Recent entries

    Cradle ()
    #1581 Copy

    Terrible

    How many Silverfang Carp or Sea Drakes would Lindon have needed to match Yerin in strength?

    Will Wight

    He would have needed to eat Drakes for another month or two, when he would have reached the limit of that food to strengthen him. After which he would have to find something better.

    Cradle ()
    #1582 Copy

    Questioner

    Can you tell us when Lindon lost his parasite ring please? We're all wondering why he didn't have it with him inside Ghostwater as it was normally in his pocket up until then

    Will Wight

    He lost it in Ghostwater. It was in his pack. I thought I had referenced it directly, but apparently I didn't. It spilled out and he didn't find it.

    Cradle ()
    #1583 Copy

    madbookworm

    Will we ever see more to the paths Lindon didn't chose in blackflame? Like the crawling shadows, or the one that makes water go super fast?

    Will Wight

    Probably, yes! I'm still deciding what Paths will be represented in the upcoming tournament (and the pre-tournament contest), so it's entirely possible that those will be among them.

    Cradle ()
    #1584 Copy

    Kazology

    I was really surprised to see Lindon's arm start phasing through things in Ghostwater. In Skysworn there was no mention of this, and Lindon seems to consider the Cloud Hammer arm largely for having a similar property. Was this something that you decided afterwards should be common to all remnant prosthetics, or is there a reason we didn't see this happening before? Followup: Gesha told Lindon that eventually the arm would become as part of his spirit as his original one. Is Lindon's forgetfulness with cycling madra through it a sign this hasn't happened yet, or will he always have to consciously choose to make the arm solid?

    Will Wight

    That was just a mistake. Full explanation: I wanted there to be something more to the adjustment process for his new arm rather than just periodically losing control of it. The original idea, and the difference between that and the Cloud Hammer arm, was that the hunger madra arm would require him to focus on controlling madra in order to keep it doing what he wanted it to. However, as I wrote, that got shortened to "it phases through objects when it doesn't have enough madra" simply because that was easier to illustrate. So while the original idea was distinct from the Cloud Hammer arm, I completely forgot to keep it consistent in the end.

    Cradle ()
    #1586 Copy

    Terrible

    If Lindon and Company wanted to take a relaxing, week long vacation to somewhere tropical, where on Cradle would they go?

    Will Wight

    There's actually a beach not too far to the west of Sacred Valley. Lindon had no idea it existed, but if they got there, it's a decent beach during the summer months. They just have to watch out for wraiths.

    Cradle ()
    #1589 Copy

    Terrible

    Could a powerful sacred artist “corrupt” a Blood Shadow, turning it to an aspect of madra other than blood?

    Will Wight

    Yes, eventually, though it being blood madra is vital to its function. So it would have to be some kind of hybridized madra, which is certainly possible.

    Cradle ()
    #1592 Copy

    MachinaMandala

    Will we ever get a Chapter 16.5 a la SAO?

    Will Wight

    Not exactly, though I have contemplated doing some interlude chapters set between each Cradle book. Exploring what Lindon and Yerin did in their downtime offscreen. Sometimes it could be during the time-skips in each book, while they're training.

    Cradle ()
    #1593 Copy

    Tren

    Since your books always get into the explosive anime action without much of an investment, do you feel like they lose some of the emotional weight I'm talking about? You're writing the kind of books you like to write, obviously, and I'm a fan so I don't want that to change. I just like the hard questions.

    (If your answer is too personal, I'm totally okay with you skipping this question)

    Will Wight

    Yes and no. On the one hand, obviously if you invest the reader in the characters and the stakes before you begin the action, the action has a lot more weight and means more. That's certainly true. But on the other hand, if the reader never reaches the action scene because they're bored out of their skull with the emotional setup, then your action scenes do not mean more. The reader never sees them at all, and is not entertained.In what I'm writing, I believe the reader should not be working harder than the writer to extract entertainment from the text. You shouldn't have to push yourself to keep going. I think that is the approach most readers prefer.However, there are certainly stories that are aiming to be slower, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. I think there's probably a happy medium. The better of a storyteller I become, the more I'm hoping to invest weight into the action without sacrificing pace. I still have room to improve, although I'm probably never going to be writing Malazan, for instance.

    Nope. Not that personal, and I don't mind being asked personal questions. I'm pretty open, and if it's something I feel leery about answering publicly or in print (or if I just can't be bothered to answer), I won't. No pressure felt!

    Cradle ()
    #1594 Copy

    MachinaMandala

    Do you have a list of all the current paths / methods shown?

    Will Wight

    I do not have a master list of Paths, sorry. My notes tend to be unreadable to anyone but me, thanks to the ancient Wight Cipher.

    Cradle ()
    #1595 Copy

    Bearilicious

    If microscopes exist in Cradle will we find micro-bindings in iron bodies that causes the automation of various effects, super strength/ super healing etc?

    Will Wight

    That's very astute. Not that, but something similar.

    Cradle ()
    #1597 Copy

    Bearilicious

    What happened to Dross's shell the eye of the deep casing? did it just dissapear? is the script still there to yank Dross out of Lindon's soul?

    Will Wight

    Good question! Dross is beyond such things now.

    Cradle ()
    #1598 Copy

    Lil' Blue

    Also, how as an author do you deal with claims that your characters are too OP? Is that intended or a consequence?

    Will Wight

    I'm never concerned about it at all. First off, it's normally baseless. People are concerned that a character will be too overpowered because they just got a power-up, and that's not a reasonable concern. A character is only too overpowered if they can easily solve the challenges they face using that power, and usually I don't have my characters in situations where they can easily win with their current abilities. Sometimes, I haven't created a situation with enough tension, but it's not because the character is too powerful. It's because I failed to outline some part of the conflict well enough in telling the story: either the obstacle isn't clear enough, the stakes aren't high enough, the character isn't motivated enough, or something like that. The character is never too powerful, because you can always give them a goal they really want to obtain, but can't using their strength.

    Cradle ()
    #1599 Copy

    Lil' Blue

    So, a bunch of discussions about Lindon fighting other people are ending with people saying "But Dross" as if that answers all questions. Can you confirm that Dross isn't going to be an auto win from every fight going forward? (The same usually happens with anything about Eithan.)

    Will Wight

    Yes, actually. From here on out, Lindon will now easily coast through every challenge.