art by Jake Johnson

Theoryland Resources

WoT Interview Search

Search the most comprehensive database of interviews and book signings from Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson and the rest of Team Jordan.

Wheel of Time News

An Hour With Harriet

2012-04-30: I had the great pleasure of speaking with Harriet McDougal Rigney about her life. She's an amazing talent and person and it will take you less than an hour to agree.

The Bell Tolls

2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."

Theoryland Community

Members: 7653

Logged In (0):

Newest Members:johnroserking, petermorris, johnadanbvv, AndrewHB, jofwu, Salemcat1, Dhakatimesnews, amazingz, Sasooner, Hasib123,

Theoryland Tweets

WoT Interview Search

Home | Interview Database

Your search for the tag 'Brandon on Research' yielded 6 results

  • 1

    Interview: Sep 4th, 2014

    Question

    My background is twenty years of military, and as I've been reading your The Way of Kings, I've found that your insight into what it like to be a member of the service, all the mental trials including post-traumatic stress disorder is all very well thought-out and I'm curious how you came across that knowledge.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Lots of interviews and lots of reading on forums. People who post their hearts and souls on-- if you find the right forums, where people are among like-minded individuals, you can watch like a fly-on-the-wall and see what people are saying and how they are feeling. Because I strive for authenticity, that's what I-- whenever someone is feeling I want it to be authentic, and the more far removed from my own experience the better it is, if that makes sense to me, to get it into my books. So I try very hard for that.

    Question

    In fact I'm going to be suggesting to the Veterans' Administration to use the series for treatment for PTSD. There are literally some things in there I've never seen anyone actually understand or get before. Some of my military friends have just been in absolute tears after reading your book.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is an honor to hear.

    Tags

  • 2

    Interview: Jan 17th, 2015

    Question

    For the past year I’ve been the administrator for the Stormlight Archive Wiki and any feedback you or Peter could give me is most welcome, no feedback would be fine,-

    Brandon Sanderson

    I go there when I’m looking for, like that, like, I know I wrote something about this, what did I put in the book. Then I’ll go to your wiki and look at it.

    Question

    That’s cool.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I got that habit with the Wheel of Time, because I could find it in the notes, but it always takes longer to go to the notes than to Google and Google doesn’t index my wiki, so I go to yours. I think it’s well done. More stuff about the SA wiki and maybe they’ll link it on Brandon’s website.

    Tags

  • 3

    Interview: Jan 24th, 2015

    Question

    What is the most interesting or awesome thing you found in your South American research for /The Aztlanian/?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What is the most awesome thing I’ve come up with in my research for /The Aztlanian/. So the question, for those of you who read /The Rithmatist/, I’m working on a sequel doing a lot of research on South American and Central American cultures. The Aztecs all the way down to the Incas

    Tags

  • 4

    Interview: Feb 20th, 2015

    Question

    How much research do you have to do in sciences and technology and history to create a world that is more relatable if not as believable as they are?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What it takes is a lot of general knowledge, meaning you read a lot of history books, a lot of science books, and this general knowledge that you then incorporate. It’s not like I go and say “I need to know more about this thing”. I’ll do that for characters and some aspects of the worlds sometimes but mostly this is coming from spending 10 years learning all this stuff. Does that make sense?

    Question

    It makes total sense, and my 10 years of community college will help me write.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes it will.

    Question

    My 120 credit-hours.

    Brandon Sanderson

    120 credit-hours, that’s what makes a good writer… That really turns-- You can pick out “Oh that’s my linguistics class” and I’d be like “Oh that’s my chemistry class. Oh that’s the class I snuck into, the psychology class”.

    Tags

  • 5

    Interview: Oct 9th, 2015

    Question

    Are you working on a sequel to Rithmatist?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I started working on it, realized I didn’t know the Aztec culture well enough, so I went and read four books on Aztec culture, but by then deadlines were due on something else so I had to jump. I rebuild my outline using my new knowledge but I gotta find time to write it. It’s going to have a killer plot, I’m really excited for it.

    Tags

  • 6

    Interview: Feb 17th, 2016

    Question

    [paraphrased] I have Aspergers, and when I read Bands of Mourning, for the first time I could really identify with a character [Steris]. What kind of research did you do when writing her?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have several people in my life who have Aspergers, specifically, and they were a huge resource, as you might imagine. One of the things I like to do in my fiction is to try and get people who are heroic who have different types of psychology than what you normally see in heroes. The more I’ve lived in life, the more I realize that we all are really distinctive in our own way and our psychology all works differently. And yet we see a lot of heroes who have the same brain chemistry, it seems, and that’s always felt really weird to me. So one of my mandates has been to do that [vary characters’ psychology.]
    So what kind of research did I do? When I was in college, one of my favorite things to do was sneak into classes I wasn’t signed up for. And the psychology classes were my favorite. And this friend—this is coincidental—who wanted to be a chef actually got a psychology major. His parents were like “You should do something useful with your life,” so he got a psychology major. He ended up going to med school; he didn’t become a chef. He went to med school and he likes that too. [Note: Brandon talked about this friend during the first part of the signing.] I would sneak into his classes, and they were so useful as a writer. Just to look at the different [neuro]types and to start to see personality not as… We like to look at a lot of things as normal or abnormal, and that’s not the way it is. Everyone’s personality is on a spectrum, and what is normal and what is abnormal is completely a matter of perspective. Where you stand on this line. It’s trying to make a value judgment that shouldn’t really exist. So it’s coming to see personality as these swaths of interesting color is what the psychology classes taught me.
    I did do some specific research for Steris, and then I looked and I interviewed people as well.
    I’m glad that you picked up on it without me ever having to say who she was and things like that. That’s when I really feel like I’ve nailed something, when you can look at in and say, “Yeah, this is who this person is,” instead of someone pointing from the outside and saying who this person is or what they are.

    Tags