Have at any time a followup book sold more then the first(total, I expect they sell more right away)? Aka, I assume noone would buy soulsmith without having read Unsouled, so there should be more sales of unsouled, but is that always true? Is there a falling stair of sails with Unsouled at the top?
Re: ghostwriting. I have no negative opinion of ghostwriters, if that helps anything. I have, in fact, a very positive opinion on ghostwriters, because they are professional writers who are extremely skilled and professional. I greatly admire people who can bring that level of professionalism to someone else's story.
For example, Brandon Sanderson isn't using a ghostwriter, he's just very prolific. I make jokes about him being a team of robots, but he just has a great system for producing books and works very hard. As for my opinion on assistants, I think it's necessary to have some help if you want to produce good books consistently. It's kind of funny, because although writing a novel is basically the most solitary thing you can do, no one produces a consistent, successful product alone.I have people I bounce ideas off of, people who beta read for me, people who help me manage my finances and my schedule, people who copy edit and content edit, and honestly because I write the books so quickly (and take them through so few drafts) I don't get enough help on each book. Assistants are necessary.
I'm glad you enjoy them! They're fun for me too, they just take a long time due to sheer volume.
I find it easier to be imaginative within constraints. So when someone asks me "What's the Cradle equivalent of a piano?" I tell myself that I have to give them a satisfying answer. I can't just say "There is none," or "It's a piano," unless there's a story reason to do so. I have to actually invent a Cradle piano.
Which is fun. It makes me consider avenues of the worlds that I hadn't considered.As for your trying to be imaginative, it's not like my systems are the most original magic systems ever designed. I just give myself permission to have fun with it.
I start with what general kind of magic I want the people to use. For Traveler's Gate, I started with the idea of an extradimensional mansion where you went for martial training. I knew I wanted the House to exist, so then I built a world where extradimensional training grounds were commonplace.
For Elder Empire, I started by knowing that I wanted a world where significant objects held automatic power through their significance. Excalibur wielded by King Arthur would have automatic power BECAUSE it was Excalibur and BECAUSE it was King Arthur's sword. Then I worked out from there.You can do that too. And there's nothing wrong with using principles from known magic systems; madra is basically just elemental mana.
My main weakness is that I throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Every idea I can think of goes in. There are more Territories than necessary, for instance. Too many Guilds. Reading, Awakening, Soulbound, etc. are more complicated than they need to be, and could probably be separated into two systems. Vital aura is essentially elemental energy, but by trying to integrate it into the madra system I accidentally made it muddy and unclear.
No approach is perfect, but I like mine because it's fun. My magic systems might be too unintuitive or complicated, but they're colorful and fun. That's my priority over a logical, fully hammered-out, and ultimately simpler system.Of course, the Holy Grail is a simple, intuitive system that nonetheless fires your imagination and can be used to create as many fun and colorful situations as you want. And toward that distant goal, we all strive.
First of all, I suspect new writers don't need my ideas. You have to have SOME notion of what you think would be fun to write, otherwise you wouldn't want to write at all.In that case, I suggest you think long and hard about the elements you think sound fun to write. Make a list. There are no wrong answers here, just what sounds fun. Then pick one that resonates with you. What is it about that idea that sounds cool? What can you picture? What makes that idea attractive to you?
Let's say you wrote down "pirates" and you thought that sounded fun to write about (I picked pirates because it's one of the easiest ideas to latch onto, and also I wrote two books with that as the seed concept).Now, you ask yourself: what attracts you to this idea?
Write down all your initial impressions. Maybe you like the fast-paced swashbuckling swordsmanship from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, or you want battles on a spray-slick deck, or the vast silhouettes of sea monsters passing under your ship, or the mystery of a buried treasure on an uncharted island, or the adventure of sailing off into an infinite and mystical world.
Maybe it's the mundane, un-romantic side of pirates that interests you. The gritty details that make it seem real, tangible, possible. Pirates would stink like a week-dead dog, they would stab a man to death over a spilled drink or an angry word, they would have rotted and twisted teeth and they couldn't say two words without cursing.
Doesn't matter, but something in that broad idea should fire your imagination. When it does, that's the seed of your story.If nothing fires your imagination, then...what are you writing about? What passion is driving you to write? Why write at all? When the story isn't going the way you want, and you HAVE to get this scene does but it's flowing like a sack of gravel pulling uphill and all you want to do is burn everything you've ever written and start over, why keep going? What makes you WANT to do this?
