Recent entries

mardy-quief

So I just finished reaper (again) and I noticed something. Lindon's shiny new arm tried to eat Eithan a little at the end - but the question is how? I know it sounds like a dumb question but bare with me. Consider the following

a) His old arm he could eat people because of the binding in it which he got from the transcendent ruins

b) His new arm comes from Subject One a Dreadgod which only have one giga binding (which Shen stole)

c) Lindon isn't a real hunger artist as dross points out.

So my question is how did he use consume on Eithan at the end?

Thanks in advance :)

Will Wight

It’s a basic property of the madra.

Bindings are crystallized techniques you can use just by running madra through them, but Lindon knows how to use the Consume technique. The arm itself has the power for it.

But even without that, hunger’s basic property is that it devours, just like fire madra burns. The Consume technique is a refined way of doing that and bringing it into your spirit effectively, and Lindon’s modified Heart of Twin Stars helps separate and process the energy.

Without a technique, you’re just kind of gulping down everything all at once and you have little control over where anything goes, or whether you get it or the arm does, or whether it gets incorporated into your advancement, etc.

Turbulent Swordfish

Which would you rather be?Reader? Sacred Artist? Or Traveler?

Will Wight

Sacred artist feels like the correct answer, but at the same time then you’d have to live in Cradle and are at the most risk of death.

In Asylum, you’d never ascend, but you also don’t really have to, can get a good job as a Reader, and have widely available modern conveniences.

In Amalgam, it depends strongly on where you are and what Territory you Travel. A lot of them are relatively safe as long as you’re not doing dangerous missions or recklessly trying to get stronger. The average Helgard or Avernus Traveler lives a pretty chill life, but it’s still a more-or-less medieval world.

I would choose sacred artist, though. I know the location of Abidan artifacts that I’ve kept secret from the books and I can parlay them into a trip off-world. Cya, suckers, I’m off to get killed by Vroshir.

Wait…

Bloopblop497

Interesting, I had thought that this applied to us having the abilities on EARTH. Like we are the only ones with access tot he magic system. I chose reader, cuz I figured a sacred artists powers would pretty much help me for sports, war, and getting tested on by governments. I could lay low while still using magic if I was a reader :)

Will Wight

On Earth, I’d be a Reader no question.

It’s the safest and easiest. No Elders, psychometry is a useful power, and if I end up being able to Awaken invested objects then I’m the only person able to create magic artifacts.

Win-win.

Xyrd

I've been re-reading Cradle with an eye towards E=O when I noticed this.

From Soulsmith chapter 8, when we are getting fully introduced to the Aurelius bloodline power from Eithan's POV.

A power like the one he'd inherited from his father's line tended to make one careless. Superior awareness made him difficult to hit, but did nothing to protect him otherwise.

From Reaper chapter 2, when we are getting info-dumped about Ozriel's past.

He abandoned his weapons. He focused on another of his talents: his sight. When he advanced to Monarch, he developed the bloodline ability to see. Ozmanthus was so relieved that he wept. This was the ability that he wanted to define his legacy. And he would leave his descendants with the ability to see as he did, to one day catch up to him.

Is there any significance to Eithan's father's line, or is this just an "oops"?

Will Wight

I intended to go into this, but with the limited amount of time left in the series I don’t know if we’ll make it, so I can at least explain my thoughts:

Potential spoilers, sort of. I’m answering the question.

My original thinking was that he had a bloodline power already and took it to new heights. The reason the Eithan flashbacks in Reaper focus on his mother is because I had originally planned to include a series of further flashbacks later focusing on his father’s side of the family, but they felt unnecessary. They probably won’t be in Dreadgod unless I think of some cool way to fold them in.

deadliestcrotch

Will has already confirmed (on the spoiler stream) that the last book will be loads of epilogue because he intends to tie up every last loose end.

Will Wight

I have seen this going around and I feel like I need to correct something: I’m absolutely not going to tie up every last loose end.

I’m not necessarily going to show you what happens to Naru Jing or every member of the Eight-Man Empire. I don’t mind leaving questions unanswered.

