I heard him discuss the topic with a small group of fans at the end of a signing, as he was rewriting Way of Kings.
Someone asked about Hoid, and Sanderson embarked on this explanation that he had this kind of personal game, that he's always loved to put limits and rules on his writing before even beginning to envision the story development (he's far more comfortable and stimulated by that than by open systems he later bends to fit a developping plot, he said doing that was very important for some writers but for him it made him fall into lazy storytelling habits) and that he had this kind of meta-system he's created very early on, a kind of larger cosmology he's challenged himself to include in most of his novels. That cosmology has some rules he forces himself not to break when worldbuilding for a new setting. He gave the impression that for the most part the more overt signs of this in the books were for the more "geeky fans" who like himself like this sort of things, and that he expected the more casual readers to totally overlook this and it was fine. He did say however, that in some of his series like the Stormlight Archives he was likely to include more elements from the "meta system" as the story demanded it. He didn't give the impression of someone who had a big masterplan to gradually unveil the cosmology through multiple series, he really rather sounds like he was having fun with the constraint he put on himself with this element the average readers are not terribly conscious of.
Someone asked about Hoid, and Sanderson embarked on this explanation that he had this kind of personal game, that he's always loved to put limits and rules on his writing before even beginning to envision the story development (he's far more comfortable and stimulated by that than by open systems he later bends to fit a developping plot, he said doing that was very important for some writers but for him it made him fall into lazy storytelling habits) and that he had this kind of meta-system he's created very early on, a kind of larger cosmology he's challenged himself to include in most of his novels. That cosmology has some rules he forces himself not to break when worldbuilding for a new setting. He gave the impression that for the most part the more overt signs of this in the books were for the more "geeky fans" who like himself like this sort of things, and that he expected the more casual readers to totally overlook this and it was fine. He did say however, that in some of his series like the Stormlight Archives he was likely to include more elements from the "meta system" as the story demanded it. He didn't give the impression of someone who had a big masterplan to gradually unveil the cosmology through multiple series, he really rather sounds like he was having fun with the constraint he put on himself with this element the average readers are not terribly conscious of.
It sounds like the DRAGONSTEEL series will be a keystone of his setting. The first volume of that series, THE LIAR OF PARTINEL, already existed as one completed draft from before even ELANTRIS, and he was working on a second, much more advanced draft when the WHEEL OF TIME gig came up. Apparently he was already having second thoughts on LIAR being his next book as it 'revealed too much' about the overall cosmology. So when Tor asked for his next solo novel, he went with WAY OF KINGS/STORMLIGHT instead, despite having a lot of LIAR done already.
It sounds like - and we may be off-base here - that DRAGONSTEEL is basically the origin story of Hoid and the whole 'Shards of Andolasium' thing (each one of the sixteen Shards grants godlike powers to individuals, turning them into superbeings; Ruin and Preservation from MISTBORN are both Shards, turning normal humans into godlike entities). It sounds like it will be presented as 'just another fantasy series' and only as the story concludes will fans realise that this is where Hoid and the 17th Shard and whole thing started from. You won't need to know about the setting beforehand before seeing it revealed there.
Or to put it another way, all the rest of the Cosmere stuff is foreshadowing for DRAGONSTEEL which can be followed or ignored at will, it shouldn't make a huge amount of difference.
Brandon Sanderson plans 36 books in his 'Cosmere' setting
19/02/2012 11:45:24 AM
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Was Sanderson created by the Writng Gods to counter balance GRRM?
19/02/2012 05:13:07 PM
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I just wish he'd be done with the RJ shit and go back to writing his own books.
19/02/2012 05:40:59 PM
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well, the publication date for that book is set somewhere a year from now..
19/02/2012 07:48:58 PM
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Agreed on both points.....
19/02/2012 08:00:41 PM
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Well, but he is a "fluff" writer from a literary standpoint
20/02/2012 02:16:11 AM
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Not a fluff writer in my mind.....
20/02/2012 03:12:46 AM
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You don't seem to want to hear what I'm saying
20/02/2012 03:51:13 AM
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And I am saying that storytelling is more important.....
20/02/2012 04:52:39 AM
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Storytelling is crucial...
20/02/2012 05:59:57 AM
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A few comments/replies about your post.....
20/02/2012 02:57:16 PM
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You are correct in one respect: all of this is opinion.
20/02/2012 07:01:11 PM
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You sound like one of those nasty "literary elites"!
20/02/2012 08:07:13 PM
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Literature is subjective
21/02/2012 12:26:35 AM
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I agree with your point about reading Shakespeare from textbooks.
21/02/2012 03:18:37 AM
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Never heard of Thomas Mann and the real Mona Lisa.....
21/02/2012 03:34:12 AM
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Conversely, why should I trust the likes of you?
21/02/2012 06:19:18 AM
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Oh, come now...
21/02/2012 10:35:18 AM
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When it comes to evaluating schema, I'm not going to trust someone who only had English 101
21/02/2012 11:26:03 AM
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Larry = snob
21/02/2012 05:34:22 PM
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Amusing
21/02/2012 07:49:20 PM
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Wow, you lack basic reading comprehension skills.....
21/02/2012 08:29:24 PM
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No, I read that and didn't disagree that there couldn't be works that had both (read other comments)
21/02/2012 09:23:31 PM
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Uh...Faust is a play. Doctor Faustus is a novel. The former is Goethe, the latter is Mann. *NM*
22/02/2012 12:00:22 AM
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I suppose fame is relative, but the most famous Doctor Faustus, to me personally, is indeed a play.
22/02/2012 07:29:59 PM
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Wait, let's look at the gross disconnect between two statements.
21/02/2012 01:59:34 PM
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So true about the Mona Lisa.
21/02/2012 07:57:41 PM
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Yes, I was at the Louvre and you are right.....
21/02/2012 08:32:40 PM
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This is where your own rethoric defeats you...
23/02/2012 06:38:54 AM
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Slow down - it may not be the current elites that are hyping it.....
23/02/2012 05:12:47 PM
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Re: Slow down - it may not be the current elites that are hyping it.....
13/03/2012 03:10:12 AM
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Seems like an awful lot.
19/02/2012 08:11:22 PM
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Sanderson is a machine. Also, the books (so far) have been wildly different
20/02/2012 12:50:41 AM
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Re: Sanderson is a machine. Also, the books (so far) have been wildly different
20/02/2012 03:00:17 AM
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Same here- I didn't know about the Cosmere at all until I started poking around online
21/02/2012 03:25:36 AM
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Likewise. After reading Mistborn and Warbreaker I started looking into him more
21/02/2012 06:20:09 PM
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It's likely to stay that way...
20/02/2012 06:22:50 AM
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I think he can actually do both
20/02/2012 03:31:00 PM
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Confirmation on the Mistborn trilogies. I am so happy. *NM*
20/02/2012 05:38:23 AM
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I am thrilled to see that there will be more stories about Wax and Wayne.....
20/02/2012 03:46:37 PM
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The one issue I had with that book...
21/02/2012 06:21:29 PM
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