Recent entries

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2601 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Vodid

    If you have caffeine, can you store that as wakefulness in a bronzemind?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think that you can, but I think when you tap it out, you will have kind of the same effects, right. Like, you will feel like you are not quite as awake. Like that feeling you get, I think you guys know what I'm talking about. I think that you can, I think that you can hack the system with some things like that. That's my guess... That's my answer right now, but that's one pretty mutable, as we go forward.

    Adam Horne

    I'd be curious to see what you could do with that in Era 3, because pharmaceuticals will exist.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes well, you're already getting into the fact that you could replicate a lot of things, with... once they figure how to change types of Investiture and whatnot, then suddenly you've got some wacky things going on. Which is why a Mistborn cyberpunk would be so much fun, because metallurgic wetware would be fun. But no promises on that—I already have too many things to write. It's just that if I do write it, and I make it a trilogy, then we have sixteen books in the Mistborn series.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2602 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Nick Mancuso

    Do worldhoppers take time to adjust to the different gravity of a new world? How about in the Cognitive Realm?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Depends on how fast they get between things. Most of the time, no. Because most of the time what you're doing is you're leaving a planet and going into the Cognitive Realm, where for the most part you're going to have the same sort of feelings of gravity and then you are walking slowly through Shadesmar to another place and you're not even noticing the minute changes. If there were FTL travel or something then yeah, you would pretty instantaneously notice a difference, but that currently does not exist in the Cosmere. People who are getting between planets either are individuals with no physical form as it's currently... basically just the Shards, right, or are getting there through Shadesmar, basically by walking or riding or something like that. There are *hesitantly* no current faster ways, but I mean, there are depending on how fast you can get through Shadesmar and yeah. I mean, even when Hoid is getting between planets it's taking him weeks or months, he's not jumping. They aren't actually hopping between worlds, they are trudging between worlds in the Cosmere.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2604 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Cory Michaels

    Were the riders in the storm on Roshar prior to the Shattering?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No... Oh, the riders. *hemming and hawing* RAFO. I'll RAFO that. Good question! I'd better leave alone pre-Shattering Roshar questions for the most part.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2606 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Yosef Joe

    If Brandon got a Shard, what Shard would it be and what would he do with it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I don't know, I've been asked something along these lines before. I do fit Autonomy pretty well, but I also feel like I fit Invention pretty well, so probably one of those two. There's definitely some that are not very Brandon. Whimsy: not a very Brandon Shard, let's just point that one out, but I could see myself with bunches of them.

    What would I do? Pocket universes and... I guess you can't really create those in the... well you can and in the Spiritual Realm, but... Y'know, building funky planets and weird magic systems, that's what I do anyway. You would probably just float through the cosmere and find just planet after planet of screwball magic systems that people are trying to figure out how to use and being like wow, the person who did this, why did they make us use magic based on bagel flavors, can't we have the one where we just fly?

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2608 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Amber Burningham

    Do you have a prediction or an estimation on when Horneater's release will be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Horneater, if I do it right, is going to be the summer or fall before the fifth book, I think. I am, I believe, personally on the hook for that one more than I've been on the hook for other novellas and things like that, because I deliberately left these things out of Rhythm of War and it leaves a pretty obvious hole, I just didn't have the space for it and it would have been distracting if I put it in and so it is better as a novella. But if I don't do it soon, I feel like I will be breaking a small promise to the readers, which sometimes we do. Sometimes things miss deadlines and we break small promises, but it is a... it is a promise. The way that I wrote that and left out what happened, it's a promise that you will get this information, and you know three years may be a long time still to get that. But my goal right now is you know, again, the team cringes when I talk about this. But we're only two years away from doing the Words of Radiance Kickstarter and so we will. I will probably want to provide a novella for that.

    Plan is right now, if I do that, I kind of... This is a much smaller promise, not even really a promise, but then we will have a novella between books two and three, three and four, and four and five. But we will not have one between books one and two and just for sake of completionism. It feels like there should be a mini Stormlight novella that takes place between books one and two and I would want to finish that, probably for a future Kickstarter. We probably also want to do the art book though for one of those kind of things, and we do those on separate years, so. Eventually I think there will be basically big Stormlight novel, mini Stormlight novel for all of Stormlight era one, if I'm... if I'm on the ball enough to make it all happen, so stay tuned. We shall see how much how much Brandon is able to do and how much he is not able to do. A lot of these things depend on how long does book five take to write? I will be starting that in January. January 1st is the goal and we'll see how long it takes. I would say it's going to be 400,000 words, but none of them have actually been 400,000 words since the first one, so. They've all been longer. 