I also don't think you're bad at coming up with ideas. I don't think anyone is, I just think it's a skill some people don't practice.You can literally take any noun and come up with a story idea. I used the random noun generator from <desiquintans.com> just now and came up with these:"Cake." A down-and-out cake shop owner turns to her skills as a retired jewel thief to compete with her new rival."Dressing." A man tries to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the first time, but finds that he has no idea what "dressing" is and only ten minutes before guests arrive. What will he cook?"Tutu." A police detective finds a break in a long-cold case of a missing ballerina when he finds her bloodstained tutu in the back of his own closet."Wish." ...too easy, pass.That's an example of the first story I thought of for each noun.
Now I apply what I already know about my tastes, and I go for a story I'd actually write:"Cake." A young baker's apprentice finds that she can bring her confections to life as a sweet-but-deadly golem army."Dressing." An architect finds that the ornamentation around an ancient castle's windows hides an eldritch secret."Tutu." A blessed tutu grants increased grace and agility to its wearer, so a young man uses it to fight crime."Wish." For real though, too easy.You can do this too. It's easier for some people than others, but anyone can do it. I believe in you.I think that's the most useful writing exercise you can practice at this point. Come up with ten story prompts that sound interesting to you.
You could just write one of the examples above, I wouldn't mind, but I think you should stretch yourself to come up with an idea based on your own vision. If you really are "bad at coming up with ideas," and I'm not convinced that you are, the way to get better is practice!
Coke or Pepsi?
Coke, but when waiters ask if Pepsi is okay, I do reluctantly say yes.
What's your writing soundtrack?
I tend to string together songs you could choreograph a fight to. It used to be rock, but then it transitioned to epic trailer-type music, and now I almost exclusively listen to nerd rap. It's been a weird cycle.
I have not posted on here before, but with book three coming out Monday I though I would list some of the questions I have about the Cradle series. Learning about the world and magic systems of fantasy books is one of my favorite past-times. Not all of my questions are meet to be taken seriously they are just fun little things my mind comes up with.
1. Who does all of the farming in Cradle? In a society so focused on martial martial abilities. Who would waste time on farming? We know the population of Cradle is many times greater then Earth. So tens of billion of people need to eat. The only real solution I could think of is if there are Paths that happen to both greatly help agriculture and has combat potential. Or as we saw in book two slavery.
2. How will Lindon act the first time he meets someone weaker then him? While Lindon has gotten to what I would call half-iron (his cores are half the size they should be so he levels them up faster then he normal would, and only one avenged to iron) and that makes him stronger then most people his age in the Sacred Valley. Knowing that and meeting them while stronger then them are different. I bring this up because out side of a few people everyone we have met seems to have no trouble "bullying" those weaker then themselves. I know this is a might makes right society but still part of the honor of that system is to ingore/protect those weaker then you. If you only follow those "laws" when other are watching you then that's not honor its saving face. When will we meet people who follow these codes of conduct not for themselves or for "face" but because they believe in them?
3. Would a fire path be one of the fastest way to level up? All you would have to do is stand next to a barn-fire and absorb the ambient fire manna it would give off, then refine it. On that note how different would the manna type be, between different types of fire. A hearth-fire warming a family home in the winter, with all the "happy" connotation that come with it, compared to like an arson attack destroying someone's home and possession and just everything that they have worked for. Both are fire but you get what I mean.
There are a lot of responses to these questions, and I'm not confident in my ability to parse every one of them, so I'm just going to answer your questions as best I can. And I apologize if someone else has already done so.
1.) There are Paths that are used for agriculture and irrigation, they're just usually low-key. There's a (very) brief reference in Blackflame to the Redflower family, who are in charge of feeding the Empire. By law, they are neutral in every conflict, and anybody who starts a fight with them or tries to pressure them will soon regret it.
2.) This is 100% a spoiler.
3.) A fire Path would not be the fastest way to advance, because the aura would be slightly rarer and harder to collect compared to, say, earth or air. But it's still very fast, as are all the Paths that draw from aura easily found in nature.
There WOULD be significant differences between those two Paths! Fire from different Paths could take on different qualities depending on how it's used an where it comes from; you could have a gentle flame that spreads slowly and provides lots of even warmth, versus a violent flames that consumes rapidly and burns out quickly.
