In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, “Oh Crap, the Cops are Here!”, Howard, Dan, Steve Diamond, and special guest Joe McKinney tackle law-enforcement. We invited Steve Diamond, who has been a guest before, and who has some law enforcement background, to help us grill Joe McKinney, who has tons of that background, and who also happens to be a best-selling author.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Warbreaker, Vivenna and Vasher spiked one of Denth’s guns by rescuing Nanrovah’s daughter. This week, in chapters 50 and 51, the priests debate, Siri is trapped, Vivenna is worried, and the gods vote. Well, most of them do. Then Vasher attempts another rescue, which goes… poorly.

The Twitter post archive for July is up to date.

Today’s poll, to be answered Friday, July 21st, focuses on the cosmere. As always, if you have a question you’d like to get answered by Brandon, please leave a comment in whichever location (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or Instagram) and I will add it to the list of potential questions.

Full Questions:

• Have you ever had a stupid idea for a twist/book that someone had to talk you out of?
• What are the important factors in building a connected universe like the Cosmere?
• Before you became a famous writer, how were you able to get in touch with experts he needed advice from?
• How did you learn to shift your focus between multiple writing projects?
• How did you market your books when you first started out?

In case you missed the announcement on my social media last week, my U.K. fantasy publisher Gollancz just released their cover to Oathbringer, the third book in the Stormlight Archive. Check out series artist Sam Green’s full front cover below!

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Narrative Bumper Pool, with Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel, Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley talk revision. Revision: it’s when you make a too-short piece longer, or a too-long piece shorter. (It’s also a great many other things, suggesting that this description is a too-short piece in need of revision.)

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Warbreaker, those in positions of theoretical authority moved toward taking actual responsibility. This week, in chapters 34 and 35, Vivenna and Vasher rescue an innocent victim and spike one of Denth’s plans.

The Twitter post archive for June is up to date.

Today’s poll, to be answered Friday, June 14th, has a few of the more random questions I could put together. As always, if you have a question you’d like to get answered by Brandon, please leave a comment in whichever location (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or Instagram) and I will add it to the list of potential questions.

Full questions:

• Why do you think there are so many Mormons in sci-fi/fantasy?
• Do you prefer Bread & Butter or Meat & Potatoes?
• Have you considered developing a full language for one of your worlds (like Tolkien did)?
• If you could World-hop one character from another universe into the Cosmere, Who would it be and where would you have them Visit?
• What Allomantic ability would you want to have and why?

If you could bring one character from another universe into the Cosmere, Who would it be?

What an interesting question. I’ll play along in a moment, but I’ll point out that it’s generally not tempting for me to write other creator’s characters. The ones I were most interested in writing were those in the Wheel of Time–and somehow, that ended up happening already.

Generally, when I consider a character that I love, my mind starts breaking down the “Why.” I look at what effect they had on me, and what about them I really love–what is it this character does to the story that is so intriguing. Often, if I boil that down, I can start creating new characters who draw upon this, and other traditions–and that is what excites me.

That said, who would I bring to the cosmere, if I had the chance? I’ll take a different tactic on this than, perhaps, you’d assume. I’d grab some of my favorite villains from other media, because it would be interesting to see how the characters would react. If Magneto were to deal with a world of people with magic, how would he react–and how would the characters react to him? What about Moriarty? Javert? (Okay, Nale’s already got some Javert in him.)

Cthulhu? Nah. That’s going to far.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Proposals, Pitches, and Queries, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard talk about selling your stuff. In this episode we discuss query letters, pitches, and proposals—the tools that you use to present your material to people who can pay you for it, and who will partner with you in the task of selling it to the general public.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Warbreaker, Siri flirted while Vivenna fled. This week, in chapters 38 and 39, Lightsong counts priests and squirrels, while Vivenna counts bruises and alleyways.

The Twitter post archive for May is up to date.

As I mentioned last week, Brandon is going to be out of town for the next few weeks, and will be unable to answer poll questions while he was gone. He was kind enough to answer a few in advance. The question that received the largest vote from last week was: Can holders of Shards give them up voluntarily? If so, what would happen? I will post the answer on Brandon’s social media channels, his FAQ page, and in this blog post on Friday.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Hybrid Outlining and Discovery Writing, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Piper answer some questions: what can discovery writers learn from outlining? What can outliners learn from discovery writing? Is there a balance between the two that can serve as a happy, productive place for writers? (Summary of answers: lots, lots, and yes-but-not-all-writers.)

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Warbreaker, while Siri was feeling guilty about enjoying her political challenges, Vivenna barely escaped with her life—twice. This week, in chapters 36 and 37, Siri and Susebron have a picnic on the floor, while Vivenna wanders the slums in despair.

The Twitter post archive for May is up to date.

Brandon will be out of the country for the next few weeks so we are going to change the format for this week’s #FaqFriday poll. You will see a variety of topics ranging from the the cosmere to writing advice and I will take the top rated questions to Brandon and give the answers over the next few weeks. As always, if you have a question you’d like to get answered by Brandon, please leave a comment in whichever location (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or Instagram) and I will add it to the list of potential questions.