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2609 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Crspu

    Is there going to be a magic system for every Shard? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uh, yes, whether there'll be books? We get into a problem here... is... what is a magic system, right? 

    So for instance like, would you count all of Surgebinding as one magic system, or is it ten magic systems, right? Is Windrunning a separate magic system from Skybreaking. Right, and is it the Surges? Is it that? What do you call a magic system? Is the system of fabrials a magic system, or is it a subset of what's happening on Roshar? And in that case, it's like I delineated it pretty strongly in Mistborn, but in Stormlight, it's like... kind of Surgebinding is kind of Honor and Cultivation, right? And so is there a magic system for each of them or not?

    So the answer is yes and no, in that every one of the Shards will inspire really interesting magic systems. But is there a one to one? What do you call a magic system? And beyond that, will I have time to write books about all of these, I don't know. You could even look at Sel. Sel has how many magic systems, is it one? Is it lots? Is Forging a different magic system from AonDor, or is it two aspects of the same magic system and so... It's tricky. 

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2610 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Adam Horne

    I see people in the chat wanting you to elaborate a little bit more on Dalinar killing Elhokar.

    Brandon Sanderson

    If you haven't read Way of Kings Prime, one of the things that was interesting to me.. So if you go way back to Dragonsteel... this is Dragonsteel Pre-Prime, the version of Dragonsteel that I started when I was in high school.

    The central premise for Dalinar's character, who... he was in that book, was the person who was caught between his duty to his family and his duty to his country. So his brother dies and the new king... in the original, the one I did when I was a teen, I wasn't as good with these things back then. The new king was a baby, and so Dalinar's in that book kind of thing was how much do I take control as regent of this country and how much am I disenfranchising my nephew.

    That was less interesting than what I ended up doing in Way of Kings Prime, which is where I realized this is a way better conflict, if the nephew of Dalinar takes the throne and is a really bad king, just dreadful, and bad for everybody and then Dalinar's trapped between deciding how much he loves his family and is going to follow them and deciding how much he loves his country. And I put those two in conflict quite a bit through the course of the story until finally Dalinar duels and kills Elhokar.

    In that book they all have different names. Dalinar's is close, it's the same name but spelled differently, I believe. I don't even know what Elhokar's name is in that book. It might it might be Elhokar. The chat can tell us, but it's Elhokar. It's the same character.

    That was like heart wrenching and traumatic for Dalinar to have to go through that. And why did I not go that direction when I wrote the actual version of the book? It's a... it's a better book—I feel—if Dalinar has to continue to live with this thing, and if he legitimately, like, loves his nephew, and his nephew is trying. That makes the conflict just so much more heart wrenching, because in Way of Kings Prime—it's been a long time, guys. It has been 20 years since I have even really looked at that version of the book, but in that [version] I made it justifiable. I had to.

    Because if you're going to have a main character do something like that, readers have to dislike the person, right? And they've gotta be—I feel—on Dalinar side, unless we wanted a different arc, you could totally write a different arc for that, but in that version you get to the sense where  Elhokar has brought this upon himself, and I tweaked that by making him try harder, but just kind of be bad at it, which just led to a better arc, and it let me do things in future books where kind of Dalinar is... against his desires... he is seizing control of the throne, right. He is becoming the monarch and has become the monarch despite him claiming that he's not going to. It's just a better character treatment. You can point to a lot of flaws in Dalinar, but a big one is he is bad at delegation and he is bad at letting other people do things poorly when he thinks he could do them well. And even though he says he's not doing this, he slowly grabs power through the first three books until he's completely in control and Elhokar's been sidelined. And that's a flaw in Dalinar. 

    But it's also... if you were living in that kingdom, you are glad it happened, right? So you don't want Elhokar necessarily being in control, and it's supposed to... I feel like it just leads to better long term storytelling, the way that I did it in the finished version. But we still get the "Dalinar beats the tar out of Elhokar" scene in the in the first book so that you can get some of that still in the published version.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2613 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Ezio della Torre

    Was Teft's death part of your plan from the book's inception or series's inception, or did you decide his fate while writing Rhythm of War?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Teft's fate was decided pretty early on, but these sorts of things I do leave wiggle room on. When you read Teft's first appearance—it's in Mythwalker, my ninth book that never got finished—his appearance in that book was built around this kind of character arc that eventually happened. This was baked into the original idea for Stormlight once I brought over Bridge Four and once I stuck Teft inBridge Four, from Mythwalker. But I do remain pretty flexible on these things. That is one that turned out working really well, and happening the way I'd intended for it to happen from the beginning.

