Recent entries

    17th Shard Forum Q&A ()
    #8156 Copy

    KChan

    In your books, we see a lot of really interesting and diverse world elements that make these places and cultures really come to life. What are some of the world elements you've had the most fun creating, and what do you like best about them?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'd say that the spren on Roshar have been my favorite so far--they are so different, but also so RIGHT. They have a mythological fae-feel to them, but also fit into the cosmere arcanum just perfectly. I also like writing them.

    Orem signing ()
    #8161 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Do people in the cosmere, besides Nalthis, have Breaths?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    No. To elaborate a little more, that's not to say they don't have a life force, because they do. But if someone not from Nalthis were to suddenly gain the ability to become an Awakener, they could not use what they have to Awaken something. That's not to say that they can't receive Breaths though.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
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    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    A question that has it's roots in Dragonsteel. When Ruin changes words, is he actually changing words,or is he changing what people see?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Did we canonize this question Peter? I'm pretty sure we did. I thought we answered this one already.

    Let's just say that most of the time, Ruin was searching for a place to transition, where he could change what was being trans-transcribed. Or what was being heard, or what was being said.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    That's pretty interesting. 

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    So the easiest time for him is when a scribe is writing in a new book, he's copying a new book down, and he just pops in and changes the words.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Okay. That makes sense. 

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
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    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Is there some reason why both Vin and Kelsier are half-skaa, half-noble, both natural Allomancers, both end up overthrowing the Lord Ruler, and have siblings that are seekers.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Both were heavily influenced by Ruin in doing what they were doing. So there is a connection there, maybe not the one you're looking for, but Ruin was looking for talented Mistborn that were easy to manipulate and talented Mistborn tend to come from talented Mistborn lines, and so Ruin is looking for that, and they both end up fitting that role. And the thing is, is that the half breeds ended up being easier for him to manipulate and easier lost in the shuffle of things, so they weren't paid attention to as much by the Ministry, because the Ministry didn't know about them.

    So it's mostly coincidental for what Ruin's trying to achieve

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #8168 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Why did OreSeur signup for Kelsier’s plan. Was he forced to because of his contract? Or did he actually want to do it?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    All kandra want to be back in the Homeland. That said, OreSeur, he as a kandra, likes challenges, and was a real method kandra, a lot of them are, but he truly was. And you can see that in him. So for him, the contract and the role he plays... 

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Are more important than what he actually wants.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yeah. Even though he had spent all this time doing this stuff. So he was part of it, but for him, his role was being this person. If I may.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    That's interesting. 

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #8170 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    A question related to that. There's an idea going around that all the spren that can Nahel Bond, all Knight Radiant spren are called honorspren, and then Nohadon talks specifically about honorspren. Is that the case? You know, is it just the Windrunner spren, or is it all the spren?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I'm going to deal with this in the next book. So I'll just go ahead and let it be a literal RAFO. It is coming.

    *interruption, leading Brandon to lose his train of though*

    So what we are dealing with here is that all spren are indeed all pieces of the one who has gone, so those spren are all- except the Windrunner spren, the spren like Syl, have certain umm.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Nohadon mentioned that "All the spren aren't as discerning as honorspren."

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    So there has been dissension among them about who gets to call themselves honorspren, if that makes sense, and there is some disagreement among scholars about which ones are really, you know "This is what defines an honorspren".

    But the spren you are running into are all *inaudible* of either Honor or Cultivation, or some mixture between them. And you can usually tell the ones that are more Honor, and the ones that are more Cultivation. That should be able to be *inaudible*.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #8171 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    There is a debate on what to call Shallan's Symbols, so we don't have such an ambiguous term for it .

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    The Symbolhead?

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Yeah, the Symbolhead, Shallanspren.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    *laughter*

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    We don't really know what to call them.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Do I want to canonize this yet?

