblades the Alethi has, and how many Adolin had won? I just fail continuity at that completely. That's, like, math, or something! So I just let Peter tell me. I'll write, "How many do they have now?" Or, "Does this guy have one yet?" And then, once I write the book, it all goes in the wiki, and I can just look it up. But until then, I kind of need Peter. And, you know, eye color. I don't remember what people's eye color is. But it's really important to the books what color someone's eyes are! So, I fail continuity at those sorts of things. I'm really good with plot arcs and stories, but remembering what someone's eye color is, I just have to look it up. I did the same thing in the Wheel of Time. It gave them so many headaches. Where they're like, "How can you not know what somebody's uncle is?" I'm like, "I don't care what their uncle is! What's their emotional resonance?"

Questioner

Were you ever influenced by the Silmarillion?

Brandon Sanderson

Excellent question. I didn't read Tolkien until late. I tried Tolkien when I was young, and I bounced off of it because I was not a really good reader at the time. And I didn't read Tolkien 'til college. I didn't read the Silmarillion 'til grad school. So, while I would say "Yes," I am not as Tolkien-influenced as a lot of writers are. I'm more influenced by the writers who were influenced by Tolkien. Like Robert Jordan, and people like this, who were very Tolkien-influenced. And I read them growing up. And Tolkien, I was finally able to read and really get an appreciation for, but it was later in my life.

Questioner

I love your books, and I'd like to know (not big authors), but what smaller authors do you like?

Brandon Sanderson

I really like Daniel Abraham's work in all its various forms. Tor has a series by Daniel that's been very good. Recently, I've liked Brian McLellan's book that came out. That was very good. I liked N.K. Jemisin a lot, though I'd put a content warning on her books just in case. There is some more explicit content. She's really good. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay should be something that everyone knows, but a lot of people don't know of it. It is the single best single-volume epic fantasy ever written. Guy Gavriel Kay is Christopher Tolkien's friend in college, who help him put together the Silmarillion. A lot of people think he ghostwrote parts of it, but he's not allowed to say, so we're not sure. He's a fantasy writer into his own right; all of his stuff is amazing. He is lesser-known, and should be better-known than he is. I think there's a Tor book I just covered for, but I can't remember what it is.

Questioner

Was it The Emperor's Blades, by Brian Staveley?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I think it was that. Yeah.

Questioner

Do you ever take inspiration for your characters from people you know in real life?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, I do. Usually, it's one small thing about a person that I know. Sarene from Elantris is based on a friend of mine named Annie. And many of my characters have some little attribute... I was just talking online with <?>, who is a guy that I know from Mongolia. I'm LDS, and I served a mission, and he was one of the other missionaries. And he threw shoes at people. This was his deal. Like, when he got mad at you, off came the big old Doc Marten and he threw it at you! So, in Dragonsteel, one of my books that's unpublished but we'll publish someday, there is an entire race that that's what they do when they're offended. The shoes come off. And Hoid once described it as, "When a bunch of them when they get angry, it's like a tornado hitting a cobbler shop." And shoes go everywhere.

So, definitely, they do.

Brandon Sanderson

I did start writing on a new novella, just right after I finished Firefight. (Which is the sequel to Steelheart, which is done.) After I finished that, I started writing a little novella. I didn't finish it, but I got a few pages in. Just to try out something I've been thinking about doing for a while.

So, this is based off of one of the very cool ideas I've had for a magic system for a long time, in which magic is granted by bacteria and viruses. You catch a disease, and the disease has evolved to give you a magical talent for a short time while you have the disease. In order to keep you alive and encourage you to spread the disease. And then when you get over the cold or whatever you've gotten, you lose that power. Which is a really cool idea to me, and the idea of what you would do with that and what culture and society would do with that.

Questioner

Does it mean anything different for you now that this is your own stuff, rather than the Wheel of Time?

Brandon Sanderson

Here's the weird thing. The Wheel of Time feels as much my own, even though probably, it shouldn't. The Wheel of Time is Robert Jordan's, let's be very frank on that. But the characters feel as much my own as Dalinar does. And the truth is, I knew Rand and Mat before I knew Dalinar, because I picked up the Wheel of Time in 1990, and I started writing Dragonsteel in '91. And so, I've known those characters longer than I've known any of my own characters. Even Hoid, who was there in that first one. He came after the Wheel of Time. And so, when I said yes to Harriet on the Wheel of Time, I did it... I mean, it was a fantastic opportunity. But I did it because this is something I would legitimately want to be part of. And I've talked before about some of the exciting things. Like, for years I'd been playing with a teleportation-based magic system, like gateways, because I had been reading Wheel of Time books and I'm like, "This is where that magic could go!" And I had it all sketched out in my notes. And then I had written, "I can't ever do this. It is too similar to the Wheel of Time."

