Recent entries

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9351 Copy

    Questioner

    How does it feel being one of the primary fantasy authors with jealousy of your peers, even those who have written longer than you, because of your efficiency and your worldbuilding? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    It feels really weird. It feels really weird. It feels really great. We just got the sales numbers in for the third book, and they're pretty crazy. 

    Argent

    You doing OK? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm doing okay. We tripled the second book. *crowd woos* That was already #1 on the New York Times. Now that was #1 in, like, a January or a Febuary or something like that. We don't know if we'll even beat Lee Child or not tomorrow, but it's looking pretty good. It's pretty crazy. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9352 Copy

    Blightsong

    Are foci a cosmere-wide phenomenon, or are they kinda just a construction of people? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Elaborate. 

    Blightsong

    A lot of people think that every magic system has foci? Is that true? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. But, I think people are finding structure in-worlds that-- how should I say this. So, in some ways, some of these questions (this isn't just this one, but in general), you can ask something like "Do alien species fit into phylum and families and things like this." Well, yes, because we come up with the definitions. Right? So, a lot of these questions, like "Do they all have?" Well, yes, because human beings have come up with definitions to define these things and lump them together under definitions... There's a lot of things with the cosmere magic... is yes, because human beings have put that weight on it. It doesn't make it less true, but, at the same time it's not like, 1+1=2 is gonna exist whether or not humankind is there to define it, whether or not something fits into a genus or a species, whether these magic systems are related. Those are human constructions that are noticing real things. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9353 Copy

    Zmann966

    So, in Oathbringer, we see the Surge of Adhesion used in an interesting way, Spiritual Adhesion. Do all the Surges have non-Physical manifestations like that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    All the Surges do, slightly, in fact, but none of them, I would say, are as Spiritual as that. 

    Zmann966

    What about like, Shallan in Words of Radiance with her mercenaries? So, like, a Spiritual Transformation? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wouldn't say Transformation, she is seeing a little bit, glimpsing a little bit, does that make sense? 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9355 Copy

    Questioner

    From a certain series of books about a prison, by this one author, we learn that authors love to torture their audience. How many nights did you stay up giggling and cackling to yourself with glee over all of the things that happen in Oathbringer?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is why I'm an insomniac, right? You're all gonna be miserable. A little fun thing here, when the book was going along, I thought "Maybe I should cut it after Part 3." I gave it to Karen, who's my continuity editor, and she said "If you cut it here, I will strangle you. The fans will not get a chance to do it, because I will do it."

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9357 Copy

    Questioner

    What's this sword's *points at replica of Jezrien's Honorblade* name? Do you have-- have you named Szeth's blade?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Various people have named the swords various things. I just-- I'm not going to canonize it right now, but it's had many names over the years...

    Questioner

    Can you give me one of them?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...I mean-- just "the Assassin's Blade."

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9358 Copy

    Questioner 1

    Can you tell us about Transportation? Is it like gates from Wheel of Time? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, Elsecalling? No. But-- but yes. 

    Questioner 1

    *laughter* I meant, like, the whole-- Just the Surge?

    Questioner 2

    Does it go to the Cognitive Realm, is that all it does? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is the power by which they created the Oathgates... So, there is a little more to it than that. But yes, it's basically-- yeah.

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9359 Copy

    Questioner

    So, in Allomancy, most of the metals are in pairs, they're equal and opposite, pushing and pulling, Rioting, Soothing, that kind of thing. The god metals have always-- lerasium and atium, have always struck me as kind of unbalanced in a way. Like, lerasium gives you the power to use all these metals, plus atium being one of them. Is there a reason for that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, there is, and it kinda has to do with Snapping and some of the fundamental rules of the Mistborn world and the fact that people have Preservation and Ruin inside of them and all these sorts of things. So, the answer is yes.

