Recent entries

Yanick

Are you going to kill a character off in this one? That would suck so much.

Will Wight

Alright, so let me talk in general about my feelings on killing characters. In general, I think, killing characters does a couple of things. One, and more prominently that people talk about it so much is that it amps up the stakes, because if major characters can die, in stressful situations, then when you threaten their lives later, that feels more impactful; because they might actually die. So when you're watching, in game of thrones characters being in mortal danger, you're a lot more on the edge of your seat than you are in, idk Spy x Family. Airing now on Crunchyroll. You know they're not really going to die, because they're, and by the way that's what plot armor is. The plot cannot continue without the character. You know they're not going to die, so they've got plot armor. People talk about plot armor in incorrect ways all the time. Like, this ability he has that keeps him alive is plot armor, no. That's just a device. A plot device. Plot armor, is if they're necessary to the plot, therefore they cannot die, or be removed from the plot or the story would stop. So Lindon for instance has plot armor, because until the end, that's where plot armor leaves by the way, at the end of a series the people who had plot armor up until this point don't need it anymore because they could die, because the series is over. So, (Takes a sip), the other thing that killing a character does is, tone, killing a major character of course. It impacts tone, and I am of the opinion, that not every series needs a lot of major character death, of even any, not every series needs that, not every series is improved by that. I think for instance, Harry Potter, you needed Cedric Diggory's death, you needed Sirius' death, I'm spoiling Harry Potter by the way. I don't give a crap, it's been out forever. Uh, I think Sirius' death is important and then I think probably, you know those kind of things, 4 5 and 6 the major character deaths at the end, and then 7 probably one or two characters needed to die, but a lot of characters died in 7, and I think that impacted it negatively. I think that, because of that, none of the individual deaths felt as impactful as they would have otherwise. Then I think in a lot of series you don't need major characters to die. So I don't believe that this is, and I don't think Cradle is one of those series where I need to kill a bunch of characters to show that I'm serious, but, on the other hand... It is also a series where I could. So, I feel like it's, it's kind of in the middle there. Where I think, some character death is probably appropriate, but I don't necessarily need it. It would be fine if they did all ascend and they all lived well, but I'm not necessarily saying that I have to do that or indeed intend to. It's one of those things where again I could go either way. Cradle. (Takes a sip). 

Gabe

So, no map?

Will Wight

Gabe, I'm watching you. I've got my eye on you Gabe. 

Middle Felled

Is Dreadgod a Dross book? 

Will Wight

Well I used Dross' name I think more in this book than any other book so far. So, yes. 

Twice Tested

What's the hardest part of writing Dreadgod?

Will Wight

(microphone starts to cut in and out here so some text is lost) Oh boy. Uh, yikes. Oh man. I have (...) to that question. It happens Every time. Reaper. So, it's hard to (...). There's some cool things in Dreadgod, but I don't have any spanning explanations, to reveal. So coming off, you have to, there's a lot of detail to explain without slowing the pacing down too much. So things like, show off all the stuff that happens with Ozriel, and the Abidan story line, but then the Abidan story line would be super long, and nobody wants to read that; and then so I go to Cradle and it's like I said, they're all going off training and he's sending them off but he's also doing stuff on his own. So I want them to explore the labyrinth, to have them go off and do all their training, I want to have Lindon explore his new powers, but again I don't want to spend too much time on it, because then those branch and diverge a lot more. So I want them all to be linked into one adventure. So it's hard to just balance all of that, is sort of the juggling act. Its probably the hardest. 

Peach

Why did the judges not wipe the memory of the inhabitants of Cradle of the Mad King?

Will Wight

They do go into that a little bit in Dreadgod, but I can answer that now. The judges didn't wipe the memory because they wipe memory or don't depending on what is going to cause further instability and chaos. So, when they determine that not wiping memory is more stable, they don't. Right? Because somethings leave such a imprint on the world, that not remembering them is weirder than remembering. In this particular case it was, there's so much, it would be so difficult to wipe the world, and it would be such a, it's such a significant event in the plot that it's just like, well let's just let it run it's course; and then when the elements that are causing instability are then removed, so in this particular case it's just like what Makiel did a few books ago, where he accelerated the timeline of the Phoenix, because that gets the, Lindon and company out of the world quicker. So now it's, if everybody remembers it, they're going to be forced out of the world quicker, and they're going to have less of an impact on Cradle's ultimate fate, and therefore more stable. So that's the idea, and they refer to that and down the road they explicitly explain it.

Joe Bob

Say you received a world seed, what would you do with it?

