Recent entries

Questioner

Eithan vs. Hellsing: I think Hellsing would lose, but how would the fight go?

Eithan vs. Queen Mab from the Dresden Files

Eithan vs. Thor

Yerin vs. the Juggernaut (from x-men)

Lindon vs. the Wolverine

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR BLACKFLAME**

Eithan vs. the turtle in Blackflame: We know already that the turtle will win the awesomeness fight, but in a death match, which would walk out? (The turtle was mentioned in the previous blog)

Will Wight

1.) Eithan vs. Alucard

I'm assuming you mean Alucard as an individual and not the Hellsing Organization as a whole. Eithan would win because, as overwhelming as Alucard looks, he has a number of exploitable weaknesses.

One-on-one, Eithan would just keep cutting him up until he fully released his powers or ran out of regeneration. If he fully released his powers, then his original body is vulnerable, and since Eithan can instantly sense everything around him in a fairly broad space, he would know that and kill the original.

Even in the situation where he had to go around killing all the individuals, an army isn't really much threat to an Underlord.

2.) Eithan vs. Queen Mab

I...am going to skip over this one for spoiler reasons.

There's a subplot in Blackflame that revolves around what Path Eithan is on, and I can't answer this question without affecting your interpretation of the Path.

3.) Eithan vs. Thor

If you mean the Marvel comics Thor, that would be a good fight. Thor can fly and summon lightning, which would be difficult to deal with, but in the end if Eithan was really motivated to kill him, he could.

No specifics, again, because I don't want to influence your reading of Eithan's Path.

4.) Yerin vs. the Juggernaut

I'm not sure...this is a cool matchup to consider. I'm playing this fight out in my head, and I think it would come down to how long it took Yerin to figure out that she needed to get his helmet off.

She couldn't break the armor, but at the same time he'd be too slow to hit her. I'd think she'd probably kill him through gaps in the armor, cutting him slowly with sword madra. Death by a thousand cuts.

5.) Lindon vs. Wolverine

Wolverine tears him apart. No contest.

Now, if you mean Lindon versus A wolverine, I think he could probably handle that.

6.) SPOILER ALERT

Eithan vs. The Turtle

NONE CAN STAND AGAINST THE MIGHT OF THE TURTLE!

(...but not really, Eithan would win.)

Questioner

Let's get some Sanderson up in here! Let's pit Simon against a Mistborn. I would still give the edge to Simon, but the push/pull on metals might give the Mistborn an opening to get a solid hit in.

I would say Simon vs a Knight Radiant, but we don't really know what an armor-bearing full-oathed knight is like yet.

Will Wight

Yeah, Simon vs. a Mistborn would be a BIT weird, because their powers are so similar. And pushing/pulling on metals would make things awkward for Simon at first.

But even if he drops his sword and fistfights, I still think he wins. They would need a significant supply of atium to even keep up with dolls + Nye essence, and even if they could, he seems stronger and more resilient than they are.

Based on what we've seen of the Knights Radiant, I suspect an oathed-up, Shardplate-armored, Shardblade-wielding Knight Radiant beats him handily. The armor is too big of a factor to ignore.

Questioner

1. Incarnatios Zakereth v. Valin. I believe these two are the strongest, more than Alin and Indirial. Simon needed the white light to beat the king, so I say Zakereth wins.

2. Simon vs Naruto, Ichigo, Luffy, Mueruem individually. Naruto can lift about 600 tons (he lifted a giant rhino in the Pain fight). Bleach characters can slash meteroires easily. Simon might stand a chance against Luffy. Probably not. Simon is barely stronger than Earthbound, who have bear strength in Steel Diplomacy.

3. Suriel vs Whis and Omni king. The omni king destroyed six universes because he was mad. I think DBZ wins. By the way Will, is there any Wuxia character who could murder Goku (Suriel might) or Superman?

