Barnes & Noble (Newnan): Wheel of Time Interview Search: Theoryland of the Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan)

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KalynaAnne

Various questions about The Rithmatist

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, 5 and 8 point defenses (constructed from applying the 9-point circle construction to right triangles and isosceles triangles respectively) could exist. They haven’t really been explored in world though. You can always bind more than one thing to a bind point, but binding multiple things weakens the point. It is a much better idea to add a small circle that gets 3 additional bind points. It doesn’t change anything if the point comes from multiple points in the 9-point construction. When I showed him the 9-point ellipses constructed from different triangle centers (see the constructions here ) he stared at them for a moment before answering. He hesitantly said that, yes, those constructions should be valid in theory, but that they shouldn’t be used in practice. The sides of ellipses are weak enough that if you expect to need to defend your sides you really should be using a circle. Yes, Lines of Vigor behave like light waves. Yes, this means that higher frequency waves are better for doing damage, lower frequency waves are better for transferring energy (and thus moving things). Yes, Lines of Vigor follow the rule that the angle of incidence = angle of reflection when bouncing off Lines of Forbiddance. LINES OF VIGOR ALSO REFRACT. I asked it in terms of whether they slightly change speed and direction when they move between materials like, say, concrete and asphalt. He said yes and that you also get the wavelength adjusting. Another version: So, 9-point circles are really important. You can get all the different point placements as special cases of the nine point circles

Brandon Sanderson

Uh-huh.

KalynaAnne

You can also get 5 point; is that valid Rithmatically?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, that would work.

KalynaAnne

And 8-point?

Brandon Sanderson

8-point they haven't done very much experimentation with.

Ben

But you could!

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, you could.

KalynaAnne

So when you have multiple points, that are like a point where there are multiple things, could you bind multiple things to that point?

Brandon Sanderson

Um yes, and you can always bind multiple things to a point--

KalynaAnne

Oh you can always bind--

Ben

So you can bind a chalkling and a circle to the same point…

Brandon Sanderson

...but it's going to make it weaker, so you don’t usually want to do it. You are better off to just stick circle on and get multiple points off of that.

Ben

[...]

KalynaAnne

But if it had multiple ones, would that make it less bad to bind two?

Brandon Sanderson

No--

KalynaAnne

So it doesn’t--

Brandon Sanderson

It doesn't. Good question!

KalynaAnne

If you use different circle centers rather than the orthocenter, you cando 9-point conic constructions and make 9-point ellipses?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

KalynaAnne

Is that valid?

Brandon Sanderson

I would say yes, it could be valid.

Ben

Wasn't there a rule about ellipses being weak?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, they are a little less strong.

Ben

Because the long sides are weaker than the short sides.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, but this would work. There's not much reason to use it because the other is naturally-- has a stronger integrity than this, but you could theoretically do that. The defenses that make use of an ellipse make use of the strengths of an ellipse already. But yeah that would be possible

Ben

With an ellipse you are asking for your opponent to flank you and come at you from the sides. And then if he pushes your circle out you're in trouble. [...]

KalynaAnne

Do Lines of Vigor behave like light waves?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

KalynaAnne

So a higher frequency means it’s better at penetrating, lower frequency transfers energy and moves stuff?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Ben

Nice, I didn't know that one.

KalynaAnne

So, when they bounce off Lines of Forbiddance, do they follow laws of reflection?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Ben

They should always reflect at the same angle. Think of, like, a pool table.

KalynaAnne

If a line of vigor is moving from concrete onto asphalt...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

KalynaAnne

Is it changing--

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to act like light transferring to a new medium.

KalynaAnne

So it refracts?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s going to-- Yeah, it's going to refract.

KalynaAnne

It changes speed as it moves?

Brandon Sanderson

Yep. And you get a different wavelength, etc. as it transfers onto a new medium.

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2

Question

So Kaladin, he has a lot of Christ-like qualities being the who protects those who can’t protect themselves. When you were writing the character of Kaladin did you ever make a conscious decision to make him a Christ figure or--

Brandon Sanderson

The question is: Kaladin has some Christ-figure feel to him, was that intentional when I was writing the character. Actually it wasn’t, there’s nothing really intentional about that allusion. But I can definitely see it. Being Christian myself a lot of what I find heroic is related to my faith. But I very rarely do conscious things like that, mostly-- This is for English majors, “I bet he got it from here” and things like that. So it was not intentional but I can totally see where you are getting that.