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    You don't have to canonize it yet.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I don't know if I want to canonize it yet. But I will say this. They are spren, that should be pretty obvious. They are the spren connected to what Shallan is capable of doing. But I don’t know if I want to canonize it yet. Truthspren is as good a name as any, and I would suggest you use that until further notice.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #8172 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    In Well of Ascension, there are two strange "voice in the head" experiences. One of them is with Sazed and Marsh are fighting, and Sazed realizes that he can burn the metal rings that are now in his stomach. But the other one is with Elend, when a voice comes, and he's not sure where it comes from. It says something like "If you have a dagger, the only way to win is to go in for the kill"

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    That one, where it came from, is – I know what you are searching for, but it's actually just an old *inaudible* from weapons training. He's just dredging- he's not sure where it came from because he never thought he would need any of it, he thought he was just going to be a scholar. But his father did have him trained in weapons, so it's just instinct that he got from one of his old mentors in fighting.

    So there's nothing to see there, so no, he's not *inaudible*

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Okay. We were just wondering if it was Preservation, or Kelsier.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Nope. Unfortunately, no. I do that on occasion, but this time...

    The AudioBookaneers interview ()
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    Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

    Wayne's ability to mimic and create accents is used to great effect in the book, and Michael Kramer really shines in bringing these accents to life in the audiobook. Did you have a sense when writing the book that these could be challenging—and rewarding—scenes when read?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I certainly did. The thing is, I'm not good with talking in accents myself—I can hear them in my head, but I'm atrocious at trying to do them. So while I was writing the book, I was thinking in the back of my mind, "I really hope that poor Michael can pull this off." It was a lot of fun to write Wayne's accents. I'm writing in a world that isn't our world, but the Mistborn world is a bit of an Earth analogue. I intentionally used themes that make it an Earth parallel, which is different from my other worlds. So you can have a character who kind of has a light Cockney accent or something like that, but it's not our world so it can't exactly mimic that accent. So it's already a challenge in that respect. I do think Michael did a fantastic job.

    The AudioBookaneers interview ()
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    Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

    How much did you focus on writing The Alloy of Law as a starting point for readers who were new to Mistborn? Was it hard to balance writing for new readers versus wanting to give your existing readers a "welcome home"?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It takes place hundreds of years after the trilogy, so there was enough that I had to bring longtime readers up to speed on that it felt very natural to write the book as a potential new starting point, just because the world had been updated so much.

    That said, I did make sure to slip in lots of fun things for those who had read the original trilogy, that are callbacks or that show how the world got updated and how it grew. I was conscious of the book possibly being a new starting point, but it's more that it felt natural for what the story required, as opposed to me sitting down and trying to force the book to be a new starting point.

    The AudioBookaneers interview ()
    #8175 Copy

    Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

    Michael Kramer is, other than Elantris (Jack Garrett), Warbreaker (James Yaegashi), and the Alcatraz series (Ramon de Ocampo), "the voice of Brandon Sanderson" when it comes to audiobooks, handling narration on The Wheel of Time, the Mistborn trilogy, The Way of Kings, and now The Alloy of Law. What makes him such a well-suited narrator for your books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I feel there's a fine line to walk between performing too much and not enough. When I like to listen to an audiobook, I don't want to hear just a dry read. I like a subtle shift in character voice and tone when someone is speaking, so that you can get a sense of it. But I don't like it performed so much—particularly for my own works—that it takes you out of the story. Having listened to the Wheel of Time audiobooks, as that is one of the main series I've listened to in my life, I really wanted Michael Kramer for some of my works. So I asked for him by name.

    The AudioBookaneers interview ()
    #8176 Copy

    Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

    Last time we spoke, we were talking about the 45-hour audiobook for The Way of Kings. Each of the Mistborn books came in at 25-30 hours, but The Alloy of Law comes in at a tidy 9 discs. Did you set out to write a shorter book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I knew I wanted to do more in the Mistborn world, and for a long time I played with writing a short story. The short story that I tried to write didn't work; I tossed it aside after maybe a thousand words, and began working on a different story. I can usually judge what the length of a story will be, and I knew this one would be longer, but I wasn't sure how long I would want it to be, or whether I should make it a full-blown novel. So I wrote what turned out to be three or four chapters' worth, and at that point I decided, it was a big enough story to can make a novel of it. I knew it wasn't going to be the same length as the original Mistborn books, but I felt okay with that, because for a long time I've been wanting to start writing some—I don't want to say shorter, but quicker, faster-paced stories; thrilleresque, maybe a little more pulpish. I just think of it as a fun book, that doesn't require quite as much of an investment of time and energy for the reader as something like The Way of Kings—which I love, but I want to be doing a variety of things. So writing a shorter book was intentional, but I kind of slipped into it.