Will Wight

I would make a world. So what world seeds do, they can be repurposed for other things, but they effectively are little drops of creation left over, and you can make kind of whatever. It's, it tended to bloom into what effectively would be a territory, then it's own world. So they're effectively the only ways left of creating new iterations; but you can also use them to make things, make unique things or people, beings, you can make sentient beings with them. So you can kind of make anything you want. It's kind of like having access to my notebook, where you can write whatever you want to into the setting. In a way, I do have access to a world seed. 

Anonymous

Can we hear the back cover description?

Will Wight

I don't, am I allowed to do that? (Looking at Rebecca) Oh, I am! Oh great, so that's why I have, great. So, we have an early printing of Dreadgod, this is the not for resale. (...) This goes live Tuesday, so therefore this will go up on Tuesday as well, this is the book, this is roughly the exact same size as Reaper. If you were satisfied with Reaper's length, that's where this is. I then I am going to now, try to read the back cover, but unfortunately there is a 'Not For Resale' over one of the paragraphs. I'm going to do my best to interpret the words here, we will, I might just be making it up. If I start talking about velociraptors at any point that means I'm making it up. Okay alright. 

"The battle in the heavens has left a target on Lindon's back. His most reliable ally, gone. The Monarchs see him as a threat, and he has inherited one of the most valuable facilities in the world."

'Not For Resale'. I'm gonna need to wait for another copy. Dub dub dub dub, something about his enemies, yadda yadda yadda, his enemies are working together to kill him. I think is what that line says. Now we're going to move on. We'll post the whole thing after the stream, I'm just going to decode this as best as I can. Something something something, his enemies band together to kill him is the gist of that line, and then it is

"If it weren't for the dreadgods. All four are empowered and unleashed, rampaging through Cradle. Grudges old and new must be set aside. The Monarchs need every capable fighter to help them defend their territory, and Lindon needs time. While he fights, he sends his friends off to train, they'll need to advance impossibly fast if they want to join him in the battle against the kings and queens of Cradle. Together, they will need power enough to rival a dreadgod."

There you go, the back cover copy. So, the idea there, here's one thing, I've never talked about this before actually, I don't like writing back cover copies. Heres why. I don't use it to make my decisions in a book when I'm reading, so when I'm reading a book I don't use the back cover copy to decide, I only use it to determine what is the content of this book. So for me, a list of tags, is just as good and a one line description of the premise is just as good as a, you know a multi paragraph thing. So when I'm writing these, I am trying to go 'What would I get excited about in the book?' So I'm trying to go, but it's book 11 right? I basically really want every back of the book to be like 'Did you like book 10? If so read this! If you did not, don't read this.' Right?; but as I was writing this, I have his most reliable ally is gone, so I obviously want to elude to the fact that Eithan is not around, but I don't want to say on the back 'Eithan's gone', because if someone is just reading through the Amazon pages in order, they're going 'Oh what happened to Eithan in Reaper? Hmm' So there's that, and then I have he's inherited one of the most valuable facilities in the world, I originally had that as one of the most valuable properties in the world, and then i was going, well first of all that sounds like a Monopoly board, and second of all, is that clear enough that I'm referring to the Labyrinth? Again, I can't say the Labyrinth, because some people haven't read the previous book. So, then we're talking about all that, so it's hard to elude to the plot of this book accurately and tease you a little bit without giving stuff away from previous books. It's just an interesting word puzzle, but that part I enjoy. It's fun, you get to kinda like figure out how to fit these things into a trailer like format. So that's fun. (...) So the general plot of the book is Lindon is well ahead of his friends, and he is coming up with a plan to help train them up to his level. So that they can work together against the dreadgods and the Monarchs.

Will Wight

First things first, I know one of the things that people ask a lot, and of course, the first couple of questions are about this. Is about the...

shadowsaber

Are you the real Will Wight?

