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2012-04-30: I had the great pleasure of speaking with Harriet McDougal Rigney about her life. She's an amazing talent and person and it will take you less than an hour to agree.

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2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."

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Your search for the tag 'Brandon on Influences' yielded 24 results

  • 1

    Interview: Jan 21st, 2015

    Question

    Influences (*currently reading)(sorry if I butcher the spellings)

    Brandon Sanderson

    McCaffrey Robert Jordan Melanie Rawn Les Miserables Asimov Guy Gabriel Kay Andy Weir Naomi Novak Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Terry Prachett

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  • 2

    Interview: Jan 21st, 2015

    Question

    What was your inspiration for Grandpa Smedry?

    Brandon Sanderson

    His mother, who was always late to things. He’s the inspiration for Alcatraz (he held up his broken phone to us).

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  • 3

    Interview: Jan 7th, 2015

    Question

    And my last one, Obliteration, the Epic, is based on an author.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He is based on an author. Q: It’s Jim Butcher, right? B: I couldn’t say if it were, with these handsome locks and wearing a trenchcoat, and the goatee. Q: It’s totally Jim Butcher. B: Well Jim Butcher doesn’t have hair like this anymore. He cut his hair.

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  • 4

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    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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  • 5

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    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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  • 6

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    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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  • 7

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    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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  • 8

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    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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  • 9

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    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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  • 10

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    Question

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

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have, they are really interesting.

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  • 11

    Interview: Feb 20th, 2015

    Question

    Do you draw from any kind of like specific set of life experiences for your writings? Or is most of it just from your imagination?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Do I draw from a specific set of life experiences for my writing or is it just from my imagination? I would say my imagination is fueled by my specific life experiences. So the answer is both. Everything I see can become a part of my books, but at the same time sometimes it’s just a happy accident. People ask about Steelheart, the bad metaphors. One of the things about the main character is he is really bad with metaphoric language, comically bad. That happened on accident, I was writing his viewpoint and I’m like “This character is dry, he needs more of a soul, he needs more life. How can I make him work?” and I accidentally wrote a bad metaphor. That happens a lot when you’re writing, you know, purple prose and bad metaphors just come out when you’re not looking. It’s like they sneak out onto the page and you’re like “That was really bad”. Then I paused and thought “Well, let’s go ahead and leave it in *laughter* and run with this.” And it was great because it became a metaphor for David’s metaphor-- kind of coincidentally or ironically or whatever-- that bad metaphors become a metaphor themselves because he became the character who tries too hard. He’s /really/ earnest and he’s going to get stuff done but he’s trying a little too hard. And that’s where the bad metaphors come from, he overthinks them. He tries too hard to put something together and it ends up as just a big mess. But his earnestness comes through it, and that became his character and it works really well. But that one’s just an accident.

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  • 12

    Interview: Feb 20th, 2015

    Question

    Were there any specific fantasy books that you read as a child that inspired you to write fantasy?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, excellent question. I was not a reader until I had a teacher, eighth grade teacher--this is true--Ms. Reeder. *laughter* Yes, it’s really true R-E-E-D-E-R, was my teacher in eighth grade and she gave me a fantasy novel for the first time and convinced me to read it. It took a little work on her part because I was not a reader. It was Dragonsbane by Barbara Hamley, a kind of classic standalone epic fantasy-- And it’s standalone because the sequels she wrote twenty years later when she was really depressed are /very different/. They’re worth reading but they don’t feel like sequels. Dragonsbane’s a fantastic book. All of Anne McCaffey’s books were next to that in the school library, like in the card catalogue, under the title so I went to them next and they had a huge influence on me. I would say those two were the biggest. And then Melanie Rawn’s books were next to those, so I read all of those. And then the first book series I discovered on my own, when it wasn’t already finished, was the Wheel of Time. Wheel of Time, the first book came out about a year after I got into reading fantasy novels and I found the big one on the shelf and was like “Oooh that’s a big book. *laughter* I’m going to read that big book.” And I had no idea what I was getting myself into. *laughter* Now lot’s of Wheel of Time fans can say that, they didn’t know what they were getting into. I trump them, okay? I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into in picking up that first Wheel of Time book and reading it.

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  • 13

    Interview: Feb 20th, 2015

    Question

    Where did you get the idea for the Reckoners series?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Where did I get the idea for writing the Reckoners series? I almost got in a car wreck. I was driving to a book signing and I was late and somebody cut me off in traffic. And it was like-- I had to slam on the brakes and things like that and I thought-- At that moment I’m like “You, person in front of me, are so lucky I don’t have superpowers, ‘cause if I did I would blow your car up right now. BOOM” It’s a great Michael Bay effect, like it explodes and I drive through the smoke. It was really awesome I remember it. And then I was immediately horrified, right? I’m like “Here I write all these books about people protecting the world with their powers and what would I do if I had them? I’d be blowing up people because they inconvenience me.” *laughter* And this is where the series came from, I thought about that the entire rest of the drive, which was about another hour. And I thought “What if-- What could we do if people just started manifesting superpowers and-- You couldn’t throw them in prison, or if you did they’d just break out. You couldn’t defeat them with the armies. What would the society do if there were legitimately superpowered individuals?” It’s kind of the same tactic that Watchmen took, if you’ve ever read that, but it kind of goes the other direction with “They are all evil, what do we do?” That was the origin and I wrote a whole book series about it.