    But... I mean, if you've read Way of Kings Prime, you'll know that there was a point in the outlining process, and even in writing that book, where Dalinar killed Elhokar, rather than him being killed by Moash. So, you can see that these things do change, these things bounce around, but yes, the Moash betrayal and the him killing Teft was an original <incarnation> of Way of Kings. So the original 2010 version of Way of Kings, it was part of that outline.

    There are things that have changed though, over the years. A big one's, of course, a lot of Adolin's arc is not in that. I go back to that one because Adolin was involved, but he was a much smaller character than he ended up being. And Adolin changing has caused all kinds of ripples through everything in large measure. For instance, all of the stuff with Maya was not in the original outline. This is stuff that I developed over time because I was not planning Adolin to have as big a role in the series as he ended up having. That's a good example of things I've changed over time. A lot of the Cosmere-aware stuff, I didn't know how much I would push on that, and it turns out I've pushed further than in the outlines I originally thought I would. Because when I was starting this, I still didn't know if people would jump onboard with this as much as they have.

    [...]

    Reading Way of Kings Prime is a great way to see how things have changed since. The big changes you will see there between 2002 and 2010... I guess I wrote the book in 2009, so... in those seven years, you can see a lot of the transformations that the book and the world and the series went through. It's kind of nice. Those of you who've read it recently can probably remember more about what's changed than I do. I come back to the big ones, like that book had Unmade spiked with crystalline spikes, in the basement of the version of Urithiru before I changed it to what it is now, and that is just no longer in the books, right. Unmade getting spiked and being freed by spikes to the wall is not a thing. I'm sticking them in gemstones now, right, instead of spiking them to walls. I felt like the whole Hemalurgy thing we've covered well enough. But that was in the 2002 version.

    *Adam goes on a diatribe about how he'd like to see fanart of this*

    It was ten spikes too.

    YouTube Weekly Updates 2021 ()
    #2615 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    But let’s talk about Cytonic. For a long time I called this book Nowhere. Why did the title change? Well, I always had that as a working title. And in YA in particular I really like to let my publisher have a lot to say with the titles because it’s a genre that I don’t publish in as much and don’t follow quite as much. I do read a decent amount of YA, but I don’t follow the marketing trends. And one of the reasons I use a publisher is to rely upon their expertise. And they really felt that Nowhere as a title was off-putting for a certain demographic of the audience. And so we went back to the drawing board. This book is really about Spensa and her powers, and I thought, “You know what? This is going to make for a good title.” So we went with that one.

    YouTube Weekly Updates 2021 ()
    #2616 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    I also wanted to get back to you on the results of the poll from last week [about the complexity level of a potential Stormlight board game], which I really appreciate you guys, again, responding. This is something we had that was kind of a conundrum for us. I don’t have another poll or anything for you today. I just want to talk about this one.

    This one was tighter of a poll than the previous one we’d done. This one, our results were mid-30% being the winner for a medium-sized game. And if you want to go look at the previous post, we kind of defined what that means. So that’s what we’re going to move forward with. We’re going to be looking at companies and ideas. Again, this is a long, multi-year process, and we’re only probably going to work on one of these at a time. I don’t think that any of you want us to release five Stormlight board games in the period of a year or two and be like, “All right, now buy them all.” We’re going to start with this kind of medium-scale one.

    The other thing that we will investigate, so lowest on the list was really hardcore game, and very light game, the faster game. Most everyone wanted something kind of more in the middle. And so–. Not everybody. There definitely were people who wanted the very complicated game. And that’s not off the table some time in the future, but we aren’t going to pursue that quite yet. We want to do things right and do things well, and we want to just take these one at a time. And so legacy game and pen and paper RPG both were in the low 20s, kind of neck and neck. I think maybe legacy game won by a percentage point. However, we don’t want to have two board games in the mix at the same time. So I will probably investigate doing a pen and paper RPG also, because I think that’s distinctive enough. And so those are the two things that we’re going to start working on.

    YouTube Weekly Updates 2021 ()
    #2617 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Last time I asked you what you guys were most interested in regarding art books for the Stormlight Archive. And 66% of you prefer the guidebook style. You can look last week if you want to know. This is what I thought you would say. It’s the one that I thought would be most interesting, an in-world guidebook that features a lot of art but also is kind of like a coffee table book you can put out that you can give to a friend who hasn’t read the Stormlight Archive and they’re like, “What’s it about?” Well, here is some cool artwork with some in-world descriptions.

