An Interview with Brandon Sanderson - McNally Robinson Booksellers

An Interview with Brandon Sanderson by Chadwick Ginther - Monday, Oct 27, 2008 at 9:21am

He was hand-picked to finish the final volume of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. His most recent novel is The Hero of Ages, the conclusion to the Mistborn trilogy. Recently, Brandon Sanderson was kind enough to answer some questions by e-mail.

CG: First off, having just finished the advanced reading copy of The Hero of Ages, I have to tell you that you kept me up and reading long after I should have gone to sleep. It may be due to reading the three books one after another, but I was struck by how layered the series is. How thoroughly do you plan and outline prior to starting a new story or series?

BS: Well, it honestly depends on the series/book. With Mistborn, one of my main goals was to push myself beyond what I'd done before, and prove to readers that I could handle a story with a larger scope. (My only published novel at the time was the stand alone, Elantris.)

I felt that a deep, layered story was essential to this, so I took quite a bit of time on my outline for Mistborn. Beyond that, I was in a unique position. Often, when an author sells their first book, it will be an extra large chunk of time before it goes to print. In my case, I got the offer on Elantris in April of 2003, with an eventual release of May 2005. That meant I had all the way until summer of 2006 until the first Mistborn book came out.

I decided that I could use that extra time to write the entire trilogy straight through in draft form, and have the final book rough drafted before the first book had to go through copyedit. (Which is the last time any large changes can be made.) I could therefore make certain all of my outlining and planning actually worked on the finished page. Essentially, I did the literary equivalent of 'filming' a trilogy back-to-back to make certain everything is consistent and flows properly.

CG: At some point every writer gets asked: "Where do you get your ideas from?" But have you found a place or activity that greases the wheels and makes the ideas flow more freely?

BS: I've always been a daydreamer; that's probably why I ended up doing what I do now. It started, I think, back during the days when I was a high school kid with a paper route. I'd deliver newspapers, listening to my mix tapes, thinking of stories.

Even still, physical activity 'greases the wheels' for me, as you put it. Now, instead of delivering papers with a Walkman, I go to the gym with my iPod. But the principle is the same.

Books, for me, come when I've got a lot of good ideas bouncing around in my head, and several start to combine together. It's like a person trying to match various colors in a room; you try out different shades together and see what works. Except I'm trying out different ideas together and seeing what kind of chemical reaction I get.

CG: With your work on the final Wheel of Time novel, A Memory of Light, you are obviously following Robert Jordan's model of not letting anything leak, but you are much more interactive with your own writing. Has letting fans read your works in progress on your website affected your storytelling?

BS: I don't think it's changed the way I write, to be honest. It's the way I've always done things. Even back in the early days, long before I was published, you could find me handing out chapters of what I'd been working on to my friends for feedback. I'd often do it when I was in the middle of a book.

One of the reasons I like doing this job--writing science fiction/fantasy in particular--is that I feel a great sense of community from the readers. Reading a book is a collaborative art form. Unlike many forms of media, which you simply view, you become a part of a book when you read it. You imagine it, you add your own insights and feelings to what is happening to the characters. In that way, the book becomes yours, in part. I think this connects authors and their readers in a special way, and it makes the readers more like colleagues than they are spectators. I like involving them in the process, and offering whatever I can to inform and interest them. After all, in a lot of ways, those readers are also my employers. They're the ones that support me in doing this thing that I love, and it's because of their generosity that I can even write books in the first place.

I do want to note, however, that I'm careful not to be swayed too much by popular opinion. I have to write the best books that I can, and can't spend my time second guessing my stories. I think that if you're going to do writing groups or post chapters on line as I've done, you have to learn early on how to take (and reject) suggestions. People's praise, sometimes, can be as problematic as their criticism. If you find that something provokes a reaction, you could find yourself focusing on similar ideas far too much, and unbalancing the final story so that it just doesn't feel right. So I take all feedback--whether it's from writing groups or readers on my forums--as a kind of 'market research.' Usually, I'm not looking for suggestions on how to change a book--I'm trying to find out what is confusing, or which plot points need more foreshadowing, or which character motivations need more development. That kind of thing.

CG: What can you tell our readers about your novel Warbreaker, which was the subject of your serialized online experiment?

