Recent entries

Questioner

Is there a mortal power above monarch that no one knows yet?

Will Wight

Not really.

Questioner

General consensus is that Reaper is one of the best books.  Do you think feel like the sabbatical contributed to that?

Will Wight

I'm certain that it did.  One of the things that I wanted to talk about tonight was my writing process for Reaper.  That's one of the reasons that I wanted to do this stream; I wanted to talk about a couple of things people have been asking me, which is about my writing process for Reaper, my writing process for other books how it's developed changed over the years and, why some books you perhaps liked more than others. Did the sabbatical contribute to that?  I'm sure it did. I know friends and family have told me that I act a lot differently after the sabbatical. I tend to recover more easily after a writing sprint, or after isolating and writing a big chunk rather than wearing myself down. But what I expected from the sabbatical was that I was gonna come back and I was gonna be full of inspiration and really feel like the next book was super easy to write and i did not feel that way. That was a mistake of expectation on my part. Because it turns out writing books is just hard, just straight up hard. I was thinking yeah it'll feel easy.  I was wrong it didn't feel that way. But I'm sure it did contribute to Reaper. So I'm sure that the sabbatical helped.

One of the things people have asked is what was the difference between my Bloodline process and my Reaper process, and one of the funniest things people say sometimes is that Bloodline was rushed and then I took my time with Reaper. So I wanna address that real quick. The funniest thing is Bloodline despite being shorter than Reaper took me 50% longer to write. It's all about the process of writing and Reaper so far has been the one that I think I worked the best process. It was more efficient. I stayed on track, and I didn't get distracted by rewriting, getting stuck, writing things that I had to remove. One of the things I did in Bloodline was I got off on a tangent where I was trying to figure out a story beat. So I kept writing and rewriting it or writing and rewriting notes on it, and I ended up basically wasting a week.  Then I had to get back on track and building momentum takes a lot and then I spend another week doing that and it just takes time; it kills time.  Typically I think the reason why I do that is because I feel like I want to make the 1st draft really good, I wanted it to feel better. But I'm working with some friends of mine who are working on their 1st books and they have really been learning something that I need to constantly remember which is the way to make it good is not to make it good in the 1st draft, it's to make it good in the 2nd draft and beyond.  So the 1st draft should be just getting something on paper and then you should be making a good later.  So that is definitely the process that I have found to work. It's the process I usually recommend but it's hard to remember. So its hard for me to remember.  So Reaper is the 1st one I've done where I actually stayed on track the whole time.  I just wrote it from beginning to end; I thought it was terrible.  Thought it was really bad but I kept writing and I kept going and I finished it and then I made a good later and therefore it was faster and more efficient and resulted in a better project.

Questioner

Does the 8 man empire contribute to the hunger madra problem?

Will Wight

They do not.

Questioner

Did corruption exist before the original seven ascended?

Will Wight

Oh yeah. Corruption absolutely existed before the original seven ascended. Corruption is kind of how the multiverse works. So, by default, it's just sort of decay in reality. Therefore only a few Iterations remain active at any one time. Or inhabitable, I guess should say. Until the Abidan manage and garden them and then they can make a lot more stable and a lot more exist. And a lot more stick to their original Fate and destiny.

Questioner

Would you say that the original seven were on par with Ozmanthus?

Will Wight

No. Some of them were, but they were kind of almost different. The scenario in which they ascended was different, so they would have had a harder time gaining power after ascending from Cradle than Ozmanthus did. He had the advantage of the infrastructure that they had put in place. That was an advantage Ozriel had over the first-generation Court of Seven.

Questioner

Does Dross really sleep? Or did Dross really sleep.

Will Wight

Dross sorta rests. He doesn't, isn't going all the time. He doesn't exactly sleep. No but he does rest and kinda go dormant for a time.

hosoke

When does Akura Shira become the 9th judge

Will Wight

*look of disappointment towards camera*

Cacob53

Could Ethan have been killed on cradle?

Will Wight

No. Eithan could not have been killed on Cradle. He could have allowed the other people to be killed. That definitely could have happened.

officer340

Is Eithan in the next book? Or too spoilery?

Will Wight

Eithan is in the next book. That’s all I can say.

duke_shadowfall

Did Eithan know his own identity the entire time? Or did he only realize after the marble cracked??