    I kicked around some ideas with Isaac on this. We’ll probably start working on this. Again, this is probably not for four years or so. But we will start working on this. It looks like you guys are excited. We did get 20,000 responses from you, so that’s really good. And the overwhelming majority of you, 76% of you, said that we would buy all three if we put them together. And I chatted with Isaac, and right now we’re going to take the first two on this list, because we think that we can make the coffee table art book and the guidebook kind of combined into one. But what we can’t really combine in that is the encyclopedia-style book, which we’d actually want to be alphabetized, and things like that.

    And so what we’re going to do is we are going to start kind of working on these two things together but as separate books that we would sell together and sell separately. But probably do a Kickstarter for the two of them together, and then later on you can just buy them individually. So like, a larger art book/guidebook as one, and then an encyclopedia-style sort of companion book, and things like that. I really think these will work well matching the first five books, because we will probably have to do separate ones after book 10 that would cover that era of Stormlight, the 6 through 10.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2618 Copy

    Turtlebots

    When I first read through the books I thought of mistcloaks like normal cloaks with strips of fabric sown into like how a normal ghillie suit is not the shredded cloak style it actually is. Did anybody else think this?

    Ben McSweeney

    There’s some variety in mistcloaks, depending on Noble House and the Era involved. They all have tassels or strips, but some are interwoven and some are layered, some start above the shoulders while others split below, sometimes they have hoods and sometimes they don’t.

    There’s room for other types.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2619 Copy

    somewheretomorrow

    I was wondering why the male peak spren is built with a lot of muscles but the female isn't? Is there a specific reason for it?

    Ben McSweeney

    The appearnce of Highspren is as varied as the humans that imagine them. There can be skinny peakspren and fat peakspren as well, I think... these two are just some examples that Shallan has seen in her travels. 

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2620 Copy

    lepthic

    The dog and the dragon release date? I think Brandon mentioned something about turning this into it's own children book at some point. Has he mentioned when he would release it?

    astrobuckeye

    Yeah the first publisher he reached out to wanted too much creative control I think.

    Peter Ahlstrom

    This, they wanted to turn it into something Brandon wasn't comfortable with.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2621 Copy

    rederel

    Now i'm morbidly curious whether u/mistborn has considered it [cadmium poisoning] while writing his books.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have, actually. Though I had to consider it for other metals first. I decided that allomancers are immune to these kinds of effects--they're just physiologically different in that regard.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2622 Copy

    nreese2

    I remember a while back you mentioned providing lore and learning about writing for a game, is this [Kelsier in Fortnite] what you were referencing? If not, are we gonna hear about that within the year?

    Brandon Sanderson

    This is not actually that.

    I don't get to choose when the game I'm working on gets announced officially, I'm afraid. I don't think they even know when it will be announced, as it's not close to alpha yet. So...I can't really say.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2623 Copy

    Johansj

    Do you know which book is gonna be the Final book released in the Cosmere? Chronological/Release Date

    Brandon Sanderson

    Almost 100% certain it will be the final book of the space-age Mistborn trilogy. (Right now, that is Era Four--but it's not impossible that I'll slip another smaller era, like the W&W era books, in as a Mistborn cyberpunk story while working on the back five Stormlight books.)

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2624 Copy

    jmcgit

    He wrote two books based on Infinity Blade (though they're currently out of print)

    Brandon Sanderson

    Working on getting those back in print somehow, but there is red tape that so far I haven't had the brainspace to get cut.

    The problem here is that they discontinued the games--and so they, by nature, took down all related materials. They said that the novellas could go back up, but this was happening when it was "all hands on deck" to support Fortnite as a huge surprise hit--and there was a lot of trouble getting them to pay attention to anything else. (They needed to sign a document letting me put the novellas back up.)

    I could probably push that through now, but it's tough, because you really need to have played the games to get the stories. I kind of want some kind of "Summary of the game stories" put into it, and to release them both as a single ebook, but we'll see if if it can happen.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2625 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, it's finally out! Yes, we're doing Kelsier in Fortnite.

    So what's going on behind the scenes? Well, Donald Mustard (director of Fortnite) is a friend of mine. We worked on Infinity Blade together back in the day. So, he asked if I was interested in sticking Kelsier into the game--and I thought it was cool. So we've been working on that for a few months.

    Like I said (and several of you confirmed in this thread) it's not something I expect my general fanbase to go crazy over--but it's nifty, and I hope it will be fun for those of you who enjoy both properties. It's also been a blast to work with the Fortnite team.

