Recent entries

nerbomer

(In response to Wintersteel's plotline post)

Make it a Jai Long book and release it April 1st.

Will Wight

How did you know about my plans for Cradle 13, Girthspear?

Will Wight

Aw, thanks! There are certainly ups and downs, but thus far my positive experiences have far outweighed the negative.

If I’m upset about anything right now, it’s that I haven’t finished EE yet. Which is on me, and is the reason why I so desperately need to finish.

Also, I love your username.

Akura_Fury

As for the username, I made a reddit account just so I could comment on your subreddit. The name choice was obvious, since Fury was by far the best and funniest secondary character in the book! Although secondary might be a bit too generous in his case (more Fury please <3).

Will Wight

I loved writing him more than I expected I would, and he was always involved in the main Monarch conflict, so 90% chance he’s around for the long haul.

When I originally drafted his character back before Blackflame, he was this stern military instructor type that was entirely controlled and militaristic. Then when I started to write him in this book, I realized that he overlapped too much with too many other characters...and also wasn’t much fun to write.

Thus, the true Akura Fury was born.

cleanflea

Noooo!!!!! I demand a Yerin book. Co-starring Little Blue and Shera. If you do not acknowledge my demands, I will form a coalition to threaten you properly. You have been warned. Act accordingly.

Will Wight

I wondered one time if I could do a non-canon short story or novella in which I split my various main characters up into random teams like this one. Like Lindon, Simon, and Shuffles having to do one quest and Calder, Leah, and Little Blue doing another while Yerin, Shera, and Caela are doing a third thing.

It’s gimmicky, but I think it could be fun.

morgf

So explain this to me. Eithan and Mercy, if not Yerin, know a lot about the world. Lindon lists two Monarch powers, and Luminous Queen Sha Miara. If they have never heard of Sha Miara, why didn't they say anything? Are there lots of Luminous Queens in the Ninecloud Court? If they did not say anything, why did it not stick in their minds? Certainly Eithan would remember every word that Lindon told him from a heavenly messenger.

Will Wight

No joke, there was actually a point when I was writing that scene in Skysworn where I had Mercy frown and say “Sha Miara?” like she heard wrong, and then the conversation moves on. It’s in one of the rough drafts.

Ultimately I waffled on it and then, as I revised the scene, that line ended up not making it back in because it didn’t have any connection to the events of Skysworn or my plans for Ghostwater, so I thought it would feel out of place for at least one more book.

Then when I was writing Uncrowned, I looked back at that scene and felt like it was a sufficiently minor connection to not warrant an explicit explanation. I didn’t feel like I as a reader would need an explanation for why Yerin, Eithan, and Mercy didn’t immediately connect the dots based on an offhand comment from Lindon so long ago.

morgf

A message from a heavenly messenger, and talking about the most powerful people in the world? And they just dismiss it like talking about the weather?

Will Wight

I’m really not trying to persuade you of anything here, I was just telling you what my thought process was since you asked. If it didn’t work for you, it didn’t work for you. That’s okay!

If I had expected this to trip people up, I would have included a line of explanation.

Tourni-quet

Can someone explain why Lindon was all worked up at the end of the book and had to rush off to tell his friends that Sha Miara is actually a monarch?

Like he literally mentions her name in skysworn, when he says about northstrider, the 8 man empire and luminous queen sha miara.

And Eithan, Mercy and Yerin are all like yep they’re strong.

Is this a continuity error? Bc it seems like lindon believes this is some big secret that he has to divulge, that he already has years previously. And I checked she’s not under a fake name in the tournament, northstrider announces her name in the revealing of the fight schedule so our other MCs are aware of the name

Will Wight

Yeah, I can actually answer that one! My take on that, which I probably could have retroactively explained in this book when it became relevant, was that anyone with knowledge of the world knows who the Luminous Queen is. But at this point, the Ninecloud Court are keeping it secret that the previous queen has died and her daughter has succeeded her.

Also, she's participating in the tournament, so of course she's an Underlady.