What I’ve said is that I prefer the last books in long series to spend tons of time on resolution, because it’s really like an epilogue for the whole series. Therefore the last book will have significantly more of that than usual, since I’m not ending on a sequel hook.

I’m certainly not going to tie up everything. There are lots of loose ends that I as a reader would not care to see tied up.

Spherius

Nooooooooo I was counting on getting the full story of Naru Jing in book 12! Way to shatter my hopes and dreams!

Will Wight

I’m not going to include the things nobody cares about, you know? Like I don’t think anybody wants to know what happens to Naru Jing, or the Jai clan. People like that. You know, Pride, Mercy. Yerin, probably not her either. Lindon, I don’t think people will mind not knowing what happens to him.

Yeah, the entire epilogue will be about the one thing I know everyone cares about the most: the relationship between Ziel and Akura Shira.

Could take half the book, maybe more. I might cut a Dreadgod fight for an extended dating montage.

Questioner

Favorite part or line?

Will Wight

One of the things I like the most, one of the threads I like most reading on Reddit, or one of the conversations I most like reading are people's favorite lines or moments that don't get talked about a lot. Because the big moments everybody talks about, I designed to be big moments, right? I was like okay I knew the Dross becoming a Presence thing was going to be a big deal and I intended it that way. And I set up the entire book and worked and planned it to great detail to try and make that work. So when people say that liked that I go phew, I'm glad because I would be disappointed if you didn't. But when people talk about things that they didn't, that was, that they don't normally hear talked about that's pretty cool because usually those are moments or lines I wrote off the cuff or wrote and didn't put as much thought into or wrote and was like yay I like this little detail nobody is ever going to see. And people see those and that makes me happy. So I like feeling appreciated for the little stuff I did.

Questioner

Favorite part of Dreadgod?

Will Wight

You know, that's hard. There's a couple of big moments in Dreadgod that I really like. I think it's probably Little Blue's death. I think it's just heartwrenching, I think.

Questioner

There are fewer books on How to Train Your Dragon than in the Cradle series. Why do people think Cradle is too short?

Will Wight

You know, one of the things I think people think Cradle is too short is the novels are quick to get through and they could have a lot more detail than they do. So there are a lot of scenes and a lot of characters that we could see a lot more from and in a lot of the inspirational source material like the ones I've written or just recommended a minute ago, they are very long. So they tend to go into a lot of detail and so, therefore, you would think that you could flesh it all out. But I tend to prefer it when I... I don't have a lot of patience when reading so when I read something that I feel like is dragging, I tend to read something else. So I like stuff that tends to stay engaged.

An interesting thing about Reaper is that some people felt the beginning was too slow and other people felt like the beginning was skimming way too fast and needed more detail. And that's because I felt like the characters needed downtime and I wanted to throw a bone to some people who wanted some more details. So I included some details but I also didn't want to slow the book down too much and I had some people who already felt like the beginning of Reaper was slow. So I, therefore, wanted to keep it at a decent pace. So I kind of split it down the middle. I normally don't compromise like that. I usually pick one and just roll with it. But in this particular case I felt like it had been too long since I had thrown the detail people a bone. So I decided to spend a little bit of extra time there. But, as a result, it's kind of... it's hard for me to add detail.

One of the things I don't like about fantasy novels is that they tend to get longer and longer with every installment. And I have yet to think of an example of a series that got longer and longer and also better and better. They tend to get longer and then they kind of plateau at how good they are and then they get longer still. And that inhibits my enjoyment of the series. I find I would rather have a tightly plotted 350 page books than a dense 700 page book that doesn't advance the plot as much. That is my preference, it's what I enjoy. Which is really funny because one of my favorite series of all time is the Wheel of Time, that is notorious for that. And I actually read quickly so, therefore, I get through the books fast and they don't feel like they drag as much to me but when I do feel like they drag, I don't like it.

Questioner

Do you think the Will who wrote Unsouled could have written Reaper?

