I met with them, wrote down all of their ideas, and then spent several weeks doing some hardcore brainstorming and reworking, where I kind of had to break apart the outline of their world and rebuild it from the ground up. Then I would bring things to them and say,…
They approached me. The developers of Infinity Blade were fans of mine. They tell me they spent some six months trying to get hold of me, going through different channels. But they kept trying because they really wanted to work with me. Eventually they realized they had a contact with…
In The Rithmatist, you’ve combined magic with a light dose of mathematics. What gave you the idea for the book, and how did you approach integrating the diagrams and mathematical concepts while keeping the content interesting? I think what the characters are passionate in, to an extent, will draw the…
The Rithmatist is a YA novel I wrote in 2007, right before the Wheel of Time deal hit me like a freight train. I wrote it when I was supposed to be working on other things back in 2007. I have often stopped my main projects for side ones. It is part…
If you were an Epic what would your powers be? I really ought to say something like the power to heal other people. Even if it was just the ability to cure the common cold. Truthfully it would be something like summoning books out of the air. But if I…
It came from me writing a bad metaphor on accident, and then thinking, “I’m going to run with this and see where it goes.” I like it as a character quirk for David. He’s a little overzealous about things, and trying so hard on the metaphors is a great way to…
I built David around two pillars of personality. One is his interest in the Epics, which balances between hatred and fascination. The other one is his fierce determination, which leads him to be impulsive and bull-headed at times, but also pretty inspiring at others. I feel that as people, sometimes…
I “pantsed” the first few chapters of Steelheart, but I quickly went from there to creating an outline. The early part was exploration, the first three or four chapters. That’s not uncommon, even for an outliner. However, I did then stop and produce a really solid outline for the book. (Actually…
I was on book tour, driving a rental car up through West Virginia when someone aggressively cut me off in traffic. I got very annoyed at this person, which is not something I normally do. I’m usually pretty easygoing, but this time I thought to myself, “Well, random person, it’s…
See my answer here: https://faq.brandonsanderson.com/node/218