Will Wight

Yes I am. (continuing previous thought) Did you use the method of writing that you did with Wintersteel with this one? I knew this would be about the method of writing, that's what YBD asked. I had been prepared to talk about my method of writing Dreadgod, so let me just, for just one second this is probably going to answer some of the questions that are coming up. So I'm just going to briefly outline how I wrote Dreadgod. Almost a year ago now? Maybe, maybe a year ago, I say down with a friend of mine, and we worked on the last 3 books in Cradle, and we kind of speculated and talked about the last 3 books and we sort of planned them like they were a trilogy. Now they are not structured like a trilogy, just, If you're going out there writing a trilogy don't structure it, it's like they're written like the last three books in a long series, but we planned them like they were a trilogy. So we planned Reaper, Dreadgod, and unnamed book 12, we'll call it Lindon Dies. As, we planned it like they were a trilogy, we plotted them together, so that they had a story that went through the 3 books. The one we were most worried about was Reaper, that was the one I was very concerned about, because of the ending, obviously recontextualizing a lot of the series I didn't know how people would respond to that. I was very nervous about that. So, then Dreadgod kind of comes off that so last September I think is when I started plotting Dreadgod, er started working on Dreadgod specifically. So I sat down and plotted that book specifically, based on the broader plan I had. I started plotting Dreadgod specifically, and I started writing it, and then around November, I had it to beta readers, so I had gone through an alpha draft, and I had taken it to now beta readers around November. They said, yeah, you know it's good, we need to do a little more work on it, but the base of it is there. So I paused it. Put it into the fridge for awhile, and I started working on book 12. So around the end of November and December January and into February I think? I was working on 12, so that then I could go back to Dreadgod, and insert some things that would set up events in 12 a little better. So I just I had planned them together and so I kinda knew where we were going, but I wanted to make sure that I could set them up appropriately a book ahead of time. So that was kind of the, and then I went back of course and finished off Dreadgod, and then we got the manuscript to Travis so he could read it and now it's coming out. Right. So that was the process for Dreadgod, also during that is when we were deciding whether this was going to be 12 books or 13 books. That was the whole debate, the whole process. We did end up deciding I could do it in 12 books, mainly because I don't have a character limit in book 12. If this one needs to be 200,00 words, significantly longer than Wintersteel it can be, that's not a big deal. If that needs to end up happening, I will, I'm not committing to that. Please don't hold me to that, I'm just going, it's going to be long and I'm gonna wrap up everything that I can. In book 12, that's the idea. 

Amp

Are you Michael Manning, the author? Or borrowed name

Will Wight

So I also saw Amp asking are you the real Michael Manning? Now I know you were actually addressing that to Michael Manning in chat, and I would like to say, that I am not the real Michael Manning, if you were expecting me to be the real Michael G. Manning, you're in the wrong stream. 

Nacthem

I feel like Rebecca and Will look more alike, compared to Sam. Sam is an imposter, confirmed?

Will Wight

I saw a couple of questions as I was, taking a break, I did notice the sibling resemblance question, Sam is definitely one of our siblings, I feel like the reason why I, we don't look like him is because he's just a lot better looking than us, it's the beard, it's the power of the beard. If I were able to grow a beard like that, then I would be, my power level would be too great, and I couldn't be contained. So I have to stay clean shaven, in order to give everyone else a chance. 

Ian Jones

What is everyone on the teams favorite Cradle scenes?

Will Wight

You know, it's, ok let's do that real quick. Rebecca what's your favorite Cradle scene?

Rebecca

The end of Ghostwater, when it gets revealed that Dross is a presence, because, that was one of the only things, in the major moments and twists in the series that Will hadn't told us ahead of time. So I knew about Eithan being Ozriel, I knew about a lot of the other major moments, but I had no idea that Dross was going to be a presence, and I lost my freakin' mind, reading the beta draft and was like, screaming, and it was like midnight and wasn't sure if he was awake, and I was going to wake him up, and, yeah so yeah. 

Will Wight

It turns out I was playing a game of League of Legends, and she had to wait for me to stop, so that she could freak out. Yeah, she had to wait for the game to be over, because I'm not gonna leave a game. 

Sam

Rebecca selfishly took my answer as well, because I have died on this hill that that is the best scene in all of media, in recorded history; but since she took that one, my favorite scene is, is in Dreadgod.

Will Wight

So there you go, that's your answer. 

Jacob Byrazoto

When you first came up with the idea of Cradle, who's character arc was the first one you had thought of, was there a character that inspired the story initially? 

Will Wight

Obviously I said it earlier that Eithan and his true identity were fundamental to the setting, but this was always Lindon's character story, so Lindon's character arc was the one that I had really come up with, so in terms of Eithan, I had thought, ...yeah, I knew that there was going to be something for him to learn, but I didn't exactly know what that was, before I had written Cradle; but Lindon I was going 'This was all about Lindon', this was about Lindon going from weak to strong, and what kind of person does that and what kind of change that makes in your self and your life and your heart. So that's Lindon. 

Niko

At the end of Reaper, who wins in a fight, Lindon or Yerin. 

Will Wight

The end of Reaper. Lindon. Lindon does, yeah. That's, at the end of Reaper, Lindon is, I think is definitively ahead of Yerin, it's not a stomp, but he does win. 

Anonymous

It seems like dreadbeasts have their spirits fused into their material flesh as they grow more powerful, is this meant to be diametrically opposed to how the heralds do it? 