Will Wight

No, no, of course not. I don't the Will who wrote Unsouled could have written Unsouled. There's a... I went back and looked at Ghostwater and every time I do that I'm like man whoever designed this book did a great job. I hope I learn lessons from this and I go wait a second I designed this book but that doesn't feel right.

Questioner

If you got to rewrite a famous piece of media in your own style what would it be and why is it Sword Art Online?

Will Wight

Alright, fun fact, I read Sword Art Online very soon after it came out. It was one of the, at the time it was only partially translated so that was one of the few that I stumbled through with my rudimentary Japanese and read. It's relatively simple as these things go so I was able to puzzle through it because I was really engaged in it. I really liked it a lot. So, right after it was translated in Japan, partially translated partially not, and I read it and I really loved it and I was oh man you guys are going to love Sword Art Online and then it kind of became this... first volume, then second volume wasn't as good and then, the first volume won all these prizes and started off this whole subgenre and then the second volume wasn't as good. And then it just kept going and then it got the anime which I thought first season of the anime was fantastic. And then everybody became this sort of meme for good reason because it way outstayed its welcome. But anyway...

Questioner

Will speaks Japanese confirmed.

Will Wight

Stop doing that. You've got to stop. I've seen you do this before. I am being completely honest about my level of Japanese which is I once was somewhat proficient enough in order to consume very basic amounts of media and that was ten plus years ago. Ten years ago, however long. Too long ago. So I am not competent. Let's be very clear.

Questioner

You have to power through SAO to get to the last season.

Will Wight

Ugh, I don't know that I do.

Questioner

During the last stream you mentioned the potential of ripping off Harry Potter.

Will Wight

Oh yeah. So the answer, well so what media would I actually consider covering. What I do wish a lot of time is that writers would cover other people's stories. I just think that would be cool. I mean I'd love to see writers cover different stories in their styles. So which one would I cover? I don't know. Most of the ones I can immediately think of are too ambitious.

Will's brother (offscreen)

The Eternals.

Will Wight

The Eternals. That's the answer. That's the story I would cover. I would immediately cover The Eternals. Anyway, I did not enjoy The Eternals, folks.

Questioner

Will we ever see what happened when Eithan fought or confronted Ozriel's shadow in the lab?

Will Wight

Ooh, that's a fun question. So I actually did write a draft of that scene. I just talked about writing drafts of scenes. It was more of a prototype or rough version of that scene. I was thinking I might include it in the book. It is not polished and it is not edited and it doesn't quite fit where they are now in the book because, of course, it's a rough scene that I ended up not including. So it didn't get edited. But it was effectively Eithan and Ozmanthus sitting down and talking because, in order to express Ozmanthus' full power, Subject One put a lot of energy into the projection which made Ozmanthus more self aware than a normal projection would have been. So he was able to sneakily maintain control of himself and Eithan recognizes that and they just sit down and talk. And Eithan tells Ozmanthus where he's at an Ozmanthus goes oh that sounds nice. And that's sort of, they come to an understanding and Eithan walks away.

Questioner

J.K. Rowling said she wrote the key parts to the end of Harry Potter in advance.

Will Wight

I don't like that. I don't like that approach. That reminds me of one of the things, again let me be very clear I think the end of Wheel of Time was extremely well written and that Brandon Sanderson did the best anybody could possibly have done with the original author being dead, however Robert Jordan wrote the, apparently from what I hear, Robert Jordan wrote the final chapter before he died and wanted that to be the final chapter. Well I don't think the final chapter fits well at the end, as it is now. I think if he had been alive he would have rearranged it or set it up differently. But, of course, no way to change that after his death and, again I don't blame anyone for the finale and it's not bad. It's just I don't think it works super well at the end and it's because he wrote it ahead of time and then got to it. I think it's a lot better to write down what you want to have happen or do maybe a prototype scene to get kind of get a feel for what you want it to do. Like I did for the Eithan reveal. I did prototype scenes for that. But, I don't like having it locked in like that so I know what I want to happen and I know where I want to go. I know where I want the gang to end up but I haven't written most of the scenes.

