Recent entries

Questioner

Would you ever write a novel of someone who was transported to a pioneer world by the Abidan?

Will Wight

Actually, yes.  That was something I came really close to writing already.  It was something that I wanted to write kind of as a break book, in between Cradle.  Of course, I had Elder Empire, which was not so much of a break, as an intensification of the action.  The opposite of a break, whatever that is.  A seam?  I don't know.  That's the opposite of a break.  But I really wanted to do that, because I talked with some LitRPG authors, and they mentioned that I had brought up the idea of a Minecraft/Terraria LitRPG.  And I was like, I know there are a million of those.  And they were like, I don't know that there are.  And so I looked it up, and there are quite a few of those in Japanese, but there aren't too many in English, or at least there weren't a year or two ago, when I had this discussion.

So I said wow, that I had already outlined a book that involved a group of people on a pioneer world, the Abidan, where they're just kind of building a world.  Literally just starting from scratch, figuring out the magic system, and all that stuff.  I also had a story that I not only outlined, but also wrote a few chapters of, years and years ago, before House of Blades, in which a modern Earth-like but not technically Earth world had magic all of a sudden introduced,  and so it was like this magic apocalypse thing and it was slowly becoming more magical and the whole world was breaking down.  Which at the time was a new concept and is not nearly a new concept anymore because a lot of people did it, and they did a great job. So I missed the boat on that one, but that was fun to write.  I actually reread the first few chapters of that and I was like, that's pretty good.  Pretty good, young Will.  Not too bad.  So that was a... I kind of combined some aspects of that into this pioneer world developing idea.

Questioner

Were you originally planning on writing a series with romance in it? How do you feel about the community's response to the romance?

Will Wight

Was I originally planning on writing a series with romance in it?  You know, when I started Traveler's Gate, I was like, "Haha! I'm going to do  series with no romance."  Because all series have romance, and it frankly doesn't add anything to most series.  Well, not to most series.  Movies, so I was really comparing it to movies, and individual books or short series or trilogies.  So I was going, ok, in these short series and trilogies, it doesn't add a whole lot.  It's just there because it's supposed to be there, so I was like "Aha! I'm going to buck the trend! I'm going to do one with minimal or no romance."  And then I was very quickly like, "Nah, this doesn't really make any sense."  So the characters just, kind of, interact with one another.  They would be attracted to one another, which is logical.  So that became quickly a policy that I abandoned, although I still am not super comfortable writing romance.

So therefore, in this series, as Cradle went on, I knew that at some point in the series I was going to have to write some romance.  However, as I said in a recent blog post, I didn't expect Cradle to blow up quite the way it has.

(Will is briefly distracted by the threat of things exploding.)

So, I did not expect to get the point where I had to develop these characters to that degree, that it was going to be very important for me to write the romance.  But in fact, as I continued, I was like, "Yup, I'm going to have to develop this into a romance."  But it felt natural for the characters, it didn't feel like... I'm talking about it like I was forced into it because, you know, I was.  But I was forced into it by the natural progression of the story, so it made sense, where the characters would go, it felt right.  And so I knew I would have to stretch myself as a writer and challenge myself to develop character relationships as naturally as I could.  So that is what I am trying to do.

Questioner

Is Emriss considered a sacred beast?

Will Wight

She is an ancestral tree, well she was an ancestral tree, she is the Remnant of an ancestral tree.

Questioner

Did the Path of Twin Stars almost have another name, and if yes, what was it?

Will Wight

I don't think it did, I'm pretty sure it was the Heart of Twin Stars from the very beginning. The Path of Twin Stars was always named that because it's after the Heart of Twin Stars Technique, which is the logical name for the technique.

Questioner

Do we ever learn Pride's full height?

Will Wight

While I used a lot of imprecise measurements for Pride, I think he was just a couple inches under 5 feet if i remember correctly. So, he is like 4'10", something like that...I don’t remember. I do actually have heights for him I'm just not going to get my laptop out and look that up precisely. But uh, he is short.

And - Lindon is at the high end of 6 feet so he is significantly taller than Pride. So from Lindon's perspective...Real short

Questioner

Are you going to include oreos canonically as a spiritual food in cradle in the books?

Will Wight

Uh, I did already. I explained a couple of times. First of all, the bloopers, people assume the bloopers aren't cannon but I don’t know why you think all the bloopers aren't cannon. There was already an Oreo blooper and someone also asked me a question about the greatest confectioneries and I answered about the honey finger sect who does research on chocolate and cream to create the ultimate cookie and one day they will succeed and cradle will be changed forever.

Questioner

Is it safe to say that Simon has the mindset to join the Abidan while Lindon doesnt?

Will Wight

Um, can't comment on that.

kcudlow

All Yerin needs is the house Sophara got to put the team in so she can teleport them to wherever she wants to go. Would that work? It's essentially what Lil Blue does when she's inside Lindon's void key.

Will Wight

Unfortunately it can’t work with the outlined rules of spatial travel, or (for instance) Charity would have tucked Lindon inside a special void key before teleporting directly to Sky’s Edge.

kcudlow

How does it work for Lil Blue while she's inside Lindon's void key? Is she outside it when he travels with Charity or is she exempt from the rule?

Will Wight

Spirits and living humans “weigh” differently, and even among spirits at her state of existence, Little Blue is particularly “light.”

A regular undeveloped Riverseed would “weigh” virtually nothing.

Question

Are the Akura Path of Seven Pages unique? Is there only one "Book of Eternal Night" as long Mercy is alive none can walk her Path?