Will Wight

Yeah, so the end result is kind of similar, of dreadbeasts and Heralds, the point is that Heralds do it when both are stable and ascended, successfully I mean they're merging their spirit and body correctly, and dreadbeasts and dreadgods are doing it incorrectly. Now the dreadgods do it incorrectly, but they do it so synergistically that it ends up being correct, like loops around in on itself. It's, it's like doing it wrong so much that it becomes right, but dreadbeasts have done it wrong and they suffer for it. 

Mike M.K.

Who would win, Monarchs or the most powerful Greek gods

Will Wight

Any single Monarch Solos the entire Greek pantheon. I don't, yeah. Just, annihilates them. So, the feats that Greek gods perform in myth, are not that strong, on a Cradle scale. They don't, do anything like that. So, it's just, you could reasonably expect 'Oh Zeus could conjure a planet wide lightning storm',  but he doesn't, so, going with the feats they actually perform, yeah, any single Monarch Solos the whole setting. So, yup; but if you then assume we're talking about the Greek gods as they are portrayed in modern fiction, at a similar power scale to the Monarchs, then, sure, it depends on how strong you draw all the characters. 

Sage Pizza

If you could go back to the start of Cradle, and make one change, just one, what would that be and why?

Will Wight

I was asked this recently, and I don't have a great answer, to that question because; anything I would want to change would be more of an approach, or a style, or a structural difference or a way I would write differently, more than changing one specific thing. So the actual answer would be, I would want to make Unsouled and Soulsmith more indicative of the experience of the rest of the series. So in my experience or in my view and in lot of it certainly what a lot of people say, BlackFlame is where it starts feeling like the later books feel, and I agree with that. I think, Unsouled and Soulsmith do a lot and have a lot of great parts, and set up the characters and all that, it starts feeling like, 'Oh, this is what Cradle feels like!' around BlackFlame. So if I could find a way to bring that to book 1, especially the quick and easy humor, and the crew dynamic. So I don't know, the problem with, the easiest way to do that would be, to bring Eithan to Sacred Valley, right?; but that changes so much in the story, that it's, that would be hard for me to say I'd want to do that, that's just such a huge directional change for the series. It again makes the series, it already struggles as it is, being, between being Eithan's story and being Lindon's story. It's clearly Lindon's story, because we focus on him, it's his journey and he does all that stuff. We start with him, where as if Eithan comes into Sacred Valley and recruits him, and becomes, he kind of fulfills plot wise, Yerin's role, of taking and teaching him about the outside world. Then, that is another thing that Eithan is taking control of that Lindon is not, so I don't know, yeah. I don't know how I would do that, so it's probably not a change I would make.

Anonymous

Who is Mercy's father?

Will Wight

That's, a common question, that I get a lot. I don't remem.. I think I, I think I covered that a little bit in Dreadgod. I don't think I explicitly said who it was in Dreadgod. So I'm going to continue to not do that.

Anonymous

Have you taken any inspiration from fighting games for the different paths you've created?

Will Wight

Hmm, yes and no. I don't go to any fighting games specifically, so it's not, I can't think of a, fighting game that is specifically inspiring a specific path or ability or whatever. It's hard for me to say, 'yeah, this is based on Guilty Gear', or whatever; but, the aesthetic of a fighting game, I really like, and here's why. So the fighting games are these really colorful larger than life characters that really pop on screen, and they have consistent thematic designs, and their moves come out fluidly, and they play against one another. The kind of concept of a fighting game, if you sort of pull back from a broad perspective, is that you have all of these amazing champions that are, happen to be balanced against one another in single combat. They are all in the setting at the same time, but they are all very different colorful people, and I love that concept. That is exactly what I like in a setting, that is I just love the fact that all these people are kind of, out there somewhere moving and shaking, and yet they're, you stick them in an arena and go 'FIGHT!'. Either one could win, it's pretty cool. So, the concept of a fighting game I think is really neat, and I would love to write a series that has more direct inspiration from fighting games, because, aesthetically, color wise, theme wise, I think that's pretty cool.

Amber

If Lindon and Yerin lived in our world, what would their professions be?

Will Wight

Ooh, that's, uh let's see. I feel like Lindon would end up teaching something, or like academic in some way. That's probably, that's how I kind of how I picture Lindon is he would end up, like getting his PHD in a really obscure subject; and then Yerin probably, I can't imagine Yerin doing anything but fighting. So I'm thinking like, MMA fighter or something. That's her, she's scrappy.

Josiah

When writing this series did you have a plan in place for where you wanted to go, or was everything thought up as you went further and further

Will Wight

I covered that a minute ago (refer to entry #18)