4. Simon vs Rand, Vin from Mistborn, Brent Week chatacters. I havent finished the series so I think only Rand could kill Simon

5. Eithan vs Ywach from Bleach. Ywach can literally change the present. You kill him, he just changes fate and recressurects himself. He is like Eithan, except more omnipotent. I think Eithan could win here as he would dode everything and Ywach does have a weakness with a silver arrow that rakes his powers away. Yeah. massive Dues Ex Machina

Will Wight

1.) Incarnation Zakareth vs. Valin

Zakareth has the edge here. Ragnarus powers were largely what brought down Incarnation Valin, in the end.

2a.) Simon vs. Naruto

I feel like Naruto would be a pain to fight. Tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu creates a thousand clones, and Simon has essentially no AoE. That said, Naruto is also pretty vulnerable; he doesn't have a power that stops him from dying if he gets cut in half.

This would be a weird fight, and I think it comes down to where in the story Naruto is. Since you're referencing Sage-mode Naruto, that's pretty far in, so I'd give it to him. I don't think there's anything Simon could do to efficiently combat the clones, so while Naruto doesn't have the firepower to threaten Simon as much as some other characters do, he would eventually wear Simon down.

But at the peak of Naruto's power, he's older than Simon, which may give him an unfair advantage. If they were the same age, and thus Simon has been given longer to explore the House, I think Simon might be able to get this one.

This is, of course, assuming that neither character is protected by plot armor.

2b.) Simon vs. Ichigo

Ichigo has no defined powers, what he can and can't do varies from week to week, and the magic system has no rules. Simon kills Ichigo and sticks his head on a pike as a warning to future authors who might be developing a system of superpowers that make no sense.

2c.) Simon vs. Luffy

It's established that Luffy can be cut by bladed weapons, so I give it to Simon.

He can counter Gear Second with Nye essence, Gear Third with steel, and Gear Fourth by virtue of Valinhall powers lasting longer. If he needs to, he can wear the mask.

Bottom line is, Simon can endure Luffy's attacks, while Luffy can't take Simon's.

2d.) Simon vs. Meruem

Meruem gets it hands-down. He has virtually unlimited strength and resilience, and he learns and adapts instantly. He's better than Simon at everything Simon is good at.

Meruem wins, Simon is turned into a Chimera Ant.

3.) Suriel vs. Whis and Omni King

The Omni King is established as omnipotent, but as seen onscreen, his powers take time to activate. He starts to will Suriel out of existence, at which point Suriel just leaves that reality entirely.

Whis wouldn't participate in this fight; it's above his pay grade.

3a.) Is there any wuxia character who could murder Goku or Superman?

Yes.

4.) Simon vs. a bunch of characters

I'm...not really sure how to answer this.

Vin's powers are pretty similar to Simon's, but I think Simon takes it. Rand is basically Fantasy Jesus at the end, so I don't think that's even fair. If all of Brent Weeks' characters ganged up on Simon, they would certainly win.

5.) Eithan vs. Yhwach

Bleach's magic system makes no sense, Yhwach's powers are never adequately explained and have no rules, and he only wins or loses at the whims of the author.

Eithan wins by virtue of having consistent powers. He dismembers Yhwach and paints a message in his blood: "MAGIC IS ONLY COOL IF IT HAS LIMITATIONS" as a warning to the world.

Questioner

Apprentice Match up: Simon vs Kylar Stern (Brent Weeks, Night Angel)

Master Match up: Kai vs Durzo Blint (Same series as above)

Doubles: Lindon and Yerin vs Atticus and Granuaile (Iron Druid Series)

Queen/Ruler Match up: Leah vs Egwene al'Vere (Wheel of Time)

Will Wight

1.) Apprentices

This may be egotistical of me, but I give Simon the edge in this contest. He has strength greater than Kylar has ever displayed, and the magic-eating properties of the black ka'kari will be of no use against Valinhall, while Kylar's own unformed magic won't slow Simon down.

I say Simon cuts his head off without having to put on the mask.

2.) Masters

The tricky part here is that the full extent of Durzo's power is never revealed. I would imagine he has the edge, by virtue of centuries more experience. Even if he can't kill Kai immediately, he could almost certainly withdraw and gather enough information for a more lethal second attempt.