Lindon's urgency at the end comes from the fact that, at previous points in the book, he doesn't want to say anything lest he get in trouble with a Monarch. But after the Abidan have come down, there's enough at stake now for him to risk it.

That's the idea, though obviously I could have communicated it more clearly.

morgf

Yup, it is a continuity error. Unfortunately, the book is riddled with them.

Lindon, Yerin, Eithan, and Mercy all know that Sha Miara is a Monarch. As the commenter I was responding to said, she was in the tournament under the name Sha Miara. There was no reason for Lindon to run to tell the others since they already knew, as the commenter said. He told the story to Yerin multiple times. He probably mentioned the Monarch names every time, but he definitely mentioned Sha Miara to them by name at least once. Didn't you read Skysworn?  

Travis Baldree

I read it out loud :) But I don't remember him mentioning her by name.

But even if he did, I guess I'm not sure it would ruin the book for me. The world is huuuuge. The distances are vast. The people almost mythical.

Will Wight

Jumping in here: I was aware of this scene in Skysworn when I wrote Uncrowned, but I didn't see the need to clarify that Yerin and company didn't make the connection to Lindon's story from years earlier. They're thinking he saw a vision of the Luminous Queen, who this girl competing in the tournament obviously isn't.

I thought that came across in the story, but obviously not clearly enough.

I knew when I wrote Skysworn that it wasn't common knowledge that Sha Miara led the Ninecloud Court, but since it wasn't relevant to that book or the next book, I didn't want to bring it up at the time. In Uncrowned, I thought the situation was clear enough to go without further explanation, but apparently I was wrong.

Questioner

Can we get that Spotify playlist to listen to?

Will Wight

I intentionally made my playlist private because I named them after the books and so I was afraid somebody would search on Spotify and see what I'm listening to. I'm not afraid, just more like-well yes, afraid.

Questioner

How much does an audiobook cost to produce?

Will Wight

That question varies wildly and is difficult for me to answer. It doesn't cost me very much in terms of the amount it generates, but that's because I'm comparing it to audiobooks in successful series that I know are gonna generate a lot of money. So therefore to me, they make a lot more than they cost. But if you're just trying to get your own audiobook made, it may be relatively expensive. That's probably a question better suited for Travis Baldree.

jacktrowell

I still think that it was a narrative error to not have any character in the story mention the question earlier than that.

Not revealing the reason, just somebody asking the obvious question "how did a bunch of jades manage to kill a sage ?" (plus the similar question about Yerin managing to handle a Sage Remnant while only at Jade level at the time), even if followed immediatly by something like "I suppose they used some kind of rare poison ?"

Anyway the matter is now settled until we get more information.

That said, I really enjoyed the book and it's only one small flaw in a very good serie, please continue the good work, we are legions awaiting for Wintersteel now. ;)

Will Wight

Yeah, one of my big regrets was not having Yerin say something about it in Soulsmith.

Ragnrok

I actually thought that was intentional, and I liked it.

Yerin is a very focused and direct character. If Lindon had a larger knowledge base at that point then it would be in character for him to spend months wondering how the heck a bunch of Jades killed a Sage, but Yerin isn't one to waste her time questioning reality. A bunch of Jades poisoned and then killed the Sword Sage, so it must be possible, because it happened, so why waste time dwelling on it?

Will Wight

That was my thinking at the time; I thought it was consistent with her character not to question it, because they did it and it happened and now the question is what to do next.

I wish I had made her question it just because it would have saved me headache since then.

Brynovc

I guess we won't see anymore "how did a bunch of jades kill a sage" posts. And I loved the blooper about this!

SeNoyerSoublier

Am I hallucinating or did we also learn tim is named Adama?

Will Wight

You can’t know how TIMpted I was to put the letters T-I-M in his name somewhere. Like Atima. Problem is, I couldn’t come up with anything I thought sounded cool...and also I assigned him a name a while ago, and I felt weird about changing it for a fan meme.

But I was very tempted.

