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Questioner

Do you know Chinese? How do you ensure your usage of Chinese characters make sense?

Will Wight

So, I don't do any of the graphic design on these projects.  So I, it's not my, I do not use Chinese characters, at all. So that is very much something I avoid.  Because I do not speak Chinese.  I do not speak any dialect of Chinese.  Or version of Chinese.  I do not know any version of that language.  So, in order to, when these covers and paperbacks and stuff that do actually have Chinese characters in them are done, my graphic designer does run it by an actual Chinese speaking person.  And they are the ones who decide what characters get used, based on the descriptions in the books.  So it is someone who is fluent, a native Chinese speaker, who decides what gets done, but it is not me.  Si I have no input on that.

Questioner

How did you decide on the name Dross out of all the literal garbage names?

Will Wight

Wow. That’s a good question, and I remember doing it. I remember where I was when i was doing it. I was sitting in my car parked in the corner of a Wendy's parking lot with my seat all the way back and my laptop between me and my steering wheel. Which is where I sometimes just kind of get out of the house, I'm like "ok I just need an isolated place, I am just going to sit in the car" and I was sitting there just going through different versions of the names and I came up with a bunch and I don't really remember all of them I just remember I liked him being named for like trash you would find in a facility. I was thinking of all those, I kind of did it as I was going through the scene, I was going which of these trash synonyms do I like, and Dross sounded the most like a name. So...Dross.

Questioner

Does your Path become irrelevant after you get to know how to use the Way?

Will Wight

No. It does not. So, the magic you learn in your iteration just evolves and changes as you ascend and you learn how to use the Way. And it gets worked into who you are and what you can do.

Questioner

Any fantasy book recommendations?

Will Wight

Yes, I just made one.  Arcane Ascension 3 by Andrew Rowe is out very soon.  And I think I got that title correct, Torch that Ignites the Stars.  That one recommendation was probably not sufficient, so I have recently been mostly reading web novels.  I haven't read a lot of traditional novels recently.  I have been mostly reading web novels, but I did read book 1 of Michael Miller's Ascendant.  I don't remember what the trilogy is called.  His dragon rider book.  Ascendant.  Does anyone remember the series name?  Somebody will tell me in a second.  That's pretty good.  I haven't read a dragon rider book in a while.  So that was fun.  It got me thinking about dragons.  And riding them thereof.  The web novels I have read recently, I have reread a lot of one that I have already read, so I haven't read a whole lot that's new to me recently. So it's hard for me to...  Like, I was just rereading Solo Leveling, or Alone I Level Up, or whatever the web novel is translated as.  Solo Leveling.  And that one is great.  That's one of the few I recommend the comic over the original novel, even though the original novel is good too.  The comic art just adds a lot.  Yeah, the title of the book is Ascendant, it's the series title I don't remember.  (Transcriber's note: Songs of Chaos)  But the reason why I read it is he describes it as Cradle meets Eragon.  So it's dragon riders who cultivate, with their cores, with their dragons.  It's pretty neat; it was cool.  There's a lot of creative dragon stuff in there.

So then, fantasy novel recommendations.  I can give you something to read, but Dakota Krout already did.  So,  Something.  Book 1 Murder Hobo, by Dakota Krout.  The series has got the word Murder Hobo in it (that's actually two words, but Will and math, what can you do?)  So, if you don't know what a murder hobo is, it's a DND term.  And frankly, if you don't know what it is, I don't know that you're the target audience for the book.  But it was hilarious, it has a lot of the trademark humor, so that is another recommendation.  

Question from chat

Have you read Street Cultivation?

