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Alloy of Law Release Date Transcription


Zas678

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So since the older #alloyofline video was taken down, I hunted down a new one here:

Here is my transcription of the videos. Some of the words I didn't understand, or aren't familiar with, so if you know them and can tell me, that would be great.

EDIT- For some reason, a bunch of my spaces are gone. I went back and fixed about half of them. I'll fix the other half later.

Alloy of Law Release Date Transciption

What’s your favorite fantasy/scf characters that you haven’t written?

Excluding my books and the wheel of time, Sam Vimes from theDiscworld books, I really really like. I have a strong affection for Harry Dresden. I really am fond of Lesa from Dragon Riders. Dragon Riders was one of the early books that I really really liked. Let’s see, who else. ___ from Dragon Prince. Dragon Prince is one of my favorite all-time books. Who else? Who else is good characters? The Fool from the Assassin books by Robert Hoth that she or he wrote is really awesome. That’s a good place for you. I would like to say Quoth, because I love those books,but I don’t think he and I wouldn’t get along. I love the books and think that Quoth is a jerk, and that’s part of why I love Name of the Wind, because Quoth is kind of a jerk

So what happens ifyou have a Bendalloy bubble, and then another Bendalloy bubble inside of it?

It will compound and double,and it will multiply. Bendalloy is one of the metals from Alloy of Law if you haven’t read it, as this person obviously has, or has read the Ars Arcanum, you’ll find out what it does.

Does Iron store mass or weight?

Excellent question. The thing is it really does involve mass, but I’m breaking some physics rules, basically. I have to break a numberof physics rules in order to make Magic work in the first place. Those whole laws of Thermodynamics, I’m like “You are my bane!” (laughter) But I try to work within the framework, and I have reasonings built up for myself, and some of them have to be kind of arbitrary. But the thing is, it does store mass if you look at how it interacts, but when a Feruchemist punches someone, you’re not having a mass transference of a 1000 pounds transferring the mass into someone else.

So there are a few little tweaks. You can go talk to Peter,because Peter has the actual math. Oh Peter’s back there. Peter is dressed upas Allomancer Jak from the broadsheet. In fact we’re giving some out broadsheets, aren’t we Peter. So when you come through the line, we’re giving out Broadsheets. Please don’t take fifty- I think we might have enough for everybody. The broadsheets are the newspaper from the Alloy of Law time. It’s an in world newspaper. It’s actually reproduced in the book in 4 different pages, and we put it together in one big broadsheet.

So anyway, you can talk with him, he’s got more of the math of it. I explained the concept to Peter and he’s better with the actual math,so he said “We’ll figure it out.”

Mi'chelle: How does Hoid know where to go when?

Alright, who does not know who Hoid is? If you want to know about Hoid, the 17th Shard, which is the official fansite for my works, has some great information about him. There is a character who showed up in Elantris, who showed up in Mistborn, who showed up in Warbreaker, who showed up in Way of Kings. All with the same name, the same person. So there’s lots of theorizing about it. How does he know? He has his ways! (general groans) So a little bit more? Just a little bit more? He may be capable of a little bit of foreseeing of certain events, not what’s going to happen, but he may need to be in a certain place in a certain time.

Mi'chelle: When will we see a Hoid book?

It’ll be a little while. He’s playing around with things in the Stormlight Archive if you couldn’t tell, he’s decided to- Hoid is fiddling with things, more than he usually does. But Hoid as a major part of things doesn’t really show up till the third Mistborn trilogy, which is the outerspace Mistborn, the sci-fi Mistborn.

If you didn’t know, Mistborn was pitched to my editor as atrilogy of trilogies. I told him I wanted to do a trilogy of epic fantasy books, then the same world in a modern setting, which we’re not to yet, butit’s going to be Allomancers in the 21st century-equivalent technology. It’s an urban fantasy series. Then I wanted to do a Science Fiction series in the same world, using the Epic Fantasy world as kind of a mythology to this new world, and the magic system becoming the means of Space Travel. (Random Guy- Whaaa?!) And so that’s how I pitched Mistborn to my editor.

Alloy of Law is actually a deviation from that, because I didn’t want people to forget about Mistborn, I wanted them to keep reading Mistborn, so I wanted them to keep releasing things, and we’ll eventually getto that second trilogy-

Hey there you are Mark! I heard you got number one.

Mark: Yep

You’re crazy (laughter). You’re awesome though. He even beat the 17thshard people, which is really a hard thing to do. (oohs and aahs) Two hours. Beat them by two hours.