Will Wight

In that particular case, yes, there is only one book of Eternal Night and as long as Mercy is alive there will be nothing else.In the case of other books of seven pages, I think most of them are unique. I don't think all of them are. If I had to answer off the top of my head...Which I do because that is the whole premise, I believe that there are some of them that are not unique. Some of them are sort of mass produced…Like, not really but this is like two or three copies.

Questioner

Has Fury or Charity penned a book of seven pages?

Will Wight

No. No they have not. So what Charity did was Charity developed her book with her grandmother so - With Malice. Malice had started had this dream shadow book and she and Charity finished it together but once Charity started showing signs of ascending to sage, they finished the rest of it together. So it was an unfinished booked and that was true in a lot of like, there was a lot of things, a lot of these books Malice didn't do herself. So the first person who carried the book or the first person who helped her make it or whatever was the person who helped her finish it.

Questioner

Are there new books of Seven Pages being written?

Will Wight

Not anymore. Not really. They typically have more books than they have people capable of using the books so there’s really not a point in developing more.

 

Questioner

Is ascending harder if you don't join the Abidan?

Will Wight

In a sense, yeah. We're obviously going to go into that process a little later in the series. But in a sense it is harder in the sense that the Abidan want you to join them, or at least support them. So one of the things the previous books have said that the Abidan only get a recruit from cradle once every century or whatever. That is... that’s a count of people who do end up ascending and joining the Abidan. The number of people who ascend is greater.

Not everybody who ascends joins the Abidan, a lot of people just kind of ascend to the next world and...chill. One other fun fact about ascension, you can bring other people with you and they do not count as having been ascended. This also ties into the question earlier about are there people in the Abidan who are weaker than sages. There are people who were brought along with other people who ascended so they can be.. you know, you don’t have to ascend completely alone. You can bring people who were not qualified. They are not treated the same, they of course don't have the same level of power or skill or whatever but it is something that can be done.

Questioner

Aside from Sha Miara, who was the youngest when they advanced to monarch? Who was the oldest?

Will Wight

So among the current monarchs, I think...Emriss was the oldest when she advanced to monarch because she's a tree, so they advance slowly.I'm not sure is the youngest. Someone has asked this before...It could be the person who asked this now, I don't know, it's a mystery. I didn't remember then and I don't remember now. I don't know if I ever actually came up with an answer to that.

Questioner

How do you wind down/reset after an intense period of writing?

Will Wight

Slowly, Sam says, yes, My assistant gnome has spoken. Slowly is the correct answer. I uh, boy.... So what I like to do, the way I like to write, is I like to lock myself kind of... in a room, or a ship, for a week or two at a time. Then I just spend all my time writing, it's just what I do sort of from beginning to end. That has worked well so when I am done with that, it's typically been a long time so at the end of every day I’m really tired and I typically will play my Switch for an hour or whatever then go to sleep. Then I, when I’m done with that, I don’t know... when I am done with that, I crash. So I get home after that and I just kind of hole up and do nothing for a while I guess is the answer. I...uh, I just sort of crash, so I go home and I just sort of veg out for a couple of days. When it is really bad I sort of literally do nothing. Sort of just kind of lay on my bed and look at my computer forever and then hours pass and I'm like... "I don't know what I just did... maybe nothing...who knows? I have no memory from that period".

Occasionally I wake up and there's a bloody corpse of a bear and I’m in the woods and my clothes have been shredded and there is a lot of hair and I have dreams of the full moon but I don't....you know, I don't think that's weird or anything.

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

How often do you read your own books?

Will Wight

However often I release books, so about twice a year I read my own books. Because I read the previous books in order to brush up on the next one, because is still of course I still have all my notes and all that and I generally remember what I put in my last book anyway. But you know it's never the same like there's a lot of times where - So shortly after Unsouled came out, I couldn't remember what Lindon's Dads name was because I was remembering all the names that I had potentially come up with. So I remembered it as one of a list of possibilities but I couldn't remember which one I settled on. - So that happens a lot. I remember what I planned to do as much as I remember what I actually did. So reading the books helps me refresh 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

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.

Questioner

Is Yerin stronger than the Sword Sage was at her age?

Will Wight

Spoilers.

Questioner

Which character is the most fun to write?

Will Wight

Ok, look.  Ok look, alright.  So, characters that are fun to write.  To me...

(in response to a different comment: Eithan is a few inches shorter than Lindon.  Lindon has grown some over the course of the series.) 

To me, the most fun characters to write are the ones that I can either write off the top of my head, or that are just fun, just like genuinely just amusing to write.  So I really like writing Eithan; Eithan is just a lot of fun, I hada really good grasp on Eithan before I wrote the series.  Bliss is another one; Bliss is another one I just genuinely enjoy writing.  Because I had a good enough grasp on the series, and they are interesting and unique enough. (brief pause for Will to blame his lack of game progress on us.)  So, those are my favorite characters to write. Dross, and... Ok, so I say Dross, but Dross is not actually one of my favorite characters to write, not because he's not fun, but because it is difficult. So I always have to do, well usually have to do a Dross pass.  So like Yerin, I have to do a pass specifically for Dross's voice, to make sure it is consistent, because it ends up being a little too much like Eithan, and a little too much frankly, like me.  And I want him to sound like Dross, and not like me.

Sage of Quotes

Would Lindons remnant have a functional Hunger arm?

Will Wight

It would not.

Sage of Quotes

Tim said heaven's glory school jades would die but they have treasures in their halls unless they share the other entrances which seems to generous for SV

Will Wight

HG has been into shallow labyrinth before. That’s how they know there are treasures inside. The Unsouled quote is referring to the Fallen Leaf school and (pretty sure) the Nethergate, the biggest and most famous entrance in SV.Yeah, just checked. It’s the Nethergate. That’s in a totally different mountain.