That said, since he's passed on the black ka'kari to Kylar, his abilities are more limited. Plus he's lost his immortality and his accelerated healing.

Too close to call. I think it might come down to luck, unless Durzo has learned some secret magical skills over the course of his endless journeys.

3.) Doubles

I'm afraid I don't know enough about the Iron Druid series to answer this. I've only read the first two books, and I don't remember who Granuaile is. Isn't she his apprentice or something?

4.) Queens The hard part about this matchup is the incompatibility of the two magic systems. Leah can't block/shield anyone from the Source, because she's not a channeler, and she can't sense, slash, or counter weaves. In the same vein, though, Egwene can't sense Leah's presence or power, and can't counter any of her powers.

Barring balefire, I'll give it to Leah. Her eye is more likely to be able to detect Egwene's magic than Egwene is to be able to sense Leah's abilities, and Leah has access to enough weapons in Ragnarus that her first strike on an unaware target will be enough.

But if Egwene decides the situation is grave enough for balefire and gets the chance to use it, there's really nothing Leah can do but be burned out of existence.

Questioner

What do you think about Simon at the end of House of Blades before Crimson and his mask vs Harry Dresden with his Winter Knight powers?

Will Wight

Considering the nerf in recent books to Harry's Winter Knight powers, I'm not sure they're an advantage at all. Which I'm still bitter about.

That said, Harry would still win that one. In House of Blades, Simon doesn't have access to the ghost armor yet, so he can't block magic. So, even though he has superspeed and Harry doesn't, Harry has dealt with enough super-fast threats that he'd be ready.

He could stop Simon with his shield bracelet for long enough to catch him in place and burn him alive.

Questioner

Gotta go with Simon (with the mask of course) vs the flash golden era. Nye essence vs speed force. My favorite from your work vs my favorite from DC.

Will Wight

You know, I'm not a big DC buff, but my understanding of the Flash drawing on the Speed Force is that he's basically as fast as he needs to be.At first, Simon is going to be able to keep up and fight back by drawing deeply on the Nye essence, but he'll never be able to land that one good hit that would kill the Flash. At the same time, the Flash's punches won't do much against someone drawing on the steel.But at a certain point, the Flash is going to get so fast that Simon won't be able to do anything. At that point, the Flash will vibrate his hand through Simon's heart.

Natsuguri

So a High Gold decides to fight a Copper despite there being a higher ranking sacred artist right next to him. The High Gold kicks the Copper in the head while he is unaware of the High Gold's presence, and on his knees. That doesn't kill the Copper as the High Gold expects and he realises that the Copper is now Iron. The High Gold acts all reasonable to put the Iron off his guard then makes a flashy and painful strike to distract the Iron so he can sneak around to attack the Iron from behind. The High Gold arrogantly assumes he's delivered a mortal blow. The High Gold the tries smarmying up the the more powerful sacred artist and breaks the cardinal rule of 'don't turn your back on an enemy you're fighting!'. The seriously wounded Iron disimpales himself and attacks his would be assassin from behind because, well High Gold presented his back to the person he'd just tried to kill, why wouldn't you in such a mismatched fight? And yet it is the Iron who is labelled with cowardice and dishonour.

Is it just me?

Will Wight

I know this aspect of the series frustrates people sometimes, but it sounds like you’re reading it exactly as intended.

Did Lindon do anything wrong? No. The hurt and embarrassed people in power are reframing things so that it looks like they were in the right.

Does it make any sense that the powerless person they were picking on could possibly be the offender and THEM the victims? No, but they can get away with claiming they are and no one is going to call them on it for Lindon’s sake. The witnesses know the truth, the truth just doesn’t really matter.

It goes back to what the First Elder tells Lindon in book one. Essentially, even if he does nothing wrong, if the people in charge say he did, then he did. The truth is whatever they say because they’re stronger than he is.

So the definition of honor in Cradle is inconsistent. Yeah, it is. Everybody’s got their own definition and they constantly shift the goalposts to make themselves look better.