So Alloy of Law I wanted to set up things for the second trilogy. I didn’t want to do the second trilogy yet, because the second trilogy, like the first trilogy is kind of bigger books, with a very involved storyline evolved across three books, and I didn’t want to be releasing thatparallel to Stormlight Archive, which is the same sort of thing. Very evolvedbooks where you tie a lot of things together, and so I wanted a series of Mistborn novels that were more independent.

Alloy of Law is intended to be a “read it, have fun.”Eventually I may end up doing more with those characters, but when I do, youwon’t have to remember that much about this one. It’s not like you have to remember a cast of 500 characters. You can just keep track of the main characters. They’re more of an episodic adventure. I kind of imagine Alloy ofLaw being- I’m not totally sure how to describe it. It’s like you have the giant Movie that comes out, and then you have a TV show that’s based off of it,and then another big Movie series, or something like that, if that makes anysense.

So that’s what Alloy of Law is. So Hoid is very involved inthe Third Mistborn Trilogy, he’s also very involved in Dragonsteel, which isactually the first books in the sequence, long before Elantris happened. So eventually I will tell that story. You can read a draft of it at the BYU library. It’s the only copy that I know of in existence . It’s almost always checked out. It’s my Honor’s thesis, and it’s not very good. It really is not very good, but basically it’s involving the ideas that eventually will become Dragonsteel once I write it again. But I stole the Shattered Plains and put them in Roshar instead because the fit better there.

You said you weregoing to rewrite Dragonsteel? Is it going to be a one-book thing, or a trilogy, or what?

Dragonsteel is set to be seven books. I shouldn’t tell you these things, because it scares people. The cosmere sequence is set at, what did I say, 36 books? Yeah, it’s 36 books. A trilogy of Elantris, Two books from Warbreaker, ten books from Way of Kings, and the Mistborn series, and someother books. So anyways, this is a big thing, but don’t get scared. You don’t have to pay attention to any of this. Just go ahead and enjoy the books. This is behind the scene stuff, and in fact the reason why we don’t have a book about Hoid is because I don’t want you to have read all of those books in order to understand that book, does that make sense? As soon as Hoid becomes a main character, then you have to have read the whole sequence in order to get it. Idon’t you to have to do that. I don’t want you to have to read Mistborn to understand Stormlight Archive. Hoid may be involved in these things, but hewill never be a prominent character, changing things, until he gets his own sequence.

How many Feruchemical powers have you revealed in the Alloy of Law?

In the Ars Arcanum in the back, I have revealed them all. (Shock and amazement, save for the17th sharders who read it a week ago). I have not explained them all. (laughter), But I have revealed them all, they are in the back, so you arefree to theorize what they mean.

What the heck is Investiture?

I’m not going to say that because it would be a spoiler forthose who haven’t read the Ars Arcanum yet. *sly grin at not having to RAFO*

How do you get the different personalities for all your characters?

With the characterization for me is a very organic thing. Iacutally plot my plot in detail, do my worldbuilding in detail, before I starton my characters though, if I plan them out too much, they don’t have enoughlife to them. It’s a very weird thing to explain, but for me, what I have to do is I have to try writing through this character’s eyes, and if it doesn’t work,than I actually have to toss that chapter and try again, and often times you’llsee me start a book try a character a couple of times to get them right. And then they just grow into what they are as the plot goes along. And in fact, the characters have veto power over the plot, and so if I get to a point that I feel like a character would not do this, I have to either go back and cast adifferent person in this role, or –interruption-

If you are very interested in how I write, I do a podcast called Writing Excuses. And what it is is it’s through your browser, so youdon’t do anything special, you just go there and press play, and it’s me and Mary Robert Occullum who writes these books, they’re like Jane Austen with magic. (laughter) Yeah, she’s good. And it’s Dan Wells, who writes these really scary creepy books, but they’re really good, and it’s Howard Taylor who does asjdhfa. So anyways, Writing Excuses, all you aspiring writers, it’s Hugo nominated, its very well received, I think you’ll really enjoy it. You can look by topic, and find where I talk about writing characters, and we’ll give you a ton of advice. There’s two hours of advice on characters you can listen to.

Have you ever thought about making your writing class open?

Yes I have. There are some back and forths here. One thing,about the classes, I really do like teaching at BYU. I like being a BYU teacher, I like being involved a little bit in our Alma Mater, I like coming here, and if I were to make the class open, basically, what I would have to do, I would have to stop teaching at BYU and go to a library or something like that, and just do it in an Auditorium, and I like the class as it is. BYU has policies that say “You have to be a BYU student to go to the class” and that’s not something I can influence or change. So as long as I have it at BYU, it kind of has to be that way. Does that make sense?