    The AudioBookaneers interview ()
    #8177 Copy

    Samuel Montgomery-Blinn

    A lot happens before this book opens—how did you pick an opening for Wax's story, leaving so much of the backstory with Wayne (and others) to be picked up and absorbed on the fly?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I usually like to start my books in medias res to an extent. It brings across the sense that I want to portray, which is that the characters all existed before the book started, and the characters continue—those who survive—to exist after the book ends. That helps with the sense of immersion. Granted, each book tells about a very important chapter of the characters' lives, and there's a distinct beginning, middle, and end to that chapter, but if the beginning or end are too hard and fast, it feels contrived to me. So I do this with all of my books.

    It's usually harder to figure out a starting point than you might think. I often have to revise my beginnings very heavily. This is no different from my other works; in the Mistborn books I've had to do this often. The prologue for [The Alloy of Law] was actually written to be the prologue to a sequel, and after I wrote it, I thought, "No, that needs to go in this book." We did a lot of shuffling around at the beginning of this book to find the right starting point.

    Interview with Isaac Stewart ()
    #8178 Copy

    Trevor Green

    I believe you create merchandise for The Way of Kings and Mistborn. How's that going? Do you ever see people wearing your stuff out in the wild?

    Isaac Stewart

    InkWing Arts (link here) is the business my wife Kara and I have put together to showcase the artwork I've created for Brandon's worlds. Right now we primarily sell bookmarks and t-shirts, but watch in the future as we add patches, art prints, and games. The goal there is to make cool things based on cool worlds. It's been a lot of fun to interact with fans in this way.

    I mostly see the shirts at Brandon's signing events. But my eleven year old son came to me the other day and said he saw someone wearing one of our shirts at the grocery store. He thought that was pretty cool. So did I!

    Interview with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Trevor Green

    What are some of the books you've been a part of, and what exactly were you in charge of?

    Isaac Stewart

    I’m responsible for all the maps and symbols in the four (so far) Mistborn novels as well as all the symbols, chapter headings, maps, color end pages, and Navani's notebook pages in Brandon's Way of Kings. (The other artwork in the book was done by Michael Whelan, Ben McSweeney, and Ben Call. I'm thrilled to be showcased in the same book with these amazing artists.)

    On the design side of things, I've been designing self-published books—covers and interiors—for a while, but recently had the luck to get into the business professionally with the book design for Bryce Moore's YA novel, Vodnik. I've also done covers for some ebook re-releases of some science fiction and fantasy classics from the 80s.

    In addition to Brandon's maps, I've also worked on maps in the re-release of Robert Silverberg's Nebula-winning novel A Time of Changes and the upcoming reprint of his very-enjoyable Downward to the Earth.

    Interview with Isaac Stewart ()
    #8180 Copy

    Trevor Green

    On a similar note, The Way of Kings has a lot of symbols associated with different aspects of the book. Were you involved with creating those, and if so, how did you design them?

    Isaac Stewart

    I created forty-plus symbols for The Way of Kings. Many of these are found in the color charts in the hardcover version of the book (link here). My absolute favorites are used at the beginning of each Part (one of them is debossed on the book's hardcase beneath the dust jacket). I used Arabic word art and the shard blades as inspiration for these. Many of the originals were drawn on an iPod Touch and later brought into Photoshop for clean up.

    Interview with Isaac Stewart ()
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    mb01_SYMBOLS-webres.jpg

    Trevor Green

    I know some of us have heard the story of how you came up with the symbols for Mistborn, but tell those of us who haven't how they came about.

    Isaac Stewart

    I'd drawn about a half dozen pages of symbols inspired by my first reading of the book. Pages with dozens and dozens of tiny, intricate symbols—maybe someday I'll write a post about the process: Failed Allomantic Symbol Designs. But nothing was really working for me or Brandon.

    I'd collected a lot of reference material for the steel inquisitors—nails, railroad spikes, those sorts of things—and one day when I was looking at a picture of a rusty pile of bent up nails, I saw the symbol for iron. It was a Beautiful Mind experience. The symbol just jumped out at me. Glowing and everything.