There’s at least one negative review of Unsouled where they say that the honor in Cradle isn’t anything like real, historical notions of honor in China. Absolutely right. This is “honor” in a fictional society where more advanced people are better in every way than less advanced people.

You don’t want a reputation for picking on people weaker than you because then someone higher on the totem pole might have a reason to beat the crap out of you, but at the same time, you can throw your weight around as long as you have an excuse.

SirDrezland

Is there any answer as to why Lindon could endure the memories of an archlord and not go into a coma or die?

Kilorrulo

Most likely in cases like the tablet Lindon observed if the original memories weren’t too complex or filled with high level skills/madra uses, the requirement to view them is lower. Since the archlord was just sitting down and writing about a foundation level technique, it wasn’t too much for Lindon to bear.

Will Wight

This is correct. There’s nothing inherently about an Archlord’s memories that make them difficult to read for someone of a lower advancement level. Unless they use techniques that are too advanced.

Ziel steered Lindon to a memory that was basically an Archlord sitting down and writing.

chrisisbest197

When Calder first meets Ozriel in OKAK I kind of expected him to be a little more...angry. I mean Ozriel and the Abidan literally imprisoned Calder and all the other humans with these hellish monstrosities for all of eternity, with zero consideration for their suffering. And then on top of that Ozriel threatens to wipe them all out if the Elders escape, which by the way would not permanently kill the elders so the humans still get the short end of the stick.

I just expected Calder to at least be more mad about it. Kinda like how he stood up to the emperor regarding the prison.

Will Wight

You know, I actually wrote a draft of this conversation in which Calder lost his temper and challenged Ozriel more directly.

I changed it because it didn’t feel organic to me, when I read it in context. It felt like he was powerlessly raging against something he had no ability to influence.

I also thought it read more like what the younger version of Calder might have done than the current Calder who’s focused on saving the world from an imminent crisis.

But I did consider it! And I do think getting angry at the injustice could have been consistent with Calder’s character.

I just ultimately decided the reaction in the final version was MORE consistent. But you be the judge! (Or the Judge...)

chrisisbest197

It's not that I think it wasn't consistent, it was actually a very cool headed response to someone who is basically a god, which shows some growth. It's just that I think it would have been interesting.

It could have even been Calder just calmly pointing out how badly the Abidan fucked the people of Asylum lol. Also now that I think about it, it also seems like a similar situation to the incarnations in Travelers gate.

Will Wight

Hahaha yeah, it is similar to the Incarnations. I like that mechanic of people going crazy with power.

I agree that it would have been cool to have Calder point it out to Ozriel’s face, especially since Ozriel basically agrees.

Kingbarbarossa

That's always an issue with forum (or reddit in this case) feedback. This sub is 6k members. Even if ALL of us agree, which we don't, we're still representing <1% of the overall cradle readership. Are we a voice for the majority or minority, or some mixture of the two? I dunno, I've no idea how to find out, and the answer to that question would HEAVILY inform how I interpret any feedback I see here, were I the creator.

That said, I'm certainly of the camp that would like to see more content, but that doesn't necessarily have to take place within book 8 specifically. I'd buy a novella of the skysworn missions you mentioned above, for example. I'm also loving the cut scenes bits at the end of the recent books, I'd buy a collection of that too.

Edit: Also! I really enjoy these windows into your creative process. The post you wrote on listening to the cradle series on audio book was really interesting as well. I've both read and listened to the books, but I really enjoy the audio books because they allow me to do other things at the same time. Roadtrips obviously, but I often listen to your books while playing games too. They've been a fantastic accompaniment to my For Honor sessions over the past few years.

Will Wight

Right!

That’s one of the issues I run into a lot. I have to take the fan feedback I get as representative, because I don’t have any alternative, but at the same time I know it is representative only of my top few hundred most active fans.

Amazon reviews are more representative, because many people will take the time to review but not to interact online, but that’s still only about 1% of my readers.

So it’s tough.

Kingbarbarossa

Yeah, and is there even a good way to get that information? Do you hire a statistician to do a survey? Do they email everyone that bought the most recent book based on the kindle/audible account info? What % of those purchases were gifts? How do you know they finished the book? I dunno. And the big one, do people actually even want the thing they say/think they want?

