Post Questions For Brandon Sanderson Here!

[Melhay]

Hello! 

Your stories are so indepth and unique in the magical systems and religions.  I was wondering if you have always, even through childhood, been creative with stories?  Have some of the ideas in these books been something you created when young and then evolved into a story now?  Have you always been interested in writing stories as you grew up?  Did you have that notebook in class scribbling full of stories and ideas while sitting in class supposedly taking notes?

[Raven_Lunatic]

Now I do have a question: is there going to be a sequel to Warbreaker?

[MarlonRand]

Is there any information about Way of Kings that you can give us at this time?  Also, how did the experiment with Warbreaker turn out, and are you planning to do this with any other things you write?  Finally, do you have any advice for people that would like to write for a living?

[iyer5]

Just one question, though I'm expecting a RAFO:

Will the White Tower, the physical structure itself, be destroyed at the end of TGS or any other point in aMoL?

[carmen22]

Hello again Sanderson,

When it comes to crazy plot twist,  fascinating characters, magic systems, humor, religion, etc. What do you feel, for you, is the hardest part to get on paper or come up with?

By the way, all of your work is pure Awesomeness!

[Dare2bu]

Hey Brandon,

Comment first question after:

I have really enjoyed all your books; I am currently finishing off Warbreaker(hardcover, see I bought it per your request after reading it online). Your depth of characters, magic systems and worlds is amazing. I can't wait to start reading your new series, and of course the rest of the Wheel of Time. I am sure you will do it justice.

Now the question.

How difficult was it to come up with new magic systems considering the wealth of fantasy out there with already established magic systems(that seems to just get re-used in different formats by various other authors)? Do you have more systems to be used in future novels? If so how do you go about envisioning them and creating the rules in the first place?

Thanks

Looking forward to reading TONS more from you in the future.

Dare2bu

[DiamondLightfo…]

I love Mistborn! (also Elantris). I can hardly wait to begin on Warbreaker. I know many have questions on the metal based ideas. In Elantris, where did the idea for the disease come from?

[Sensitivemuse]

First of all, Elantris and all the Mistborn books were great! I enjoyed them all.

Second: my questions; are you going to write more about the mistborn? there's still those mysterious metals, and it's a brand new world out there now so many possiblities you could do with that!

Also, was there an inspiration for Vin and if so who/what was it?

[Nadine]

Brandon, you are noted for your fairly concise epic novels. But I am curious about how the final volume of The Wheel of Time, which was envisioned by Robert Jordan as a final and single book, get to be so long? Not just a little longer but incredibly longer (possibly over 900,000 words).

1. Did Robert Jordan totally miscalculate the size his final book? Or didn't he get too far writing it and had no idea of how long it would be?
2. Is it including every note Jordan had on the subject because no one is sure what he really wanted to use?
3. Is it being turned into a self-contained trilogy because a lot of people (like me) haven't read the entire 11 book series (or by now have forgotten the story ), and it has to include some back-story?

[GypsyKylara]

My question is about writing, kind of.

As an author, you have acheived moderate success. People like you and have heard of you withing the genre and you have established a relationship with your publishing company that let's you get a lot of books published.

This is the level of success I want as a writer and I am just wondering how financially viable this is. Like, can you write only or so you need a so-called day job. Are you able to support your family with your writing alone? That kind of thing.

Sorry if that is kind of a personal question. I've just always wondered how much money a writer makes once they've "made it". 

[Jeremy_Carroll]

Hey Brandon,

A got a few Warbreaker questions:

1) Is Clod a Lifeless Arsteel?

2) Are/were all the Five Scholars Returned?

3) How could Vasher become Drab, since he would have to give up his Big Breath to do so?

4) Can you give any history on Denth? I don't know what he did as one of the Five Scholars. What was his roll during the Manywar?

5) How would a tongueless God-King give up his Breaths?

6) If you could pick any actress to play Blushweaver in a movie based on Warbreaker, who would you pick? Monica Bulluci and Salma Hayek are top picks on your forum!

I have a ton of questions about Elantris too, but I've not read the Annotations so I've afraid that you might have answered them already.

[MistbornSander…]

First Questions: "What kind of mental "retooling" does it take  for him to work on an already established world/storyline like "Wheel of Time" since this is someone else's work?

Also, were there there a lot of notes or material left by Mr. Jordan to work from?"

