Inanormalstormlightbook,Igenerallystartslowandbuildtosuchaclimaxneartheendofpartone.(ThoughIusuallydon't start the full viewpoint bleeds until the end of the book.) Here, I wanted to give the feeling that the year that passed had its own narrative arc, and some of those threads were culminating here. So we'rebeginningthebookattheendofthe"previous book"(imaginingthein-betweenyearasa"book."
Iwasfascinatedbyhowsomethinglikementalhealthchallengesrelatingtoidentitywouldintersectwithmagicthatletyouquiteliterallybecomesomeoneelse.TheoriginalversionofthiswasforacharacterIwroteinDragonsteel--whichI'll eventually release to the public like I'vedonewithTWOKPrime.
Inthisseries,however,I've found myself leaning away from the fantastical elements more and more, and trying to lean into the real science and best mental health practices. This is because I'verealizedthathavingShallan'sailmentbecompletelyfantasticalwasbothirresponsible(inrepresentationterms)andlessrealistic.WhereIsettledearlierintheserieswasinrepresentingnotsomeonewithafantasticaldisease,butsomeonewithaveryrealdisease--thatisexacerbatedbyfantasticalelements.
Becauseofthis,IlistenedveryhardtomybetareadersonShallan,particularlythosewithspecificexperienceinthisarea.Intheoriginaldraftofthesescenes,forexample,Shallanwasn't shifting between the various alters of herself nearly as often--and with some feedback, I tweaked that, and found it not only worked better in a realism way, but it also read far, far better. It'ssimplymoreinterestingtoseeShallan'sdifferentaspectsdoingdifferentthings,thinkingdifferentways.
Someofthemostsatisfyingmomentsinrevisionscomewhenyoutrysomethingdifferent,andfindthatit's what you wanted to do all along--but didn'tquiteknowhowtoaccomplishuntilacommentnudgesyou.
So,thislittlesequencewithKaladin,thelurgs,andtrickingLeshwiwasoneIwasVERYclosetocuttingfromthebook.Thingis,thisbattlebetweenthemhasbeengoingonprettylongatthispoint,andmygutsaysI'vedonealittletoomuchof"Kaladin chases and fights someone through the air"inthesechapters.
Iopted,instead,totrimmoreextensivelythroughthewholecombat--takingoutwordsandsentences,ratherthanthisentirescene.Butitwasatoughcall.Andevenintheverylastrevision,Iwentbackandforthonit.IfI'd been forced to trim something here to make a film come in at the right time, this part would have gone--but one of the luxuries of writing epic fantasy in novel form is that I can be a little more self-indulgent. (So long as I don'tletmyselfgotoofar.)
GoingintotheStormlightArchive,thisiswhyIstaggeredthethreatsmovingfromnon-supernaturalantagonists(likeSadeas)towardincreasinglydangerousthreats.Thisisn't to say that someone like Ialai couldn'tbeacrediblethreatwithoutpowers.However,Istillfeltitbesttomoveonfromherasarepresentationoftheantagonistsintheearlierpartoftheseries,pointingustowardlarger(andmorecosmere-aware)threatsastheconflictofthebooksexpands.IcouldeasilyhavehadanentirebookwithamajorthreadabouttopplingherlittleempireontheShatteredPlains,butthatwouldhavebeentoobackwardlooking.
Sointhisbook,we're pointing away from the Sadeas/Amaram team toward Odium, some individual fused, and several of the cosmere-aware players (Thaidakar and Restares.) Don'tworryifthosenamesaren't clear to you on first read--they'vebeenaroundforawhile,butIhaven'tdelvedtoomuchintowhotheyare.Thisbookwilldoso.
Moashwasoneofthecharactersthatwasmostdifficulttogetrightforthisbook.There's a difficult balance to maintain with him, compounded by how difficult a line I'mwalkingwithKaladininthesechapters.IhadtodoseveraltonerewritesofthischapteraftertheAlpharead,tomakeitallwork.
PartofthetrickwastoconveyjusthowexhaustedKaladinis,mentallywhileinhisviewpoint--sincehedoesn't accept it himself. Then mix that with a Moash who, in part, does still want to be a good friend--but no longer is capable of reasoning in a conventional way. (And who won'tacknowledgetohimselfthatbeingright,provingthathemadetherightdecisions,isactuallyfarmoreimportanttohimthanhisfriendshipseverwere.)
You'll get a Moash viewpoint in a future interlude, which should help explain where his mindset is these days. As for Kaladin, well, it'sbecomingmoreandmoredifficultforhimtomaintaintheliethateverythingisfine.
LikeIsaid,thatneverhappened.ButIeventuallytookmanyofthoseideasandwroteTheWayofKingsPrime.ThoughBridgeFourdidn't make the jump yet, Dalinar did--and so did the idea of the young peasant boy forced into war. The second book of THAT was to begin with Merin, returning home from war, to find something very strange at home--which eventually turned out to be related to that book'sversionoftheVoidbringers.(AndMerin'snacentwindrunnerabilitieswouldlethimkillone.HewouldhaultheheadbacktoDalinarasproofthatsomethingwasup.)
Iknewprettyearlyintothecreationofthe"new"Kaladin(asopposedtoMerin,fromPrime)thatIwasgoingtohavetodealwiththefactthathe'd been put through hell--and that sort of thing leaves scars on a person. Just like I eventually realized I needed to step up and do my research to properly treat Shallan'sarc,IdecidedearlyonI'dneedtoberesponsiblewithhowItreatedwhatKaladinhadbeenthrough.
