Recent entries

JM-SL

Do sages go straight to monarch, (can they even go to monarch?) or is that in spoiler territory?

Will Wight

Definitely spoilers.

JM-SL

Who is stronger... a Sage or a Herald?

Will Wight

The reason it's an endless discussion is because there's not much of a clear answer to that question.

In pure power, Herald. But Sages can do some things Heralds can't.

True Ruler of None

What is the difference between active reading and using a Magister staff?

Will Wight

A Magister staff uses the powers in the staff. A Windwatcher can float in the air, if you have Windwatcher feathers in your staff, maybe you could float things in the air.

Active Reading physically changes things like you would by Awakening them, but doesn't finish the process, leaving them warped, broken, or changed.

True Ruler of None

Is Authority over Energy Systems a thing?

Will Wight

Let me get back to you on that. I know the answer, but I don't know how to phrase it well yet. I'll be developing my terminology between now and Wintersteel.

Skeletickles

This might be a little too spoiler-y, but I believe you've mentioned before that we haven't seen the most powerful beings in Amalgam. Is the Old Man who appears in the Ragnarus short story one of those beings? Also, is he Ragnarus' Founder?

Will Wight

Take this with a big pile of salt, as I haven't gone back to my Traveler's Gate notes in many moons, but I do believe I was referring to the true Founders of the other Territories. Of which the Old Man is one.

Majedic

Is Lindon’s rise from foundation to Underlord in 3ish years unprecedented?

Will Wight

Not literally unprecedented. There have been people to advance so quickly before.

But practically speaking, unprecedented.

kcudlow

If it's easier to become a Herald than a sage, and a Herald is more powerful, why would anyone choose to become a sage besides the cool name?

Will Wight

The Abidan like Sages better.

Also, Sages have certain advantages that Heralds don't have. And generally, Sages are people who are focused on exploring the depth of their Path rather than advancing for the sake of power.

positronicman

Regarding Hidden Gnome Publishing, what are your current thoughts on growing the stable of authors?

Semi-relatedly, are you familiar with Subutai Corporation and their collaboratively written Mongoliad/Foreworld Saga? I'd imagine that Neal Stephenson and gang might have some valuable lessons learned if you are going to grow the Hidden Gnome Army.

Will Wight

I've never heard of that organization, though of course I have read Neal Stephenson, but I am willing to expand Hidden Gnome to more than just myself! It's all about finding the right writer, though.

Car_On_Roof

Will we see Lindon make a return to sacred valley in the next book

Will Wight

Yes. Sort of.

positronicman

Have the recent viral incidents aboard cruise ships impacted your future writing plans or how you view cruises in general?

Will Wight

Honestly, I almost booked another cruise this week because it would be cheaper.

I didn't only because I already had other plans.

Majedic

If Yerin hadn’t touched on the sword icon would Lindon have won their fight?

Will Wight

Almost certainly yes.

h_ng_r_

Do you think Wei Shi Kelsa has the potential to make it to Truegold?

Will Wight

The potential? Yes.

ficklebutter

Is harvesting a sages/someone with acces to the way remnant an almost sure fire way to be able to gain access to the way? We’ve seen two examples of this in the series Yerin and Regan Shen. I just finished my 5th reread seconds ago so I’m brimming with questions if you do not like this question or feel it has an unsatisfying answer please feel free to say so and I’ll ask a different one.

Also I have a sneaky suspicion that eithan grandpa line has something to do with the connection between eithan and the Aurelius monarch I’ve got my Tin foil hat on Will and I’m watching you.

I love these books will please never give up writing. I wanna be an author and you’re one of my heroes.

Will Wight

Awww, you've warmed the cockles of my heart. I have warm cockles now thanks to you.

An almost surefire way? No. But it does help clear the way to higher levels if you manage to adopt a Remnant with greater advancement and/or insight, like a Sage's.

JM-SL

What kind of Iron Body had Harmony?

Will Wight

I don't remember. Off the top of my head, the standard Iron body for Akura elites is one that makes it easier to control their bloodline armor, which becomes a more common technique for them at Underlord and above.

Will Wight

I’ll explain this tweet a little bit:

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

—Mark Twain

I hate slow stories. I have zero patience with fiction. If nothing happens in a scene, I want it gone.