And then the Wheel of Time... I was writing it. And I'd be like, "Well, here are my notes on how to manipulate this magic system," because I'd spent years wanting to do this. And Perrin is, like, my high school friend. I was one of these nerdy, bookish people, who my friends were my characters in the books. (And, yes, I wasn't that lonely. I did have real friends.)

So, does it feel different to me? No, it really doesn't. I mean, I'm really proud of this. I've been planning forever for this. So, this is my baby. But... When I was offered the Wheel of Time, one thing about it was, when Harriet gave it to me... Finding somebody to finish the Wheel of Time had been a dying request from Robert Jordan for her. She didn't grieve until she found someone to do it, and then she went and grieved for a year, and left me basically on my own. Now, when it came to editing, she then came in as an editor and had a very strong hand and was very important that she do that. But in the process of outlining the three books, writing the first one, and deciding on the plot archetypes and all these things, I did that basically just me and Robert Jordan's notes. And there was a large amount of ownership that Harriet allowed me to take, even though it's made very clear, "The Wheel of Time is not mine." But the characters kind of are mine, in the same way they're all of yours, if that makes any sense.

So, no. It's a long answer, isn't it? One question I get a lot, people ask me, "Does it hurt to kill off characters? Does it hurt to have characters that you don't get to write about anymore?" And usually, my answer is "No." Because I have built a plot arc for years when I'm writing a book, where I know what risks that character's going to take, and I build into it then the consequences of those actions. And it's like, they demand to be allowed to do this, and then there is a ramification. And when I actually write it, yes, there's a sorrow to it, but at the same time, it's fulfilling what that character wanted to do for years and who they are, if that makes any sense. So, they are then done, and I don't feel a need to write any more about them. I'm not gonna mention any names, not give spoilers, but for a lot of these characters, I'm like, "No, I don't feel a need to write any more stories, because I told the story that they needed to have told, and that feels awesome."

The exception is the Wheel of Time. Because, in some ways, the Wheel of Time is the only one... Now, I made the decision that no more Wheel of Time books should be written. It really belongs to Harriet, but when Harriet... She actually asked me what I thought we should do, and I was very up front with "No more Wheel of Time should be done." Because Robert Jordan didn't want it to be done. But the only ones that hurt are not being able to write more stories about some of those characters, because I don't feel their stories are completely told, and I don't feel that I can. So, that is painful. I feel it's good. It's the pain of having lost Robert Jordan. So, it's not a good pain, but it's a necessary pain. And it's a pain that I shouldn't relinquish by simply going and writing all these books, but that is a pain. Not being able to tell the stories of these characters that I really feel didn't quite get told. So you'll have to tell them all in your own head.

Questioner

Will Lift become a recurring character in future novels?

Brandon Sanderson

Lift is one of the characters which I have seeded to be a main character in future novels. For those who don't know, the Stormlight Archive is two arcs of five. The first five book arc is basically about the characters we're dealing [with] now, and it's almost like its own series. But I really like the idea of the form of the novel. (Sorry if this gets boring to you... I'm a professor.) But I love the form of the novel, and I llike ove doing things with it, which is why I've got that big essay on tor.com, if your read that one, the idea that I plotted Words of Radiance as a series of three books, that I put together in one volume, to force you to read a trilogy bound together. I plotted exactly the same way as I would plot a trilogy. So when you read this book, you're getting a trilogy. But it goes beyond that, 'cause as you're a writer, what you're doing is, you take this... first, you start with a sentence. And you want the sentence to have some sort of contrast in the sentence. You want it to be doing multiple things and have a contrast with itself. And then you build a paragraph. And a really good paragraph has a bit of a rise and fall to itself. You begin with something, and then you go, you dig into an idea, and then you come out of that idea. And you combine those paragraphs into scenes, and the scenes have a beginning, middle, and end of their own arc. And then you combine those scenes into chapters. And each chapter, when it works really well, has its own sculpted feel. And then the chapters come together for character arcs. And the character arcs come together for books. And then those books came together to be bound into what we call Words of Radiance, which is really three books bound as one. And then these become part of a five-book arc, and then those two five-book arcs become a mega arc for what I'm trying to do. This is just me playing with this idea of, "How many brackets can I put in here? How can I make this scope work the way I want it to?"

And so, what you end up with is, hopefully, something that feels very cool, even though you have to wait a long time between them because of this. It takes a long time to write a trilogy. I really mean that... I don't know if you know how long this book is. But each of those pieces in there is longer than most novels, each of the three. And then there's a short story collection stapled in there, as well. In the interludes.