Will Wight

do people actually even want the thing they say/think they want?

That IS the big one.

Belgriest

There's nothing I enjoy more than a series sometimes taking a break to do something fun, or quirky, or clearly "this is for the fans."

It's gotta be measured though. You can't have this sort of thing last a third of the book. I think you're in the extreme, Will. For you, such a moment would be one scene and you'd think about cutting it, while I think for most of us a chapter or two or that would be fine.

I could use a literary example but did you ever watch Naruto? There's a filler episode early on when the gang try to discover what's under Kakashi's mask. Though it certainly didn't drive the plot forward, that was a great episode.

Obviously for you it'd have to have some kind of plot relevance and I think that's fine, but a little "willservice" wouldn't go amiss 8 books in.

Will Wight

I think that’s a great analogy!

Similarly, in One Piece (the manga, not the anime) after each arc they usually visit one random island and go on a standard adventure that only lasts 1-2 chapters and has nothing to do with the plot.

I like those. We get to see the sorts of antics they get up to in their downtime without slowing down a real story arc.

gruntbuggly

I for one, would love a scene with Yerin and Lindon doing laundry. Can you imagine her blush when her basket falls over and Lindon picks up a pair of her underwear?

_LightBreaker_

She doesn't wear underwear. She just uses SA robes.

Will Wight

A lot of traditional martial arts outfits (maybe all of them, but I’m no expert) did have some kind of undergarment.

Do sacred arts robes? That depends on your imaaaaaaagination!

ebrithil110

I'm really excited to see more of that kind of stuff, it's something I've really felt crandle was missing, like if you just read the books as they are and don't assume you're glossing over stuff constantly, then lindon is a monster who feeds little blue like once a month and pretty much only ever speaks to and interacts with her when he wants something from her. I really want to see more of the day to day character interations.

Will Wight

While I agree with the spirit of what you’re saying, that sounds like a REALLY literal interpretation.

If you take it completely at face value, then none of the characters ever use the bathroom or sneeze, and the only meals they have are when the mealtime conversation furthers the story. Otherwise they starve.

ebrithil110

Well obviously you can't write everything that's happening all the time otherwise the book would be immensely long and boring besides, no one one wants to read about inconsequential stuff like them going to the bathroom but little day to day character interactions are important and have been lacking in my opinion, especially in regards to little blue, they seem to treat her more like a pet than a person if you just rake it at face value, obviously there is a lot of interaction and development with the characters we don't get to see and I want more of that stuff.

Will Wight

I totally agree!

I just now left a comment explaining what I’m about to say more fully, but I’ve always been afraid that including these sorts of scenes will slow down the book too much.

Can you have a fast, snappy pace AND these day-to-day-life character development scenes? I don’t know. They might be mutually exclusive.

But I’m trying it out this time!

yaboiLu

Reading this and some of your other comments makes me curious Will, what is the specific goal of this strategy change? It seems like you’re aiming for a faster process at the risk of a book you may like less or have less control over. Is this new process more enjoyable for you or more stressful?

Im assuming this is overall a good thing for you and short Reddit comments don’t paint the whole picture but just wanted to say I would rather wait extra months for the next book than have you stressed and unsatisfied with your process and lose the pacing that you love in favor of something that the readers like more. I think most of us are invested in your career more so than the next book and don’t want you to get burned out.

Will Wight

I appreciate that!

But the goal of this is to NOT get burned out.

If I can get usable raw material faster, that leaves more time for editing and shaping that material. I’m trying to eliminate the wrong turns and duplicated work that tend to cause me stress.

jagscorpion

I've loved your books, in part, because of their quick pacing and the avoidance of excessive description but I agree that they can explore a tad. Getting the balance right is the trick, of course.

Will Wight

Yeah, even now I don’t think I’m describing too much, but I might be including too many scenes that don’t carry enough weight of the narrative.

We’ll see!

bamfious

At this point, your beta reader apparatus (including Travis), in theory, should be able to help cut the bloat.