BS: Warbreaker is the story of a man trying to stop a war that everyone else thinks is inevitable. I wrote it because, primarily, I wanted to play with some story concepts I'd used on other books--but then take them in completely opposite directions. The Mistborn books take place in a world covered in ash and soot, so instead I wanted to tell a story in a land with a lot of color. In fact, color became part of the magic system.

In Elantris, I told the story of fallen gods. So in this book, I wanted to actually deal with what it is like to be chosen by a religion to be one of its deities, then have to live being worshiped by them. I wanted to write another stand-alone epic fantasy novel that dealt with a variety of viewpoints and different experiences but which all intertwined and came together as one. The result of that story is Warbreaker.

CG: Both your first novel Elantris, and the forthcoming Warbreaker are standalone fantasies. Do you feel the genre is becoming too dependent on the trilogy -- and in some cases, the open ended series -- structure?

BS: I don't know if "Too Dependent" is exactly the right way to say it. Big series sell very well, and will probably continue to do so, so they will continue to be the standard of the genre. I just have a love for the single-volume epic form. It's certainly an art that isn't being explored as much these days as it could be. As a reader, I certainly like getting stand-alone novels once in a while. It's refreshing to pick up a book that you know will have its own self-contained story.

When I was trying to break in, I wrote primarily stand alone novels, as I wanted to practice worldbuilding and storytelling. I wrote a number of these during those days, and I think it trained me to like writing those. And so, even when I've got a big series going, I want to be able to provide the occasional stand alone in another world. If only because it lets me practice worldbuilding something new.

CG: Would you ever return to the world's of your standalone novels, or for that matter The Final Empire of the Mistborn novels in future books? Do you feel it is more important to keep moving forward rather than returning to old favourites?

BS: It's possible. So far, I've kept away from doing it. I think Elantris is strong as a book partially because there IS no sequel. At the same time, however, I've been getting a LOT of email asking me to return. I'm sure it will be the same for Mistborn.

I leave the door open for myself on these books, and all of them. However, if I did return, it would be years after the events in the previous books, and would probably deal with new characters. A sequel to the setting, so to speak, and not the actual book. That would let me approach the new book(s) with a fresh perspective.

However, as you mentioned, I do believe it's important to keep moving forward. I've established myself as someone who is consistently producing new worlds and new systems of magic for readers to enjoy. I wouldn't want that to stagnate.

CG: Having read your work, I think your writing style is very complementary to Robert Jordan's. Can you tell our readers how you came to be selected to finish The Wheel of Time? What has the announcement meant thus far for your career?

BS: Nobody was more surprised by this than me myself! The first I heard of it was when I got a phone call from Harriet, Mr. Jordan's widow, asking me if I'd be interested in completing the final book.

I've since pieced together what happened. She asked around, talking to people at Tor and others, wanting suggestions. My name came up from several people (it was known at Tor that I loved the books and had read them multiple times) and so she read Mistborn. She liked it so much that she called me and asked me.

I didn't even know I was being considered! Like most fans of the series, I was just shocked and saddened that Mr. Jordan wasn't going to be there to finish it himself.

How has it changed my career? Well, I have noticed a lot of Wheel of Time readers looking into my books and emailing me, which is very flattering. Mostly, it's meant that I have set aside almost everything else I was going to work on this year, and have instead dedicated myself to doing the Wheel of Time book. I know very personally how long we've all been waiting for this book, and I don't want there to be any more delays. So I've been trying very hard to get it done, and have barely even been surfacing for air recently...

CG: In addition to your epic fantasy novels, you are also writing for younger audiences as well. Why did you decide to try the children's book waters with Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians?

BS: It was mostly because I felt I needed to try something new. I wanted to tell a story that was more lighthearted, with some parody aspects to it. I wanted to see if I could make people laugh, but at the same time care about my characters. (That's a really tough balance to pull off; the only two I know who've done it perfectly are Shakespeare and Terry Pratchett.)

I decided to write this book for younger readers because I've noticed that they're much more willing to take logical inconsistencies in stride. Older readers tend to be more...well, somber sometimes about their fiction. I wanted to be able to experiment and try some new things with form, and I felt that the children would really "get" what I was trying. I also wanted the book to be fast-paced and much shorter than my other novels. Those were also good arguments for doing the book for younger readers instead.

Mostly, it was an experiment in trying to push my style in new directions that ended up being successful. I'm very happy we managed to find a good home for the series.

CG: Thanks, Brandon.