The back five will have different characters, though some of the characters from the first five will still show up. And I'm seeding characters who will be important in the back five, in the front five. And Lift is important. Lift is... In my outline, she's one of those things, I had her in my wiki. (I have an internal wiki. You can't find it. It's on my computers only.) There's entries for characters that my assistants get to, and they're like "Who is this? You have this character being a main character, and they haven't even shown up yet." And I'm like, "Oh, let me tell you about them!"

Tesh (paraphrased)

Was Jezrien sent to Braize when Moash killed him? Or is he gone?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

RAFO.

Hoidonalsium

Is the sapphire in the white-gold blade specifically for Jezrien?

Brandon Sanderson

Uh, yes.

Hoidonalsium

Do the gems swap out, or are there different weapons? 

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that one.

Hoidonalsium

Are they Dawnshards? Or blades of Odium, like Honorblades?

Brandon Sanderson

Those are not Dawnshards. Good question.

kalamitous_emoashions

Have we seen any evidence of Hemalurgy on Roshar? And, as sort of an addendum, given the end of Oathbringer, was what happened to Jezrien Hemalurgy?

Brandon Sanderson

There are certain cosmere philosophers that would count it. I would divide it as two separate things that are using similar fundamentals... I wouldn't call it myself, but there are people who would disagree with me in-world. Have we seen evidence? I would say no evidence that is easily-- easy to pick out.

kalamitous_emoashions

But it's there?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, there are people with Hemalurgy who have been to Roshar. I'm pretty sure they've been on-screen.

Questioner

In Alloy of Law, were you influenced by steampunk stuff?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, I did. I love steampunk. I would say Rithmatist is a little bit more directly influenced. Alloy of Law is more influenced by... When I pitched Mistborn to my editor, I pitched it as a continuum. The idea being that I would take a fantasy world and grow it all the way up straight from epic fantasy, classic times, up straight through science fiction, where the magic is running through all of it. And I'd never seen that done before. So, I pitched it as nine books, it's probably gonna be more than that. But that was definitely an influence on me. A bigger influence are the Edgar Allen Poe detective stories, which are some of my favorites. I would say those were a big influence on me in developing this. So, yes.

Questioner

You wrote a short story called [Defending] Elysium? The Phone Company? Are you ever gonna revisit that?

Brandon Sanderson

It's possible, but I have no specific plans in the near future.

Questioner

When you have written, did you ever write with other people in pairs? Or do you focus on writing solely as a...

Brandon Sanderson

Do I ever write with other people in pairs? I've tried it once, and it didn't work so well. So it's not something I'll probably do again. It works very well for some people, and it just didn't end up being something that worked really well for me.

Questioner

Was there something that caused it to fail?

Brandon Sanderson

No, there wasn't something specific that caused it to fail, other than the fact that I kind of like to be in control of my stories. And not being in control of my stories just didn't end up working out for me. It didn't save me any time, and it didn't save the other writer any time. It made both of us have to do more work.

Questioner

You do a lot of insider *inaudible* and you have *inaudible. How does that inform your process going forward *inaudible* the new books, knowing that you might someday have to tell people-?

Brandon Sanderson

So, how does it inform my new books, knowing that I put so much stuff on my website? On there, I have annotations for a lot of my books, chapter-by-chapter. I have a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. I grew up in the internet era. Well, at least I became a writer in the internet era. So I'm used to having extra information. I remember waiting for Wheel of Time books, and like, "When is this gonna be done?" And nobody knew, it was all hearsay. So, when I developed my website, I'm like, "Let's put a progress bar on so that it's right there, and you can go to the source and find out when the next book is gonna be done." So I just started, from the get-go, doing this extra bonus material. I feel like in this genre... Science fiction and fantasy people are very tech savvy. I'm willing to bet that every one in this room could torrent the books for free if they wanted to. And instead they buy them and support me. It's a genre where I am directly supported by fans as a conscious choice on their part. So I feel that it's my part to give them everything I can as this sort of additional content with the book. Because it's not just the book, it's everything surrounding it that you're buying into. And that's just kind of a personal quest of mine. It does make me more aware of my process. Because I'm like, "Oh, they're gonna ask me where I came up with this character. Where did I come up with this character as I'm designing it?" And I'll write down some notes on, "This is what inspired me here." It gets much harder for me to talk about Elantris and Mistborn, 'cause I can't dig so deep into my my influences, even Way of Kings sometimes, because they go back so far. But books that are newer, I can be, "Hey, this is exactly where my influences came from." Because I am <so conscious> now. Good question.

Questioner

With regards to the audiobook, how does it feel hearing Rand and Egwene, and Kaladin and Shallan?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that's really weird. In regards to the audiobook, how does it feel to hear some of the same voices coming out from my characters that are in the Wheel of Time. That's really weird. But after just a few minutes, my mind shifts over.

Questioner

At what point in the progression of a Radiant do they develop Shardplate?

Brandon Sanderson

A point you haven't seen anyone reach yet.

Questioner

How many books do you read per year?