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3

Question

In /The Reckoners/, was there a particular power that I gave to someone because I just thought that power was cool.

Brandon Sanderson

And yeah, the tensors. They can turn things to dust. For years I’d been walking around looking at our society where we have all this metal and this wood around, and things like that. I just loved the idea of just being able to turn it to dust. Maybe it’s like a “reducing things to their more primal state” or whatever-- but anyway it was one of those magics that was in my head for a while. And really superheros are magic. I don’t pretend that they’re science fiction, they’re magic. So I just designed these magics that feel cool to me.

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4

Question

What does Steelheart’s past have to do with his weakness?

Brandon Sanderson

I can’t tell you that, because it’s a spoiler. When you come through the line I can tell it to you. When you come through the line talk to me, because I can’t answer spoiler questions. Oh yeah. So, he secretly feared people who weren’t intimidated by him. Remember he was a night watchman before. And anyone who didn’t respect his authority, that was his secret fear. He wanted everyone to obey him and when no one was afraid of him he lost his powers.

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5

Question

What is the most interesting or awesome thing you found in your South American research for /The Aztlanian/?

Brandon Sanderson

What is the most awesome thing I’ve come up with in my research for /The Aztlanian/. So the question, for those of you who read /The Rithmatist/, I’m working on a sequel doing a lot of research on South American and Central American cultures. The Aztecs all the way down to the Incas

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6

Question

Can you give us some more tidbits about Hoid?

Brandon Sanderson

Can I give you some more tidbits about Hoid? He loves bacon. *laughter* No I can’t give you any, you’ll have to go online and find out more tidbits about Hoid. I’m very tight-lipped.

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7

Question

What’s my writing process like now?

Brandon Sanderson

So I’m a writer. That means I don’t have to get up in the morning unless I have to come to some signing like this. I hope you guys appreciate the fact that I got up at 6:45 this morning. Normally I get up at noon. So I get up at noon, I write from noon to 5, I then go hangout with my family from 5 until 9 or so, and at about 9 o’clock I go back and I write from like 9 to 3. Or something like that. And I then I goof-off and go to bed at about 4. It is a great life. Except when I’m on tour and they are like “Yeah you need to be up for a flight at 8 o’clock” and I’m like “AHHHHH! Curse you Brandon and you staying up late all the other nights!”

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8

Question

If you had the choice of being an Epic and being evil or not, would you take that choice--

Brandon Sanderson

Would I make the choice to become an Epic? Well they /ALL GO EVIL/ so //NO//. No no no no. I’d be a Mistborn, yes yes yes yes yes. *laughter* Epic? no no no no.

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9

Question

Do you find it hard working with multiple publishers and multiple houses?

Brandon Sanderson

Do I find it hard working with multiple publishers… and multiple houses as a writer? Uh, yes there are some hard parts to it. I do two tours a year instead of one, because I have two publishers now-- And that’s rough. Every time one publisher asks for something the other one is like “Well we want that to” so I'm going to BEA, that’s the Book Expo, and the other is like “Well you have to come to this thing for us”. So it fills my time a lot more, which is hard. But at the same time it is very nice because it gives me a little more credibility with both. That they both know that they kind of have to make me happy. That is pretty nice. And there is also the piece of mind that if for some reason one of things I was doing tanked I’ve always got another one. That was much more important to me early in my career, when I was doing the Alcatraz books with Scholastic and the epic fantasies with Tor.

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10

Question

Would you rather be a misting or a Twinborn, and then which power would you choose?

Brandon Sanderson

What powers would I have? ...I would probably pick Twinborn because “Hey extra power” right? I would probably have Wax’s powers from /Alloy of Law/, those are the ones I find the most interesting. Which is why I started with them there. I think I will be able to do cool things with them. Others are cool as well but-- With all this metal around, jumping on it would be so much fun.

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11

Question

If you were a misting, which power would you have?

Brandon Sanderson

Coinshot. Coinshot for sure.

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12

Question

If you were going to make Horneater stew here on Earth, how would you go about it?