    Partially, narratively, I built that in partially just 'cause I wanted atium to seem odd in the placement, right, when people got to it it's like "What? Why is this one-- This one doesn't match the others. This doesn't really work." When I was building Mistborn, one of the big things I wanted was this idea of a periodic table that was, kind of a flawed construct, that, as you read the books, you came to understand better and better. And that was something I executed-- I don't think I executed that 100% right, but I'm pleased with the general concept and how it plays out. And so I wanted atium to stick out like a sore thumb.

    The other thing is, I knew I needed some good foreshadowing for Fortune, for people being able to kinda see the future or versions of the future, for the whole cosmere to work. And, so, I built in atium specifically to do those things. And I built in lerasium to have, kind of, the ultimate sort of benevolent endowment sort of thing. (Not Endowment the Shard, you know what I mean.) But I also wanted to show these two magics were intrinsically tied together on Scadrial because the way that humankind was created. We're getting into some deep stuff, I'll just leave it there. But that was what was going through my mind as I was building those things all out. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9361 Copy

    Questioner

    In Sixth of the Dusk, are the Ones Above Scadrians who invented faster-than-light travel? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    You know, I haven't-- I danced around answering that one, just because I don't quite want to get into it yet. I like the Ones Above being somewhat mysterious. But I have said it is someone you know, right? It is part of the cosmere in the very future. So you're not going to be surprised, because there's a limited number of options. But I haven't said-- 'cause I might do more in that world, and I just want to leave them mysterious for now. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9362 Copy

    Questioner

    [In Secret History] there was a key scene with a character named Drifter. And, uh, that was the first time that I felt like there was a sense of malevolence with this character. And I was curious if that's something that I should state with that punch? Or was this just a particular thing? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    I would say yes. Drifter is an ancient entity who has very, very many sides and that is accurately one of them. That said, in that particular scene, there are certain personalities that play off of each other poorly, in real life and in books, and you happened to catch one that-- Drifter and this character do not-- Let's just say they rub each other the wrong way. But I would definitely say that is an aspect of his personality. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9363 Copy

    Questioner

    With Alloy of Law, with Wayne, how do you come up with that character? *laughter* And those things that he says? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, yeah, Wayne's one of those characters. So, there are certain standards to which I hold almost all of my characters in my books. Wayne isn't one of them. He gets away with more.

    So, where'd Wayne come from? The original concept for Wayne was, when I was working on the Mistborn books-- For those who don't know, I originally pitched Mistborn to my editor, Moshe, as a trilogy of trilogies: Past, Present, Future. Epic fantasy trilogy, urban fantasy trilogy, science fiction trilogy, set in the same world, with advancing technology in which the magic becomes the foundation for space travel. And the original idea that the epic fantasy trilogy becomes the foundation of myth and religion in the modern day trilogy. So, I told him all this, and he said, "Wow. You're ambitious." This was after he had read Elantris and was trying to figure out what else to buy from me.

    And so, as I was working on The Stormlight Archive, I realized I wanted something from the Mistborn world to balance Stormlight, because Stormlight books are big and involved and take, like, years of writing to get done, and I didn't want to be alternating thick, long, books in two series, I kinda wanted to have a shorter, more fast-paced series to balance out the bigger, longer series. And so, the first thing I started doing, the first idea for Wayne, was a person whose personality changed based on hats he put on. And he was actually originally a hat maker. And I wrote, like, three pages of this, and he was just too kooky. He was great, but I was pouring too much into him. I needed: number one, to kinda pull back on the concept in that original; and number two, I needed multiple characters around him. By the way, he was riding around on a talking horse at that point, because he was a kandra.