    They'll release more, but don't expect a huge crossover event. It's just a little fun thing that I'm doing with my friend, who happens to have accidentally made one of the most popular games of all time.

    lazymomo5

    Are there going to be any Mistborn specific mechanics in the game? Like steelpushing or pewter vials to grant regeneration or something like that. I don't expect it to happen but it would be cool and also a new kind of thing for those who don't know about Scadrial Magic.

    Brandon Sanderson ·

    No Mistborn-specific powers right now. (I hope to be able to work more with Epic on something like that in the future, though.)

    puhtahtoe

    Will anything about this be considered Cosmere Canon?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Nope canon here. Fortnite is all about crossovers these days, and is explicitly non-canon for all of them. It has its own canon, granted, about grabbing things from other universes--so in Fortnite this can be canon. But in our canon, the cosmere is a closed system, with no links to other universes.

    zvons

    More as in more about the kelsier skin or more like other cosmere content?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Sorry. I meant "More about this specific appearance of Kelsier in Fortnite." Don't expect other characters or things for now.

    thystephen01

    Please tell me he has allomancy? I’d love to see the knights radiants in any open world game with their powers.

    Brandon Sanderson

    For now, this is just using Fortnite mechanics. I do have aspirations for more--and think it's not impossible that Epic and I will do something more like that in the future. But don't expect allomancy in Fortnite anytime soon.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2626 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, for those who don't know, I'm good friends with the director of Fortnite. Before he made this came, he made a smaller game called Infinity Blade--and we collaborated on some story things for that. (Curiously, he and art director Isaac went to school together, which is how I ended up meeting him.)

    Fast forward a decade or so, and one day he says to me, "Hey. We should put Kelsier in Fortnite." So here we are.

    I realize this probably isn't going to be earth shattering to most of you--I expect the audience who both reads the books and plays Fortnite to be somewhat small--but it was too neat not to pursue.

    ImBuGs

    Is it really only Kelsier? Or are you hiding anything else? As in, perhaps Vin too? Asking because the skins are usually like $20 and if there are more coming down the pipe i'd rather wait and buy the one from the character I like most (Vin in this case), because, well, I sadly can't afford to buy many of these. I understand if you can't say anything more, but it would be nice if you could confirm its only Kelsier :)

    Brandon Sanderson

    The deal allows them to make Vin in the future--but I don't know if they're planning to or not. So I'm glad you asked. I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the future--and though there has been not talks of it yet, because it's in the contract, I'd lay decent odds on it happening. (But it would be at least six months away, since it took around five months of working to get Kelsier in.)

    Kalinque

    Ooh, a Vin skin!

    That makes me super curious about the process that went into putting Kelsier in the game. Do you know perhaps if there's any chance we could see the concept art that went into it after the Kelsier skin is out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'd love to do that. I'll see if they'll let me.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2627 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Some are talking about the title [of Cytonic]. Why would I not overrule my publisher, and insist on the title Nowhere? Well, if I ignore their expertise, then why am I using a publisher?

    In this case, I expect that my core audience (those who are already invested in the series) will buy the book regardless of title. So if I have a publisher with a lot of experience in what titles work for their core demographic, then it makes sense for me to listen to them. If I really wanted to overrule them, I could. I have that status as a writer. But Beverly and Krista--who head my team over at RH--know their stuff. I won't trust them on every decision, but this felt like a good place to do so.

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2629 Copy

    marineman43

    So the Lost Metal will be done by this August and then released 16 months later? Why is that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    In most of publishing, 24 months is average from turn in to publication. Revisions, designing the cover, proofreading, etc... They take time. In the past, because my books are so successful for the publisher, they've pushed hard to shrink that timeframe. But it's been really hard on my team, as there's so much to do.

    I've wanted for a long time to start getting back on a more normal schedule. Maybe not 24 months, but closer to 14 or 16. This will relieve a lot of pressure on the revisions, and make it feel less like my team is needing to work break-neck to get things done.

    marineman43

    Does this new emphasis on the more normal schedule affect your roadmap for the Cosmere as a whole (like as it's outlined in 2020 SoS for instance) or was the switch to a more reasonable publishing schedule already part of the plan?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We'll see. Stormlight 5, for example, is likely to still be on a pretty difficult schedule for everyone--it depends on how long it takes to write, and how much revision it needs. 2023 is where we really want to hit, but I'd be more willing to let this one slide (as it's the last of the cycle, and I don't want to rush it) than I have been with previous Stormlight books.

    That said, the main way I plan to get ahead on things is to start co-authoring more non-cosmere books, like the Apocalypse Guard series, which I'll likely try to release after Skyward is finished. Also, Era Three is going to have an odd publication cycle anyway, with me writing it more like I did Era One. So...who knows? It's too early really to say.

    kthulhu89

    What was different with the writing process between Era One and Era Two?

    reuben-625

    Not Brandon, but if I remember correctly, Era One was somewhat unique because he sketched out the entire trilogy before publishing the first book, which left room for some really cool foreshadowing.

