Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

So, here's my official future status, as I sometimes post.

BOOKS YOU WILL SEE SOON

* Towers of Midnight (November 2.)
* Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens (December 2010.)
—A note on Alcatraz. This is the fourth and final of the Alcatraz books in my contract. I do plan there to be more in this series, but I don't have time for them right now. And so, for now, this is going to stand as the ending of the series. I'll do Alcatraz Five eventually, I promise.
* Scribbler (Early 2012.)
—A note on Scribbler. This is a shorter steampunk book I wrote in 2007, just before I got the call about The Wheel of Time. It's quite good, and Tor has decided to purchase it. It involves chalk-based magic and a boy who is the son of the cleaning lady at a school for people who learn the chalk magic. I haven't had time to give it a revision, but will likely use some of the time in my free months between now and January to do a draft of it. If I turn it in January or February, you won't see it until a year after that, due to scheduling.

BOOKS YOU WILL SEE SOMEWHAT SOON

* A Memory of Light (March 2012.)
* Stormlight Archive Book Two (Late 2012 or early 2013.)
* Stormlight Archive Book Three (One year after Book Two.)

ANTICIPATED SEQUELS

* Alcatraz Five (Indefinite hiatus.)
* Elantris Two (Planned to be written after Stormlight Three.)
* Second Mistborn trilogy (It's coming someday, I promise.)
* Nightblood: Book two of Warbreaker (Coming someday.)
—Some notes here. Elantris has three books in the series, but they are loose sequels of each other. This means that side characters in one become main characters in the next. So while you'll see Raoden and Sarene in the second book, they won't be main characters. (Kiin's children will be.) Warbreaker is two books. Mistborn is a trilogy of trilogies, with the second trilogy in an urban (20th-century-level technology) setting. For Stormlight, I'm planning a pattern of two every three years, with a different epic—a standalone, or one of the sequels mentioned above—in between. Thus the Elantris sequel is next in line after Stormlight Three, which would be followed by Stormlight Four and Five.

MAYBE COMING SOMEDAY BUT ONLY PARTIALLY WRITTEN

* Dark One (YA dark fantasy.)
* Steelheart (Superhero apocalypse.)
* The King's Necromancer
* The Silence Divine (Shardworld novel, standalone.)
* White Sand (Shardworld trilogy.)
* The Liar of Partinel (Shardworld novel, one of two.)
* Dragonsteel (Major Shardworld epic. Won't be written until Stormlight is done.)

POSSIBLE PROJECTS FOR MY TIME OFF

* Mistborn short story (Looking likely.)
* Unnamed urban fantasy (This is what I'm working on right now. Watch Twitter/Facebook for updates on this story. It involves a necromancer pizza deliveryman as a protagonist.)
* Scribbler revisions (Will almost certainly be done.)
* Finishing one of the unfinished novels mentioned above (Not likely, but you never know.)

Who knows when/if anything written during my side-project time will get published. Sometimes, these stories are too unformed (as I like to be very free and loose when I write them) to make it. On other occasions, there isn't time to do revisions on them. (I write initial books very quickly, but spend many months in revision.) For instance, Alcatraz books were my deviations for 2005 and 2006, and the first of those came out very quickly. Scribbler was the one for 2007, and it won't be published for a year or so yet. I didn't have time for much in the way of deviations in 2008 or 2009, just the unfinished projects I mentioned above.

We shall see. As always, thank you for reading and supporting me in this compulsive writing addiction of mine.

Choosing the next project is a balance between the promises I've made to readers and the best way to channel my creativity. I stay fresh by jumping between projects; it's the way I've (for better or worse) trained myself. And so I always have a lot of ideas, and there are a lot of things I've worked on.

One thing to keep in mind with me is that, because of the way I work, some of these things just don't end up turning out. They aren't good enough for publication, at least in their current state, so I shelve them. Imagine it like the B-sides of an album. The band may do a lot of playing, jamming, and recording—and then they pick the very best to present to their listeners.

In the case of the books mentioned above, Liar turned out poorly enough on the first go-around that it's shelved indefinitely. I'm not sure how I stand on The King's Necromancer yet, and White Sand is unlikely to be in good shape for many years. Scribbler (one you didn't mention) turned out great, and you'll probably see it in the near future.

As for sequels to books that are half-promised, we'll see. Something like Nightblood (where there is a potential sequel, but the story of the book was wrapped up and told strongly, I feel) is less urgent than something like the rest of the Stormlight Archive (which is a single story, told across many books.) In the case of Stormlight, I've made a stronger promise to readers, one I feel the need to fulfill.

Of course, the question you asked is how I keep them all straight. Lots of notes mixed with quirks of the way my brain works.

The "God Surges" you mentioned recently, are they a part of the Way of Kings frontsheet?

You've said that there are three types of Blades in the Stormlight Archive. We've seen "dead" Shardblades, Honorblades—is the third type the "living spren" Shardblades, or is there another type we haven't seen?

Do all Surgebinders breathe Stormlight in, or are there other ways? Is Lift one-of-a-kind in this regard?

All I said regarding this was to tell a fan that it was possible to make an analogy between the god metals on Scadrial and certain powers on Roshar. However, these are not a codified part of the magic system.

Lift is one of a kind.

Nightblood is a very unique kind of Shardblade, but IS a Shardblade.

Zahel/Vasher is in Roshar for Nightblood? Will we know in Stormlight Archive why these two were separated? or in the sequel of Warbreaker?

The Warbreaker sequel will give clues about this, but the actual event happened between that and TWoK. So I'm not sure where I'll slip it in.

That's correct.

Question

So Nightblood and Shardblades are both kind of powered by Investiture?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, in fact you can call Nightblood kind of a miss-made, evil Shardblade-- more miss-made than evil but yes.

Question

But a Shardblade wouldn't shear through Nightblood.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes a Shardblade would not shear through Nightblood. In fact I wrote The Way of Kings first and then I wrote Warbreaker and The Way of Kings came out after Warbreaker but in my mind Warbreaker is a prequel to The Way of Kings, where I was telling Vasher's backstory.

Question

Oh really, so the Warbreaker we know takes place after The Way of Kings?

Brandon Sanderson

No, it takes place before, it's a prequel meaning I wrote The Way of Kings and then I went back in time and told Vasher's backstory but Warbreaker ended up coming out first because The Way of Kings wasn't ready yet.

I'd say more dangerous, a little bit easier to get the Stormlight.

Question

I assumed I'd learn a lot more about him...

Brandon Sanderson

You will, and he's pretty dangerous, but he is also less dangerous because other people have Shardblades, if that makes sense.

Breath is definitely like Mist, it is in the form of the air.

Question

And is Stormlight the same?

Brandon Sanderson

Stormlight is the same. Good questions!

Question

Would Vasher be able to use Stormlight in the same way that he can get Breath?

Brandon Sanderson

That would not be immediately easy, but Stormlight could feed Nightblood.

Question

Which is why Szeth can wield Nightblood?

Brandon Sanderson

Eh, you'll have to see if … but yes. That could theoretically happen. You can use most of the magics on most of the planets to fuel the other magics, if you know how to do it, it is not easy.

Tags

Question

So she wouldn’t be…?

Brandon Sanderson

Mhm, yes, that things that she eats that she can metabolize, she can turn into Stormlight.

Question

So what would happen if she ate Nightblood? [laughter]

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, eating Nightblood would not be a smart idea for anyone. [more laughter] Nightblood would eat you. In Soviet Russia, sword eats you? I don’t know…

Out of excuses 2016 q3