Brandon Sanderson

Not as many as I want. Maybe twelve or fifteen.

Questioner

Do you ever stop reading something, or do you always finish a book?

Brandon Sanderson

I stop reading nowadays, if it's just not working for me. I couldn't do that when I was younger. But now that I'm a writer... I hit this moment, a lot of writers hit this, where reading becomes less fun for you for a while, while you're becoming a writer. And then, a lot of us just push over it, but it changes you. And what changed me is, I just don't stick with a book that I'm not enjoying. I do always give them twenty percent. 'cause I figure, you need to give a book enough time to get its hooks in you. You can't judge it based on the first little bits. But if by about a quarter, it's just not working for me, I will abandon it.

Questioner

Out of all of the covers for any of your books, anywhere in the world, what was your favorite cover?

Brandon Sanderson

My favorite cover of all of my covers is the first cover of The Way of Kings by Michael Whelan. Because I have this, kind of, emotional connection to Michael's work. The first fantasy book I ever read was Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, with its gorgeous Michael Whelan cover, and I didn't even know the genre really existed, I just went to the bookstore and found the next book in the card catalogue, and it was Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, also with its gorgeous Whelan cover. And I read all of those. And so, it went hand-in-hand. The next one I started was Melanie Rawn, which was another Whelan cover. So, the first three series I ever read were all done by him, and were all done by these feminist fantasy writers. And those two things have kind of shaped how I see the fantasy genre. But I would recommend all three of those series, by the way, to you guys, they are fantastic. Dragonsbane, in particular, is still very close to my heart. The first one, in particular. Barbara was kind of depressed when she wrote the rest of them.

Questioner

Is there any genre that you really want to do a book for, but you haven't had the opportunity yet?

Brandon Sanderson

If I really wanted... you know, I haven't. I've had stories that I haven't had time to do, that I haven't had a chance for. But I've kind of hit the genres I want to, because Legion let me dabble in the police mystery thing, and Emperor's Soul let me dabble in a little more literary. I've done science fiction, I've done fantasy. I'm sure there are other genres, but, you know...

Questioner

I was wondering what happens when you compound copper?

Brandon Sanderson

I will reveal this eventually. You're getting a RAFO. Do know that not all compounding does cool stuff. Not all of it does cool stuff, but a lot of it does cool stuff.

Questioner

When designing the Aons for AonDor, how many did you intentionally sneak in sneaky hints about the universe in them, or were those happy accidents?

Brandon Sanderson

I snuck in a whole bunch of stuff, but then there's a whole bunch more stuff that was happy accidents. A lot of the cosmere stuff was intentional. Because, when I sold my first book, I had already written drafts of Dragonsteel, which was Hoid's origin story. I had written drafts of the Way of Kings. I had written drafts of Mistborn. I had written all of these things, so I could sit down and say, "Okay, I've got this whole work, let's get it together." So I kinda was able to cheat, because I'd finished all these books before, so I was able to release Elantris with a lot of really cool hints built into it.

But there are always things that fans point out and say, "Wow, you did this cool thing." And you don't want to say "No, I wasn't that cool." I'll do that one occasionally. Mostly, I'm like, "Ooh, yes. Hmmm." I was smarter than I thought I was, that's okay. Reader response literary criticism means I can say, "Yes, you are right!"

Questioner

If you could write a story from another author's character and point of view, who would it be?

Brandon Sanderson

It would be Wheel of Time. And I say that a little bit cheekily, and a little bit not. We are not gonna write any more Wheel of Time books. This is because I don't feel Robert Jordan would want it to happen. But if I had my wish, I would summon him back from the dead, and he'd say "What the heck," but I'd say, "Can I really just write this one more?" And if he said yes then I'd love to write it. I would love to tell some more stores, but I'm not going to; knowing what I know and having read the interviews I read with him, he would not approve of it, so I'm not gonna do it. If I were able to make *inaudible* happen, that's the one I would pick.

If you want something more realistic, I don't know, because all my favorite writers, I'm like, "I want to read what they are working on, I don't want to do it myself." The whole idea of loving it is that they're do it. I have turned down writing for the Marvel universe. They came to me and said, "Hey! Pick a character, write a book on him. We don't care who. Please?" These are the sort of weird things that start happening to you when you're in my position, and you have to say no. 'Cause I'm just like, "I've read comic books. I like comic books. You guys are doing great stuff. I'm doing my own great stuff. You don't need me." Robert Jordan needed me. So, I don't know that I would do anything else unless there were a friend or a series that needed me.

Questioner

For people who are not familiar with fantasy and science fiction novels, what novel would you suggest they start with?

People who are not familiar with your works, which novel would you suggest first, and why?

