Recent entries

SESender

that's so cool! being a cradle/WW novice (started last year and have devoured everything 2x!) have you written about your process? or what goes into your process that keeps you so prolific (I'm reminded of Brando Sando with your consistency, and delight)

Will Wight

I’ve written about my process here and there, but in short my unofficial motto is “I’m writing the best six-month book I can.”

I prefer reading books that come out regularly to longer books that come out irregularly, so that’s what I write. Plus they tend to be more visible on Amazon and readers engage with them more, thanks to frequent releases refreshing fan engagement and visibility.

It’s kind of a win-win, except for the people who want me to write one eight hundred page book every year or two. For those people it’s a win-lose.

Questioner

Have you played D&D or Pathfinder?

Will Wight

Yes. So I played a lot of D&D. This is my jam. I really like 5th edition, was big fan. Always been a fan of 4th edition though. Nobody else like 4th edition, I was a big fan of fourth edition. The one of my big favourite things in fourth edition of D&D ,for those of you who don't know ,was that one  a lot more like gamier. So it was a lot more like a video game than a table top game. But that entirely depends on how you play it. So you can 100% play it however  you want to and then just use the mechanical powers like they give you like they don't aren't telling you how to play the game. You can do whatever you want. So what I liked about it  was that all the classes were very balanced and you can spend a long time making characters which is just a lot of fun to do. So I really like the fourth edition of DND because the classes were balanced and you can spend forever making a character and it was just fun to have bunch of powers early. So one of the problems with 5th edition is basically  all characters feel the same with some few exceptions.

(Almost drowns)

In fifth edition one of the big problem is basically all characters plays exactly the same regardless what your class is for the fist couple of levels so that can be frustrating.

(swimming levels up)

But I really like fifth edition. It's my favorite edition, I really enjoy it. I'm hopping the 6th edition is really just a refined version of 5th edition.

But you also ask D&D or Pathfinder. And someone else is asking right now - Have you have tried Pathfinder 2nd edition?

I have. I was not impressed. I didn't like it very much. I was expecting and hoping for that they had taken a lot of advancement that D&D 5th edition came up with and they had moved it forward from there. But instead they started way back  at the second pathfinder and kinda moved it forward. They sorta moved it from Pathfinder - the original which is based on 3.5 edition D&D and to one that is more like 4th edition D&D so they are kinda like ten years behind is what it feltlike to me. I really didn't like it. There were a few little elements that I liked that  were action economy thing where you have the different uh- It was just very intuitive, it's a lot better than move, standard, minor. I liked that. 

I also thought that it was weird that races were called ancestries. I mean biomes don't call them  races but con species, that's what they are. So it felt like calling them ancestries was just a way to get it to spell out ABC which I thought was just  kinda odd. That was a nitpick. But I just didn't enjoy it very much. I thought I was disappointed. I had real high expectation for Pathfinder 2nd edition. I was like oh man they are about to show wizards (D&D publisher : Wizards of the Coast) how to do fifth edition right. And then instead they were instead like - here's how to do fourth edition. Wrong! So I was disappointed.

Questioner

Are we going to get a WillVerse version of the Avengers, as in people from different book series crossover and meet in series beyond.

Will Wight

That was never my intention, I never intended to do that, it was never my design but I also, as I get to know the characters and flush them out and I get to know the universe more it is something I could see potentially doing at some point. Just because if I end up getting a really good idea for it that I think is fun and I do it, the big problem with that is the actual Avengers (the marvel movies) require you to watch 20 movies right, and really only like 12 of them are really necessary but still that’s a lot of movies. However, that’s a total investment time of like 40 hours as opposed to reading 20 books which would take probably twice that. So, its more of an exception, much less reading a bunch of different series so I don't know how practical it is because then people would be like...Who's that character? So, I don’t know, but it might be fun. It's not something that I am married to, or necessarily against. It seems like the kind of thing that would be hostile to new readers, you know what I mean? It's like oh yeah you have to have read all these other series to read... cool, cool, cool.