Brandon Sanderson

If I were going to make Horneater stew, on Earth, how would I go about it. It’s going to be a spicy seafood stew. When I think of Horneater stew I’m actually thinking of [Korean word(s?)] which is a Korean dish. Or [different Korean word] is what I mean. [The second one again] is a spicy-- spicy seafood-- basically whatever thing from the ocean-- I don’t eat things from the ocean usually-- but everything from the ocean they want to throw in there with some spices. They stir it up and give it to you and you fish in there and there are like crab claws and full clams in the shells. You’re like “Really guys?” But Rock would just be munching those down and being happy.

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13

Question

Are you still planning on doing /Mistborn/ in Space, because that would be awesome.

Brandon Sanderson

Am I still planning on doing /Mistborn/ in Space. Yes I am… /Mistborn/ was originally pitched to my editor-- I pitched it as a trilogy of trilogies--I’ve obviously gone off track on that on that--but I was going to do an epic fantasy, a 1980’s level kind of contemporary, and science fiction all in the same world. /Alloy of Law/, I really fell in love with that time period for some things I was doing and I was like “I’m going to write FOUR BOOKS HERE” So there’s now 13 planned. Who knows if I’ll add more and things like that.

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14

Question

How difficult is it to transfer Investiture from one magic system to another, is it even possible?

Brandon Sanderson

How difficult is it to transfer Investiture from one magic system to another. It is possible. It is more difficult with different magic systems. Breaths are easy. Stormlight is fairly easy. Others from there on get pretty hard.

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15

Question

If characters are reflections of their authors, which character do you feel reflects you the most?

Brandon Sanderson

Which character reflects me the most. I don’t think there is one… I think each of my characters represent me in some way and each character is different from me in other ways. So I can’t say which one represents me more or less. They’re all a bit of me.

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16

Question

Which book was the hardest to write?

Brandon Sanderson

Which book was the hardest to write. /A Memory of Light/, the last of /the Wheel of Time/ books by a LARGE margin is the hardest book I’ve ever written because the last /Wheel of Time/ book mixed with a lot of war scenes that--I don’t have the history in warfare that Robert Jordan did so all this stuff I had to do, there was a lot of research and a lot of going back and forth with Alan Romanczuk with Team Jordan. It was by far the hardest.

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17

Question

Do you have a special way of coming up with your bad analogies?

Brandon Sanderson

Do I special way of coming up with bad analogies. Which are actually similes. So here’s the thing-- So /Steelheart/, I wrote /Steelheart/ in like 2008 or 2009, it was pretty early on, I had the idea-- I was touring for some book, I think-- I feel like it was /Warbreaker/ or /Mistborn/ 3, any way I was touring for one of these books and I get cut off in traffic, I get really mad at the person, and I imagine blowing up their car. I get horrified, like “If I had superpowers is this what I would do? Would I blow up cars of people who cut me off in traffic?” and I was like “OOh that’s a story”. So I went and wrote the prologue, like almost immediately, I think on that tour I wrote the prologue. I remember reading it at DragonCon that year, whenever year that was. Then I put the whole book aside and had to wait for like 5 years because I’m like “I’m working on /the Wheel of Time/ I have no time to write this other side project.” I was much better at that and not going crazy on side projects when I was doing that. When I finally got back to it I had this prologue-- The prologue was ten years before in-world time, like the character grew ten years between the prologue and chapter 1, so I was “Alright I need a voice for this character” and I started writing, doing my standard thing. I was having so much trouble coming up with a distinctive voice for David, the main character, and I accidentally wrote a bad metaphor. That happens a lot when you’re writing-- you just come across something and it’s a terrible analogy and you delete it, but here I said “Well what if I ran with that?” The fun thing is by coincidence that became a metaphor for his entire personality. He tries so hard, is very earnest, but sometimes he tries a little too hard, and looks beyond the mark, and stumbles a bit. And that is who he became as a character, and the bad metaphors are a great metaphor for that. Coming up with them now is really hard. Doing it on purpose is way harder than coming up with good metaphors. They are rough. Sometimes I’ll sit-- Like the most time I spend staring at the screen when working on these books is coming up with one of David’s metaphors.