Questioner

Did Lindon soulsmith any treasures for his sister?

Will Wight

Yes. Let me explain, for a moment, my response to the, did Lindon Soulsmith anything for his sister. Yes he did, but you'll have to read and find out what.

Questioner

Please tell us more about Sesh's reign. Can you tell us anything about him at all?

Will Wight

Ah, yeah. I think he... the way I think of him is or the Akura family sees him as this tyrant who wants to kill humanity kind of thing but I see him as more of a character who believes that Cradle is run by the rule of the jungle anyway, the law of the jungle. And that we should all kind of embrace that and that everybody would really be better off if we were just honest about it. So I see him as sort of someone who from the outside looks cruel but doesn't think of himself as that way. And he goes listen I'm going to get mine because I'm the strongest so let's all be clear about that. And that the problem with a lot of things, including the relationship between the Monarchs and the Dreadgods comes from the fact that we're trying to impose order on chaos. So kind of in that way, he's similar to his... his worldview is more similar to the Vroshir than to the Abidan because he's going look let's deal with the world as it is and not try to make it something that it isn't. That's how I think of him.

Questioner

Will you ever get into the LitRPG/Gamelit genre?

Will Wight

It's so funny, because I love stories with game mechanics. I love stories that take place in real worlds that, so I don't like VRMMO stuff so this virtual reality things where the characters are actually playing a game. I've never enjoyed those, and the reason is because, I could be playing a game right now. So why am I reading about someone else playing a game when I could just go play a game. It's like, I wouldn't be reading a fantasy novel if I had the option to go on a real fantasy D&D adventure. That's not true; I would decline that option and then I would just read fantasy novels, because I don't want to die. But it's more that I could easily have this experience and I don't know why I'm reading about something--it's indirect. It's low-stakes. It's--I don't enjoy it. But I do like stories that take place in real worlds that have game mechanics. And I've read a lot of those, and typically they still--they're still just not my favorite stories, necessarily, so I think there's probably a version of that that I would really enjoy writing. But the problem is, LitRPG is really crowded right now, just a lot of people are writing LitRPG, and I don't want to feel like I'm moving into their territory and stealing their thunder or something like that, or get in some weird competitive thing. So I don't have any issue with that, I don't feel it in that way, I'm like, great, you guys like...

I also think that, LitRPG fans who enjoy most LitRPGs being written now are after something that I'm not necessarily after. One of the things they like about LitRPG is that they're going and--you get the full experience, right? You're going out and you're hunting 10 wolves and, you're kiling 10 wolves and bringing their pelts back and you're turning the quest in and then you get the reward for the quest, and then you go back and hunt 10 more wolves. I'm like, that is the part of the book that I would cut out. It's the part that I don't enjoy. It's the standard part of any LitRPG, you're going out and doing the mob grinding. And that's the part that I don't enjoy. The part I enjoy is when you're, you know, running Icecrown Citadel and you're showing down with the Lich King. I mean that's the fun part. So, anyway, but that makes it more similar to a standard fantasy novel. So probably I won't, or at least not anytime soon. It seems like the kind of thing that I would enjoy more than I actually do, so it's probably just not something I understand the genre enough to write. That's probably the real answer to that.

Questioner

What inspired you to do cultivation for the Cradle series?

Will Wight

I just really enjoyed cultivation novels. That's basically--yep.

Questioner

Have you decided your next project yet?

Will Wight

I don't think so. There's, I have a lot of possibilities, there's a few, I want to flesh out some ideas. I have not spent a lot of time doing that because, typically, the ideas I flesh out and then I go a little while writing some more Cradle and by the time I go back to to them I'm like hm, but maybe I want to do something else.

Questioner

Does the Eight Man Empire generate hunger aura?

Will Wight

They do not.

Questioner

What was your journey as a writer?

Will Wight

Last weeks' stream that I didn't answer well because I wasn't prepared for it, somebody asked me what my journey as a writer was. They asked me to expand on my journey as a writer and I didn't know how to answer that question. That was something that I was like hmm. The problem is that there's too many answers to that question. It's not that it's a bad question or there's not an answer, it's that I could talk about that. It's a years long journey that is constantly evolving so it's hard for me to give a straightforward answer in a stream.