Questioner

I've really enjoyed seeing the abidan heavenly universe see development and expansion over different series as they edge. Do you think we'll ever reach the point where a novel (or series) is entirely set in the outer universe where the Abidan and Vroshir openly operate?

Will Wight

Yes absolutely, I do think... someone’s asking me, will there be an Abidan Series? Absolutely there will, one of the big problems... its controversial the Abidan sections in cradle which make total sense because they don't directly contribute to the main plot...yet. So, I understand why those are controversial, I get that. That was a design decision I made early in Cradle’s process, and I stuck to it. I don't know if that was the correct decision or not, I guess history will tell. But if I do one in the Abidan world or worlds, that would the primary universe. So, I would like to do that but probably not, that’s probably not going to be the next thing, I probably want to do just something completely unrelated. 

Questioner

What is your favorite part of being a successful author.

Will Wight

Ooh, Huh. That’s an interesting question, that's a question I feel like I should get more often than I do. I’ve gotten it before but it's one of those I would have thought everyone wonders about.

You know this sounds cheesy but its legit true. My favorite part of being a successful author is that people are enjoying the books, seriously. The rest of it is cool... I guess, but I prefer, I honestly would rather have stayed anonymous and have nobody know who I was like Pirate Aba has managed to do because I don't particularly like the attention, I would rather just be writing books. But I really like the sort of...proof I guess that people really do like the books. They are enjoying them, and I think that's really cool. That's a really fun experience to me and the funny thing is that doesn’t really translate directly to confidence like it probably should. So, I really should be like yeah everybody likes the books, so I feel like everybody likes the books, but I don’t. I'm always super nervous about every book release people are going to be disappointed and be like...wait a second this guy has no idea what he is doing so... Yup, so that's my favorite part of it.

Questioner

If the main characters of your other series (Simon, Calder, and Shera) were to move to cradle and become sacred artists, what would be their underlord revelations?

Will Wight

I can give you an off the cuff answer but not a designed answer.

I don’t know. I guess that would depend, they would have to become different people in Cradle, so that would be... They would have to adapt, so I’m not sure. 

[Talks about the need to chop wood in the video game , then repeats the question]

So I'm not sure what that would be... I can't do that off the top of my -- I was going to give you a flippant answer off the top of my head but I cant do it. I want to give it the thought it deserves but I can't answer that. Lets see... Shera's, I don't know that requires to much thought. It really requires a lot of deliberation on what really fundamentally motivates the character and that's not something im prepared to do off the top of my head. [Reads a question about Elysia but doesn't answer it then reads a suggestion on Shera's revelation from chat and laughs] Yeah probably Shera's would be "I Sleep".

Ben Jason

Favourite eastern webnovel you've read?

Will Wight

See, I was sort of answering this earlier, its hard for me to answer favorite books/favorite authors. There's so many qualifiers to that and it changes based on what I'm thinking about so i mentioned a few; Coiling Dragon, I have read Mother of Learning but that’s not an eastern web novel so that doesn't count, somebody in chat mentioned Mother of Learning.so i like Coiling dragon a lot. I like, Against the gods. Someone’s asking me if I have read name of the wind, that’s another... come on man... of course, of course I have read name of the wind. Who hasn’t read the name of the wind?

So eastern novels, Coiling Dragon, I liked Against the Gods for a while... I dropped that, its kind of... I liked it for a while. And let’s see, I really liked... Second coming of Gluttony I really liked. Solo leveling, I'm the Evil Lord of an Inter-Galactic Empire, and weakest mage are the ones I’m keeping up with now. To be a power in the shadows is great.

So, people are asking me about I Shall Seal the Heavens, all these web novels people are asking me if I've read...Yes. Everybody’s asking me title by title have you read this, have you read this, I have tried... Every web novel name I have seen i have either read or tried or started to read. I have read some significant chunk of every single name that I just saw. Sooo, yes. So, there's just that some of them just aren't my cup of tea. 

I Shall Seal the Heavens is one of the ones that people talk about that is one of the classics of the genre and I have tried to read it, I have tried so many times and I always get about halfway into volume two and I just quit. I don't like it, it's not my cup of tea.

