Will you don’t fail to disappoint, even in a cryptic sort of update blog post! Can’t wait for the next book to be out, no matter the series! I’m sure everyone else feels the same way as me and appreciate all of your hard work!
When I set out to disappoint, I always succeed!
This. This right here. See this is just... exactly what I come here for. Well, I mean, and books. But mostly this.I will read all the new books you see fit to publish and I don't even care what order. Thanks, Will, for being you.
I like having fun with blog posts. Sometimes I don't get to or don't have the energy, but these are way more fun for me.
When is the Rithmatist 2 coming out!?!?
Yea Will, I really feel like you're not putting enough work in Doors of Stone. Don't you understand how hard this is for ME?
If I was writing Doors of Stone, it would have been out years ago, but it also would have been much shorter and less polished. I suggest waiting.The Rithmatist, though, that I'm almost finished with.
So the guy who writes the messages in my fortune cookies also writes the books I read?
Curb your expectations, and you will curb your disappointment.Your lucky numbers are: 1-20-118
All my fellow fans who rave about how engaged you are, how good you are to the community, behold:Will is the worst.
Will will always lead you wrong.
How does an author deal with the pressure to produce for an enthusiastic fanbase?
I do feel a lot of pressure, both to release regularly and to live up to expectations. I want readers to enjoy the books, and I want to feel proud of my work as well. And I know that people want the next book the day after the last one, because that’s what I always feel when I finish a book I enjoy.
When I go through a period of high stress, usually while I’m in the final stages of writing a book, I often go through some anxiety issues. Sometimes I don’t want to open my email, because I’m sure there will be bad news in there, I don’t want to leave my room because something will be going wrong outside, and I don’t want to respond to fans because I’m sure they’ll only be talking about how much they hate the books, etc. It’s a totally illogical feeling, but it’s one of the ways stress manifests itself in me.
Basically, my team helps me manage. Left to my own devices, I work in long periods of procrastination followed by a few weeks of high-stress panic, working 16 hours a day to meet a date that I suddenly felt I had to meet.
My team (and my family and friends) are helping me change my work habits to spread that out. Less procrastination, shorter murder-mode crunch time. We all know that if I keep writing books like THAT, I’ll burn myself out and won’t be happy while I’m doing it.
And that doesn’t have to mean a longer wait between books, either, because it involves cutting out the counterproductive time. Long-term, we expect it to lead to an increase in productivity.
TL;DR - I get through my weird personal issues with the help of other people.
...having said that, let me stress that this is just my own experience. I certainly can’t speak for anybody else (I don’t know if I’m even qualified to speak for myself). But that’s my two cents, for what it’s worth!
By the way, I felt terrible for Douglas Hulick when I first saw that tweet. Both because I empathized with him and because I wanted the next book, dangit. As a fellow writer, I felt great sympathy for him, and as a fan I was disappointed that we weren’t going to get to see the rest of a story I enjoyed.
Also, I very much admire how he handled himself. He blamed no one else, and took full responsibility while still communicating the great pressure he was under. Kudos to him. I hope to learn from that kind of mature response under scrutiny.
She wasn’t giant, her armour was
(Yes, it’s a big Forged mech-thing.)It’s essentially a giant suit of Forged power armor, so...yeah.
that's suuuper badass
If I turned my Blackbelt into a Soulbound Vessel, what powers would I gain?
If Lindon and company each got to make a Soulbound Vessel, what would each of them go for?
Black belt: in order to make it a Vessel, you'd have to give it some inherent power source, such as from an Elder or a Kameira. That being the case, it would depend on what material you wove into the belt.
Lindon: a pair of glasses that enhances focus, concentration, and power while Reading.
Yerin: a sword.
Eithan: a colorful suit that overwhelms all who see him with awe.
Mercy: a watering can that grows healthy plant
What path would you follow if you lived in Iteration 110?
I'm not sure, but probably the Path of the Cloud Hammer. We haven't explored it much, but it's very versatile.
Hello,What are you currently reading?
Demon Hunter on WuxiaWorld, but it's kind of slow so I might drop it.
I would like to know a few things:1. what runs through your veins?2. Where doth thee summon thine dark power from3. favorite weapon in terraria
1.) Cheetahs2.) From Subway. Eat Fresh.3.) The Raven Staff
If Lindon were gain a physical goldsign (i.e. a flaming shell) when he switched from pure to BF core would the goldsign shift with the core as his eyes do or remain the same?
It would change, but it wouldn't entirely vanish like the eyes do.
What would you reccomend on wuxiaworld?
Against the Gods, A Will Eternal, The Novel's Extra, and Coiling Dragon.
Which series was your favorite to write?
