Will Wight, New York Times Best-Selling Author of 'Cradle'
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In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.

Behind-the-scenes: Soulsmith and the birth of the Cradle series!

9/24/2020

49 Comments

 
I'm going to be honest with you right up front: I don't have much unused material for Soulsmith. Of all the books in the series, this one is the poorest in extra content. It huddles on the street in front of Blackflame's gaudy mansion, begging for scraps of deleted scenes with tears in its eyes.

Let me take a moment to tell you why.

Before beginning Unsouled, I envisioned Cradle as a free chapter-by-chapter web serial, like most of the stories I read nowadays. Cradle's already wearing the hat of a web novel, so why not steal a web novel's coat too?

I wanted something to keep up reader interest during the time I had to spend writing Of Kings and Killers, which I envisioned taking somewhere between six months and a geological age of the Earth.

I had, in fact, written roughly twenty chapters of the first arc (making up Unsouled pre-Suriel), when I came up with a new solution to the same problem: mailing list short stories.

I tried those out, and they worked! Readers enjoyed the new, small glimpses into worlds we'd already visited, so discussion about my books online remained afloat.

As I usually do, I'm taking a light tone here, but forgive me for getting serious for just a second.

At the time, I thought I was facing down the end of my career.

2015, the year that we made most of our money from Elder Empire, was by far our lowest-income year. And that includes 2013, in which we only had books for sale for a total of six months.

The dry spell in between book releases is when people forget about you, forget about your books, and don't talk about you or spread the word about you or buy books. And when you're writing two books at the same time, the dry spell becomes twice as long.

I worked that math out myself.

Sometimes people say that I wrote Elder Empire in double installments so that readers would have to pay twice for what's effectively the same story, and every time I hear that I have to choose between laughing until I cry or crying until I laugh.

"Look at Will, that devious financial mogul, scamming his readers by choosing to do twice as much work to make a fraction of the income he would have gained by writing another Traveler's Gate book. Truly the spirit of Midas lives on through him."

 So what does this have to do with Soulsmith?

Well, back before the birth of Cradle, I found myself with half a book's worth of free chapters that were intended to cover a lull in book releases, only to have fortuitously found an easier solution to that lull. Which left me with half a book.

I thought, "Well, I have half a product, and if OKAK performs as expected I'll be drinking from rain gutters for nourishment by the end of the year, so I'll round this out into a real book and hopefully make enough to survive without going back to my lemonade stand."

When Unsouled came out and almost immediately sold more copies than all the four previous Elder Empire books combined, I was thrown off-balance. This was supposed to be the little, easy, quick series that I wrote on the side.

I needed a sequel immediately, and the sooner the better, lest I return to my gutter-suckling fate. Again, with the intention being to satisfy people until I could return to OKAK.

I had a general idea of where the story was going, but I had to hammer out a sequel in preferably no time. So I entered my Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and two months later I had a Soulsmith fresh from the book-oven.

It mostly came out exactly as planned, partly because the focus of the story was tight and I didn’t have to juggle many characters or world elements, and partly because I wrote it so fast I didn’t have time to re-think or cut anything.

Having said that, there are some points from the outline that didn’t make it. All of these elements come from the original Soulsmith outline, but most of them actually have to do with Blackflame, Soulsmith's larger and better-looking younger sibling.

—Elder Whisper was initially going to sneak out of Sacred Valley to spy on how far Lindon had come in the last few months, only for Eithan to see through his illusion immediately and initiate a conversation.

—Originally, Eithan wasn’t going to fight. Like, ever. He was going to use his bloodline powers in increasingly convoluted ways to avoid fighting for essentially the whole series, even in scenarios where he would seemingly be forced to fight, like a tournament round.

Of course, I scrapped that plan pretty quickly.

—Book 3 was initially planned to be called “Bloodforged” and to be about how Lindon can push his limits further in training with the Bloodforged Iron body rather than about him learning a new Path.

—In the Soulsmith document, my plan for Book 3 was to establish a new set of characters by having Lindon, Eithan, and Yerin move in with the Arelius clan in the Blackflame Empire (which is sort of what ends up happening).

However, the intention was to have some slice-of-life bits to get Lindon grounded in this new world outside Sacred Valley and get him attached to the Arelius family, and then to participate in a tournament between the factions of the Blackflame Empire.

The structure was supposed to be something like this:
    1.) Leaving the Desolate Wilds / arriving in Serpent’s Grave.
    2.) Meet the Arelius clan / set up the tournament.
    3.) Daily life in the Arelius clan / Lindon begins training and learns how far he can push himself with the Bloodforged Iron body.
   4.) Preliminary tournament round in which no one expects much of Lindon. He does well in the prelims, but he’s clearly not good enough to match up with the opponents in the next round.
    5.) Solo training for Lindon and Yerin (this is what ended up becoming the Blackflame Trials).
    6.) Slice of life.
    7.) New tournament round.

…etc. It kind of follows that formula: training followed by life in the Arelius household followed by another tournament round.

The stakes would gradually raise somehow, but I didn’t have any details on that because I hadn’t outlined the book or matched it up to a solid plot structure or anything. This was just my general plan for Book 3 while I was working on Soulsmith.

Aaaannnd that's what I've got. In compensation for the lack of material from the actual book, I have created a true sprawling monster of a blog post.

That figures.

-Will
49 Comments
Ben
9/24/2020 01:24:32 pm

I’ll take a rambling blog post any day of the week from you! I’m trying to ration my Cradle reread so every little bit of extra content is gold!

Reply
Tievel1
9/24/2020 01:27:07 pm

Not gonna lie, I would have enjoyed seeing that version of Eithan. But it all worked out in the end.