SeNoyerSoublier

I had a slight tinge of disappointment we didn't get an orthos epilogue, but damn book 8 can't come soon enough

Will Wight

Yeah, I wanted to do an Orthos epilogue. The problem was that the training for the tournament and the tournament took up the better part of a year, so the Orthos epilogue would have had to take place basically a year after the prologue. Which means I would have had to go into detail about what had happened to them over the intervening year.

It was just a lot to end on, so ultimately I decided not to include it in this book. I was sad about it, though.

caffeine-overclock

A few days ago, I asked how bindings are powered/recharged here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Iteration110Cradle/comments/d95b8u/how_are_bindings_recharged/

The consensus was that bindings work as they are described in Soulsmith, where Lindon creates his own water: his core is basically drained from the effort of "activating the binding," where that madra is converted to water madra.

The critical detail being that Lindon's own madra is drained from him into the weapon to activate the binding.

So far, so good.

Then, in Uncrowned, we see Yerin activate an Archlord weapon. The explanation we're given is that her new diamond channels kept her from being destroyed by using it two stages too soon. I guess if it's an enormous amount of Yerin's madra being ripped out of her into the weapon, this explanation makes sense, except...

Where did Yerin get all that Madra?

It's described as consuming the enormous arena stage, and being so much that Lindon's arm was ripping at the seams trying to control it all.

Has Yerin been using the HEPW? I can't imagine her having all that madra in her cores, especially after a long fight with Lindon.

Will Wight

The madra can come from the substance of the construct or from the madra forming the binding itself, which is how independent constructs work and why they cannibalize themselves over time.

Since Yerin can’t afford to subsidize an entire Archlord technique with her own madra, she puts as much as she can into activating and controlling it, and the rest of the power comes from the sword itself.

Which will cut down on the sword’s lifespan unless it receives serious maintenance.

caffeine-overclock

Yessss thank you!

So if Eithan wanted to activate an Archlord binding, and hypothetically also had diamond channels, he could do so without damaging it?

Will Wight

He could! Technically any Underlord can, if they have some way to handle the stress it puts on their spirit. It’s just usually better to have a weapon you can control and activate consistently with no risk.

TheWanderingBeard

Does the Arelius bloodline power become obsolete after monarch?

Or will Eithan be able to see/hear even further than other monarchs if/when he makes it that far?

Will Wight

Spiritual perception and the Arelius bloodline power work differently. Spiritual perception is able to feel spirits, madra, and aura; basically spiritual powers. The Arelius bloodline power extends your physical senses.

nighthawk7890 (paraphrased)

we need an anime

Will Wight (paraphrased)

When I looked into how much it cost to develop an anime series, it takes 1.5 to 2 million dollars for one season of anime and I don't have 1.5 to 2 million dollars, but over time, potentially, we could generate that, 'cause I do put most of the money that I make back into hidden gnome. I pay myself a salary out of the money that goes into the business. What we do with the money is when we get the check at the end of the month what happens is amazon cuts us a check two months after the royalties come in. When we get the money, we immediatly put 10 to 15 percent into an account to giveaway, or no, the minimum we do is I think 12 percent. We range it between 12 and 20 depending where the check comes from. That's the first thing we do and after that we pay taxes. Of course, the whole amount, I'm not cheating anybody out of taxes. We also save and pay expenses and employees and that kind of thing. I'm one of the employees we pay, so, I get my salary. Then, after that most of it goes into the business account - we save it or we invest it in the business. So, we're saving up quite a bit of money. My personal preference would be that someday we have enough stocked up that we could someday do an anime. That'd be amazing. Those are my nerd dreams.