    Yeah, it was a really weird scene. It was wacky. And that's when I said, "All right, I'm gonna sit down and write an actual novel, not just exploratory scenes." And that's where I built Wax and Wayne, and kind of, the play off of each other, and things like that. So, they kind of grew out of each other, and out of that first scene that I wrote. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9364 Copy

    Questioner

    From what we've seen so far, most of the Ideals of the Orders of the Knights Radiant have been in line with the Divine Attributes ascribed to them. Did the Divine Attributes come from the Ideals of the Knights Radiant? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    These two are heavily interconnected. And the Divine Attributes, like the Double Eye at the front, are more philosophy than they are strict, you know part of-- Rather than capital-T Truth revealed. And so a lot of social structures were built out of the things going on. So the answer is yes. Not 100% yes, but certainly those sorts of things are extrapolations that people were making, as opposed to core concepts of the magic. 

    Oathbringer Chicago signing ()
    #9367 Copy

    Questioner

    ...At some point in the novel, there is a character who gets a certain, shall we say, powerup that falls in-line with many things that he, or she, already has. Is there, from an Investiture standpoint, is there a Compounding effect?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, there will be. *laughter* If we're talking about the same individual.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9368 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Conclusion: Birthday!

    Last year, I tried out something where—in response to people asking me if they could send me birthday gifts—I suggested sending me a magic card from a specific set, with a signature and note on the back.

    This was a little experiment that people had a lot of fun with, and this year I want to post the results! That means a lot of photos, as I wanted to show the notes people wrote on the cards. Many of you included touching letters to me as well, which I read and appreciate—though those tended to be a little more personal in nature, so I'm not going to post them.

    Some of you will be completely uninterested in this, so we've collected the images in a gallery rather than posting them all here. Have fun browsing through them! And thank you so much to everyone. It was a lot of fun to see the little notes that you'd all sent in.

    I'm forty-two today, which is an auspicious number in science fiction fandom. It's going to be tough to top these last few months and the reception to Oathbringer.

    The fact that I get to do this crazy thing for a living continues to be the best gift of them all.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    Movie/Television Updates

    Other Properties

    Legion and Dark One are currently in negotiations. The rest of the Cosmere is covered by the DMG deal, as we want one company working on that at a time. We have a small deal for Defending Elysium that has it under option with a screenwriter, and the first draft screenplay is good. That leaves Alcatraz, The Rithmatist, and a couple of shorts (Dreamer, Perfect State, Firstborn) with no options right now.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9371 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Movie/Television Updates

    Snapshot

    If you missed my weird, cyberpunkish detective story, you can now get a copy of it in our Dragonsteel Edition bundled with another of my stories. The ebook is still around too. MGM snatched this up almost before it was published—it was very hot in Hollywood in the months leading up to publication.

    The screenwriter they attached to it had another project delaying him for the bulk of this year, but they've said he'll turn his full attention to it staring sometime just after the holidays.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9373 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Movie/Television Updates

    Mistborn and Stormlight Films

    These rights are held by DMG Entertainment, and they've been very good at working with me and showing me things. They have scripts for both Mistborn and The Way of Kings, which they are actively trying to make happen in Hollywood.

    One way they're approaching this is to do a Stormlight VR experience, which we've talked about before. This is less about making a video game, and more about making something to show off to studios to kind of immerse them in the setting of the books. As I determined early on, this is an interesting but weird world, and having visuals (like the art in the books themselves) helps a lot with bringing people around to understanding.

    They do plan to release the VR experience to fans on Steam, for those with VR headsets. It's not intended to be a full game, as I said, more a demo of the Shattered Plains—you'll get to personally experience the Shattered Plains from the novels and interact with the characters and creatures that inhabit them. We'll do some posts on it in coming months as it gears up to be released, and I've invited the developers to do some guest posts on my blog.

    Regardless of what happens on the film and television front here, at the very least you have that to look forward to!