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18

Question

What can you tell us about the Mistborn video game?

Brandon Sanderson

What can I tell you about the Mistborn video game. We are still working on the Mistborn video game. The same producer that has the rights but the developer that we were hoping to use has fallen through and they have moved on. This is the third time we’ve moved to a new developer. We do not plan for it to come out this year. We keep pushing it back. I’m sorry. But the good news is the movie seems to be kind of inching forward again finally, so if the movie gets made that will push the video game to come out And if a video game comes out that might push the movie to come out. So they are kind of intertwined and moving well together.

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19

Question

What happened to Alcatraz?

Brandon Sanderson

What happened to Alcaraz. Well he almost got sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of Evil Librarians but he survived to write his autobiography-- No, you mean the books. I wrote the fifth book this summer after researching for /The Aztlanian/ long enough that I realized I have to do more research before I can finish it. So I stopped, knew that I wanted to write another middle-grade, so I stopped and wrote /Alcatraz/ 5 and gave it to Tor. They’re planning to publish it next year. They’re going to start with /Alcatraz/ 1 in January with new art and things like that, publish those first five and do the sixth book sometime in June-- Or fifth book in June is what I think. So republish the first four and then publish the fifth.

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20

Question

Are spren molecules and atoms that rearrange in our minds to create them?

Brandon Sanderson

A good question, are spren molecules and atoms that rearrange in our mind to create things. No, they’re not. Spren are entities from the Cognitive Realm, who have gotten pulled through in Roshar. It is something that doesn’t exist on Earth, the Cognitive Realm, pulled through by human intervention. The way we think about things and personify things.

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21

Question

When Jasnah Soulcasts stuff from a distance, is that something she can only do because she’s a Radiant? And if so, how does that work?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO. Here’s a RAFO card.

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22

Question

One of my favorite aspects of your books is you always have this character that kind of has a submissive personality starting out and they evolve into a more dominant personality. Do you have an author for a series that kind of inspired this?

Brandon Sanderson

Inspires me? He says frequently I have a character in a submissive position that becomes dominant through the course of the series. Do I have an author that I’m relying on specifically. No more than the Hero’s Journey, the general idea of the person growing and becoming master of their domain were once they were not. I don’t think I have a specific person I’m looking at for that. But it is a fun type of story to tell, just because of the way you can show progression with a character.

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23

Question

I would want to know what is your favorite character you’ve ever written.

Brandon Sanderson

What is the favorite character I’ve ever written. I actually can’t pick one, because they are like my children and picking a favorite child is basically impossible. I don’t have one. Robert Jordan, I quote him a lot because I studied his life a lot, he always answered this question by saying “My favorite character is the one I’m working on right now” and I like that answer.

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24

Question

What is your favorite Aspect to write in /Legion/?

Brandon Sanderson

What is my favorite Aspect to write in /Legion/. It’s J.C. by a mile. *laughter* Can you guess who J.C. is based off of? ...J.C. is based off of the actor Adam Baldwin, from his various roles. He’s almost always played someone with the initials “J.C.” Go look it up. That’s Jayne from Firefly or from Chuck and things. I just think he is hilarious. In my head that is who would play J.C.

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25

Question

Do I consult with other fantasy authors? Or do we keep things to the vest?

Brandon Sanderson

We consult a lot. We talk to each other a great deal. The ones that I know best are the ones I often go to but sometimes-- I talk to Pat Rothfuss quite a bit, and Brent Weeks, were kind of in the same area but with three different publishers and that’s really useful to us. I consult with my Writing Excuses buddies all the time. Somebody who knows a ton that I don’t know very well but I know he knows a ton so I’ll often ask him question by email is Cory Doctorow. He just like knows everything. We talk a lot, whenever we can. Because it is a very solitary business, so having people to talk to about it is great.

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26

Question

So is there one book from college that you were forced to read that when you look back now was the best reading you’ve done?

Brandon Sanderson

One book that I was forced to read. That was the best reading-- Probably /Paradise Lost/. I now think that book is awesome but when I read it when I was younger I was like “Ahhh what is this aehhhh epic poetry noooooo”.

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27

Question

You talked about creativity earlier, and if you look back on your career until this point as a writer, how have you changed as a writer over that time? What has writing done for you as a point of self-improvement?