Brandon Sanderson

This is a hard question to answer because, usually, when I run into this, I try to talk with the person and see what they like in their fiction. Because the great thing about fantasy and science fiction is it basically does everything that every other genre does, plus has dragons. That's the definition of fantasy: whatever you love from any other book, we will do, and we will add dragons. Naomi Novik, right? It's Master and Commander, and everything you love about those, plus dragons. So, if someone is on the more literary side of things, I'll find something more literary. Like, I'll give them Ursula Le Guin, probably. But if someone's like, a teen, who just is like, "I don't know what I like, I just like cool stuff," then I'll try to dig out one of the great teen books, like The Blue Sword (which really got my wife into fantasy when she was a teenager) or David Eddings, or one of these things that, you know, if they were published today, they'd probably publish as YA books, but back then they just were published however. So, it depends on the person. If someone likes big historical epics, like they're reading stuff like that, 'cause the big historicals are thick, then I'm gonna give them Wheel of Time. Be like, "This is a historical epic in a world that doens't exist"

For my own, I kinda do the same thing. If someone is more literary, I give them Emperors Soul. If somebody likes more romance or humor, I'll give them Warbreaker. And if someone likes action adventure, or is kinda like, "I just like all kinds of things," I'll give them Mistborn, 'cause it kind of touches on everything. And if they are masochistic, I'll give them The Way of Kings. Way of Kings is my best work, but it's also the one that hits you in the face the most, particularly at the beginning. I'ts like, "Oh you wanna read this book? Haha, BAM BAM BAM BAM." And then by the end you love it because you're not getting hit anymore.

Questioner

On the subject of audiobooks, was there ever one you listened to and heard something that was read really differently than the way you imagined?

Brandon Sanderson

You know, every time I listen to an audiobook, there are certain interpretations that are different. And I like that. It's like getting cover art that is a different art form. I really like how this different art form goes. So it's not, like, "Oh, they shouldn't have done this." It's a, "Oh, here is how he interpreted it.

Questioner

Is there one in particular that springs to your mind?

Brandon Sanderson

When Michael Kramer made the Herdazians from Way of Kings sound Australian. That was kinda different because they're Hispanic. But it's okay, it's a fantasy world. So, they actually aren't Hispanic, and they actually aren't Australian. But, the Herdazians came, because my wife, who teaches ESL, and speaks very fluent Spanish, says, "Why does everyone always put cool Asian cultures and cool western cultures into their fantasy novels? Where are the Hispanics?" And that stuck in my head for, like, five or six years, until The Lopen popped out.

Questioner

How tall is Alcatraz in relation to Bastille?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, boy, it's been a while since I wrote these. I think they're about the same height. If she's in heels, she's taller.

Questioner

When you're having a hard time writing some of your... for example, the Rithmatist, you said came out of struggling to finish something.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, I was struggling to finish another attempt at Hoid's origin story that wasn't working. So I jumped over and wrote something else.

Questioner

I was wondering if you could talking a little bit about how working on another project... Is it the fact that that idea is sitting around in your head that's keeping you from...

Brandon Sanderson

Good question. So, the question is, "Working on another project. What makes me jump? What makes me excited? What's going on?" It's very dangerous to get in the habit of jumping projects. And I've trained myself not to do this except in extreme cases. But once in a while, you just hit a funk on a book so much that you don't want to let it become a theme, you don't want it to let it become momentum for you, or the lack of it. And so I would jump to something else that it's just repeatedly, it's just not working for me. And I know my writing style enough to know that that's not common to me. If it happened every project, then it would be a problem I'd need to push past. In that case, the book just wasn't working, and I'm gonna work on this other thing that I'm really excited about, just to make sure I'm recapturing my love of writing, and not getting into a funk. And that, actually, is kind of how I manage my writing overall. I will jump projects after I finish something to make sure I don't get burned out on writing. As soon as I finish something, I look for something very different to do, in order to keep myself fresh. And that's why you see these lots of different things for me, is because that is how my psychology works. I always need to be doing something new.

Questioner

You mentioned networking. Which, I've always wondered, for things like this, is there any point in me trying to make a connection with you *inaudible* ten years?

Brandon Sanderson

It's very hard to make any kind of meaningful connection with the established authors. If you want to network, you can try, but I just don't have the time. People will ask me out to dinner on tour, and I've already got, like, five friends and family I've got to say no to. I can't even go to dinner with Jason. (Hi, Jason.) One of my long-term friends, because I'm just popping all the time on tour. At a convention, you can usually grab an author, if you're at a con, and be like, "Hey, can I ask you questions for a few minutes," and it's less about networking then, and more about getting information. People you should be networking with are your colleagues.