[Reads twitch Chat and laughs]

So "InfinitePool" is getting me to plug A Will Eternal, it is another good web novel on WuxiaWorld I really like.

Questioner

Have you read Lupin? In the original French?

Will Wight

Yes. The original French, yes but its been a long time it was a translation I read in high school.

Miro

Is there a question we forgot to ask but definitely should?

Will Wight

Yikes, I feel like that gives me the opportunity to come up with such a cool question but I can't think of it... Lets see... [Will repeats the question].[Siiiiip]

Hmmm... I cant think of anything. I wish i could... i can think of some flippant answers to that like some jokes but I want to give you a good thoughtful response to that and I can't. 

Questioner

So ok with getting constantly poisoned by the Heavens glory school? While he's running away in the Labyrinth he comments that all his soulfire has run out and his body is weak because he can get tired while running. So why on earth would he think that he would remain safe from poison while in the valley? Sounds incredibly stupid.

Will Wight

Let me be clear about this: the poison did absolutely nothing.

Yerin thought it did because she was young and weak at the time. Tim was 100% correct about the effect the poison would have on his body. It was none.

Vizslaraptor

What medium do you have the best profit margins from? We just want to make sure the most of our dollar gets into the author’s pockets.

Will Wight

Ah, ok. I appreciate that question, I know it seems like I made that question up, but I did not someone else really thought about it. So, it's purchasing the eBook that I get the most revenue from. Buying the paperback, doesn't... I get less from that than I do from an eBook sale, or a comparable amount. Reading on Kindle Unlimited does get me some, so if you don't have the money and you want to read on Kindle Unlimited by all means read it on Kindle Unlimited, I'm not stopping anybody from reading however they can get it. But yeah, if you really wanted to know what version makes me the most money it is buying the eBook.

Questioner

If you had the ability to polymorph into one mundane earth creature at will which creature would you chose?

Will Wight

I don't know, I’m thinking of... So, to illustrate to you where my imagination goes, so I immediately am like I want to pick something weird so I immediately thought of like, a jellyfish. I thought that would be like something that I'm like... Ok, you know it's extremely different from the human experience so that would be interesting. But then I think it would probably be something that I would want to be... be safe... something that it doesn’t have any natural predators. I don't know, a blue whale? But then that’s super inconvenient so... Something that is, probably like a.. a housecat probably because then people would take care of me and I wouldn't be in any danger from the natural world and I can blend in, in pretty much any environment. So, yeah that’s pretty... that would probably be my practical answer. In terms of which one would I want to turn into... hmmmm, Silverback Gorilla.

Dr. Enigma

How do you feel about the Risk of Rain 2 version of the bandit, compared to the original?

Will Wight

I was just really excited to get the bandit because they said that we were going to have...Risk of Rain 2 is a video game... and I loved Risk of Rain 1 and I really loved the bandit and when they said they were coming out with another class I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be the enforcer because they had adapted aspects of his kit into other characters. So, I had my fingers really crossed from enforcer to, enforcer-bandit. So, I was really excited.

Wodan

Have you ever considered writing a detective story?

Will Wight

Here's what I have considered, I have considered writing a mystery story set in a fantasy universe...this is the comfort corner, I'm going to get my comfort back... So, I have considered writing a mystery story set in a fantasy universe. I would say that the one thing that I find very difficult about that genre is if you're writing a mystery story there is an ideal point at which the reader could figure it out but doesn't. So, they have all the information to figure it out but they don't necessarily because there are other possibilities or you kind of slight of hand them. But the problem is even in most Agatha Christie stories, and I would say she is probably the pinnacle of the... at least the most prolific in the sub-genre. A lot of times it's not really that way it really just sets it up so it could be anybody. And that's not as satisfying for me as a reader, so I don't enjoy those as much. However, the other way of doing it is way harder and I'm not sure I'm capable of doing that.

Questioner

I saw a WoW quote where you mentioned you would have rather written Cradle in first person. What would be the benefits of doing this? Do you still feel the same way?