This plan makes a lot of conventional sense. i.e. you don't have to context switch as much.

My question is, how often do you come up with a brilliant scene because you were forced to think through how to "Frankenstein" several other scenes into one?Is this often?Is this rare?How can your feedback systems help support this level of creativity post first draft?

Will Wight

Whenever I decide to change the plan, what I’m really doing is saying “The idea I planned doesn’t work. I am going to go this other direction instead.”

But I’m making that judgment unilaterally and alone, with zero input from anyone else.

So what I’m doing this time is turning my inner critic off, writing the book as planned, and handing it to the team ASAP so that they can give me a more objective perspective BEFORE I spend months adjusting course midstream.

One of the core ideas behind this strategy is to stop leaning solely on my impression of my own writing, which I know is flawed, and getting the story in front of other readers first.

FunkyCredo

Consider that with you loosening up your outlining / drafting process you need to tighten up your editing process otherwise quality may decline.

I believe you’ve previously stated that your beta-reader team is a small/private group that you know personally. Now that the beta-reader team faces a bigger responsibility for the final outcome should it be expanded? Is there a need for some harsher voices to properly trim the excess fat?

Will Wight

Short answer: No.

Very long, more helpful answer:

"Consider that...you need to tighten up your editing process"

I am aware of that. The purpose of this strategy is to get to the editing stage sooner to avoid duplicated work and allow more time for editing.

"your beta-reader team is a small/private group that you know personally."

I have said that in the past because it provides a simple and easy answer to the question “Can I be a beta reader?”

The full answer, which I don’t often give, is that I only offer beta reading spots to people when I have a reason to believe that they will offer me valuable insight.

A person online telling me that they want to be a beta reader does not qualify them for consideration, because I don’t know them from Adam. Why SHOULD I give you a spot?

I now know most of my beta readers IRL, but only about half of them did I know before they joined the team. Rather than “You can only be a beta reader if I know you,” a more accurate answer is “You can only be a beta reader if I know you will be an asset to the team.”

Either because they represent the perspective of a group of readers or because they have a unique skill set or perspective themselves.

And then there’s attitude. I get to choose who I work with, so I don’t continue with people who are miserable to work with, and I don’t invite you if I think you will be.

"Now that the beta-reader team faces a bigger responsibility for the final outcome should it be expanded?"

The limiting factor on the beta team is not now, and never has been, size. It’s always time.

It comes down to how much time I give each reader and how much time I allot for edits.

"Is there a need for some harsher voices to properly trim the excess fat?"

I know there’s this tendency to imagine a beta team full of “my mom” and “my best friends who don’t read fantasy” who all tell the author that things are great and are afraid to tell the truth because of their affection for the author.

First of all, I don’t think this is a real thing that happens to anyone.

In my experience beta reading and editing, even the writer’s mom and best friend gently tell the writer what they think, and then the writer just doesn’t listen.

I’ve also tried people on the team who said “It’s great!” and couldn’t articulate WHAT they thought was great or why.

Which is not helpful. I eventually figured out that they weren’t afraid of reprisal or discouragement or whatever, they just genuinely didn’t know how to break down their own experience.

So they’re no longer on the team.

Second...look, I know you guys don’t know me. I’m a pretty open-book sort of person, and I try to be as genuine as I can online, but there’s always going to be a difference between how I come across on social media and who I really am.

But I promise you, my team is willing to tell me the harsh truth.

I know you might be thinking, “Yes, but you can never really know, can you? If you’re deaf to honest feedback, then everyone around you knows it but you.”

I get that. I really do.

There’s nothing I can say to prove it to you, you just have to trust me. I have many, many weaknesses, but an aversion to honest feedback from trustworthy people is not one of them.

aquaticarna

I think there's also a middle ground here, if you've been dialing things all the way to snappy then dialing it back a little bit is a large relative change in the amount of world building or character development without being a large change in total pacing. Personally I've really enjoyed the pace of the cradle books and I think it's part of what makes them so addictive, but I also think there's room for some lulls in the pace, a roller coaster that just goes down hill the whole time would be boring, you need some slow spots to highlight the intense parts. I'm curious to see the results of this experiment, do you think you'll do a blog post on this process change?