Here's an interesting story. So, I took a class in 2000 at BYU as an undergraduate. And it was taught by David Farland, who's a fantasy novelist. I'm like, "Oh, there's a real novelist teaching a class. I'm gonna take that." Some of my friends felt... people I didn't know, but other people like me, went and took this class. In this class, I met a man named Dan Wells. I met another man named Peter Ahlstrom. A woman named Kaylynn ZoBell. A group of our friends, the people who became my friends, I started a writing group with them. Well, I sold a book, went full-time. Dan sold a book and went full-time. Peter became an editor at TokyoPop and went full-time. And Kaylynn sold a book. She hasn't gone full-time because that panics her. But, of the people in that class, we are the only ones who went pro. And all of us did. Which should tell you something. And that is, having a community of people who support you as writers... I don't think we were the best writers in that group. I think we're the ones that supported each other, kept practicing, and we became the best writers. But that's that support group. And what happened is, Dan came up to me at a con, and said, "Hey, I found this guy, Moshe Feder. You should come talk to him." So Dan pulled me over and I talked to Moshe. I sold a book to Moshe. Years later, Dan had written a book I thought Moshe would like, and I called Moshe and said, "Hey, the guy who introduced us has a book. You should read it." And Moshe bought Dan's book. And you kind of help each other out, and things like that.

You should be networking with those people. And the other people are the editors and agents. They're at conventions and conferences to work with new writers. That's the purpose. They're always hunting for new talent there. An editor and agent, because they love science fiction and fantasy, and are looking for people to bring out to the world. Every editor wants to be Hugo Gernsback, who discovers these new writers, and things like that. So those are the people to network with.

Questioner

When you're designing your magic systems, what is it you typically go into?

Brandon Sanderson

At that thing I said, brandonsanderson.com/writing/advice, I've got three essays on magic systems that can cover it way better than talking about it right now. That'll get you really into it. I would suggest those, they're called Sanderson's Laws, because I'm really humble. Asimov has them, and Clarke has them; so I can have them, there's not fantasy guys who have laws. So go read those, and they will talk you through how I develop a magic system.

Questioner

I was wondering about the background behind one of them. Stormlight.

Brandon Sanderson

Background behind the magic system in Stormlight traces back to my early history as a science major. I was a biochemistry major in college, before I jumped ship to English. And I've always been interested in the sciences quite a bit, and you'll see that in writing as a theme through my magics. The magic system of Roshar is based on the idea of the fundamental forces. I love the idea of the fundamental forces. This idea that there are certain interactions between parts of matter and energy that transcend everything else and rule how our entire world works was fascinating. So I wanted to come up with this idea of ten fundamental forces that worked with the magic system of the cosmere. Because there are extra forces, because there's weird stuff in the cosmere. Some of them are one-to-one. Gravitation is just one of the fundamental forces. And the strong and weak forces, I played with and came up with some things for that too, so you'll see that. But on the other hand, we've got things like transcending between the Physical Realm and the Cognitive Realm, which is a very cosmere-type thing. So, I built ten fundamental forces. And then I was playing with the idea (which I have in the cosmere) of pieces of energy becoming sapient. You've seen it happen in Elantris, you've seen it happen in Warbreaker. Way of Kings is one of the places I really wanted to show off how this works. So, the idea of the spren connecting a bond to the force that they're related to in certain ways, that just grew out of that.

Questioner

If Patrick Rothfuss dropped dead tomorrow, would you finish the Kingkiller Chronicles?

Brandon Sanderson

So... if there were no other options. The thing is, I'm not sure how good a match I would be for Kingkiller. I might be able to do it. Thing is, Pat and I have... some similarities; our use of magic is very similar, and our use of viewpoint. We're very similar in those two things. Pat is very different from me in narrative structure. And more importantly (because I could do his narrative structure), he is a prose stylist, that has a lyricism to his writing that is very different from what I try to do. I have spent my life practicing something that in the industry we call Orwellian prose, which is... George Orwell would talk about how he wanted his prose to be a window pane. That through which you saw the story, but didn't distract you in any way. And I try to move my writing, most of the time, away from anything that draws attention to itself. Except for the occasional flourish at, like, the beginning of the chapter, or something like that.

Pat, every one of his lines is gorgeous. It's part of what makes the Kingkiller work so well. And that is not a skill I have practiced. I would think that somebody like Guy Gavriel Kay, or Nora Jemisin, who are fantastic prose stylists, might be a better match, because that's something you can't just fake. You can maybe work with a bad plot, but voice, it's so different.

I was a very similar voice to Robert Jordan. I had studied his things. While he's more flowery than I am, I knew his style enough that it was a good match. So, someone like Brent Weeks, who writes like me, then that's something that I could do. But someone like Pat... Pat would be a really tough one for me to pull off.

One of the weird things is, people joke about me taking over George Martin. Which you shouldn't joke about, we totally want George to make it through... My prose is much closer to George Martin's, but my thematic content is way different. People talk about this like, "Let's just give it to Sanderson." I'm like, "Really? Do you want all these Game of Thrones people to stop swearing and get married, because that's what I..." *inaudible* You don't want me taking over George. You'd rather me taking over Pat.