Though I’ve tried to let them get me to record it and like Webcast it, but they have requirements and rules that so far we haven’t been able to make that work. But Writing Excuses is basically the way that I do my class without doing my class, if that makes sense.

Anyway, I like being part of BYU. I’ve had offers from the Uof U [university of Utah], and for now I’m going to remain at BYU just because this is where I went to school. They’ve treated me really well here. But the class is really hard to get into. It is so hard to get into.

What’s your schedule like as a writer with so many projects?

Well, what I do is I get up really early in the morning- noon. I get up at noon. This is hard sometimes! Maybe I’ll get up at 11. Usually I write until 5,and that writing is interspersed with a lot of email, and things like that and kind of distractions. Then I go hang with my family, and then I go back towork, depending on the day, at around 8 or 9, and then I work until about 4,and then I go to bed.

Usually I’m only writing one book at a time, while outlining another, and I’m often revising a third. I can’t do new material usually on two projects at once, I can only do new material on one thing at a time. But I can be doing some revising on one, and some planning on another, but the truth is I’m very much a segmented writer , and work on segments on things. Right now, with the Wheel of Time, I’m usually not working on anything else or planning, I’m all gung ho on this onething, and then I’ll shift modes and do something else eventually.

I know that Tolkein hated allegory in his stories. What is your belief?

Tolkein hated allegory. He thought that his stories should just be stories, and I actually feel similar to him. I do have theme in my books, but I let the theme come as an outgrowth of what the characters are passionate about. And certainly, there are certain things, you’ll read Way of Kings and Dalinar’s very interested, a very big theme spiritually in the book [Ed-I know, that sentence doesn’t make any sense]. But, it’s not me going in and intentionally writing an allegory. I like the story to stand as a story, I like telling stories. I’m not big into writing metaphors.

Certain people are very good at that. C.S. Lewis did a greatjob of that, it’s not what I try to do.

I’ve got a short one, then kind of a long one.

Let’s do the short one.

How many Marks to a Brom? [Way of Kings currency]

Uh, Peter- take out the … It’s been so long. I had it atten, but then I think he came in and said “it can’t be ten”, and so it’sactually in our wiki. Peter- hey, where’s Peter? How many Marks are in a Brom?Is it ten or 25?

(Silence from an unsure Ookla)

Email Peter, and he’ll tell you. I have to get back into it when I startwriting that series again, but I’m so in the Wheel of Time right now, so I’mlike “Well it’s Par’valon marks and..” (laughter)

Alright, now the slightly long question

Have you ever doneNaNoWriMo [National Novel WritingMonth], and would you?

I did it several times before I got published [but he neveractually did it; see the link at the bottom for more info]. Way of Kings, Iwrote during NaNoWriMo, a big portion of it. I actually wrote the NaNoWriMopep talk this year, they asked me to, and so you’ll get an email from me inyour inbox.

Usually, I can’t do NaNoWriMo officially because I’m in themiddle of a book, and I can’t stop a book and write another one, I will eventuallybe able to do that, but the Wheel of Time, and other things have been so busylately that my schedule doesn’t allow me to in November stop writing. And I’musually touring in November, almost always. And that’s really tough for getting 50,000 words. If you haven’t doneNaNoWriMo, it’s awesome.

Can a Drab Return?

A Drab can not Return as the Returned are known, and thereare things about the Drab that are not completely understood. (Oohs and Aahs) But a Drab without a Breath,it’s going to be very hard. Drabs do not Return. Good question, by the way. Noone has ever asked me that before. [Fistpump!]

Who’s going to be thefocus for the next Way of Kings?

I spent a long time deliberating this, and eventually, in myplotting, I came upon one of thosemoments where you’re “Ah, this is what I need to do”, so it is going to beShallan. So the focus for the next book is Shallan, and half of you want it tobe Dalinar, and half of you want it to be Shallan, Dalinar will get his book,Shallan will get her book, but there’s a funny story here. In my originaloutline, I named many of the books, like Dalinar’s is named Highprince of War.Shallan’s book was actually named after the book that Jasnah gives her, whichis very thematically important to her. But then I started telling it to people,and they started laughing, because the book that Jasnah gave her is called theBook of Endless Pages (laughter).

So, I thought that was a really cool title, but apparently,that’s going to give the reviewers too much fuel. (laughter) So you can pretendin your head that it’s called that, but I’ll come up with a different name.

What’s the future forthe Alcatraz books?