MentalhealthhasbecomeathemeintheStormlightArchive,butI've often noted that it isn'tthatIsetouttowritespecificallyaboutthattopic.More,IfeelthattheextremecircumstancesI'm putting characters into naturally lead to these kinds of conflicts. If I'mgoingtofollowthroughwithwhatthecharactersareexperiencing,itmeanstalkingabouttheseideas.
Thischapteristheunmarked"end"ofwhatIimaginedbeingthecoldopenlead-intothenovel.(Thekindof"climax to a book between the two novels you didn't see"thatI've been talking about in these annotations.) With the next chapter, we'llgotoacharacterwehaven'tseenyetthisbook,andbeginintothecoreplotofthenovel.
Oneofthose,however,isthis:Venlidoesn't see herself as a hero, nor is she interested in being one. Emotionally, she'snotreallyaboutsayingideals.Shefeelsshe'sthewrongpersonforwhateveritisthathasstartedtohappentoher.
Thismeansthere's a different tone between her and the other characters. What she mostly wants is to find a way to escape the powder keg she'sgottenherselfinto,andwhilesheDOESwanttomakeamendsforthingsshe'sdone,Iwantedhertofeelmore"normal person trapped in a strange situation"inmanywaysthansomeonelikeKaladin.
ThefinelinetowalkhereisthatIdidn't want her to come off petulant, or be too annoying. But I also didn'twanthertocomeoffasagung-ho"let's be heroes"type.That's a delicate balance, because there'sadangerbecauseit'sveryeasyforreaderstoresentherfornotbeingas"on board"withthestoryastheothercharacters.
Itwasworththerisk,andthelikelihoodthatsomepeoplewilljustplainnotlikeherviewpoints,formebecauseIfeelitaddsvarietyofperspectivestothestory.It's good to have someone who feels trapped, in over their head. Someone who doesn'tknowthe"right"thingtodo,andisalittlelessproactiveasaresult.Ilikehowauthenticherviewpointsfeelbecauseofthat.
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Thisisthelastwe'll see of Rock in the book, I'mafraid.IreallyhopetobeabletodotheRocknovellasometimeinthenextfewyearstotracehiscourse,butoneofthethingsIforcedmyselftodointhisseriesiskeepthefocusonthemainstorylinesandcharacters.
Thatsaid,whatwe're witnessing here is kind of the end of Bridge Four as a cohesive entity, at least as it existed in the series up until now. I was sad, for all the fun of this chapter, to be moving into this sequence of the stories. There was a temptation, of course, to just let Bridge Four continue to be Bridge Four--but it wouldn'tfeelright.Liveschangeandevolve.Mytight-knitfriendgroupfromcollegecanneverbethesameagain,notnowthatweallhavefamiliesandjobs.BridgeFourcouldn'tremainthesameeither.
Oneofmyproblemswithsomeformsofmedialikeextendednetworktelevisionshowsistheformat's inability to let the status of the characters evolve, change, and grow. For a series like this, we need progression, and we need to let Bridge Four become something else. If we'resadaboutthechanges,theearlybookswillalwaysbetheretoexperienceagain.
Mostofyouprobablyknowthatithasbeenimportanttometokeepthecosmerebehind-the-scenesformostofthebookseries.Idon't want a person to have to track all the different books in order to enjoy the one they'recurrentlyreading.
Sowe're slowly moving out of what I'dcallthe"each series separate"eraofthecosmereandintothe"careful mixing"era.Thegoalforthesebookswillbetostillmakeitthatyoudon't feel you need to remember everything, or need to follow everything. I hope to be able to walk this particular tightrope in such a way that someone who has never read any of the other cosmere books doesn'tfeelleftout--butrather,thattherearemysteriousandinterestingthingshappening,butthecorestoriesstillmakesense.However,ifIwanttolaythegroundworkforwhatIeventuallywanttodo,itwillrequiremorebleed-overthanI'veallowedinthepast.
Thischapterisoneofthosethatillustratesthisnewphilosophyonmypart--the"let them mix, but try to do it in a way that doesn't undermine the integrity of the series"philosophy.We'll see how well I manage it. FYI, Chapter Fifteen goes even a little further in this area than this chapter did. (Though don'texpectfull-blowncross-contaminationbetweentheseriesuntilthespaceageCosmereera,whichisstillawaysoff.)
Ienjoyedwritingthischapter,andmanyinthisbook,astheseriesisfinallyinaplacewhereIcanstartdelvingintothepersonalitiesandattitudesofthefused.Ican't say a whole lot more about that yet, but suffice it to say that I'mexcitedforyoutogetthewholebook.
It's my opinion that thinking "Zahel can do weird, mysterious stuff I don'tunderstand" is all right for those readers who don't have a larger cosmere experience. In fact, I'm confident that even if Warbreaker hadn't been released, I'd be writing scenes like this in the same way. It's a common trope in fantasy for the powerful figure, like Gandalf, to do things that seem outside the rules everyone else has to follow. One thing I like about having the cosmere to play with as a creator is that it lets me do scenes like this, which both are mysterious but also fully explained by the greater magic system, if you want to dig into it.