Brandon Sanderson

What has writing done for me as a point of self-improvement over the course of my career. That’s excellent. I discovered writing when I was 15, that was when I was this young, gangly boy who is trying to figure out what to do with his life and I found solace in books and writing, which I had not done when I was younger. It was a teacher who handed me, it was a book called /Dragonsbane/, when I was 8th grade that changed my life. What it did, right off the bat was give me purpose, and that is so important. Knowing there is something you want to do. All through college, you know I had friends who “I’m taking this degree because it’s what was expected of me but I don’t know if this is what I want to do”. I knew what I wanted to do, and knowing that. That alone has been worth it’s weight in gold. Spending the time writing and practicing gave me confidence, that’s been very important. Like when I finished that first book, it took me three years to write it. I said “You know what, I can do this. I can create this thing.” Then being able to see myself get better and better and better, the confidence from that was great. The big decision I also made late in my career, before I got published, I had to decide who I was doing this for. Because once you’ve got a dozen unpublished books, you start asking yourself the questions everyone is asking you. At the end I just decided this idea of “I’m just going to keep doing this. If I am 70 and I have a hundred unpublished manuscripts on my dresser. I love doing this, it is very fulfilling. I’m getting these stories out of my head, I can see myself getting better. I’m not going to be a failure if I have a hundred unpublished manuscripts, I’m going to be more of a success than if I never wrote them.” And that decision is what drove me to write /The Way of Kings/, because before I’d been really hunting how to get published and trying to write things like I saw getting published and people kept telling me “Your books are too long” so I’ve been writing these shorter ones. And I just said “I don’t care what you people are saying, I’m going to write the most awesome epic of the style I would love to read, that I don’t feel enough people are doing. It’s going to have this crazy world and all these characters and all this stuff and I know noone is ever going to want to publish it, but I’m going to write it” And that’s when I wrote /The Way of Kings/, it was right after that decision.

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28

Question

Do you have kids?

Brandon Sanderson

Do I have kids? or pigs? ‘Cause I have both, the kids are the pigs. I have three young boys, they are 7, 5, and 2. They are too young to read my books. We spend time reading /Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus/, that’s a very good book, or /Supertato/, one of their favorites, about a potato who is a superhero. What do they think? I don’t think they really get it. They don’t understand, they’re like “Daddy is working on his book” and my son will be like “I’m going to write a book too!” And it’s like one picture on a page with one word “Hat” or something and he’ll be “I wrote one, why does it take you months, it took me an afternoon.” I hope that someday they will enjoy them and be able to come on tour with me and things like that. Excellent question.

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29

Question

I had another question, did you ever read books by other authors to get your ideas?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes I read a lot of books by other authors and what I usually do is I will read something and if they did it well, I don’t want to do anything like it. But if I think they messed it up then I’m like “Oh I need to do a story that does this the right way” …It is one of the most fun parts of being a writer. You can watch a movie and go “Ah they totally did this the wrong way [...] and then do it yourself, the way you want it to be.

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30

Question

In Firefight you said Obliteration-- he wasn’t an ordinary Epic, he was a force of nature. Why did you say that?

Brandon Sanderson

It was in David’s voice, and that is kind of how he views it. It’s not necessarily true, it is what he viewed.

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31

Question

I was wondering if Sazed was based on any of your own explorations when you were developing your own path?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, definitely he is a part of me, but there are big things that are different from me as well. Really the big concept for him was “the Missionary for Every Religion” and that was a cool idea to me.

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32

Question

Will there be a book about the Southern Pole of the Mistborn world?

Brandon Sanderson

That’s a RAFO. By the end of the Era 2--Alloy of Law Era--you will know more about them.

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33

Question

Have you thought of titles for the rest of the Stormlight Archive? Are they names of books in-world?

Brandon Sanderson

No, I only named the first five when I was doing my outline. They were Stones Unhallowed, Oathbringer, and I don’t like the other name so I’m not going to mention it. Yes, they are all names in-world.

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34

Question

Who is Nazh?

Brandon Sanderson

He is kind of like a cosmere special agent, who gathers things for the person who is writing the Ars Arcanum.