Will Wight

So, I read Street Cultivation when it was on Royal Road.  So that was a rougher version of the book.  So I can't... I am sure she has made a lot of changes and up dates and upgrades.  So I really don't know a lot about the current version of the book.  I keep meaning to read it, but it's like Wandering Inn; someone asked if I knew pirate aba, I do not, I don't even know pirate aba's gender, so I always refer to them gender neutral, as much as I can.  Occasionally I forget.  But I don't know anything about them.  I don't know their real name.  Nothing.  So they're a pirate to me.  A faceless masked pirate, sailing the seas.  And I have not read Wandering Inn yet, because it is massive.  And I feel like if I start, and I dive in, it's so much.  They write so fast that there is really no way for me to catch up.  The longer I delay, the more I have to catch up on.

Questioner

Who or what was your inspiration for our lord and savior Orthos?

Will Wight

All right.  So, this goes a little deeper into what I was saying before about the original draft of Cradle.  So don't read too much into what I'm about to say, because this is long ago, in a story far, far, away.  So this bears little resemblance to current Cradle.

(Will builds a hut.  He implores us not to judge his hut.)

So, back in the day, the version of the main character of this was someone who was going to have both void powers and Abidan powers; they were going to have chaos powers and order powers.

(A cow wanders by.  Will is briefly intimidated by the cow, but soon realizes the coexistence is possible and lets the cow be.)

And they were going to have an animal companion/contractee/whatever, as their, as representatives or contractors or whatever for each of those powers.  And so the dragon was going to represent the chaos/destruction powers, and the water fairy that ended up turning into Little Blue was going to represent the order powers.  So, I had the image of a dragon named Oerthon, and originally the dragon turned into a sword, and the sword was a yellow sword that was hooked and made of bone, yellow bone, and the handle was like black leather, and the dragon would turn into this weapon, and the fairy would turn into a silvery blue spear.  So there were a number of things then that ended up getting in the way of that, but that was the original plan.  So it was dragon, a black dragon named Oerthon.  And he wasn't super big, yeah, I know, that was one of things that got, someone said "Thanks Brandon," yeah that was one of the things that was written that got in the way of this, because this was a long time ago.  This started in 2005, 2006, 2007, so this was years before Stormlight Archive, and spoiler alert, that happens in Stormlight Archive.  So this all ended up completely abandoning those plans once that happened.  So that was rough for me.  But it was ok.  I had mostly abandoned that track anyway by that point.

(Will again implores we not judge his building skills, this time regarding his roof.)

So, that was Oerthon, the black dragon.  So, when I got into actually writing Cradle, I had to come up with an animal companion for Lindon that would give him his contracted Blackflame powers.  And, you know, by default it was going to be a dragon, but it's like, you expect it to be a dragon.  So I was thinking what would be a different animal?  Basically anything but a dragon.  So we were going through, and we were thinking, I was talking to my friend, and we were just brainstorming animals.  We were just going, OK, what other animal could it be?  So we ended up, he suggested turtle.  And he was like, what about a turtle?  And I was like, yeah, I thought of a turtle, but it's like, I don't know.  It felt a little too memey.  It's a little too much like OK, you picked the funny animal.  And I was like, eh, I don't know.  I don't know how I feel about a turtle.  So we through it, and we kept coming back to turtle.  And we kept coming back to turtle because I just liked it, and he liked it, and we both liked it, and of course as we were thinking about it, a dragon-turtle is like a thing.  We didn't make that up.  That's a mythical existence in the genre we're writing in.  So, we were just immediately like, it's got to be a dragon-turtle.  It's got to happen.

Questioner

Hard copies of the books?

Will Wight

I would love for their to be hardback of the books. That would be very cool. I think there could be some day but for now, we don't have them. The reason we don't is because its a difficult thing to know how many we would have. Just a lot of time and effort to put into developing something that we wouldn't have on sale, it'd be a limited run. So...maybe someday.

Questioner

How do you feel going back now and reading Traveler's Gate?

Will Wight

Terrible.  Thank you for asking.  I always feel bad reading my old stuff.  Just don't like it.  So when I read Traveler's Gate I am constantly just cringing and embarrassed.  But that's true when I read almost any of my old stuff.  So that's pretty normal.  