Will Wight

What nobody asked and I'm going to answer anyway, is 'What is the new thing I wanna write and develop?' I want to develop something that is kind of in that world, in the isekai-isekai, by the way, is a Japanese genre, it's from another world. It's like people in our world being sent to another world. I don't really wanna write that particularly, like somebody that's literally from this world that we inhabit right now because I don't want to incorporate Earth slang or Earth words, that kind of breaks me out of it a lot. But what they do is they get teleported basically into a fantasy world, and then they have to learn to survive and adapt in that world. So I don't mind the idea of an outsider having to learn to survive and adapt in a world he's not familiar with and it is kind of a standard fantasy world. He's going around doing standard fantasy things, like adventuring. Kinda like if you got pulled into a D&D game. Something like that, some mix of that and dungeon novels and LitRPG, something in there is something I'd like to write. Kind of a light novel concept. I've been developing a lot of those. Attempting to develop a lot of those, I have not gotten very far. I want to have a good vision for what it is before I begin writing it, and I don't, so I have not.

I've tried a bunch of stuff, one of the things I've tried most recently is a world kinda based on the magic system of 5th Edition but more of the worldbuilding of 4th Edition [D&D] because 4th edition has better worldbuilding than 5th edition does because 5th edition is kind of designed to do whatever game you wanna run. Therefore they don't tell you what goes on in the world, you decide as the DM. So I have tried to do some stuff like that, and I didn't really like it. It didn't work for me. Maybe I'll continue developing that and that will eventually ring my bells, but so far not.

One of the things I've tried often is 'What if I just sat down and I just put very little planning and thought into it, and I just wrote one of these isekai or web novels, or if I just wrote a character just running around a fantasy world. I can't do it. I don't work that way. I sit down and I start writing and I have no interest in this person or place. I have to have some development in the world in order to want to explore it so I just don't enjoy it. I tried to write it off the top of my head, and I couldn't do it.

Questioner

How much of my writing do I [Will] keep?

Will Wight

I usually keep most of it, now, but I used to write basically two words for every word I kept. Less that I was going through and cutting things and more that I would write something and I would just toy with it. Over the course of developing a scene, I would end up writing twice as much. It would take me a thousand words to write a five hundred word scene.

Questioner

How many books do you think Cradle will have?

Will Wight

I think 12. I said that recently on the subreddit. Which I fully understand, not everyone looks at the subreddit, so why would you know that? But I recently decided there is going to 12 for a couple of reasons. One is cradle is not structured in trilogies, but that's four trilogies. That's enough content. Secondly, it's a good length and I think that's about when I want them to reach an endpoint. That feels right to me, I think I can do the stuff I want to do in five more novels. After that there might be a spin-off or a continuation. Who knows? I would like to do some new stuff, because I just love doing new stuff. One of the things I like the most is coming up with new ideas, I just love doing that, and I don't get to do that a lot when I'm working on one series. That is something I'm looking forward to, and I also would like to go back to Traveler's Gate, it's been a long time. But of course, Elder Empire first.

Questioner

Is this a Cloud Nine reference?

Will Wight

It is not a Cloud Nine reference. I'm sorry. It's really not. Ninecloud Court is just a cool sounding name.

Garoob

 You mentioned you were recently coming up with some magic systems. How do you start coming up with magic system ideas?

Will Wight

I have a little form I fill out when I'm making a magic system; what are the limitations of the system, what are the actual powers of the system, which sometimes when people are designing magic systems, they forget to have what the system can do, because they've talked about what the system can't do. I have what kinda what makes it work, what are the costs and limitations, what the history of it is, and I have all these little things that I fill in. Usually what happens, what I have to do is narrow down, because of course a generic magic system can do anything right? its magic. So I'm usually picking one narrow theme or set of abilities that it can do. Which means I'm really choosing a set of things it can't do, so usually when I'm working on a magic system I then am thinking about all the things it can't do which then suggests another magic system. That's how I actually did it when I came up with a bunch of magic systems in a row. It normally gives me inspiration for what any other magic system could do.

one of the other things I do, interestingly enough, I come back to D&D because there's a lot of stuff you can think about in D&D, like wizards are just better than non spellcasters in D&D, so the problem that some people refer to is, linear fighter and quadratic wizards, so wizards improve exponentially and fighters improve linearly, because of course wizards can stop time and fighters can swing they're sword a little harder. There's kind of an inherent issue with having magic users and non magic users, that issue being, one of them can use magic, and the other one is inherently bound by the rules of physics, and I don't like that. So I've tried to develop a lot of magic systems, kinda like in Cradle, but in Cradle, everyone is a magic user, and that's the obvious answer right? you have everything be an extension of the magic system, that's the easiest way to solve that.