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35

Question

How is the transition to first-person writing going?

Brandon Sanderson

It’s been surprisingly easy. I think it helps that I do the first-person generally as different types of stories. It helps me differentiate those stories for myself.

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36

Question

The first seven or eight Wheel of Time books had a sort of dictionary that was co-wrote with Jordan and I think Theresa Patterson..Do they plan on doing that…Are you going to have any input on that?

Brandon Sanderson

They are doing a final-- a redo. It’s a more extensive encyclopedia written by Harriet, Robert Jordan’s wife. I had very little, not very much.

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37

Question

Do you consider Kaladin a paladin?

Brandon Sanderson

You know, that is partially why I came up with the name. He was named something else in the original draft and it just didn’t work. So I’m like “I need a new...” Yeah.

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38

Question

Now that Szeth-son-son-Vallano died and came back will he be an ally?

Brandon Sanderson

You will have to read more and find out.

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39

Question

If you are Rothfuss’ friend tell him that he needs to get the third book out.

Brandon Sanderson

He’s working on it, but he is a perfectionist, beyond any of the rest of us. He takes his time. I’m as eager for it as you guys are.

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40

Question

So Nightblood, is that going to be the only connection to Warbreaker?

Brandon Sanderson

There will be more, in fact Vasher is in this book.

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41

Question

Is Vasher mentioned by name?

Brandon Sanderson

He is not mentioned by name.

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42

Question

As a writer how do you manage the details of-- not only in a book but-- Vin, her earring you did a reveal----three books in. How do you manage keeping those things--

Brandon Sanderson

I make an outline-- A good outline can help you have great reveals like that.

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43

Question

In Alcatraz when he was talking about “out of the frying pan and into the fire” like when he replaced out of the frying pan and into the fire, how long did that take you?

Brandon Sanderson

That one? I just came up with most random thing I could think of. So it was actually really fast. That one wasn’t a hard one. Some of them are hard, that one was pretty easy.

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44

Question

I am playing a GURPS roleplay where my character is a lawyer and I’m in law school. And I was wondering if you have ever considered having a character in the books who is a lawyer?

Brandon Sanderson

An attorney? There is a story I’ve wanted to tell forever... I’ll never do it, though. But it's one of those ideas. I wanted to do a story where aliens come down and decide that throughout human history possession of land indicates ownership, by our historical record. We have to convince them in court that that's not the way we do things. They just want to annex the planet. "Look at the Americans. You just took this land and said it's yours. So we want to do that to your planet." And have a science fiction story that is a legal battle about why they can't take over our planet.

Footnote

reminds me a little of Year Zero

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45

Question

Do you think any of your characters have been influenced by people you know in real life?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, it happens. It definitely does happen. Sarene, from Elantris is based on somebody. Most of Bridge Four is friends of mine, most of the lesser Bridge Four members. Not the main ones, but like Skar is a friend of mine, Drehy is a friend of mine, Peet is a friend of mine.

Question

So I was going to say-- What about, what’s his name?

Ben

Lopen?

Question

Yeah Lopen.

Brandon Sanderson

No, not the core group. Not Lopen or--

Ben

None of those guys.

Brandon Sanderson

But everyone else is like a cameo of my friends that I stuck in Bridge Four and, y’know, mutilate in horrible ways.

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46

Question

So Edward [sic], Conflux, [...] turn evil [...]

Brandon Sanderson

Well they think it is because Edmund is a Gifter and isn’t using his powers directly. That’s their philosophy on it. Whether that is true or not remains yet to be seen.

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47

Question

I was deployed in Afghanistan when I read The Way of Kings. And I was wondering how do you put yourself in the mind of a soldier? Because it was very--When they got to the Shatttered Plains it felt like I was reading a story about myself--Reading about how the rank structure, that was really-- It wasn’t quite the same but-- Reading it, I was already frustrated with my position in the Air Force at the time. So reading it was “Aw yeah…” For me, when I first went there they put all our chembags in one room and they were all strapped down to pallets. And when I got there I was like “Aren’t we supposed to have like gasmasks?”