Questioner

Do you feel like you would have worked the series differently if you had all the experience you have now?

Will Wight

Yes.  Absolutely.  Even as I finished the Traveler's Gate trilogy I wanted to redo House of Blades.  I wanted to immediately go back and just rewrite the whole book.  But I didn't.  Because that's a, I don't think that's right.  Because if I did that, I could do that with any book.  Like, I could write it, then afterwards I'm a better writer.  Then I could write it again.  And even though it's kind of special because it's my first book, I didn't want to be rewriting House of Blades every five years.  I didn't want to be rewriting House of Blades every five years, so I just sort of didn't.

So, I think there is some really good ideas in Traveler's Gate, I'm emotionally attached to Traveler's Gate, but when I read it, and when I read it out loud for the audio books I was so embarrassed.  I'm just a better writer now.

Questioner

Is there a reason for the omission of Mercy, Pride, and Fury's father?

Will Wight

Fury's father, no, not really. He's just been dead for many generations. So, he's just not around. In terms of the omission of Pride and Mercy's father, frankly, it's because I've tried to write him into every single book since Skysworn and it has not been feasible because it's just not directly related to the plot or anything related to the plot. So, I keep trying to bring it up and it just hasn't worked. So, at this point it's like 'OK, well now it can't be a real big deal or it would have come up before now,'  so I'm just gonna continue glossing over it, I guess. But I might give more information about who he is. I mean, I know who he is, it's just, you know, it didn't come up.

Questioner

How did you design Dross?

Will Wight

hmm, so the first thing I did, was i started from what is a primarily mechanical construct, with like a ghost inside it. So I went through Dross' evolution, and I started off that way, and then I thought ok, how do I show Dross' improvement in a certain area, every time he gets improved? So every time I had him become more complex, and then more organic, and then more solid, and I had to do that every time he advanced in his development in Ghostwater. So as I did that, he sort of took shape, 'cos i had to think every time, what's the next step? So I didn't really start off with an image of him as like a purple tentacled Mike Wazowski, but that's kinda what he became, and i'm happy with it, I liked it.

Questioner?

Which Akura is your favorite?

Will Wight

Fury.  He's the best.

Questioner

Where did you start with your worldbuilding for Cradle?

Will Wight

I mean, I started from web cultivation novels and worked backwards. So they had a cohesive system based on Daoist mythology and I wasn't using that as a base, so I started from their result that they've developed with a really long, rich history, and I had to kind of be like, "Okay. Well I can't represent that accurately," so I had to do my own. Plus cultivation novels, especially Chinese cultivation novels rely on a lot of cultural understanding that the reader already has, so I knew I wanted to go - I know what effect I want to get, so I worked backwards in terms of going, "Okay, so now I have to set up a cohesive world that creates this magic system."

Questioner

Would you ever allow another author to write in the cradle universe?

Will Wight

Probably not Cradle, and maybe not for the reason you expect. It's because I would have to write a story bible that is at all consistent. When you get somebody else to write in your Universe, typically what you do is you write a story bible which is a document which includes all of the world building and rules for the universe so that they cant accidently violate something that cant happen in your world. And I don't know that I could write something like that cohesive that was comprehensible to anybody but me. So unless I designed the series that way from the beginning in order for it to be shared, I don't think I could do that. Maybe with Traveler's gate universe I could do that but nobody wants to write in that universe so.

Mystical98

Is there gonna be a little romance scenes

Will Wight

Absolutely.

Skeletickles

This makes me so happy. I'm a filthy shipper, so I've been wanting to see some romance for a long time.

Will Wight

Well, this book is already heavier on it than any of the others.

It’s still not the primary focus, of course, but it’s definitely a thing.

Questioner

Will Lindon get involved more in politics?

Will Wight

Almost certainly not. In the sense that he's going to be his opinion and involvement are going to be politically important in the world, ya. But in the sense that he's going to actively, like there's gonna be a lot of conflict around political discussion and manuevering and such, no. Its an adventure series, not a politics series.