Let us not forget that Eithan the OP Underlord is a janitor/sewer keeper.
So clearly people either follow mundane Paths, or perform mundane services in addition to their path. E.g. little girl cutting stone blocks with her fingers when Lindon/Yerin get to the Five Factions camp.
Different places in the world handle the basic necessities of life differently. Some places have sects that focus entirely on farming or whatever, but other places prize independence and self-sufficiency. Those sacred artists value the ability to provide food, resources, and basic societal infrastructure for the people that depend on them.
I re-read Unsouled and noticed that in case of complete system collapse a few worlds would still be protected including Asylum. I'm going on on the obvious and thinking the Elders are scary even to the Court of seven and could possibly play the same role as the Court does but for chaos.
Yes, that's why Asylum is a protected world. If they get out, they're scary.
The Abidan intended it to be a temporary holding cell to imprison the Elders until they had fully corrupted the world, at which point Ozriel could destroy it.
Which wouldn't kill the Elders, but would drive them back into the void. So it was really just keeping them off the streets for a while.
Then the Emperor came along, and humanity has prospered beyond what the Abidan ever expected. That tethers the world more strongly to the Way and strengthens the prison, weakening the Elders. So Asylum has held on much longer than anyone anticipated.
The Elders, by the way, don't want to be trapped there OR cast back into the void. They want to escape into other Iterations, which is exactly what the Abidan don't want.
Back in the day, the Elders could have depopulated humanity. They didn't; they kept just enough alive to make sure the Abidan wouldn't obliterate the place while the Elders looked for a way out.
So in an earlier, comment, you said that a person can only stay dead for so long before their soul departs and they can't be revived. What if they were cryogenically preserved in some sort of high tech world? Could that time the soul sticks around be extended? Or is there some sort of hard limit?
It can be extended, yes.
1. Suriel can manipulate strings of fate (even attaching one to London and forged madra ball) - is that a path of attributes of a path in your design, it seems that Fox clans Elder dreams of return of strategies and sees future ( this makes him connected to the way). Will there be others that can help Lindon learn to read fate from his connection to Suriel
2 if I was Ozriel and knew that other Abidan are looking for me and Suriel is the only one remotely compassionate I would try to sway Suriel to my camp and IF Somehow I, Ozriel learn about Suriels connection to Lindon, I would try to help and influence London from the very first steps along his development. So is it possible that something happenes along this line?
3. So far we have seen London primarily desire to do baby steps but he was the only one observe Suriels supreme powers- so naturally he would try to duplicate those right ? Right? It might bring conflict to Abidan if Makiel will notice that Suriels little protege tries to copy her powers while Ozriel in the shadows helping Lindon and stirring the pot to force the split in the court.ISo unique training along Eithans path? Or talking to Eithan and tell him everything about Suriel?
1.) I don't understand this question, I'm sorry. Probably not?
2.) It's possible that Ozriel has done something to sway Suriel to his side, but she hasn't seen it yet.
Suriel's connection to Lindon is relatively recent. So if Ozriel does learn about it and start intervening with Lindon, it won't have happened yet.
3.) Lindon is taking baby steps because those are the only steps he can take, but he has seen Suriel. No one else on Cradle has had their eyes widened quite so far.
Why is Ozriel being hunted again?I thought he simply left the Abidan, or is this, actually, the crime?
Ozriel basically abandoned his post. As I understand it, the Abidan were able to expand their scope dramatically because of Ozriel's ability to cleanly remove worlds (especially corrupted ones). They're trying to find him because they can't support all the worlds they've been watching over without him.
Yep, that's it!
Since Ozriel came along, the whole strategy of the Abidan has basically hinged around his personal ability. But he wanted to change the way things are done, so he didn't have to kill as many people, and they resisted.
So he just left.
WITH the ability to cleanly remove corrupted worlds, they can control ten thousand Iterations.
WITHOUT that ability, every corrupted world becomes a virus, and every world they control is potentially another point of infection. They can't hold nearly as much territory.
Does Lindon create his own weapon with the soulsmith things he took from pyramid? Cause so far he hasn't used a weapon beyond a spear.Does being a soulsmith require a specific talent in madra uses?
1.) Read and find out!