I am actually in negotiations right now to bring theAlcatraz books to Tor, because we want to recover them [because the originalcovers of the sequel were HORRID], and rerelease them. So it’s kind of in alittle bit of a limbo until I can get itto Tor, they were at Scholastic, and we’re in negotiations. There’s some thingsthat I very much like about Scholastic, but at this point we’re kind of want tohave all of my books at the same publisher, so if we do that, we will do arerelease with new covers, then I will do the last book.

How can you rereleasea book with a new cover when sometimes you have references in the book to thecovers? [Alcatraz made reference to the cover]

Then I can just add a little addendum to say that therereleased cover makes sense.

How many magicsystems have you gotten rid of, and how do you decide which ones to keep?

It’s an ever growing process. I mean I’ve started tons ofmagic systems, dozens, maybe hundreds, and I keep them based on how viral they all are, against theother magic systems I’m thinking of, how well this one appeals to me. Sometimesit depends if I have a book that will fit that magic or not.

For instance, some books are very action-oriented, and somemagic systems are not very action-oriented, so the magic needs to fit the book,so they just keep on kind of spinning there till they work.

Do you haveparticular Inspirations from classics that you brought in your books? I feltlike Dalinar was heavily influenced by Constantine in ____. [3:00 in part 4]

Well, I did have a degree inEnglish, and so I read lots of stuff, but my favorite classics are Moby Dick,Les miserable, and depending on the day one of the Jane Austen books, itchanges. And so those are definite influences. You can probably see some LesMis influence, a lot of it, in the Mistborn books. There were several placeswhere I kind of counciously let myself be influenced there. I wouldn’t say that Dalinar though. The thing is, I startedwriting Dalinar when I was 15. He was my first character. IN fact, I posted atTor.com when Way of Kings came out a page from my very first novel that I triedto write when I was 14, and it was really really bad, and it has Dalinar in it.He is one of the few characters that survived through all these years frommaturing, growing, and things like this. The story of the brother of the kingwho dies, and the brother must decide: does he take control, or does he let hisnephew take control. So a lot of things have influenced Dalinar, but I can’tpoint to one specific thing.

With the Alloy of Law being more Steampunk-style, and your genre ofchoice being fantasy, what things have you done differently in this book thanin your previous ones?

Just a quick caveat- I don’treally view Alloy of Law as being Steampunk, but they put goggles on the cover,because Steampunk’s really popular, but I don’t view it as being Steampunkbecause it doesn’t fit the Victorian feel. It’s much more Edwardian, it’s laterera, the book is really based off of 1910 New York, the feel and the culturethat is there, but it’s really a Mistborn book. I think when you read it,you’ll feel that it’s more a Mistbornbook than it is a Steampunk, or a Western, or anything else. It’s Mistborn.It’s alomancers with Guns instead. (laughter)

So what have I donedifferently? I really wanted it to feel like a Mistborn book, with some newelements. It’s really more of a Sherlock Holmes feel than anything else,because I wanted the mystery feel, and I wanted the character dynamic deal withthings like that, so this was just a conscious choice to have two or threecompelling main characters be in a more episodic story, and I was more focusedon that than if it’s Steampunk, or whether this is what, I really want thisthematically to feel like a Mistborn book.

What’s the difference between a Dawnshard and a Shardblade?

They’re actually, they… Youwill find out. (laughter)I can’t really reveal that right now, because that’s aRAFO. I’ve got RAFO cards that I can give you that say “Sorry I can’t answeryour question.”

How did you come up with the Mistborn idea?

Boy, there’s so many differentplaces this came from. The plot camefrom me wanting to tell a story about a world where the hero failed. You know,the Hero’s Journey a thousand years later, the sort of “What if Frodo had keptthe ring”, or “What if Voldemort had killed Harry Potter.” That was one of mybig concepts for it. Another big foundational concept was the desire to do aheist story, because I really love those, and I want to do one in the fantasyworld.

What do you do to keep yourself from burning out? What do you do todecompress?

I play with my Magic Cards.(Laughter) I go and sort them, I go build a deck, (Audience member: Roll aroundin them) No! I can’t do that! Then they get bent. (More Laughter) That’s basically what I do.

With all the books you have planned, how many years of your life do youhave planned out?

I’m intending to live till my90’s probably, and I’ve got enough books for two books a year until then.(laughter) But I also write quickly, so you’ll get books consistently andhopefully they’ll be funny and interesting. I really do try to work hard tomake sure that they are each a self-contained story. The place where I stopdoing that is in the last chapter and epilogue, where I really like to punchyou, and I’m sorry, it’s just some sort of instinct that I have. It’s like “Oh,everything’s rapped up- NO IT’S NOT!” (laughter) So I’m sorry about that.

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