Recent entries

Andrew

How did you come up with and design your magic system? It feels very unique even for progression fantasy and Chinese cultivation systems.

Will Wight

I could go on about magic systems forever so okay I'm gonna do a little bit of a tangent here. So this is a tangent, what it's like to interact with me on a personal level, like if you and I just sort of hung out, right, like this is what, if you ask me a question like this you would be like buckling your seat belt. Buckle up because I am about to go on a rant for 15 minutes and I've had two of my friends independently mention this about me this week and they both- again these two people have never met each other and they both called them Will rants and I was like yeah that happens. Every once in a while, you get a thing in a story or something that just sets me off and i just have to talk about it forever. And magic system rules are one of them. I'm very passionate about it, I have a lot of thoughts.

So how did you design the magic system.. I can't, we don't have enough time for that I don't have like a whole- I could go on about it forever. This is this is my tea like Rebecca has Jane Austen and for me it's like magic systems and what else... uh Terraria. And Subnautica.  

So, uh, how did you design your magic- okay here's the mistake I see a lot of people make when they design magic systems. They've heard that restrictions are what make your magic systems unique and that is very true. So that statement is completely correct, but because they've heard that they then design the restrictions of their magic system first before designing anything about what the people can do. So they've got this big long list of what magic systems can't do and what their resources they require and what things are forbidden and what doesn't work and what rules and we don't have anything that they can do. So as a result they end up with a magic system that doesn't seem fun to use. So it seems like you've got to keep a bunch of rules in mind or it's like okay well you know you've told me all the things you can't do now what can it do? It doesn't seem like- who are they? What do they do? So i find that that's a common mistake people have when designing magic systems.

So what I like to do is start with the archetype that I want. In this case, it was, I'm going for cultivation novels right so magical martial arts. Anime style big feats, big things you do. Swords that shoot lasers and lasers that shoot swords, right. That's the kind of idea and then I went, okay so then now we obviously we're doing an inner energy cultivation type system. So I went moved with that and I started with the things that I knew I could pin down with the system. And then I started refining it to go now what can the system not do, what are the things that that it can't do, what are the things that people think it can't do, how do they understand this, how do they define the different levels? And then after I did the restriction so I do what kind of magic do you want to use? What abilities do you want them to have? Then restrictions and and requirements and then I do how it practically, like in the real world, how does this work? How does this feel like, what does this look like? To the senses, in a real person experiencing this, what is it like? And then I kind of do that loop a few times until i figure it out.

So that's it, that's the basic, that's the general gist without going into it for 20 years.

Daniel

How do you write a series with so much fighting without desensitizing the reader? I am constantly amazed the stakes remain high despite how common violence is in the world.

Will Wight

Uh, okay so it's mostly this. I'm mainly laughing because of chat's reaction to my previous statement about Charles's question, which- I want everyone to keep Charles's question in mind over the next few days, but Daniel's question, how do you write a series with so much fighting without desensitizing the reader.   Well, in general it's because this is action movie style violence, this is Marvel movie/MCU violence. This is not- if I was trying to go gritty detail realistic violence it wouldn't be fun. So therefore leaning into the anime nature of it right so that's one thing, it doesn't feel like real violence, it feels like fantasy violence because that's what it is.

And then the stakes remain high despite how common violence is in the world... I think I understand what you mean. I feel like there's something at stake in the fight even though really they're fighting all the time and the answer to that is a fight should always be a debate between two characters and I admit I don't do this perfectly a lot of the time, but a fight should always be about a conflict between two characters. So two characters are in conflict and they are competing over something that they care badly enough about to hurt the other person. So because of that it's not just a fight. It's not just them sitting there with lightsabers for 10 minutes, right, like they're competing over something.

And when you don't have that, then it's just as boring as a chase scene the last 10 minutes because nothing's going to change. So I try, emphasis on try, to have it not just be spectacled but also be have the characters be doing this for a reason. And so when the characters are doing it for a reason it feels like something's at stake.  

Questioner

Have you considered getting a tiny bell to go with your Eithan scissors so that you can ring it whenever Yerin uses the Endless Sword?