    Brandon Sanderson

    /u/reuben-625 is correct--though it went farther than that. Because I was newer, and had lots of lead time to get books ready, I wrote the entire trilogy in rough draft form before polishing and publishing the first one.

    The Lost Metal Updates ()
    #2630 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hello, all! After far too long, and with many apologies, I'm finally at work on your book. The Lost Metal (this will be the final title; I have more say over my titles with Tor than I do with Random House) is in progress. So far, I have around 10k words, and I'm anticipating a book somewhere in the 120k-150k range. (The progress bar on my website is set for 150k, where it was set at 100k for previous W&W books.)

    A mini reminder for those who are wondering, "Why four books?" I wrote the first book as an experiment during the Wheel of Time days, when I worried about the cosmere (and Mistborn in particular) languishing while I saw to the needs of Randland.

    The book turned out well--and I liked the characters so much that I outlined a trilogy to follow up Alloy of Law. Hence the four books--and this WILL be the final one.

    My current plan is to try to finish this one by August 1st, with a Christmas 2022 publication date. (Skyward 3 being this year, and Skyward 4 being somewhere early 2023.) It will be followed by the fifth Stormlight book in Christmas 2023. After that, the good news is that I plan to write Era Three (three books long, 200-250k each like the original trilogy) all in a row. I'll need a few years on that project, so goal is tentatively to see those start being published in 2025 or so--with one a year for three years after that, followed by Stormlight 6 in 2028.

    That's an ambitious schedule, so we'll see. Fortunately, the schedule for W&W four is not ambitious. If I finish by August, we'll be ahead for like the first time in ten years, giving my team a solid 14 months for editing and the like. (Which will make everyone very happy.)

    Right now, everything is looking great for the book. Writing Group started on the prologue last week, and will be reading the first few chapters this week. Outline was well received by my team, and it feels really great to be writing Wax, Steris, Marasi, and Wayne again.

    I will try to remember to give you an update here in a couple of months somewhere around the 50% mark to let you know how it's developing. (Though note, I've started doing short, weekly updates on YouTube so you can follow along there if the progress bar isn't enough.) Book will have a slightly more complex narrative than previous W&W books, but my goal is still for it to be fast paced and snappy.

    As always, I'll be turning OFF replies to inbox for this thread--so my apologies if your reply or question doesn't get seen. And, as always, thank you for humoring my style of jumping between books and series. 

    General Reddit 2021 ()
    #2631 Copy

    havfunonline

    For the next [Mistborn] trilogy, will you do a 1.0 draft for the whole trilogy straight away, or will you do something more like:

    • Book 1 1.0

    • Book 1 2.0

    • Book 2 1.0

    • Book 1 3.0

    • Book 2 2.0

    • Book 3 1.0

    • Book 3 2.0

    • Book 1 4.0

    • Book 1 5.0

    • Book 1 release

    Brandon Sanderson

    What you wrote above is very close to what I'm likely to do--though I might not do the 3.0 of book one until the 2.0 of book two is done.

    Miscellaneous 2016 ()
    #2633 Copy

    Slowswift (paraphrased)

    Could you take a bunch of metal (say about a few cubic inches, I don't know, I'm bad at math) and condense it to about something the size of a pill, a la black hole (I don't know, I'm bad at science too)?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I asked Brandon at LTUE today, and he said something like "Yes, you would be able to burn [the denser bead] longer." I take this to mean that the dense bead would have the same burn length as the original-density block.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2635 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Brett Roberts

    If Taravangian had another intellectually "brightest" day before his main event in Rhythm of War, could he have seen the existence of other forms of Investiture on Roshar? For example, would he have been able to recognize areas where there is use of Sand, Allomancy or Breath, or would those have been too small for him to notice?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That would have been too small for him to notice, good question, but yes. Too small, most likely. Like he could intuit the existence of these things and perhaps the means of making use of them, but specifics of where they are, that's gonna get dicey for what could happen there. But when he had his weird day, weirder things happened on that day than him noticing something like that. I would say, in general, no, he would not have gotten that granular.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2637 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Jack Milson

    How many Awakening Commands are there? Is there a finite number, a finite but large number or infinite? Can you Awaken with sign language?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, you can Awaken with sign language. I would say that there are an infinite number, would be my guess. It's either finite but very, very large or infinite. But they're gonna fall into groups as things tend to do in the Cosmere, I would say.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2639 Copy
    Play/Pause

    R'Shara

    The Aviar that we see in Sixth of the Dusk were all fruit eaters, they all have to eat the fruit that the grubs live in. However, Mraize's Aviar seems a lot more like a predator than a herbivore.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is!