Questioner

So, [Shadows of Self], when they were doing the PR for it, Tor put out, like, six or eight free chapters. At some point, don't you feel you're just slowly...

Brandon Sanderson

So, here's the story behind that. They're like, "We're gonna start our PR!" and they released three chapters in July. And I wrote to them, and I'm like, "The book comes out in October. And if you want to get people excited about the book, why did you release all the chapters in July?" And they're like, "Oh, yeah... Right." So, then they said, "I guess we'll just release three more in October leading up to the launch. I'm like, "Okay, sure." You now, I'm the one who released Warbreaker for free on my website. If you haven't read that one, it's just there for free under Creative Commons, because I figure people who enjoy my writing are going to start supporting me as a writer, either by giving my books to their friend or buying them or coming to events like this, so... Part of me wouldn't mind if Tor just gave away every one of the books, because more people would actually go buy them if the people who wanted to buy them could try them out for free. We've got this weird thing in with books entertainment where you don't know if you're gonna like it until you get to the end. But we expect you to pay for it up front. You know, that's not unusual, but at the same time that's like going to a restaurant and having a big list of things that you don't know what they are, and not telling you what they are, just saying "Oh, you'll love them." And then expect you to order a meal kind of randomly. Once an author has his track record, I think that it's a little bit more... makes sense for people to say "Oh, I trust Sanderson, I'm gonna like this book. I can buy this book and enjoy it and read it." When they came and said "We're thinking of giving The Way of Kings away free for six months on Amazon," I said, "Yes, give it away. Get people to read the book." That's kind of the opposite of stopping people from reading it. I'm for it.

Questioner

How did the name Bridge Four [come about]?

Brandon Sanderson

So, I stole Bridge Four (there's an interesting story to it)... Dragonsteel was my seventh novel, and it's Hoid's origin story, and it takes place... the series is Hoid's origin story, though that book doesn't really get into it. We have a few viewpoints from him, but it's not really about him. And the idea was, I was gonna kind of lead into this epic fantasy, and then start talking about this mysterious character who was a big part of it. And the main character I decided to lead in with that was this person who got stuck in a bridge crew. It's not Kaladin, it's a very different character, but the idea of the bridge crews. Well, eventually, I took Dalinar out of... even before I was writing Dragonsteel, I pulled him out, set him for a different book. And eventually it became clear to me that I needed to pull the bridge crews out and move them to Roshar because they just worked better. I had this great idea for these bridge crews, but the world they're in just didn't match. And the chasms and things matched very well. So I moved them out and made them a part of Kaladin's story. What I'm getting at is, I came up with the bridge crews, like, twenty years ago, and I have no idea why I picked four, other than... I have no idea. Bridge Four has been Bridge Four to me for years. In fact, if you read Dragonsteel, you can still find Rock in Bridge Four from twenty years ago, acting kind of the same. And a few of the other characters are still there, as well.

Questioner

At one point, you mentioned that Kelsier scared you. Could you talk a little more about why?

Brandon Sanderson

So, Kelsier is one of my favorite characters. I like them all, whoever I'm writing, right? But one of the things that makes Kelsier tick is (and this was my original pitch for him to myself) in another story, he'd be the villain. Kelsier has this hard edge to him. He's one of those people that, when channeled wrong, he becomes the best and most interesting villain. But he happened to be in a situation that pushed him the other direction, and he became a hero. But he still has that edge to him. And there is a darkness to Kelseir that doesn't exist in most of the heroes in my books. Someone like Kaladin has a darkness to him, too, but a darkness that they're fighting against. Whereas Kelsier has embraced this darkness. It is part of what makes him him. So, Kelsier is a little frightening to me as a writer, just because he's a character that I can't guarantee will make good decisions.

Questioner

When you have an idea, how do you decide if it goes in a book, or if it gets split off into its own story? Specifically, Edgedancer.

Brandon Sanderson

For those who haven't read it yet, Edgedancer... a lot of people are expecting Edgedancer to be light and fluffy because it's about Lift. They're not expecting the deep Stormlight Archive relevance that the story has. So they're surprised, they're like, "This is almost like required reading for the Stormlight Archive." But, this is part of my philosophy for the Stormlight Archive specifically, which is that I will focus on a set of characters, and I will try to avoid the problem that happens in epic fantasies that I've read. I love Wheel of Time, but Wheel of Time very much felt like in some of its books that it got bogged down by side character stories. And this got the fans very frustrated. And I have an advantage on Robert Jordan in that I've read Robert Jordan. So I can say, "Okay, you did that. I can maybe stand on your shoulders a bit and say, 'This is really dangerous territory.'" And so, when I wrote Stormlight, I said, "I am going to keep the focus for the first five books on these characters. And I am not gonna let the side characters, even if they're important later on, become too dominant."