But I thought about it over the course of the last week because that was an answer that I should have done better answering and here is what I came up with. One of the things I remember as a kid, is I remember in high school or middle school and I read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and I was going wow this book is amazing. This guy's writing style is so great I love it. I was talking about how well written it was and I was just going this is insane. And I saw all these other people talking about how Dan Brown's writing style was cheap or it wasn't good or it wasn't fleshed out and I was like what are you talking about?

First of all, it's a best selling novel. Second of all, it's engaging from beginning to end. It's a story that's very hard to put down. I found out later as I grew in my education and knowledge of writing that it's a style called pot boiler, which you keep the pot boiling so you keep stuff happening so the end of every short chapter there's kind of a hook that keeps you moving on to the next chapter. And I remember thinking people are looking down on him for this? Why? Clearly this is an intentional choice, he's not doing this accidentally or because it's an easy crutch.

And it really reminded me of in video games when you're losing to somebody and they're playing a character and you go your character is overpowered. Well if your character is overpowered enough to get you easy wins why aren't you playing that character? So, that was kind of my thought on that. But I thought look it's a more engaging, more entertaining writing style. Later on, in college, I had a professor who said to us in the class hey I hate to break it to you guys but J.K. Rowling is not a good writer. And I thought, hmm. Now I was significantly older at this time and I've learned a lot more. Again, I'm in college for creative writing so I have a lot more of my own opinions and I'm going wait a second, if your definition of good writing doesn't include the most popular fiction series ever written, probably your definition is the one that is wrong.

So I was not into their definition of what a good story was. So I continued to develop that and really my definition of what good writing was or what a good story was is good writing is something that engages the reader. It's a story that engages the reader and that they are eager to keep reading and something that immerses them and causes them to have an emotion, whatever emotion you're trying to express. So it entertains them and gives them emotional reactions.

There's a... I was talking about this to my sister who is a big Jane Austen fan and she mentioned that in Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen goes on this monologue that I didn't remember. I actually took a course in college it was on the history of the development of the novel as a form, as what we now know as the novel, where it came from. One of the authors we studied was Jane Austen. The long and the short of it is around Jane Austen it was mostly women who wrote these novels to one another and so it was not considered serious. It was considered this is something that oh well women do that in their spare time it's not worth reading. Which is very odd to us now. And so Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey goes off and starts talking about that. How novels are not considered a serious pursuit and she mocks people basically for having that opinion. Which that oh yeah novels aren't serious and you should be reading historicals or you should be reading science or you should be reading... and I, of course, we agree with that now right? Yeah, well obviously Jane Austen is worth reading and people that, in their day, that considered that a lesser form of reading were clearly incorrect, they were just wrong and we can easily see that.

Except people do the same thing now. There's this weird hierarchy between things that are made for entertainment and things that are made for some other purpose. And my thought was, that is not true. If you set out to entertain your reader and you entertain your reader you have succeeded and you have done an excellent job. So that's kind of my journey as a writer and my journey of what I thought good writing was and what I think good writing means and how I developed that.

It was a years long thing of me reading books and going what did I like about this? What did I enjoy? And one of the funniest things to me is people talk about all these literary stories and these classics and how they matter more because they're dealing with fundamental human experiences. They are dealing with topics that are more serious and topics that people can really relate to and mean something deep. And I thought back to all the books that meant something deep to me and that had the lessons that had stuck with me and the stories that really mattered to me and they tended to be the stories that I enjoyed the most. So, no matter how great your message is, it doesn't get out if people aren't listening. So I felt like the ones that score at all were the ones that were entertaining and the ones that were not entertaining you're not going to listen to them regardless of how good the point is. So that was kind of my philosophy and how it developed that and how I developed as a writer. So that is the answer to that question.

Questioner

Lindon went from Overlord to Archlord with very little training this time. Does that belittle other Archlords?