Will Wight

Obviously I have used that expression a lot, "ring like a bell." People are pointing it out because the Traveler's Gate got rerecorded and they're hearing Travis say it, and it's ringing bells from Cradle. Yes, I do use that phrase a lot, probably too much. I mostly use it in Traveler's Gate to describe the sound of steel on steel because it's unbreakable Tartarus Steel hitting unbreakable Tartarus Steel so I was going "What's a relatable way to describe that? Bells." And then I was going "Okay, when we have Yerin's Endless Sword, it's got to make a certain sound," then I was like "Ah, yeah, rang like a bell." Was the result that I have two series where everything rings like a bell. And then we have Little Blue, who speaks entirely in bell and chime sounds.

Questioner

Will we see more Cradle after this is gonna be the end of Cradle?

Will Wight

I don't know. Obviously the way we've constructed the universe, the characters are-unless everybody dies in the final book-the characters aren't going away, they're just moving worlds. Therefore, for the surviving characters, are we gonna see anything from them in the future? That's a good question and I'm not sure, the door obviously is open, it's possible, but I don't know. I'm sure I'll write something about them in the future, there's just too much not to. There's one-I definitely can't get into that, dang it, it's huge spoilers. I was about to go on it, dang it. Well that really killed my momentum.

Questioner

Who has stronger willpower between a Herald and a Sage, since they both require heavy willpower? Or does it just depend on the sacred artist?

Will Wight

In general it depends on the sacred artist. In terms of what they can do with just eye contact, Heralds get the muscle and Sages get the technique, so that's just the whole general split. Sages can do cool stuff that Heralds cant do, but Heralds can beef it up.

Questioner

We know 14 of the top 16 competitors in the Uncrowned King tournament, who were the last 2?

Will Wight

I don't know. I didn't know you only knew 14, I thought we knew all 16. I don't remember that. I obviously have them in the document, I just thought you would've known all of them. I don't know whose missing.

Marco and Grayson

Is it possible that you can just write about Lindon forever?

Will Wight

You know, I'd love to, I really like writing about Lindon, but the thing is, I just really love writing new stories. I just really like it. Any time I'm writing a story and I'm thinking about "Hmm. But what else could I be writing?" So I might come back to Lindon in the future, I certainly could see myself continuing to write stories from Lindon's perspective, but I think it's important that Cradle has an ending to the story and I really want to be able to tell other stories.

Taylor

I meant favorite character in Cradle as a whole.

Will Wight

You're probably following up on another question, but I'm going to answer that half of the question. Yikes. I'm a fan of a lot of them. I'm a fan of Fury, I'm a fan of Eithan. I really like Emriss Silentborn. I really like Malice, Malice is cool. I like all of the powerful people, they're fun to write. Northstrider's fun. I enjoy most of them, that's why I write them that way. 

It's Mu Enkai, nevermind, that was the correct answer. It's Mu Enkai, the guy from the prologue of Cradle 5, he's obviously my favorite character and I don't know why you even needed to ask.

Questioner

Can Suu be used to release the Great Devourer from Ninjago?

Will Wight

I had to address that question because it was also one that burns in my heart, and the answer is absolutely yes. Suu can be used to release the Great Devourer from Ninjago.

Questioner

Rand vs. a Monarch?

Will Wight

I don't know, man. At the end of Wheel of Time, Rand is like Buddha. I don't know how to power scale that. I don't know what Rand can or can't do by the end of Wheel of Time. Can he reverse time? Maybe. He's battling conceptual entities so I don't know. Rand is the protagonist of Wheel of Time so I guess that was a spoiler alert. By the end, he's battling conceptual entities! 

Questioner

How do your parents feel about their kids creating a writing empire?

Will Wight

My response to that is: I employ them now, so they are obligated to be delighted.

Charles

What is Will Wight's middle name?