    After that initial experience with the symbol for iron, it was easy to come up with the others. The bent nail part eventually became the crescent shapes used in the final book.

    Interview with Isaac Stewart ()
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    Trevor Green

    You've been involved with some pretty big projects over the last few years. Tell us what it's been like working on the art for novels such as the Mistborn trilogy and The Way of Kings.

    Isaac Stewart

    Writing, art, and book publishing have always been my biggest interests, so working on these great books has been very fulfilling.

    I get the manuscript early on in the process, print it out, and go through the whole thing with a pencil, marking it up with notes about artistic details and tiny maps marking places in relationship to each other. Then comes my favorite part of the process: working with Brandon and his assistant Peter to make sure that my vision melds with Brandon's vision for the book. We usually do a lot of revisions and emails to get to the point where we're all happy with the results. I cannot say enough good about Brandon and Peter; they are both gentlemen to the core.

    General Reddit 2012 ()
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    BigRedDSP

    I just finished The Way of Kings and have been told it will be a 10 book series which makes me worry when it's done I'll feel like I do about AMoL right now.

    Brandon Sanderson

    If it helps, it's two five book arcs. The first five will draw to a natural conclusion. (Kind of how Mistborn one comes to its own conclusion, then two and three are in another arc.)

    Oslo signing, 2011 ()
    #8184 Copy

    Thorondir (paraphrased)

    How many Shardworlds are there? Only seven? (Sel, Nalthis, Scadrial, Roshar, Yolen, Taldain, and whatever planet The Silence Divine is on [Ashyn]?)

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    He said he has a set number in his head but that he didn’t want to say it because he might change his mind. Essentially he doesn’t want to make the number of worlds canon yet.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #8185 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Neuxue

    Does Roshar have a magnetic field?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Um, Roshar, magnetic field, yes, it does. Yes. Yeah it does  

    Neuxue

    You said at one point that it is all one plate--  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Neuxue

    --that there's no tectonic activity. What is the interior of the planet like?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    That’s a good question... You're not going to get an answer on that one. It's a weird planet, let's just say that. It's a pretty weird planet

    Neuxue

    Are the diamonds naturally occurring?  

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, but most are going to be-- They aren't-- all gemstones are naturally occurring, but most of, many or most of, the gems they are getting they are getting from creatures that grow them, not from the rock. Though there are mines on Roshar, you just have to-- most of them are on the leeward side of mountains, where the crem isn't being deposited.

    Neuxue

    So, diamond mines are about tectonics--

    Brandon Sanderson

    It was a created planet, keep that in mind.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
    #8186 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Neuxue

    And I have one more question that sort of relates to The Wheel of Time, which I’m reading right now. So Shai in Emperor's Soul has a couple of different personas, right? And some of them have versions of her name. Were she to create a version of herself that is as chaotic and evil as possible, an embodiment of chaos that is capable of reaching throughout the multiverse and--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh Shai'tan! *laughs* I did not think of that, there you go Shai, that's where she came from.  

    Neuxue

    The most powerful character ever apparently.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That's right. *laughs* Shai, the Dark One.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
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    Play/Pause

    Cemci

    Have we-- I think you mentioned in a previous signing that we'd already met one member of every Order of the Knights Radiant.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, I think you have.

    Cemci

    My question is, have we met two Edgedancers? And is one of the Dustbringers a viewpoint character?

    Brandon Sanderson

    One of the Dustbringers is eventually a point-of-view character.

    Cemci

    Haven't been yet?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, not yet, I don't think. But it depends if you count the Heralds as members of their order.

    Cemci

    I don't.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, see I would, because they're kind of heads of their Order. If you don't count them you have not met some from every Order.

    Cemci

    Have we met someone from the Dustbringers?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well-- Dustbringers are really complicated. Really complicated. So that's the weird one. Okay? So let's shelve that one. You'll see why it's really weird later on.

    Shadows of Self London UK signing ()
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    Play/Pause

    ParadoxicalZen

    How exactly is the Moon Scepter linked to the Dor?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Moon Scepter is-- I suppose I can canonize this, now. Okay you're getting one out of me. So the big thing about the Moon Scepter that it was-- It is a Rosetta stone for the [Selish] magics. Meaning it translates them from one to another, and what the different symbols mean, does that make sense.