Will Wight

Yes, he did. There were some things that he had sealed from himself; memories and abilities that he had sealed away but he was aware of his identity.

kwwaites

How could Eithan claim to be under 35 for the uncrowned tourney?

Will Wight

There’s two ways that could’ve happened with information that is already presented in Reaper. The Origin Shroud if its powerful enough to deceive the Mad King and Ozriel then it’s powerful enough to deceive people on Cradle, right? And then Eithan had to incarnate into a real mortal body. This wasn’t like a fake thing where he was disguising himself he had to really be mortal. He could easily have actually been under 35. Those 2 solutions are both possible.

Questioner

How are Cassias and the other Arelius family leaders going to respond now that they have seen or heard of Ethan at the end of Reaper?

Will Wight

You will get to see that in the next book. I suppose technically that’s a Dreadgod spoiler. I have already outlined that scene and I do know the answer but it’s in Dreadgod.

SirMisterGuyMan

Lindon seemed like he screwed up but somehow Malice and NS accept this as a victory.

Will Wight

That’s why Northstrider is initially furious. Lindon ruined their chance to fight and helped Shen run away.

The Monarchs treat it like a victory when they realize that teleporting RS away means Lindon has permanent control of the labyrinth, and since Malice and NS consider him a loyal asset, that means THEY have control of an ancient globe-spanning repository of power and knowledge.

Until the end of the book, when they realize Lindon’s not quite as under control as they thought.

Sarill01

I’m really glad there was no…nonsense [with regard to E=O].

Will Wight

I went back and forth on changing Ozriel’s identity. Almost changed my mind out of nerves.

Less because people guessed it, and more because I thought they’d be upset.

I chose to stick with it because I’ve been setting it up for so long and I didn’t have a more satisfying alternative, but I was nervous.

Bloodyraven

What was a good alternative for Ozriel?

Will Wight

Didn’t have one, that’s why I didn’t change it.

What I really would have done was have Ozriel either in hiding or actually dead, and the trick he pulled was allowing Eithan to inherit some of his powers and memories.

Then the conflict you see from Eithan throughout the series was him coming to terms with the new memories and powers inside him as he initially admired Ozriel but more and more resists becoming like him.

I could have made it work, though I would have had to execute and explain things differently in this book of course.

But in the end, I thought that was cool for Eithan but less cool for Ozriel.

rocksoffjagger

Thanks for the thoughtful response! I just discovered Cradle a little under 3 weeks ago and just caught up, and I'm seriously impressed. Not totally related to the questions I just asked, but one thing I'm really curious to know is what made you decide to self publish in ebook form rather than going with either a traditional publisher or else posting as a web novel? Obviously it seems like it's been a great decision for you based on what an active community you have around your work, but it does seem like a less conventional route.

Will Wight

It was a less conventional route when I started! Not so much now.

Two main reasons: there’s no middleman between me and my readers, and I have complete control over the book.

1.) Middleman

I get to interact with fans directly, which is cool. Now we’re WAY above the level at which I started, so it’s a little different now, but the idea was that I could release the books directly, much faster, and even change them if necessary.

Which is possible because…

2.) I have complete control.

I can change the covers if I want, I get to decide what to write, and the only one I split the money with is Amazon.

(Theoretically. In point of fact I have now hired several people full-time and more as contractors, but it started out as just me.)

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend any writer pursue a traditional publisher anymore.

Self-publish and if it goes well, great! If it goes okay, try to parlay that into a better publishing deal! If it goes badly, hey, at least you have finished books to work with!

rocksoffjagger

I would have assumed Eithan would be hard to write because coming up with wit that feels real and genuine requires you to repeatedly create unique, context-dependent inventions of language, rather than just falling back on cookie-cutter patterns and stock phrases.

P.S. I really hope this won't be the last we see of Eithan as an important character in the series. I really want to see him being a smart-ass in his trial and his interactions with the other judges.

P.P.S. I'm forgetting the exact line, but my favorite Eithan moment was during the uncrowned tournament (I believe the fight for the crowns in the second stage) where he says something like "I really must insist that we go back to murdering each other in the spirit of the competition." (Heavily paraphrasing).

Will Wight

I have a (relatively) professional demeanor when dealing with fans, but as a person, almost everything I say is a joke. Responding to things seriously is out of character for me.

So part of what makes writing Eithan easier is that I’m more comfortable writing jokes than serious dialogue.