And so, things like Lift. Lift, during the first five books, I am not gonna put in a 50,000 word, 40,000 word sequence for her, because it would take the focus too much away. So in that case, I said, "I know what happened to Lift. I might be able to write all the stories about her. I might not be able to, but either way, they can't end up in the book." Because otherwise, we end up with a book that is ten of these side stories, and no progress on the main characters."

So, you do lose something int hat. You do lose some of the side stories. Which is why I'm happy I've learned to write the novellas. And when I'm writing the story, I'm looking at pacing, theme, what is moving us through the story, and what are the problems of the main characters. And anything to the side of that, I can put some in, but most ends up being cut and used for other things.

Questioner

*inaudible*

Brandon Sanderson

So, zinc increases the speed of your thought. So, if he did that, he would spend eternity in a moment. And that would be, actually, a bad thing. That would basically make him look brain-dead to everyone else. So, he did occasionally speed up his thought, but that only gets you so far. It doesn't actually... like, speed of thought... you're still the same person. It feels like everything else is slowing down around you, but you don't move any faster. So, anyway. Zinc is not capable of doing that, at least, not in the way that you're hoping for it to be.

Questioner

Is there any systems of Investiture of magic that you thought of and discarded?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. I tried for a long time to do one that was sound wave based. And I couldn't find anything that felt interesting to me. Maybe eventually I'll manage to make it work. The problem was, everything I came up with either had been done a hundred times, or happened too much in a way that was only in the character's head, and I couldn't actually write about in an engaging and interesting way. So I discarded that one. The Rithmatist magic was originally cosmere, and then moved out of cosmere, because there were certain things that were breaking continuity, and I just decided I can't have that in the cosmere. So, I do that occasionally, where something that was meant for the cosmere goes out of it. But equally often, I start writing something, and say "Hey, this magic would benefit from the underlying rules of the cosmere," and so I move it into the cosmere.

Questioner

Can you tell us something about the Order of Willshapers that hasn't been mentioned?

Brandon Sanderson

No, I can't. Because, too many spoilers, in that sort of area. And plus, I don't want to lock down some of the things that... because I'm not sure how I'll represent them yet in books. I know what I'll probably do, but I have... there's certain things about it that, until I write a scene from someone's eyes, using the magic, that then is kind of when it locks down for me. So, we will stay away from that.

Questioner

So, Mistborn RPG books. There's a side section that is written to help explain the book. But, the narrator's name is Brandon. Did you actually do that?

Brandon Sanderson

It's not always me, I'm afraid. The sidebars are all me. I wrote the sidebars. But, for some of these things, I just didn't have time. So we talked it through, and my sentiment is in there, but it wasn't me writing the campaign. Sorry. I have actually played it. In fact, I've got a good story about this. The Mistborn RPG, pen-and-paper RPG. We played with fans one time at GenCon. One guy didn't get into the game. He was so sad, because he had come in his Terrisman costume. And it was a really good one; he had shaved his head and everything, right? He was awesome. But he's also, like, five-foot-five, which is a short Terrisman. So, he was this awesome Terrisman, and I so said, "Don't worry. You can come and be my steward." So, as I played, he brought me water rolled my dice and did all these things. And I named him Tellingdwar. And then I put him in the books. So if you read them, Era 2, Tellingdwar is in there. That is my Terrisman steward from the Mistborn RPG game.

Questioner

How long did you keep the whole High dialect being Spook... How long were you waiting to do that?

Brandon Sanderson

How long was I waiting to do High Imperial? Which is Spook's dialect, turned into a pseudo-religious ancient language. Oh, man, that was so much fun. And you know what, that was one I came up with pretty late in the process. Because, if you know about the Mistborn trilogy, Spook became a larger character as I wrote him. The biggest deviation between my original outline for Mistborn and the final of the Era 1 trilogy is that I added a big sequence with Spook in the third book that had not been in the original outline. So, it was pretty late that I decided that Spook would have an influence over that. I just laughed uproariously when I came up with it, so I knew it belonged in the books. But if you haven't read the new Mistborn books, High Imperial is an ancient and important language.

Questioner

In the Well of Ascension, Kwaan says that Ruin changed the words in the Feruchemists' metalminds. Ruin can't *inaudible* metal plates. I was wondering what the difference was?

Brandon Sanderson

Because they're in the person's head before they're going in the plates. And he can affect the power as it's transcribed between. Because the power is partially him, the Power of Creation of that world. So there is a bit of him inside of every person, and as the power is going from person into plate... It's kind of like how people can hack your phone through your wifi. Does that make sense? So, that's what's going on there.