I can’t stand musicals because, in most musicals, the second a song begins the story comes to a DEAD STOP. You could go to the bathroom and miss nothing but the sick beats.

So in my own writing, I am ruthless about culling anything that I would consider wasted time.

Some might say TOO ruthless.

My normal process is to make a plan, then dive in and start writing it, and whenever I hit a scene where I feel like the pacing is starting to drag, I change the plan.

I either combine scenes so that I’m only writing one where the plan called for three, or I cut scenes from the plan, or I’m halfway through writing a scene and I stop and go back and summarize what would have happened in 2-3 lines instead of a whole scene.

Usually the first scenes to go are the scenes that exist primarily for world- or character-building, or scenes that I thought would just be cool.

For instance, I had a bunch of scenes planned in Skysworn just with the Skysworn going around doing missions.

I had this whole idea in Blackflame for Lindon to interact with Lezaar, the Arelius family refiner, and demonstrate how refining works. And also a sub-plot with Yerin where she found out that a Truegold was going around claiming to be the Sword Sage.

There were Soulsmithing scenes planned in virtually every book, which I either skipped or cut.

Anyway, the point is that this process—constantly planning and re-planning and cutting and skipping and figuring out how to combine scenes—takes a long time.

It usually takes me 4-6 months to produce a Cradle book, and I often have 50k words of waste. On paper it should take me less time and there should be less waste.

So, this time, I’ve written my outline the same way I always do, but I’m hammering out the draft quickly without giving myself time to alter the plan as I go.

The THEORY is that the changes I’ve made haven’t really been improvements, they’ve just been lateral moves that have cost me time.

So now, we think we’ll see one of two results:

1.) A more fleshed-out Cradle book with more words that actually took less time to write.

2.) A bloated, boring mess that loses the snappy pacing I love so much and is in dire need of a critical edit.

I’m really hoping for #1, but even if we end up with #2, we’ll have learned that the “constantly fiddle and re-plan” phase is necessary to my process.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I didn’t have enough time to write a short post.

cusecuse315

Why isn't Cradle traditionally published?

Will Wight

From our best estimates, I earn many times more than I would be paid by a traditional publisher.

COULD they offer me a million dollars (or some lesser but still ridiculous sum) per book? Theoretically yes, but they would have to be confident they could sell enough copies to make that worth it.

In practice, they can’t be confident that they’ll sell significantly more than I’m selling now, so I won’t get that kind of an offer.

Will Wight

I like controlling my schedule and that no sane traditional publisher is going to be confident that they can sell 5x what I’m selling now.

In theory they could, of course, but that would require giving me the All-Star promotional treatment, and 99% of authors don’t get that.

Will Wight

I’m right there with you! [Not wanting to work for a boss]. There are so many reasons, and this is a big one.

For one thing, it would most likely be a pay cut to sign with a publisher. Probably a huge pay cut.

But even more than that, I don’t WANT to work for somebody else when I don’t have to. I’d take a pay cut from what I’m making now if that’s what it took to keep my rights.

So why would I accept less money for less control over my work?

Will Wight

There are a LOT of answers to this question.

The two easiest answers are that 1.) I make more now than any traditional publisher would offer me, and 2.) I like having control over my work.

I’ve gone into detail about both of those answers in other comments on this thread, but there’s another, related answer.

Here’s the thing: I have no reason to expect that a traditional publisher would grant me MORE freedom and MORE time to work on my books. Only less.

The freedom traditional publishing grants is the financial freedom to spend time working on a book instead of having to work another job. This comes in the form of an advance.

Well, I already write full time and we save most of the money that the books generate, and we’ve been doing that for seven years now. So I don’t need an advance to keep writing.

As for keeping up momentum in self-publishing, that’s very true and very real, but traditional publishing only makes that harder. Not easier.

The rule of thumb for editorial turnaround is usually about six months, meaning the fastest a traditionally published book will be released is six months from completion.

(If your name is Stephen King you might be able to break these rules, but it’s a good generality.)

So the ABSOLUTE FASTEST you could POSSIBLY release books is twice a year, which is my current rate.