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9374 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Potential Cosmere Stories List

    Here are things that at one point I've had in the works, and probably someday plan to do, in the cosmere:

    • Dragonsteel/Liar of Partinel. (Hoid's origin story, to be written sometime after Stormlight is done.)
    • Sixth of the Dusk sequel. (I had a pretty cool idea for this last year. Nothing more than that.)
    • Untitled Silverlight novella. (What it says on the tin.)
    • Threnody novel. (An expedition back to confront the Evil that destroyed the old world.)
    • Aether of Night. (Still in the cosmere, and you can see the odd remnant of an Aether popping up here and there. Bound to be drastically different from the unpublished novel, which I allow the 17th Shard to give out to people who request it on their forums. Basically, the only thing from it that is canon is the magic system.)
    • Silence Divine. (Disease magic novella set on Ashyn.)
    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9375 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Minor Projects

    Dark One

    My eternal "like Harry Potter from Voldemort's viewpoint" fantasy sequence is still hanging out, buzzing at the sides of my brain. I wrote a really spectacular outline for it this summer, one I love quite a bit, and it got both television graphic novel interest—but these are deals still very much in the works, so I can't talk about them yet.

    I'm pleased with what I have though, and feel this series has moved for the first time in a long while. Note that I did end up pulling it out of the cosmere, as it ended up working better as a dark secondary world fantasy than it did as a Cosmere YA series. It went both older, and more twisted, in the current outline. Hopefully, by next year's State of the Sanderson we'll have something more solid to announce.

    Status: Exciting developments in the works!

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9376 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Minor Projects

    Adamant

    This space opera novella series is in same place it was last year, I'm afraid. (One novella done, no more written on the rest.) I took a little time to work on the outline, but didn't find a chance to write the second novella. It will be awesome when I do it, and I got really close to moving this to the front burner several times, but it didn't end up working.

    Status: Still possible in the near future.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9378 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Secondary Projects

    The Rithmatist

    This continues to be the single most-requested sequel among people who email me or contact me on social media. It is something I want to do, and still intend to, but it has a couple of weird aspects to it—completely unrelated to its popularity—that continue to work as roadblocks.

    The first problem is that it's an odd relic in my writing career. I wrote it as a diversion from a book that wasn't working (Liar of Partinel, my second attempt at doing a novel on Yolen, after the unpublished novel Dragonsteel). It went really well—but it also was something I had to set aside when the Wheel of Time came along.

    I eventually published it years later, but my life and my writing has moved in a very different direction from the point when I wrote this. These days, I try very hard to make stories like this work as novellas or standalone stories, rather than promising sequels. I feel I did promise a sequel for this one, and I have grand plans for it, but the time just never seems to be right.

    The other issue is that writing about that era in America—even in an alternate universe—involves touching on some very sensitive topics. Ones that, despite my best efforts, I feel that I didn't handle as sensitively as I could have. I do want to come back to the world and do a good job of it, but doing an Aztec viewpoint character—as I'd like to do as one of the viewpoints in book two—in an alternate Earth…well, it's a challenge that takes a lot of investment in research time.

    And for one reason or another, I keep ending up in crisis mode—first with Stormlight 3 taking longer than I wanted, and now with The Apocalypse Guard not turning out like I wanted. So someday I will get to this, but it's going to require some alignment of several factors.

    Status: Not yet. We'll see.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Secondary Projects

    White Sand

    Graphic Novel 1 was a huge success, and Graphic Novel 2 is finished and off to the printers. Expected publication date is February 2018. It will be the second of three.

    The prose version is still available to be read. If you sign up for my mailing list, we auto-send you a link to it.

    Status: Graphic novel 2 coming in early 2018.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9381 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Secondary Projects

    Alcatraz

    Contrary to last year's State of the Sanderson (where I didn't expect movement on this series this year) there have been developments. I have tried working on the sixth and final book (which will be from Bastille's viewpoint) and have found that I didn't like the test chapters I did.

    The story went the wrong direction, and beyond that, I didn't feel like I had Bastille's voice down. In some attempts, the book just sounded too much like the previous ones—but when I exaggerated her voice, she felt a bit Flanderized. I've been toying with how to make it work, and I've come up with a somewhat outside-the-box solution. My long-standing friend and former student, Janci Patterson, is also a big fan of the series. She's been offering feedback since I wrote the first book back in…2006, was it? I've gone to her and asked if she'd be willing to collaborate on it.