Will Wight

That’s the dilemma I’m in, because I just listened through the whole series, and one of my favorite aspects was the quick pace.

However, I also felt most books could have used a handful more scenes. Just a little more content.

My instinct says there’s a happy medium, but I’m not sure exactly where that perfect ratio is or how to hit it.

"you need some slow parts to highlight the intense parts"

Yes and no.

You need parts with less tension to contrast the parts with higher tension, because tension can’t be maintained for too long or it breaks.

But I have those. Not every scene in Cradle is MAXIMUM TENSION GO GO GO ALL THE TIME AAAAHHHHH!

However, you don’t NEED scenes that don’t advance the story. They are, by definition, not necessary. But they can add a layer of texture, tone, or atmosphere.

orionstein

I have to say, I approve. The page limit was a neat idea to start, but at some point with plotline growth, new characters, and worldbuilding additions, it would be impossible to do anything substantive here without needing to split every book into 3 parts. In the end, you would just have a 900 page book split into 3.

I appreciate the shift as you build these pieces out to allow them to expand the book in a more natural manner. As you expand the content you'll need more and more to put them into. This also happens naturally in a lot of fantasy series - GoT got larger and larger and still had to be split up. It doesn't mean you are too wordy or you are bloated, it just means that your world is expanding and that the medium must need to expand with it :)

Will Wight

I...agree with the theory behind this, but it comes with a massive red flag in my mind.

Because I agree: this is exactly why fantasy series gets bigger and bigger each installment as they progress!

But can you name a series that got bigger AND BETTER with each installment, instead of just more bloated?

I can’t.

ASOIAF certainly didn’t. 1 and 2 are both tightly written masterpieces, but 3, 4, and 5 all go downhill one after another in regards to story bloat and wasted words.

IMO, the strongest books in Wheel of Time are 4 and 5, which did get longer from books 1-3 in order to accommodate a bigger cast and more content.

But then the books got longer from there, and the extra (in my opinion) is mostly styrofoam and stuffing. They reached a point of full saturation and kept growing.

Since I started writing fast-paced books in large part as a reaction against this tendency, I am now very, very wary of it.

orionstein

The Malazan Book of the Fallen comes to mind. I feel like I enjoyed the later ones just as much as the earlier ones, it all just came together.

You are correct though, the long series that pull this off appropriately are few. I'm hoping that the Stormlight Archive will be one but since there are only so many books out there only time will tell.

Maybe you can pull it off too!

ArchonFu

It sounds like you're making it possible to produce a "theatrical" cut and an "extended" cut. That worked out really well for Peter Jackson.

You've already got a history of "two book episodes" and this would be even easier since it both books would be the same perspectives.

Of course the rabid fans will crawl over broken glass for the extended cut.

Edit: Does Kindle allow for dynamic book content? Choose your own adventure?

Will Wight

Yes, but actually no.

There are options for it, like you can embed links throughout the book that take you elsewhere in the manuscript, but practically speaking it’s a pretty terrible format for interactive or dynamic content like that.

Which is kind of a bummer, because I’d love to try some less-traditional storytelling techniques.

For instance, a LitRPG where you can check the character’s stat page whenever you want to, and it will be current for your place in the story. So now the stats don’t get in your way, but you can always check them.

Skeletickles

Do you think Lindon is naturally talented at the Sacred Arts, or "just" an average/below-average person?

Will Wight

I think of him as talented in the sense that he has a base level of capability and a passion for improvement, but not talented in the sense that he has an inborn aptitude for madra control.

Even if he had been born somewhere other than Sacred Valley, nobody would have looked at him and gone “Wow, this kid is amazing at the sacred arts! He’s some kind of genius!”

They might have said “Man, he sure works hard,” or “He really loves the sacred arts.”

Equally, nobody outside Sacred Valley would have called him a dud either. Some people really have zero talent for the sacred arts, and he’s not in that group either.