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  • 14

    Interview: Feb 20th, 2015

    Question

    Why would you choose Chicago as a setting?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I grew up in Nebraska, Lincoln, and Chicago was the big city we would travel to. I liked that it was-- This is kind of going to sound weird but it was a big city full of mid-westerners. Like when I went to LA everyone talked and acted different, when I went to New York everyone talked and acted different, but in Chicago it-- they were kind of like a bunch of hokey mid-westerners had somehow built a big city? *laughter* If that makes any sense. So I have always had a fondness for Chicago. It’s like the big city of farmers or whatnot. I don’t know there’s just something about it, the being on the lake and the profile of it and things like that. And I’m a Batman fan and Gotham is Chicago. Chicago was my go-to when I was going to destroy a city in our world; I picked Chicago.

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  • 15

    Interview: Oct 12th, 2015

    Question

    What was your inspiration for Spook?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Spook was based off of a goofy internet friend. My friends and I had made a forum online. Just my friends and I: Dan, and all these people that were writers. And then this random kid showed up, who was 16 and British, and started writing this weird stuff. He was like our little mascot, and he became our friend. We never knew him. It was all these graduated from college guys, and there's this sixteen year old kid that says the weirdest stuff.

    Question

    Does he know [that Spook's based on him]?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, he knows. I told him 'I'm basing a character off of you'. He said, 'I'd love it.' And he turns out to be very heroic, so I'm sure that he... I mean, he read them all. He was great with it.

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  • 16

    Interview: Feb 17th, 2016

    Question

    How often do your dreams ever influence your books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Once in awhile.

    Question

    Once in awhile.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yup. […] writer you have a cool dream […] something there […] Usually there’s not but once in awhile there really is something and it turns around in your head and eventually ends up in the books.

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  • 17

    Interview: Feb 25th, 2016

    Question

    What were your inspiration when you wrote the [Mistborn] series, or for particular characters...?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, Mistborn-- I passed, honestly, through a fog bank at 70 mph driving from my mom's house, and I'm like, "This looks cool, I've got to use this." That's the first thought I can think of. Feruchemy goes back to being in high school and being an insomniac, being really tired and wishing I could store up my sleep, so I'd be sleepy when I wanted to be sleepy. Kelsier's inspiration was a guy who had been only out for himself, who realized the greater import of doing something.

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  • 18

    Interview: Feb 25th, 2016

    Question

    I want you to know that our third graders think that our librarian is evil now.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh good, good, good. I'm very pleased to be corrupting your third graders.

    Question

    And they're very suspicious of anyone in horn-rimmed glasses.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Mmm. I need to get myself some, because it would be like, cognitive dissonance to the kids. [...] You tell them they're not allowed to have as bad handwriting as me. MY third-grade teacher thinks it's atrocious that I never learned how to have good handwriting. She'll never forgive me.

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  • 19

    Interview: Feb 25th, 2016

    Question

    What was your inspiration for Wit, or who?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hmm. The closest thing I've been able to say is the court jester from King Lear, he's one of my favorite literary characters. But I'm not sure if I can point to anyone specific other than that.

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  • 20

    Interview: Feb 25th, 2016

    Question

    Where'd you get the idea for burning metals getting different powers?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Metabolism. Researching metabolism. When I wrote it out, it works. It's weird, but it works.

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  • 21

    Interview: Feb 25th, 2016

    Question

    Wax and Wayne. Who did you base them on?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Wax is like a mix between Clint Eastwood and Sherlock Holmes in my head. Wayne - I'm not even sure. He just kinda came out of nowhere at me.

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  • 22

    Interview: Oct 22nd, 2016

    Question

    When writing Stormlight, did you get any inspirations from the Chinese Confucian system? The Azish government really reminds me of that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    So... Yes. Um... Chinese. 新年快乐? This is my only Chinese. [It means] Happy new year. So yes. Living in Korea for several years, I became very interested in the Confucian system. When I returned back from Korea, I studied in college about Chinese history and I found it fascinating. So the Azish are partially inspired by the Chinese Confucian system.

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  • 23

    Interview: Dec 6th, 2016

    Question

    So, in Secret History, Kelsier is in the pool and looks at Ruin. Are you intentionally making a Lovecraftian reference with the looking into the abyss and the abyss looks back?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, sometimes I have to specifically phrase things. I write it and I’m like ‘Oh yeah, that’s neat!.’ And I’m like ‘Ohhh, I probably shouldn’t quote Nietzsche.’ So I have do have to reword these things sometimes.

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  • 24

    Interview: Dec 6th, 2016

    Question

    So there’s a line in Secret History that mentions like, a mythical string that shows the way home in the maze of Ishathon. Is that an intentional reference to…

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeacher. You shouls yes, so here’s one thing I do in the Cosmere, because my senior course was in folklore, I had a really good folklore ted all thank Dr. Thursby for this. One of the things I learned in folklore - I don’t know if you guys have studied this, but it’s really interesting - societies come up with the same myths. Right? They do! You’ll find the biggest one is the Cinderella myth. There’s a version of this in every culture, and it’s shocking how they come up with the same beats. So whether it’s like the string that leads you out or the breadcrumbs, different people will use different things, but these stories exist. Mythical mazes, you’ll find stories about [them]. So this is here to say that on Roshar for example, there are similar myths to ones we know.

    Footnote

    several typos in the transcription

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