2.) Essentially yes. We touch on this in Blackflame a little bit, but you have to have madra that's compatible with a lot of other aspects.
For instance, the Fishers make good Soulsmiths because they have madra that mimics gravity. So it binds two things together. Not a whole lot conflicts with that.
But if you were a Sandviper Soulsmith, every construct you made would be poisonous or acidic, so it would either hurt the person holding it, fall apart, or neutralize the madra you tried to use to build it.
Huh so the greatest soul smith would theoretically have to have pure madra because that would conflict with nothing. Unless their is a path of anti madra somewhere
Not necessarily pure, just widely compatible.
Ok, so this is kind of related to answer 1). In the death match short story with the emperor and the incarnations, the emperor saw the incarnations' power as intent. Was this just something you allowed for the death match, or are Amalgam and Asylum's powers similar enough to be "compatible"?
I get that Ozriel is rather "jacked" in power, but is it not possible that another of the Abidan aided in his concealment. Seems likely. I get Ozriel is all powerful, but surely he would require assistance in the level of concealment require.
It is possible, yes.
I was wondering if there was a difference between ascending beyond an iteration and traveling between iterations? Also, do the magic systems of some iterations predispose a person to ascending?
Yeah, Valin didn't ascend, he just wandered out the back door and got lost.
The Emperor would be capable of ascending from Asylum, were it possible to leave Asylum under normal circumstances (it's a prison, so he couldn't leave).
Cradle's requirements for ascension are higher than a world like Asylum's. The Sword Sage COULD have ascended, had he the necessary knowledge and skill. And, of course, the desire to do so.
But if he had gotten too much more powerful, the Abidan would have removed him before he affected the course of the world.
Will, you said the spiders can sense through all of existence, is that all of the Abidan controlled existence or ALL of existence, ie even the bits they don't rule?
It's complicated, but the Way does extend through other inhabitable universes, not just the ones the Abidan control. So they can get some information from beyond their sphere of influence.
However, it doesn't literally mean that they can sense everything that exists at all times forever.
So if an iteration is tied to the way by human consciousness, could an iteration be severed from the way if a significant amount of their population was "hidden" from detection the same way Ozriel is currently hiding? Because if the Way can't sense them, they are effectively "Dead" right?
Also, what happens if someone in the spider division eventually becomes more suitable to being the head Spider than the current Spider*? Is there a peaceful transfer of power? A secret assassination? Lots of paperwork? A duel to the death?
*Assuming the current Spider wants to keep his job.
1.) Yes it could, and that's an insightful thought.
2.) The other Judges vote to determine whether a current Judge needs replaced, either because there's someone more suitable or the current person isn't fulfilling their role to the satisfaction of the Court.
If that person wants to resist, they have to decide whether they want to fight six other Judges. Plus, the Court as a whole has control over all the mantles, so if one person tries to rebel, they won't be able to amplify their power. They'll be fighting alone against a bunch of Judges all mantled up.
An armed rebellion has never happened among Judges for several reasons. For one thing, Makiel can see it all coming and prepare accordingly. For another, high-ranking Abidan tend to be ordered, rule-abiding people. Even the Fox, who's considered something of a rebel by Abidan standards, doesn't violate the spirit of the law.
This isn't necessarily related to this particular post, but thinking of the immortal nature of the Abidan Court got me thinking about this. Are there any beings in any iterations that have not ascended and yet are inherently immortal (at least apart from being killed)?
The Nye are partially what made me think of this, as the Eldest Nye has evidently been around since before his world was splintered and has been living in that splinter for some time. So even if the Nye aren't immortal, are there any naturally immortal beings?
Yes, there are immortals in the Iterations.
But the Eldest Nye hasn't been around since before his world was splintered. He's telling tales that have been passed down for generations.
It seems like Eithan might have the makings of a great spider one day!
Yeah, I think he would!
1) You said each world had its own magic system. Does Amalgam have its own system seperate from the territories or is that all it had from the beginning?
2) Some iterations have galactic colonies. Are there aliens in the Willverse?
1.) Amalgam's magic system is its unique property that allows it to collect and draw power from Territories.
2.) There is alien life, but the only sentient non-human life was either once human or gained sentience from humanity in some way.
The Elders, for instance, were never human, but they gained the ability to interact with the world in a way we recognize as intelligent from humanity.