Will Wight

So there's a time skim in Reaper. Kind of a montage. So while yes it is definitely short compared to other Overlords and Archlords, he did still have access to his hunger arm for part of that time. So he was able to advance faster and he has a great foundation, obviously. And he's got other, he's still got Eithan around at that point, he's got other resources he can call on, he's got other people to help. He had a lot of advantages there that made the transition from Overlord to Archlord quite a bit easier. One of the things I would like to do, and I probably shouldn't even mention this because it's going to sound like I'm promising this but I'm genuinely not, what I would like to do is go into some short stories about, so that I can cover some side details that didn't get covered in the main series. So some stuff they did during the down time in Reaper or even other books. Or where they just go in detail about what are the differences between Sages and Heralds and they're just exploring that. Scenes where that happens. I don't mind reading those in other books but they tend to make it out of mine just because they don't advance the plot. So if they're not necessary to your understanding of what's going on I don't keep them in.

Questioner

That's a promise?

Will Wight

No, that's not a promise. I don't promise that.

Questioner

Cradle: thirteen books and many stories confirmed.

Will Wight

No, stop it. BAD.

Questioner

Me and my friend have been arguing about this point. It sounds to me that Dreadgods are more powerful or aware when they first awaken then slowly get corrupted by the hunger madra but he thinks that they become more aware the more they are awake.

Will Wight

It fluctuates depending on how strong they are. How strong they are at a certain time is how aware they are in general. But also the Dreadgods, some Dreadgods are more intelligent than the others. The Silent King is always aware, he's always self aware, and he's the smartest one. And the Weeping Dragon actually is the second most self aware. I kind of wanted to do the, I thought it would make sense for the Bleeding Phoenix to be that person because the Bleeding Phoenix absorbs a lot of awareness like its Emissaries and its Blood Shadows are all aware to some degree. But I figured the hive mind thing actually causes more problems than it solves, so the Bleeding Phoenix is now third. And the Wandering Titan is just kind of an idiot.

Questioner

What is your writing process like?

Will Wight

I am just convinced that what I write is terrible all the time. And that sounds like it is not true but it is and one of the funniest parts is that it's actually contradictory to what intend to do because I plan for stories to have a certain effect. So, I'm writing Reaper and I am planning to, I wanted the end to have a lot impact and I wanted it to feel like it made sense and I wanted even if you'd guessed for you to be okay with Eithan and the big reveal at the end.

So in order to do that I, of course, worked with the themes and the character journeys throughout the book and I had seeded some stuff in previous books but it's also, in Reaper in particular, I wanted to make sure the journey felt real and it felt emotionally rich and organic to the characters and that I was setting up the big moment appropriately. I also wanted to, in case you didn't like it or didn't want it or were emotionally invested in it not being him, so I wanted it to still be a full Lindon book before the whole Mad King/Abidan stuff at the end.

So that's why Lindon effectively has a little over a hundred thousand word book and then we've got the Abidan thing at the end. So, I wanted that to happen and I had designed all that very carefully to work. I had really tried to do setup for Mercy's revelation for Lindon's revelation. I do wish I had made it explicit that Lindon was at peak Overlord before he did his advancement. I could have easily done that but I just didn't notice. So I wish I'd done that.

But, otherwise, I had designed it all very intentionally with all this setup and then I realized later, by that I mean a few days ago, that it never occurred to me that I might have succeeded in that. So that while I did it intentionally, and this was an intentional design that I had set up, I just assumed that it wasn't going to work. I just assumed people were going to read the book and that the setup I did wasn't going to work, that people weren't going to buy it, they weren't going to enjoy the book, the moments weren't going to land, that it wasn't going to work. So, that is how I read things. I know that I've got a lot of friends, I've got a lot of people that don't believe me that it feels like okay but you have sold a lot of books. People are constantly telling you they enjoy them. How does that not break through?

It's not based on rationality, it's a character flaw, it's a problem I have, it's an emotional issue I'm dealing with. I don't know what it is. But it sucks. And, the problem is that if it were based on logic and rationality I wouldn't feel like this in the first place. I'd go okay well I'll emotionally respond based on how it works. But because it's an internal problem, internal problems don't really have external solutions, unfortunately. So I've got to keep working on that and growing as a person in that area.