Have you read the Coiling Dragon series?
How's the cabin?
All of the series are fun in different ways, but I enjoyed Elder Empire, because I got to try some unusual behind-the-scenes stuff.
Coiling Dragon is the best.
It was great until I had to evacuate out of the way of the hurricane.
I believe the books explain all that. Jai Daishou was very old. However lots of the characters are very old and are essentially super young too because of their advancement, Daishou had stalled on his so age was catching up to him. As long as you keep pushing you stay young or get younger
^
Yep, this is the case. He was also an old man already when he advanced to Underlord, so while it extended his lifespan and kept him healthier, it can only go so far. If he had hit Underlord when he was 25, he wouldn’t have been so pressured for time.
purchased! like any narrator this one takes a little while to get used to but so far I think he's really good. this is based on 2 hours of listening but so far no complaints.
What is the tentative schedule for the remainder of the series?
I know it’s been a while since you asked this question, but I have a sort of answer for you!
Soulsmith has been fully recorded and is now in editing, which typically takes two weeks. After that, it goes to Audible, who takes however long they take (typically around two more weeks, but it seems pretty random).
So we’re expecting the Soulsmith book sometime in November! We’re hoping for early November, but it’s largely up to Audible whether its Week 1 or Week 4.
I recently re-read the Cradle series up until this point. It's one of my favorite ongoing fantasy series right now.
One thing that bothered me slightly on my first read-through and immensely on my second read-through is how the Heaven's Glory school in Sacred Valley were able to poison and kill a Sage. Will said himself that the Sword Sage was two levels above Underlord, and I can't imagine even an Underlord getting poisoned by them.
I wonder if it was just an issue of planning and Will not thinking that he would make the power levels so extreme in the future, but that point just always stuck me as bizarre.
Hey OP! I know it looks like power creep getting out of hand, but this actually isn't a mistake! Weirdly enough. Usually if I do something that looks like a mistake, it is in fact a mistake.
In this case, I know exactly what happened to the Sword Sage and how he was killed, but (back when I was writing Unsouled) I didn't realize how obviously out-of-place this would become to the reader in a couple of books. If I had, I would have made it clear in Book 1 that it should have been impossible for mere Jades to do this.
The reason why I didn't comment on it initially is because none of the POV characters know how weird it was. They just know that a Sage is a big, powerful guy from other lands, they don't know exactly how strong he is or what that means. Even Yerin isn't really sure how much stronger he is than they are, because she doesn't know enough about the sacred arts yet.
I wanted the reader to notice that they shouldn't have been able to kill the Sword Sage, but in a "Hmm, I wonder how they did that?" sort of way, not in a "Wait a second, this is physically impossible" sort of way. Even though under normal circumstances, it is literally impossible. I just didn't realize how quickly and how clearly people would pick up on that in the next couple of books.
So anyway, TL;DR - the mystery has an answer, it is an answer I have planned out from the very beginning, and that answer will be revealed in the series. Also, I regret not making it clear in the first book that this was an intentional mystery and not a mistake.
P.S. I'm probably going to include the Sword Sage's death scene in a Presence Report, just not in Underlord.
"Even Yerin isn't really sure how much stronger he is than they are, because she doesn't know enough about the sacred arts yet."
Seems she's quickly come round though, since she referred to Eithan as a 'mere underlord' compared to her Master in the very next book.
She can know the names of the ranks and which ones are higher without knowing what that means in practical terms.
She isn’t sure HOW MUCH stronger he is than they are, “they” in this case including Eithan. But she knows he’s stronger.
So, had this weird dream where I read a Will released a post saying he was "So sorry" to his fans. He was sorry because he was releasing Underlord and still hadn't released OK&K's.
That would be weird if I hadn’t already done it...
...five times.
By now, there’s nothing weird about that at all.
In soulsmith we saw Eithan giving Lindon madraso why not give the ability to Lindon ... like what if Eithan saw Dross and thought Lindon could handle the family ability and poor madra into him and to push his pure core to true god as well. Man that'd make Dross into BIG BROTHER
Will may have give that answer before skysworn ... because both Jai Chen and the underload gained the ability after absorbing Eithan's madra.
Just noticed this, so I'm popping in: Jai Chen and Jai Daishou got the ability temporarily by draining power from Eithan. They didn't gain it permanently. It's not their bloodline power now.
How temporary are we talking? Would it wear off in hours? Days? Years? I got the impression that it had become a permanent part of her but that she had to actively expend Madra to make it work.
Her madra has permanently changed, but her bloodline hasn’t. And at the point where Jai Chen leaves, she still hasn’t stabilized her madra yet, so it hasn’t settled into its final composition.
This isn’t even its final form, if you will.