I thought about this quite a lot during the months when I was reading the Wheel of Time again straight through, trying to figure out how I would approach writing the final book.  Obviously, this project wasn't going to be like anything I'd done before.  I couldn't just approach it as I did one of my solo novels.  And yet, it felt like trying to match Robert Jordan's style exactly would have made me lapse into parody.  

A lot of the mental 'retooling' I did focused on getting inside the characters' heads.  I decided that if I could make the characters sound right, the book would FEEL right, even if some of the writing itself was different.  I also decided that I would adapt my style to fit the project.  I became more descriptive, for one, and wrote viewpoint with the more intimate, in-head narrative style that Mr. Jordan used.  Neither of these were attempts to match how he wrote exactly, but more me trying to match my style to The Wheel of Time, if that makes any sense.

In answer to the second question, he left LOTS of notes behind.  He wrote complete scenes in places, dictated other scenes, left piles of notes and materials.  The prologue was almost all completed by him (that will be split half in this book, half in the next.)  The ending scenes were written by him as well.  In the middle, there are a lot of scene outlines as well. 

That's not to say there wasn't A LOT of work to do.  The actual number of completed scenes was low, and in some places, there was no direction at all what to do.  But his fingerprints are all over this novel.  My goal was not to write a Brandon Sanderson book, but a Wheel of Time book.  I want this novel (well, these three novels, now) to be his, not mine.

[paulgoatallen]

BRANDON! Welcome to the B&N forums! You've just stumbled into a pit of highly agitated Brandon Sanderson fans so please be careful! It's an honor to have you with us for these three days – I apologize in advance for the number of questions already but, hey, this is like an Elvis appearance for us! Hope you enjoy your stay...

Paul 

[carmen22]

 Thank you so much for joining us, Brandon, it's so nice to have you here! I can't say this enough, I have enjoyed ALL of your work Immensely, and I'm so looking forward to all of your future work as well!

Thanks again,

Krista

Message Edited by carmen22 on 07-08-2009 02:37 PM

[Melhay]

HELLO Brandon!!

Welcome to our little loony bin 

Please know that your work is greatly loved here.  It is wonderful that you are able to be with us.  We do appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.  We have greatly been anticipating your arrival, as you can see with all the questions we have started.

I look forward to reading your replies to the questions, and to the future books as well.  (I have seen you are done with revisions on Kings, looking good on the moving forward - can't wait for this one to come out too.)

[little_wilson]

Hello, Brandon.

Three questions:

What's the earliest that we'll be seeing more of Scribbler (I'd heard a bunch about it at TWG, and so I found the sample chapters on your site and now I'm REALLY wanting more of it, so I'd like to know when I should start looking again...)?

Do you know when we'll start seeing Way of Kings? Sample chapters in particular. This series sounds freaking amazing and I can't wait to see more of it. So, yeah..now that the first draft is finished (congratulations, by the way), I'm quite curious...

And lastly, do you think you're going to be able to do any readings at the Idaho Falls signing later this year, or is it going to be entirely focused on WoT? Because I (and I'm sure others) would TOTALLY love to hear some solo-Brandon stuff. (Oh, and related, do you know WHEN the I.F. signing will be?)

[Nightfire]

Hey Mr.. Sanderson, I know that amol should be finished in the next couple years (at the latest.) I know that you tend to work on multiple projects. Unless you are planning to do another (totally) new project can we expect another warbreaker, elantris, or preferably mistborn book as you release the ten way of kings books? 

also, is there a common reality/universe throughout all of you works (WoT excluded)? The gods and magic system of your books you have mentioned as pieces of a larger source. I know I am mistaking the language a bit it was a while ago that I read this. But preservation and ruin were linked and you referenced possible deities in elantris, not to mention austre. I know your magic systems are all well thought out and the rules have practical founding. With this in mind, I assume your deities and beings of power would have universally applied links and rules as well. I figure they all exist in the same multi-verse.

[Nightfire]

I almost forgot, now that The Way of Kings first book, first draft is finished. When can we expect that to hit the shelves?

[Nightfire]

now my intrest is perked. Whivh charecter is in both mistborn and elantris? I must know!!

of corse if it is a secret for another book donb't tell me.

[chocolatebar]

Oops, I missed the Twitter Q&A, but I noticed there you're doing a signing in the DC area later this year. Thanks!

Is it possible that there could be more than 4 Alcatraz books, or will the story conclude there?