    The goal is that by bringing in another author to write it with me, I'll be able to get the book to work—to have it feel different enough from the others, yet still be in the same theme and spirit. The goal is to do an outline in early February once I have book one of Skyward done, then hand that off to Janci and let her toy with it a while before sending it back to me.

    So you can watch for that, and I'll post updates.

    Status: Outline to be written in 2018.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9382 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Secondary Projects

    Legion

    The third Stephen Leeds/Legion story (which is roughly the same length as the second one) is finished! Titled Lies of the Beholder, this is the story that delves into Stephen's backstory, his interactions with Sandra, and the nature of his aspects. Good stuff! It's done, and it's weird. But good weird.

    Right now, the goal is to collect all three Legion stories and release them in hardcover sometime around September 2018. That means there probably won't be a standalone release of Lies of the Beholder until a year or so later, like we plan with Edgedancer. However, for those who like cohesion on their bookshelves, I've mandated that Subterranean Press be allowed to do a leatherbound like they did with the first two. So you can have books that match. This should happen right around the release of the collection.

    In the UK, there should be a small-format version of the story on its own rather than a collection. (Again, for matching purposes. In the US, the small-format hardcovers have been published by my own company, Dragonsteel, as we waited for enough stories to do a collection.) We should eventually do a small-format Dragonsteel edition for people who really want one of those to match, but I'd suggest that the best way to support the stories is to buy the collection. And if you haven't ever tried them out, you'll be able to get them all at once!

    This marks the end of the Stephen Leeds stories, though we're in talks for another television deal—so maybe that will happen.

    Status: Series finished! Publication in late 2018.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Main Projects

    Mistborn

    Wax and Wayne 4 is on the slate next after I finish Skyward. (Though if it's going well, I may do the entire trilogy for Skyward first.) I need four or five months at least to do Wax and Wayne, so rain or shine, my plan is to get into this on September 1st at the latest. Hopefully a little earlier.

    This will wrap up the second era of Mistborn books. (And yes, I've settled—at long last—on just calling it that. All the other terms I tried were just too confusing.) Once the Wax and Wayne books are done, I'll look to do something else for a little while before coming back for Era Three. (1980s spy thriller Mistborn.)

    Status: To be written in 2018.

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
    #9385 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Updates on Main Projects

    Stormlight

    It's time to take a little breather. I've begun working on the outline for book four, which is kind of a mess right now because of things I've been moving around between books as I write. My goal this year for Stormlight will be to have rock-solid outlines for books four and five done by December 2018.

    My current projection is that I'll spend half of my time writing Stormlight, and half of it doing other things. (I spoke last year about just how big an undertaking a Stormlight book is–and why I can't write them back to back.) I realize that many of you would prefer to have only Stormlight, but that would drive me insane–and drive the series into the ground.

    I think this is a realistic schedule. So, I'm giving myself 2018 to work on Skyward (hopefully a trilogy) and other projects. Then on January 1st, 2019, I go back to Stormlight refreshed and excited to be back in Roshar, and I write on book four until it's done. (With a 2020 or 2021 release, depending on how the writing goes.) I do hope to find time for a novella, like Edgedancer, that we can put out between books. This one is tentatively called Wandersail.

    For those who don't know, The Stormlight Archive is a ten-book series composed of two five-book arcs.

    Status: Writing outline for book four.

    Shire Post Mint Mistborn Coin AMA ()
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    Oudeis

    Someone told me once that there's apparently a secret hidden in Nazh's name, but I've yet to determine what it is. Recently finished Shadows again, paying attention to names, and couldn't really find any sort of conventions. The only name given any relevance was the surname Forescout, and that doesn't seem connect to Nazh.

    Issac Stewart

    I hadn't heard of something being hidden in Nazh's name. I'll have to look a little closer....

