Chukulem

Regarding the changed Kaladin and Wit conversation that removes the setup for Kaladin taking up the dawnshard, I might tie it into this recent WoB regarding a change of plans for a decision that a character makes in WaT. Questioner As an aspiring author I know how your own characters can surprise you while writing. My question for you was, especially during Stormlight but for any of your books, which characters have surprised you the most by the direction they went, how they affected the plot, etc? Brandon Sanderson Excellent question! So the way I view this as an author is, I'm a heavy outliner. But I always give the characters volition. I don't know a character until I've seen through their eyes, and as I write things change. I would say Adolin is the most surprising. Adolin was not meant to be a main character. He did not have any viewpoints as I was originally planning The Stormlight Archive, and, as you can see from the books, he has a lot of them. And so Adolin is the big surprise of Stormlight. I will say, oftentimes, I was actually talking about this to some people in the line just recently, characters will reach a point of decision. And at that point the outline usually will say "have them do this." But I will have written them for months at that point to be who they are at that point and I give them the opportunity to make different decisions. And someone at the end of Wind and Truth made the opposite decision. It's not magical where I'm like "oh the character is alive", no, it's just that who I wrote them to be and how the themes of the plot progressed I realized that at that point they can't make this decision. And so I rewrote their part and revised it to have the opposite decision get made. Once Wind and Truth is out I can tell you what that is. But you will have to read it and see if you can guess who, in the outline, was making a very different decision. FanX 2024 (Sept. 26, 2024)