Will Wight

By the way have I ever mentioned that I think it's really funny that word of will quotes are WoW's, I've always like that. It's kind of like calling it the Willverse, I just think that's really funny. I don’t know why that just tickles my funny bone.

I may have said that, I'm sure I did if it is in the archive but I don't know that that is necessarily true now. I think there is some advantages/disadvantages to first person. I really feel like, the reason I probably said that is because the only reason I wrote it in 3rd person wasn't an intentionally design decision based on the number of characters, it was because I had written in 3rd person before and I found it to be easier. One of the reasons I thought it to be easier, I thought later ... man I wish i had written it in 1st person was because A. That's what a lot of the web novels are because they are all from one perspective so a lot of them are in 1st person. And secondarily because I had never done it before so I thought it would push me, except in certain short stories, so I thought it would push me to learn and grow as an author and I had already written a lot of books in 3rd person, so it was just something I thought would fit kind of the... story I was going for and also push me in a way. So that is sort of what I meant by that and there are definitely pros/cons to 1st person but I now am satisfied with it being in 3rd person. Im not.. I'm fine with it

Isaac Loredo

Just like last time I’ll ask again, How are you? You doing okay? How was the break?

Will Wight

I'm doing well, I just got off a break, the break was good it was very refreshing. It was weird because kind of after a month I was like... Ok time to get back to work! Because that is the longest break I’ve ever gotten before. Then I had a couple more weeks and I was like...Oof man I’m really glad I had more time and then I had more time. So it was good and it was very helpful and I really was able to do a lot, I’m glad I had so much time but it was odd, I don't know how to adapt to it yet and I am interested to see how the process is the next book after I recover. 

Questioner

What was day one of your vacation like?

Will Wight

It was mostly me collasping to death.

Questioner

Is there a lot of romance in Bloodline?

Will Wight

Compared to the early parts of Cradle where there is no romance, yes quite a bit. Compared to a novel with a lot of romance, no.

Arch (paraphrased)

Whats the mindset behind behind giving your books away for free so often, how does this lead to more sales/fans?

Will Wight (paraphrased)

Alright, so those are two different answers to be honest.

So, the mindset behind giving them away for free so often is...We can and we think people like it. That is why we started giving them away, that is why we kept giving them away. That was ever the idea came from... we were like, people like this and it's something we can do.

We expected that to cost us, we expected that to be a big issue. Especially when we give away all my books or all of a series, were like... Oh man, we are really going to see a loss in sales from that. Only it turns out we don’t, so we haven't really seen a problem with sales because of that. In a lot of cases quite the opposite, we see that the sales even while it's free that the kindle unlimited reads increase so we did not expect that.

I feel like that is two different answers because...What mindset lead to that vs what result does it have.

So then it leads to more sales than fans because people try it, people try the books and when you give away stuff for free people like it so then they recommend it to other people and word of mouth spreads.

One of the other things that has really led to more new fans than we expected is Audible having all the books on Audio and Audible Plus. We are available on Audible Plus. The Cradle series certainly and you can listen to Cradle for free as part of your subscription. We have heard from a lot of people who have discovered the series just because they were looking for something to read on Audible Plus and that cool. That was an exciting thing to learn.

Elliot

Would you be open to doing streams more often? Not just before the release of a book? Perhaps you could talk about the writing process, daily life, maybe even stream some gameplay. It'd be hard for you to do it too often but perhaps once every month or every two months? I have basically no shot of seeing you in person, so the streams are as close as I can get.

Will Wight

Yes, yeah, I would be open to that. Every time I do one of these, I think...I could do that more often except then I lose my voice the next day. But other than that, I'm like, I could do this more often. 

When im not streaming im like... So I could setup a stream or I could do... anything else with my time. So, it is one of those things where I’m like... should I setup a stream or should I go write a book.

Questioner

What is the best magic system or mage class you have played in a game

Will Wight

Hmm. I don't know, weirdly the first thing that popped into my mind is Terraria and Terraria doesn't have a magic system it just has mage items. They are really fun and colorful, and they have a lot of different effects so I always enjoy playing a mage in Terraria. I don't why that was the first thing that popped into my head, but it was. Hmmm I don't know.