Questioner

What other characters/stories on Cradle would you consider exploring outside of the main cast of characters and the quest to save sacred valley?

Will Wight

So, basically, what sort of spinoff stories would I like to see, or like to write in Cradle?

(Will running around in circles in Subnautica.)

What other stories or characters on Cradle would I like to explore?  I don't know.  So Cradle, there's a lot, the number one thing I would do on Cradle if I really did write a spinoff of some kind, would be about, like I mentioned earlier, not all

(Subnautica AI interrupts to talk about exercise)

What I would do, like I mentioned earlier, not all sacred artists are all fight and all advance all the time.  And I would like to show some of that.  I would like to show some regular people on Cradle.  Even some regular people who are not like really working to advance.  So that's what I'd like to do.  I'd like to show off some people who are just doing regular jobs, raising food, whatever.

Questioner

Do you think your next series will have another tiny doll character?

Will Wight

I can almost guarantee that it will not. I have relied on psychic assistance and tiny doll characters like the dolls and lil' blue, I have relied on those mascot characters a little to much I think. So while I enjoy them and they are fun, I like shuffles, i like Dross, I like the dolls. I am probably going to try and get away from that just because it is like, you know it is like a hallmark of my writing. I would like to make it so that I am not the one where always there is little tiny cute mascot characters. So I am going to try, I don't know how well I’ll do it because I still think they're fun. So if I get something and I think of something I will probably just do it.

Questioner

I wrote a book and I'm not sure what to do except shotgunning and emailing random publishers.

Will Wight

Don't do that.  The first thing to do is, you want to make sure your book is actually good. So you want to get it to people that will tell you the truth, and will read it, and can give you good feedback.  So, if you are sure that your book, if your not sure it's good, I'm never sure my books are good, so if you are confident, if the other people around you are telling you your book is good enough to be read by other people, then I would highly suggest, beginning by putting your book up on Kindle.  Get your book professionally edited and make sure it is formatted well.  All these resources are available free online; there are tons of people who can explain the process better than I can.  And just very much recommend Kindle Direct Publishing.  KDP.  Do what I did.  And the reason why I increasingly recommend that; I used to be, "You know what, if you can get a traditional publishing deal, great for you.  Check all out, try all your options."  And more and more I'm just like, don't do that, just do KDP.  Because it doesn't seem like what the publishers offer you is a whole lot better than what you get on KDP.  So I have honestly liked my setup with KDP a lot more than the deals a lot of my peers have been offered.  And the more experience I get, the more I go, yeah, I would recommend to anyone starting out to publish your own book on KDP.  Do it the right way.  KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing; that is a phrase I was using a second ago.  And that is the program by which you publish books directly on Kindle.  It is how I am published.  So I highly recommend publishing your stuff on Kindle.  But do it the right way.  So do it the way other experienced authors tell you to do; do your research. Get a good cover, and you know, have a good book.

Questioner

Fury path or techniques

Will Wight

I don't remember the name of his book. I know generally what it is. It's Book of the Dark Sun, Book of the Midnight Sun, Book of the.. something like that.

Questioner

Why can't Sesh defeat Northstrider since he has allies and Northstrider doesn't?

Will Wight

That is a misconception. Northstrider doesn't belong to an organization but that does not mean that he doesn't have allies.

Questioner

Is storm madra an aspect of wind madra?

Will Wight

Storm is just kinda what they call lightning aura. It's just lightning. So there are storm paths, thats aren't necessarily completely lightning aura. They're also wind, and maybe force, or water. So Tiberian Aurelius followed a storm path in the sense that it was mostly lightning, but he also had aura aspects from a lot of other things that you would find in storms. So storm path and storm aura are often used differently, and i know that's confusing and weird, but there are cultures on Cradle that I didn't think it was organic for them to just call it lightning or electricity. I thought it would be more poetic or they would probably say storm.