Another part is that I’ve been sitting on the character since I was in college, so I have a great understanding of his personality and can write in-character for him without thinking.

P.S. Minor spoilers for Dreadgod: Currently, the prologue of Book 11 is the Trial of Ozriel.

P.P.S. That’s one of my favorite one-off Eithan lines too. Probably my favorite joke, and the one I was looking forward to the most, is him throwing the match against Yan Shoumei in Wintersteel.

PLangdon84

How does the hollow domain not disrupt enforcer techniques? Didn’t it disrupt Daji’s and Sophara’s in Wintersteel?

From Wintersteel, battle report against brother Aekin:

Lindon dashes up with the Soul Cloak, carrying the Hollow Domain in an orb around him. When he gets close enough, even Aekin’s Enforcer technique falters.

Will Wight

Yeah, it’s a lack of specificity in my writing. Sorry about that.

I intended it to take a lot more power to wipe out Enforcer techniques because they’re internal. Someone of approximately equal power to Lindon would have an easier time keeping their Enforcer technique active inside the Domain, but it still comes down to Lindon’s power against theirs.

I meant the scene with Brother Aekin to be an example illustrating Lindon pushing the Domain hard, which is why “even” his Enforcer technique fails, and with Yerin is a scenario where he’s just keeping it on at default strength so Enforcer techniques aren’t wiped out. (Unless they were significantly weaker than Lindon.)

With Aekin specifically, that technique does indeed have an external component as some people have pointed out. That part is true, but I still should have clarified.

But I phrased that inaccurately in this scene. My bad. 

magi1201

What about the barrier of body? Should that keep internal enforcement running?

Will Wight

That’s what makes it harder, but of course internal madra resistance is not impenetrable, or you could never hurt anyone directly with a Striker technique.

Crotean

This does raise a question, how much of the end game of cradles plot did you already have in mind when you started? It definitely seems like you had a pretty good outline based on how tight this series plotwise has been.

Will Wight

The main thing I didn’t know was how many volumes there would be in the series. I had no idea Cradle would be such a success, so I didn’t know how many books I was going to be allowed.

Thought I might run out of money and have to stop writing.

I knew who Ozriel was from the beginning, and I was disappointed I couldn’t fit Eithan into Book 1. I knew several of the landmark events and types of books I wanted to hit on the way, like I wanted to do a pocket dimension training book (Ghostwater), a tournament arc, a return to Sacred Valley, etc.

I knew where I wanted the major characters to end up and how I wanted to end things in the world of Cradle, so that was all there. And I knew a lot of the themes and the general gist of who Lindon was and his journey of growth throughout the series.

But if I had known from the beginning that I had exactly twelve books, I could have paced some things out better.

C9_Tom_Hanks

I've been reflecting on the book. It dawned on me that the black flame emperor and his fleet of cloud ships arrive in the desolate wild about a week after the events of bloodline. But it takes months just to get back to serpents grave.

Will Wight

I’d have to go back and check my timeline document to be sure, but off the top of my head, I’m pretty sure they left well earlier than the end of Bloodline AND didn’t have to constantly stop to re-fuel on the way there like Lindon and the gang did the first time.

Business-Worry-5731

Jai Daishou never should have pulled that trick. I refuse to believe a JUDGE made that mistake and believe it's more likely Will wrote himself in a corner and didn't have a choice.

Will Wight

There’s a lot of argument going on, but I see where you’re coming from. Even in Blackflame, I was worried people might think this, so I tried to set up for it.

What I was going for is that this is the sort of mistake an imprisoned ultra-powerful death god figure might make. He’s not used to being so weak.

That’s why I had the exchange with Naru Huan afterwards, where Eithan thinks back to the last time he was mortal and realizes he’s never made this mistake even then. Ozmanthus was used to operating on this lower level of power and his techniques were more lethal.

Now Eithan’s using a less-lethal Path—intentionally, but it’s still inconvenient when he has to kill someone—and it’s been thousands of years since he’s fought like a mortal. Plus he doesn’t have access to his full memories or mental capacity.

And his character flaw is, and has always been, arrogance. Even at his full power, he was trying to solve problems himself.

I could have written it so that he fails to kill JD because pure madra isn’t lethal enough, and JD escapes. I chose not to because I wanted to show him making a mistake I thought was reasonable for his character.

But I understand feeling the way you do! If he had his full measure of skill and understanding, him making any mistake at all is suspect.