    Footnote: Oudeis is likely referencing a comment made by Brandon in the afterword for Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell in Arcanum Unbounded, where he references the fact that he has not yet revealed Nazh's given name (Nazrilof is his surname).
    #nazh
    Sources: Shire Post Mint AMA - Reddit
    Shire Post Mint Mistborn Coin AMA ()
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    meramipopper

    How difficult is it to come up with a design that pops on a coin?

    How do you draw something that factors in the contours that will be on a coin?

    Issac Stewart

    Designing for coins wasn't difficult because Brandon had already created great descriptions. The real trick was to not make it too detailed for the engraver at Shire Post! I think he did a great job bringing our intricate designs to life!

    Factoring the contours was something I worried about a bit, which was one of the reasons I brought Ben onto the project. I described to him what we wanted, and he painted some grayscale depth to the coins so Shire Post would have an idea of what we were envisioning.

    Shire Post Mint Mistborn Coin AMA ()
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    meramipopper

    Could your ever imprint one of your maps onto a coin?

    Did you ever think of a Mistborn map coin?

    Issac Stewart

    A Mistborn Map coin would be cool! (But probably too detailed, not to mention canonical at this point.) I did draw inspiration from the old maps I did to try to tie the design into the world, if even a little bit. A series of coins based on maps would be really cool, and if simplified enough, they might just work. It could be quite the series, even if they wouldn't be canonical, just collectible. If that ever happens, let's look into sending you one, definitely!

    State of the Sanderson 2017 ()
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    Brandon Sanderson

    My Year

    January–June: Oathbringer Revisions

    I spent most of this year doing revisions for Oathbringer. I did several exhaustive drafts during the January–June months, and did the final handoff to Peter (for copyediting and proofreading) right at the end of June.

    June–Mid September: The Apocalypse Guard

    Then, for the first time in what felt like forever (it was really only about sixteen months), I got a chance to work on something that wasn't Oathbringer or Edgedancer. I launched right into The Apocalypse Guard, the follow-up to The Reckoners…and it didn't work. I spent July, August, and part of September writing that. (I finished the last chapter sometime in early September, and turned in the second draft a few weeks later.)

    September–October: Legion 3

    I was already feeling a little discouraged by that book not quite coming together, though at that point I assumed I'd be able to fix it in revisions. (Well, I still think I can do that–I just think it will take more time.) Mid-September, I launched into Legion Three: Lies of the Beholder. That took around a month to finish, bringing us to mid-October. By then, I knew something was seriously wrong with The Apocalypse Guard, as my revision attempts were fruitless. So, I called Random House and pulled the book–then launched into Skyward.

    October–November: Skyward

    I have been writing on that book ever since, and you can read the blog post yesterday about that.

    November–December: Oathbringer Tour

    The tour was wonderful–somehow both exhausting and energizing at the same time. Here are some of the fan costumes that showed up this year. Thank you all for coming out to see me!

    December so far: Skyward

    Unfortunately, and I know you guys know to watch for them, there are no hidden or secret novellas or books for this year. I have been running around feeling behind all year, first on Oathbringer, and then trying to find a replacement for The Apocalypse Guard.

    General Signed Books 2017 ()
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    CosmereQuestioner's book.jpg CosmereQuestioner's question.jpg

    CosmereQuestioner

    Like Adonalsium, could Harmony split into 2 shards OTHER THAN Ruin/Preservation with the right intent.

    You once stated that it is plausible that with a different intent Adonalsium could have shattered into a DIFFERENT 16 shards. You have also said that Harmony is one shard (or could be viewed this way.) My question: Could Harmony split/be split into 2 shards OTHER THAN Ruin/Preservation (yet still complementing/opposite) with the right intent of the splitter?  And if not is this because Harmony is still too invested in Scadrial as Ruin/Preservation?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Almost anything is possible... but it is very, very unlikely that Harmony would split except back to Ruin/Preservation.