Full questions:

• Would it be possible to have a “shardgun”? (shardblade in the form of a gun)
• I’m not good at writing sexy scenes. Can you give me hints on how to imply that sexy stuff is happening behind the scenes?
• Are there parallels with your own personal spiritual journey that come out in characters like Hrathen in Elantris and Sazed in Mistborn?
• My husband and I have noticed parallels in each of the cosmere books with Socio-political structures and events throughout history. Have you drawn inspiration from historical events for how certain situations would evolve or are these parallels mere coincidence?
• One thing I wondered throughout Mistborn was if Ruin represents the concept of Entropy or the concept of Decay? It seems that the Shards seem to represent universal constants, and while it is evident what Preservation or Cultivation represents, Ruin seems more ambiguous.
• If a fantasy book had a bad (Not Happy) ending, would it affect the sales, the Goodreads rating, the overall satisfaction of the readers? Would publishers even publish a fantasy book with a bad ending?
• Can you give any tips for writing metaphors?
• In the first draft of The Way of Kings Kaladin was called Merin. Are there any other characters whose names you’ve changed?
• Can holders of Shards give them up voluntarily? I think this is what we see in a certain long novella, but can any vessel do this? If they do, will the power splinter quickly after they release it?

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Retrofitting Structure into a First Draft, Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley speak, at least in part, to discovery writers. In this case, talking about how to take a non-outlined work and apply a structure to it in revisions.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Warbreaker, Vivenna learned some very difficult recent history, while Siri learned unexpected ancient history. This week, in chapter 33, Vivenna confronts hard truths, badly.

The Twitter post archive for May is up to date.

Today’s poll, to be answered Friday, May 19th, will focus on the cosmere. As always, if you have a question you’d like to get answered by Brandon, please leave a comment in whichever location (Facebook, Twitter, Google +, or Instagram) and I will add it to the list of potential questions.

Full questions:

• • If a bullet is made out of an appropriate metal and shoots through someone and gets lodged in someone else can it function as a hemalurgic spike? If it can, would the spike kill someone if it was lodged in an incorrect spot for a spike?
  • How were the glyphs and glyph-pairs in the Stormlight universe created?
  • Why didn’t Dalinar get the powers of a Stoneward, when he bonded Taln’s honorblade?
  • Is Hoid aware that he’s a character in a book?
  • Can a Mistborn burn the metal used to make shard plate? (Say they got a fragment of shattered shard plate)

Thank you for voting! Here are the results:

Why didn’t Dalinar get the powers of a Stoneward, when he bonded Taln’s honorblade?

Some readers have already figured this out, so I don’t think I’m engaging in to large a spoiler to dig into this one here.

There are several oddities going on here. The most important one relevant to this question is the Blade in question. If you compare the descriptions of the sword described in the epilogue of The Way of Kings to the one that traveled with the madman (allegedly Taln, the Herald) to the Shattered Plains, you’ll find they are different.

The one that characters obtained in Words of Radiance is NOT and Honorblade. It’s an ordinary shardblade (as ordinary as one of those can be called.) I’m not going to say specifically what happened to the Blade Taln arrived with at Kholinar, but I will say that it IS a different weapon from the one in Words of Radiance.

The other issue here is the somewhat lesser question of whether this character is actually Taln, the Herald, or not. Some characters in world don’t believe that it is, though his viewpoint in Words of Radiance strongly implies otherwise. This isn’t specifically relevant to the conversation for reasons I’ll talk about below–but it is tangentially related. Because in the Cosmere, intent is important to many of the types of magic. It’s theoretically possible to hold an Honorblade and not realize what its powers are, and therefore be unable to access them.

As an aside, this character was actually the primary protagonist of the version of The Way of Kings I wrote in 2002. A man who woke up, with lingering memories of madness, and claimed to be a Herald when nobody believed him–as he couldn’t manifest any powers, seemed to have lost his sword, and lore said the Heralds weren’t coming back anyway.

When I wrote the new version of The Way of Kings in 2009 or so, one goal was to focus the storyline. I’d included so many characters in the 2002 version that none of them progressed very far in their arcs, creating a strong setting and interesting characters–but a bad book. During the new version, I decided that this character would be moved to the later books, and I’d explore him there.

In the 2002 version, the text was very dodgy on whether or not Taln was a Herald. Confronting the fact that he just might be crazy was a major arc and theme of the book–however, as I’ve worked on the new version, I’ve realized that it would be dangerous to be too vague on this. Stringing people along with the question for a book or two is one thing–waiting until book six or eight to do a character’s arc, and leaving the question of whether they’re a herald or not all that time, seemed unfair.

So the text is going to be making manifest fairly quickly who this person is. You’ll have confirmations long before we dig into his viewpoint in the later books.

So, a recap:
1) The swords WERE swapped somehow.
2) Someone could hold an Honorblade and not realize they had access to powers.
3) This character may or may not actually be a herald–but the text is going to make the answer clear, and I’m not trying to trick you.

Brandon