So one experience I had in this book in particular was when I had finished the first draft, the alpha draft, I wasn't giving it to my alpha readers because I was certain that it wasn't good enough to be read by anybody. So, I didn't give it to the alpha reader because I was like listen this is a really complex book, there's a lot of moving parts, there's a lot going on, so this isn't even readable yet. And they let me go about a week longer than we had agreed and then, finally, they were like look just let me read it. Just let me read it in the state it's in. And I was like alright I'll send it to you, whatever, I'm working on it but I guarantee you'll see what I'm talking about. And I had a good reason for it. I had a real sound theoretical basis for it. And they read it, two people read it, and came back to me and went you're an idiot.

So we had a meeting in an Olive Garden where they effectively berated me for like okay what the heck why didn't you give this to us, this is great.  It's really good, this is definitely a beta draft if not an advanced beta draft. Why in the world did you think this was broken? What is wrong with this? There's nothing wrong with it. I felt terrible. I felt like it is broken but they don't think it's broken but also I have screwed up by letting it go too long. So, I have messed up in every way. I have let them read a bad draft and I also didn't give it to them soon enough so they're disappointed in me. So I've screwed up everything. So I started crying in an Olive Garden. This did happen. This was like two months ago and when they saw how hard I was taking it they were like whoa whoa calm down what is happening? So that was a huge overreaction to what was happening. But it was, I was just thought it was the worst of all worlds. Not only have I screwed this up also I screwed up giving it to them.

So I gave it to them and they gave me their feedback and I gave it to the beta readers. And, as usual, this is my normal experience, the stuff I think is an insurmountable problem that's going to make me have to rewrite a third of the book was stuff that took a few lines to fix. It was very easy fixes, it was stuff I could go back and change very easily. But I just felt like I had failed at everything I had set out to do. And so because I felt like that, I was reading the book like that, and I created a case in my head on why that was true. So that was my experience writing Reaper. I ended up working the process better than I ever had before, I ended up with a really good product early on and thought it was terrible. So, when people ask me to evaluate how I feel like I've done it takes me a lot of distance to read the books as a though I was a reader instead of as the writer. And only when I do that can I then evaluate it. Every time I've done that I've been like I really like it.

My least favorite books when rereading the Cradle series were one and two because I think they don't have as much of the same tone as the later books and I hadn't quite fleshed out some of the ideas as well. As a reader, I think that. I read the books and I go eh. Also, I've read those the most so I'm sure that contributes to it. But, I reread those and I go they're still pretty good and once Blackflame begins I was like it just hits the pedal and goes. And sometimes people are like yeah but you wrote the books so of course you feel like it works. Frankly, it's the opposite. I was going in expecting for this to be garbage and for me to hella hate every second of it and I was like wow these are actually close to the books I wanted to write. And I couldn't believe that. So that's a peek inside the writing process for me. It's sort of the opposite of whatever the movie thing, where the writers are like I'm writing the greatest thing ever and the people read it and are like eurgh. It's kind of the opposite of that, so that is my usual writing experience.

Questioner

Do Ziel and Shira find the other cute?

Will Wight

You know, I mentioned this before but I come up with a name scheme for every faction or every culture, every source of names. And I named Akura Shira using those rules, not remembering that in the couple books prior I had named Akura Shiria. So otherwise, I wouldn't have created such a similar name but I forgot that Shiria existed and I was using the same rules. So that's the level of thought I put into Akura Shira because she exists basically just to be a foil for Ziel in the story but she does learn to see him as more human over the course of the story. So that definitely happens, she does have a little bit of an emotional arc there where initially she's seeing him for his rank and then, of course, he doesn't act like he's high ranked at all. And so she kind of gets a little softer on him and inspires him to do better. So they have a very healthy mutual respect and relationship and they've agreed to go on a couple of dates but other than that I didn't think a lot about their relationship.