And given that I would have to run it by a network of people, it’s likely to be slower.

But that doesn’t matter because I don’t need the momentum anymore, right? The publisher will take on the burden of marketing so Amazon doesn’t have to.

Well yes, but actually no.

Publishers only put their big promotional guns behind the titles they know are going to be worth it...so basically just their top earners.

Since my last name isn’t Grisham and my first name isn’t “New York Times best-selling author,” I have no reason to expect that treatment.

So what’s likely to happen is slower releases with less attention that sell fewer copies and I make a smaller amount per copy, leading to a slow death spiral that ends in obscurity.

I don’t see a world in which I can happily take more time per book. And that doesn’t even take into account the Golden Reason above all others: most readers don’t want me to spend more time per book.

So I just can’t think of a single benefit to being traditionally published.

...having said all that, I could be persuaded otherwise.

If a publisher is willing to sink a lot of money into a project, that means they’re willing to put their money where their mouth is, and I have every reason to expect good treatment of the property.

But Cradle is no Minecraft. I have no reason to expect Bruce Wayne to shower me in blank checks, and therefore no reason to think I’ll be traditionally published.

Aussby

Ozriel isn't dead because he appears in OKAK and Will said it happens after Cradle.

Will Wight

Without officially confirming or denying anything, I want to say that I don’t feel bound to anything I said outside the books.

I generally say whatever I’m thinking at the time, but I have to be free to change my mind until it’s in a book.

So I would have felt no qualms about changing the timeline around until I have established it in a published work.

SayLessThanYouKnow

I reread the Cradle books a lot, which is good cause I'm constantly missing details.

This time I just noticed in Soulsmith something related to Uncrowned. When Yerin and Lindon are entering the camp for the first time and confronted by the Sandvipers, Yerin beats one down. Something I didn't notice is

"You're strong, you get respect. You're weak, and you better know someone strong." Yerin slowly laid the flat of her blade down, resting it on the top of Resh's head. The Sandviper woman flinched, and frost began to form in her hair.

The frost come's from Yerin's sword (made from the Sage of Frozen Blade).

In Uncrowned Lindon is surprised when Yerin uses the sword's binding and says he never saw anything to suggest that it had such a binding, but here's the contradictory proof! Also he had previously noticed the blade giving off an intense cold.

Will Wight

It’s not the binding causing this effect, it’s the material the sword is made of.

rawlsrorty

Why is Akura Malice So Passive in Uncrowned?

 

First, I’d like to say that I love this series. I even loved Uncrowned (Akura Justice’s interactions with Lindon were worth the price of admission).

 

That said, I don’t understand why Malice acted the way she did. We hear, again and again, from Charity, that the stakes of the Uncrowned tournament are very high for the Akura. They have to do well because they have enemies encroaching from every corner.

 

Then, the dragon faction proceed to kill an entire vassal team of hers, forcing the Akura to embarrassingly put in a backup team from their own family. Another vassal team has their transportation sabotaged -again by her greatest enemies- and she does nothing. Then, the one monarch who should be a logical ally of hers makes a last minute decision that certainly looks like it’s screwing over her faction. And again, she does nothing.

 

I find Malice’s behavior in Uncrowned even more inexplicable than Northstrider’s. Either she’s playing 17-dimensional chess, or she’s much weaker than the other monarchs and so is afraid to stand up to them even when they blatantly provoke her.

Will Wight

It’s political. In the sense that she and the other Monarchs are constantly jockeying against each other to try and get one up on each other without provoking anyone into a fight.

 

I originally intended for there to be 2-3 scenes of the Monarchs interacting over the course of Uncrowned in order to explain what was going on from their perspective, but I cut it because I’m already introducing a ton of new characters and names in the book and didn’t want to throw in a bunch more character introductions.

 

As for why she didn’t just teleport them there, at this point in the series we haven’t seen anyone teleport anyone else between continents. The Arelius portals do it once every ten years, which requires a permanent portal network, and until the last time they actually had an active Monarch.

 

Charity borrows Malice’s power to teleport a bunch of people across a long distance on the same continent, and she spends time and resources setting that up.

 

(I intend to include the Monarch scenes in the next book because I’m going lighter on the new characters this time.)