Brandon Sanderson

I have a good friend and I asked them when I interviewed them and they helped me. I’ve got a good friend. His name is actually Skar--he’s the bridgeman Skar, I put him in the book because he helped me so much. who is in the army. He had lots of advice for me on how to make everything work. The stuff that goes on, like one time he had-- Some higher-up decided that for some reason they couldn’t have sidearms. Like they weren’t authorized, his group was not authorized. They weren’t going to give them guns, they were out there being soldiers and they couldn’t have guns. Fortunately a general heard this “What?!?” and took out his gun, handed it to Skar, and said “I’m giving him one, you can court martial me” or whatever.

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48

Question

As a physicist I appreciate you being so consistent with your magic systems.

Brandon Sanderson

It is something I try very hard to do, though I do recognize that we do bend a lot of rules. When we were doing the time-based one in this [The Alloy of Law], I'm like, "Oh, boy, redshifts. Oh, no, conservation of energy." We had to do some bending to make it so that the radiation from the light passing out of the time bubble wasn't deadly.

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Question

Are going to do anything else in the world of the story "Dreamer" [from the Games Creatures Play horror anthology]?

Brandon Sanderson

Probably not. She [Charlaine Harris] wanted me to write a horror story, and I'd never written one before so I said, "All right, what is the most frightening thing I can think of?" The most frightening thing I could think of was the kids who play Xbox having power over real people’s lives, and that’s where that story came from.

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In Alcatraz 2 when he got back his father’s soul, why did he come back with his suit on? Since when you get turned into one your clothes burn up, why did he have his?

Brandon Sanderson

Why did he have his? He was prepared for this. He was ready and he had done something so it wouldn’t go that way.

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I’ve been watching some of the videos online and you say writing-- ideas are cheap, and they are, you can get ideas pretty easy, but how in the world do you get-- I can get the begining and figure out an end but how do you do get all the stuff in the middle?

Brandon Sanderson

So if you’ve got your end, try and say what things, try to get a brainstorming session where you write with bullet points underneath it what things will help me earn this ending so that it feels-- that it has the emotion that I want. And try to brainstorm five or six things and make those waypoints along the way, if that makes sense, between-- Where it’s not just one point and two points, it’s five points, “I’m going to hit this one, this one, and this one” and if you can come up with four or five interesting things to happen through the end of your book that you can earn that way you’re going to have a sequence of like twenty touchstones that can each form a chapter or a couple of chapters that you can work on to get to that ending.

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There’s a huge movement in the genre, almost away from heroic, truly good figures and it seems to me like a lot of your books are kind of, there is some darkness in them but you are holding really tight to the light… What do you think about the idea of the true heroic character and where they’re going?

Brandon Sanderson

I think that people can be truly heroic and I’m happy that the genre has lots of room for different types of storytelling, but the books I’m most interested in are the ones that are people still trying to do what is right, and so that’s what I want to write about.

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I have a quick question for you, was all of your work on Firefight, is that based on the Butterfly effect?

Brandon Sanderson

It is a little bit, definitely.

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And have you looked at the underwater cities like [Checha?] in Peru?

Brandon Sanderson

I have, they are really interesting.

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55

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In the book [Way of Kings] you discuss that if you were to lose a piece of Shardplate you have to regrow the part back, or else someone takes it and tries to regrow the entire plate. One thing that has been bugging me for a while now is if you were to take a small piece of the armor, such as a glove, and fuel it with stormlight to regrow the whole armor, does it retain the original armor? Like does it retain how it looked before, the glove? So it just transfers over?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, and the original glove will disintegrate.

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What do painspren look like in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO.

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57

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And are there established trade routes between Epic-controlled areas? Are they patrolled by Epics?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Umm, yes to an extent. For the most part you know that if you hit an Epic’s trade caravan you’re all dead, y’know? So they don’t have to worry about it that much. But some are patrolled. Not by the Epics, but by their people.

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What’s the hardest power you’ve created to find a balance for?

Brandon Sanderson

Hardest power to find a balance for? I’d say first is Wheel of Time, but I didn’t create that... Hardest to balance… They’ve all been fairly easy so far. My guess is that it will end up being Stormlight just because I am doing so many books in that world, and I'm not resetting characters as much as I am in Mistborn, that I'm going to have to be careful about power creep... That's an excellent question.