    R'Shara

    Did his species become extinct or is it a unique Aviar like Sak?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Neither. But yes, it is a carnivoristic Aviar. I will confirm that, which it's not confirming much, you guys already knew that. But that is indeed what is going on there.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2640 Copy
    Play/Pause

    AAgopal

    Is Kelsier in Fortnite is canon?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is canon to Fortnite.

    Adam Horne

    *jokes* But you're saying those dances are not cosmere canon?

    Brandon Sanderson

    There's one of the emotes that's evasive maneuvers. It looks really cool with the mist cloaked tassels, but no, not canon. I know you asked that tongue-in-cheek.

    Probably canon to Fortnite, right? One of Fortnite's canon is all these people come to Fortnite and and hang around, and you know, shoot each other. So I would say that Kelsier is amazingly proficient at firearms for it being Era 1 book 1 Kelsier. Raises some questions how he knows how to floss and shoot a shotgun so well. 

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2641 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Kathy

    Will you base a character on Adam [Horne] and how horrifically will he die?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Adam does need a character, I haven't put you in yet. Have I? So when I wrote The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance, all of my brothers-in-law got cameos in the books and Adam has not yet had a cameo, and so we need to find a good cameo for Adam somewhere in the books. 

    Yeah, so how horrifically will he die? Well, Kathy, Adam is my assistant. I do not want him dead in any way. 

    Adam Horne

    I mean, I think it be funny.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He fetches me water, and things like that. Jane, his wife did end up in the Alcatraz books as the royal fashion consultant, and Kathy has ended up in books so we'll see. We'll see. Everybody eventually makes their way in. I'll have to leave a note to do something horrific to Adam. 

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2642 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Avery Hinks

    Is there a canonical reason why Vasher and Vivenna changed their names to Zahel and Azure on Roshar?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, it kind of comes into the fact that Vasher has gone through a bunch of name changes and there are a couple of answers to this. One is, in the Cosmere, like in a lot of like fantasy worlds, names and identity are just a pretty big deal, part of how the magic works is how you view yourself, and I like, in that instance, indicating that time has passed and the character has adopted a new name and things like this, it's just that's a thing.

    You've also probably noticed that behind the scenes in the Cosmere there are lots of different groups vying for control and power and things like this, and so going under a pseudonym's actually a pretty good idea. I guess an alias, they're not writing books, it's not pseudonyms, you know what I mean, going under an alias's generally a pretty good idea for just if you don't want attention from the wrong people.

    That said, I do have to balance this because, for instance, in Azure's case, you know, I picked something that Vivenna had, you know, blue had been associated with her in the previous book, so it's not a completely, that's partially for the reader's benefit, so it's easier for you to track who is who, just a little bit, and just a little bit easier to figure out who is who.

    But if run into someone like Felt, right? Felt doesn't care. He's not hiding from anybody. Felt is, you know, he's more like "I moved from Nebraska to Texas," right? "And now I'm living in Texas." That's more how he views it a little bit. He's not a secret agent (ooh, big spoilers). Felt just, you know, he moved, so he goes by the same name. And that's, you'll see some of that as well. If someone's going by an alias, I'm doing it to indicate one of those two things, usually.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2644 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Aria Burman

    What would the Unkalaki think of the Aiel and vice versa?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have this feeling that the Aiel... so the Aiel I have this feeling that they would really like Unkalaki, but I can't say for sure. I just get this feeling that the fact that the Unkalaki are going to share their water and shade with you really really easily and friendily, and they have some pretty cool water is probably going to appeal to the Aiel. What do the Unkalaki think? They think that all lowlanders think weirdly and behave weirdly, and I don't know that they'd think the Aiel are anymore weird than a lot of the lowlanders they meet.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2645 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Camposteria7

    Do Rosharans believe that their planet is flat?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Rosharans do not believe their planet is flat. 

    You could find Rosharans who believe that, but most of them that you had talked to would just be like, "What's a planet?"

    Because if you go to rural parts of most of Roshar and you're like "What do you think of your planet?" They'd be like "What do you mean by planet?" You'd be like "Well, the thing you live on", they're like "I live in Bavland". They're not viewing a planet. They don't understand that, but like sailors all know that Roshar is a sphere, and you know the educated would definitely know. This is not a question. But even talking in terminology of a planet I feel is hard for the Rosharans because when you say "The world," that they can grasp, right like, oh just everything. When you say "Your planet," or "This planet," it makes you have to be like "Wait. There are others? I suppose there are but ramifications." And so, yeah.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2646 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Daniel Greene

    If you could write a script for any superhero, who would you like to control a story for? 