Will Wight

You met my parents earlier. My dad's name is William Laurence Wight Junior. My grandfather's name is William Laurence Wight. So my name is also William Laurence Wight, it is William Laurence Wight the third. I think that name is awesome. I think it's super cool, I've always really liked my name. The one thing that I would change if I could go back in time and change my grandfather's name, I would change my middle name to Wallace. Because then not only would I be William Wallace, I would also have the initials WWW, and since I was growing up when the internet was becoming a thing, that just would've been really cool in elementary and middle school. It's a dream of mine, so don't give me a time machine. If you have one, I can't be trusted with it.

Honorless

Is an Iteration's magic system usable outside of the planet but still within the Iteration?

Will Wight

Yes. If you're outside the main planet you're still inside the-anywhere in the reality the magic system is usable. Unless it's resource based, so if there was something like Brandon Sanderson's allomancy, that would be potentially restricted to that planet because it could be that resource is only found on that planet, right? Other than that, yeah, the metaphysics are the same anywhere within the Iteration. And that is, by the way, why it is a dimension and not just a planet. Otherwise I would have just done planets.

Questioner

Is purple your favorite color?

Will Wight

No it is not. Purple is not my favorite color. That was a good guess though. If you actually keep submitting questions like that we'll go through all the colors and we'll eventually narrow it down. Process of elimination.

Tyler

Are you excited for the Thousand Year Blood War?

I hope he is referencing the Bleach arc of the same name. If he's asking me-there's a blood war coming and it's gonna last a thousand years, am I excited for it? No. In a literal sense I would not be excited for that. But if he's referencing the Bleach arc that's gonna be animated in October? Yes I am. Based on the trailer it is gonna be animated extremely well. I'm very excited and I love Bleach. Even though this actual arc in the manga was complete nonsense. But, hoping the anime can kind of patch that up and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Questioner

Will Cradle end with Zeno defeating everybody?

Will Wight

I'm loving the anime references in here. Anybody whose not an anime fan and has been here has been lost for five minutes. Zeno is the ultimate power in the Dragon Ball universe, introduced in Dragon Ball Super. He is the ultimate power, can erase universes at a whim. Yes, that is exactly how Cradle's gonna end. Lindon and Orthos are gonna fuse into the Path of Twin Turtles and then Zeno's gonna erase everybody. Yeah, 100 percent. 

One of the things I actually love about this introduction to the canon of Dragon Bal is the idea that the ruler of the Dragon Ball universe is a childlike entity who only cares about seeing cool fights because that explains so much about the entire universe. I was like, this is something you added in later but it completely fits because very thing that happens in the Dragon Ball universe is at the whim of a childlike character who just wants to see cool fights and that explains so much. I'm just like, yeah, that's about right, that makes sense. It all checks out.

Questioner

Can you bond a Dreadbeast?

Will Wight

Not in the same way. There are certainly ways to create a bond between yourself and a Dreadbeast, but a sacred beast is a healthy bond between two souls that resonate together. With a Dreadbeast it would not be that. Technically though you could come up with a way to bond two sacred artists like that so that would work too. It would be a different thing.

Questioner

Any book recommendations?

Will Wight

Have you read Cradle? I hear Cradle's good. I haven't read it myself but other people say good things. I actually don't have anything off the top of my head. I feel like there was something I just read that I really liked. I have not shut up about One Punch Man, One Punch Man is the latest addition to my Will rant.

Questioner

How would Lindon fare in Naruto?

Will Wight

I don't even know how Naruto would fare in Naruto these days. This is another Will rant. I know you know this, I know you're asking Naruto questions because it sets me off, but like, what the heck is the power scale now? I don't even know. Like, you have Naruto making a hole in the moon and now he gets outfought by a cyborg who can just do hand to hand martial arts. Like, what the heck? He just got kicked in the face. How in the world can he be kicked? This is like Goku losing a lifting competition to a human being. I don't get it. I can't go any further. Legit, that's the shortest I've ever talked about that topic.

Questioner

What would happen if Northstrider strode South?

You know the questions about dividing by zero? This is that. If Northstrider strode South... wow, that's a tongue twister. Northstrider would stride South if Northstrider could stride South but Northstrider can't stride South so Northstrider only strides North.