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(Wife couldn’t make it to signing because of work) She wanted to know, the safehand, is it always the left hand or is it--? That’s what I thought, she thought it was just the non-dominant hand.

Brandon Sanderson

It is. Nope, it is the-- So it's rough on lefties. But remember, most non-nobles they just wear a glove, so it's not such a big deal for them. It's when you're noble and left handed that you kind of have a problem.

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Are you going to do any more Subterranean Press editions? Really am a big fan of those…Thank you. Yes the Legions are awesome, the books themselves, the quality.

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, They do a great job over there, I’m always impressed with what they pull off...

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Question

When are you going to write more Warbreaker? It’s definitely my favorite…

Brandon Sanderson

Warbreaker? It’s a little ways off. It is one of the number one questions I get though, but… I have to come up with-- With the Warbreaker ones I have to just come up with time to do it because I know what it’s going to be.

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62

Question

Can a blank hemalurgic spike-- As in uncharged, no soul attached to it. It doesn’t have to be atium?

Brandon Sanderson

Okay… Both, I mean you can do it with just a piece of metal, like--Different metals have attributes that they steal.

Footnote

question is vague

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63

Question

Apparently that’s the southern continent, are we going to see the northern continent?

Brandon Sanderson

What, on Roshar? Roshar is only-- it is a pangaea. On Scadrial, there is a lot more going on, so you will see multiple different continents there.

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Question

When you write Hoid's story is it going to be like Ender's Shadow, with a new perspective on the same events?

Brandon Sanderson

I know that stuff, but I don't plan to do it that way. I plan to do his backstory more as his own story because while I really like Ender's Shadow, most of the things like that I haven't enjoyed as much. Plus, it would take me books and books and books to do it. We'll see. I haven't closed the door on that idea, but I'm not planning on it right now. There are parallel things like that I am planning to write, though--just not Hoid.

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65

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Are you going to do anything else with The Emperor's Soul?

Brandon Sanderson

Shai will show up again, but I can't promise in what form or capacity.

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ccstat

There’s been some discussion on spheres, from Roshar. Are they made by glassblowing or by soulcasting?

Brandon Sanderson

They can be made either way.

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67

ccstat

Are gems in those spheres mined or exclusively from gemhearts?

Brandon Sanderson

Some are mined. Mining is not easy on Roshar.

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ccstat

In Mistborn Vin had a set of sapphire jewelry. If Demoux had brought those to Roshar, would become infused in a highstorm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

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69

ccstat

Are spren equally visible to native Rosharans and worldhoppers?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. It is cognitive things that pull them out, not the native investiture of Rosharans.

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ccstat

Shallan's drawings in WoK showed multiple cryptics. Were there other cryptics accompanying Pattern at that time?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

ccstat

Did they approve of what Pattern's choices?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. The cryptics are much like what is happening with Lift, where there is more of a conscious effort on their part. As opposed to what is happening with Syl or Jasnah where there is hesitance. What the cryptics are driven to do is in part because of what a few of their members have been experimenting with.

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71

ccstat

Can a seeker sense another allomancer if there is a coppercloud between the two (but both are outside)?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. but he might get some interference.

Ben

Would they sense the cloud itself, like "Hey, there's a cloud between me and what I'm looking at"?

Brandon Sanderson

If you know what you're doing, you might be able to say something is interfering, but you wouldn't be able to determine what. There are multiple things that could cause that, for instance aluminum.[He started to say a few other things that might interfere, but cut himself off partway through words. If you think you might be able to decipher those almost-words, have at it. It's about 5 minutes from the end.)

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72

ccstat

Can a skilled smoker be selective in what they mask?

Brandon Sanderson

Nobody has figured that out yet.

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73

ccstat

In Warbreaker, Vasher uses Awakening to modify the memories of a girl they rescue. Can skillful/careful Hemalurgy accomplish the same thing?

Brandon Sanderson

No, I don't really think that it can. Nobody has asked that before, but just looking at the way the magics work, I don't think that is something that Hemalurgy is capable of doing.

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74

ccstat

Have you considered publishing the rules for Tarachin?

Brandon Sanderson

I have not, but it's possible.

Footnote

Tarachin was a game in Hallandren on Nalthis.[1] It involved throwing weighted balls onto a field.

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