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh what a great question. I did actually see a comment on YouTube, by the way, Daniel, where apparently in one of your videos, you're like, "Brandon made a really shrewd marketing move by putting Kelsier in Fortnite," and then I released my thing where I'm like: "Yeah, Donald [Epic Games Worldwide Creative Director] and I were hanging out, being like, hey, why don't we put Kelsier in Fortnite, we like, yeah, it'd be fun!"

    It was a super shrewd marketing move on my part to go to dinner with my friend. 

    It can be both. Yeah, we were actually chatting about my son wanting to put something in Fortnite, but can't decide. And you know we ended up with Kelsier instead. Dalin can still do something if he wants, but getting him pinned down on what he wants to do...

    So what superhero would I want to write for? I would most likely pick Superman because I feel like he is the most challenging to write for and make work, and I feel like my talents would match that pretty well, but it would probably be like a weird colored kryptonite story - like a red kryptonite thing where it's like "Superman's powers have been changed in a funky and interesting way," and also let's deal with why Superman stories can be so difficult; and write that.

    Obviously that would be a bad like film sort of thing, but it would work well in a running comic where it's one installment because it's so different from the norm. 

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2647 Copy
    Play/Pause
    Play/Pause

    Alex M

    What's the difference between avatar and Splinter?

    Brandon Sanderson

    These are all very weird terms that I'm just using.

    *mistakenly answering for Sliver* A Sliver is a person who has held the power of a Shard, and then let go of it. A briefly held time, holding the infinite power of a Shard, but no longer does. So what does that do? That changes your soul, and leaves markers on it. It's a real physiological thing.

    An avatar is... a Shard manifesting a semi-autonomous piece of themselves that is still connected to who they are. An avatar, for instance, of Autonomy - depending on how Autonomy creates that avatar - might know, might not know, but they are still an aspect, they are still part of Autonomy. And when you get down to it a part of them knows that, and it's almost a god roleplaying, but in a way that only a Shard, or a lowercase-g god in the Cosmere, can do.

    Brandon Sanderson

    *realizes that he answered for Sliver earlier, and clarifies*

    A Splinter is a piece of a Shard that is fully autonomous, where an avatar is not. So something that is Splintered does not consider itself - and would not be considered by the definitions  - an actual piece of it [the Shard], and has free will. So once it has free will, and/or could develop free will (because some of the Splinters haven't gotten there yet), but is fully cut off from the direct control and self-identity of the Shard, then it is called a Splinter.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2648 Copy
    Play/Pause

    Questioner

    Why does Szeth's spren not help him as a [Shardblade] even though he has said the Third Ideal?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, RAFO.

    Let's just say that the highspren are perhaps a little bit different from other spren.

    YouTube Spoiler Stream 2 ()
    #2650 Copy
    Play/Pause

    James Clifford

    Science question!

    Brandon Sanderson

    Ohh science. Is it real science, or fake science?

    Adam Horne

    It is Brandon science.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Fake science!

    James Clifford

    With the discovery of anti-Investiture in Rhythm of War, would the correct form of anti-Investiture be usable to clear up the mess in the Sel Cognitive Realm. If so, would this completely destroy a splintered Shard?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *laughs, coughs, and is otherwise stunned* That would not be a good idea. So why would that not be a good idea? So no, this would not clear up the problem. The problem that's going on in the Cognitive Realm in Sel is that a bunch of Investiture that should be in the Spiritual Realm has been packed into the Cognitive Realm instead, through a very weird circumstance of events. If you were to introduce a bunch of anti-Investiture of the right type there, you would just generate an explosion that would be a very bad thing. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, Investiture can't be either, so it's actually changing forms. It's going from Investiture into energy! Which you know, does not leave the system. So the investiture would eventually make its way back around, you can't destroy anything in the Cosmere, just like you can't destroy anything in our universe. But you can make it change forms. And so, what's going on there is just this hope by a certain individual that what has happened there will prevent the power from becoming self-aware.

    It's basically Odium being like "alright I just murdered you people, I don't wanna have to come back and do it again". So he's trying to figure out a way to make this happen. As it currently stands (again, these things can change when I write future books), it was partially happenstance that he took advantage of rather than something that he was able to set up very intentionally from the beginning, but he was definitely a part.