One of the things I've thought of, is I've been trying to do different expressions of a D&D system, even one that would fit in a real table-top RPG, where the martial characters are not inherently outclassed by the arcane characters, because they can do such supernaturally amazing stuff thats its effectively magic but it's just martial magic. It becomes magical. I've done various approaches to that, there's a lot of ways to solve that problem, so I have that problem in my head, and that set of criteria, so then I try to design systems that have the things I want and dont have the things I don't want, so I've approached that many different times.

 

Questioner

Is that process how you came up with a whole bunch of magic systems along side each other in the Traveler's Gate series?

Will Wight

Actually, no. The Traveler's Gate series really is one magic system. The gates work the same way, every territory requires the key, something to open the gate. But then I just added another set of restrictions onto each one. So this is a unique thing. So yeah, Tarturus travelers open gates quicker, Endross travelers, their gates slowly grow and grow and grow but they also get harder to control, Helgard travelers have to know the names of things they summon, so on and so forth. And I did that just to kind of-each one is a little unique, in addition to being thematically unique. And that was just a way of distinguishing each Territory from one another. I did not really design 12 magic systems. I designed 1 magic system with 12 different expressions.

erineeclark (paraphrased)

Who is your favorite character in all your books?

Will Wight (paraphrased)

Look, I really like Eithan, I think that's pretty obvious from the way I have fun writing him, mainly just 'cause writing a character like Eithan allows you to do a lot of really fun stuff. So, when I'm writing characters, the number one thing I usually do is I go "ok, i have a general idea of what the story is gonna be about" and so, the first thing I do is, I name them after their role in the plot. So, Alin initially was 'rival', 'cause I didn't wanna come up with a name for him so, I named him after his role in the plot and his role in the relationship to Simon pursuing his goal was 'rival'. Then I started coming up with names for people. Then I go "ok, what kind of person would fill that role in this circumstance?" - That's when I fill in their personality, so, I make sure that their personality feeds into what role they have in the story. That's usually how I do it, but Eithan was a character I really just wanted to have in one of my books, he's actually one of the earliest characters I ever created, because I loved the idea of somebody, who could just see and hear every single thing going on around him and so, he used that to just pop up out of nowhere.

 

In the original draft of what would eventually become 'Cradle', it looks very different now, so, these are not at all spoilers because this is almost completely unrelated to modern 'Cradle', except with the words, but it was originally an Abidan series called 'The Ghost and the Spider'. This was gonna be the name of book one. 'The Ghost and the Spider' was following the Abidan, these people training to be Abidan and 'The Ghost' was Mercy. It was actually a very different version of Mercy, she was very quite and withdrawn, kind of an emotionless sort of character, so, basically the opposite of Mercy now. 'The Spider' was gonna be Eithan, because he has detection powers. So, Eithan was 'The Spider' and so, he had these powers like Eithan has in the real books and so, he would use 'em to pop up and so, Mercy was 'The Ghost' and she had inherent similar powers of 'she couldn't be detected at all', so, the only one who could detect her was Eithan and so, they had this really neat dynamic, where nobody noticed her and everybody noticed Eithan, except for him, who noticed her, so, they were both popping up and neither of them were the main character and so, they would all like pop up out of nowhere. Anyway I liked that dynamic, I had a lot of fun and so, Eithan survived into 'Cradle'.

Mythonida

Who is your LEAST favorite?

Will Wight

Again, if I had a character I didn't enjoy writing, I just probably wouldn't write them. So, Dross is hard, he's not my least favorite character, but he's hard to write. I usually do an entire pass on the book that's just Dross dialogue, I do that for Dros and Yerin. I don't do that for anybody else. So that's difficult, he causes me a lot of work, but I like him.