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James Sullivan
9/24/2020 01:48:28 pm

Yeah, that version of Eithan would've been fun to see though I really like the Eithan we got in the end.

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Emmanuel Esene
9/24/2020 01:31:11 pm

Will, is that you?

Reply
?
9/24/2020 01:42:19 pm

I'm really enjoying these behind the scenes. It's interesting to see how the plot evolves and your plans for the series. Thanks for these posts!

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Eithan Arelius
9/24/2020 01:48:42 pm

12 DAYS!

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Eithan Arelius
9/25/2020 02:17:05 pm

11 DAYS!

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Eithan Arelius
9/26/2020 06:46:33 am

10 DAYS!

Eithan Arelius
9/27/2020 06:20:11 am

9 DAYS!

Erlik
9/24/2020 01:52:55 pm

I'd say that it turned out extremely well in the end. Though an Eithan that argues and cajoles to get out of fights would be entertaining.

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Nerevar
9/24/2020 01:59:40 pm

Oh I love these tidbits of trivia regarding your creative process.
Its rly interesting in general to see how author dig forward and their way of thinking.
That being said its rly impressive that you outperformed (for now) Sandersons new book.
I rly like him and his work, tho I prefer Cradle, but Brandon has been around for ages and has big fanbase so i rly didnt expect it lol.

Your most common trait with him is that your books are page turners. So much substance, almost no dead weight of which many fantasy and sci fi books suffer in general, with setting up the world, new concept and ideas. Its very rare to start a new fantasy book and not have the need to plough forward first 100 pages till finaly things click together.
Also Uncrowned was considerably better on a second read, but bring me Uncrowned part 2 now please :)

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Ward
9/24/2020 02:05:05 pm

I appreciate the candidness in your post -- it's interesting to see your thoughts on the Cradle series before it "rose to fame". It's definitely my favorite series and what got me to eventually read your other books (if only because I needed something to do while I wait for the next cradle book to come out).

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Jeremiah
9/24/2020 02:12:08 pm

That clever monster of a writer has enthralled me so that I will buy anything he puts out. Even if wasn't OKAK.

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Nick S
9/24/2020 02:42:44 pm

My brother introduced me to you as an author through the Traveler Gate series. I greedily sped through any Traveler's Gate content you put out. Then came OKAK. I was super confused. Which one do I read first? My answer? Neither. It is still neither. I even bought the audio book and couldn't get past the first chapter. I love Travis and have read every Cradle book at least 3 times. I am on my second pass on all the Cradle audio books. OKAK? No and no. I just can't. I have tried at least three separate times. Never have I made it through the first chapter. I want to, but I just can't. Sorry.

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Nick S
9/24/2020 03:46:03 pm

That sounds negative, but I don't mean it to be. I just prefer one point of view when reading for entertainment. A short trip into other points of view is okay, for context. But for me, the less of that the better. OKAK is two points of view by definition and I just couldn't get on board. Wheel of Time was the same for me. Way too many points of view. Couldn't do it. I have been extraordinarily pleased with Cradle. It balances the mostly one point of view with a reasonable amount of context and lands right in the Goldilocks zone. I would have had trouble if Wintersteel was going to be a Yerin book. I like Yerin, but I tend to be monogamous with my main characters, especially in books.

Hillary
9/24/2020 04:09:13 pm

Actually, i feel the exact same way! I have tried multiple times to read that series...5 times to be exact. But everytime, i loose interest and start wondering when the next cradle book comes out.

With all the great reviews OKAK gets, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.

Ryan
9/24/2020 07:08:45 pm

I agree with the single point of view. It's not my cup of tea. I can't immerse Myself into those stories as well. But very few books that follow a single character are written well. Cradle is the best of its kind.

Will Eccles link
9/24/2020 11:16:51 pm

Bare with me, this is a long post... I've contemplated for a LONG time whether or not I would ever write this on one of his pages because I support him SO MUCH and he's quickly become my favorite author; I didn't want to seem negative in the slightest, but it was brought up so, here goes... I am an AVID reader. That's my thing. I don't watch TV, I read everyday. I LOVE books. I was first introduced to Will's work a few years ago in my recommendations. I started with the Traveler's Gate series, loved it, and became thirsty for more. That's when I discovered Cradle. At this time it was right before the release of Blackflame, so when I finished Soulsmith, I only had to wait a few days for the next book. Needless to say, this is my favorite book series ever, and that's saying something. However, I own ALL of the OKAK books and I just can't get past the 1st chapter of Sea and Shadows... I want to, so badly, but it doesn't hold my attention no matter how many times I tried to read it. I've read Traveler's Gate series at least 3 times and WELL into the double digits with how many times I've re-read Cradle. But OKAK, I just can't... I even like ALL his blog posts more... I thought it was just me... I'm done. For now...

Florey
9/24/2020 02:27:23 pm

Now look at you, in less than 10 years, you've gone from drinking gutter water to a mad ravenous fan base. Well done sir!

Reply
Bonsai Warrior
9/24/2020 03:31:15 pm

"All of these elements come from the original Soulsmith outline, but most of them actually have to do with Blackflame, Soulsmith's larger and better-looking younger sibling." - Will Wight

This raised an interesting point, I thought of Blackflame as the cooler older brother, and each following books being cooler/older. But it would make sense that the newer books are the younger siblings, but yet they are older in the story.

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Clint
9/24/2020 03:47:56 pm

Soulsmith is actually my 1st or 2nd favorite to be honest. I flip flop between it and ghostwater.

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rBeasley
9/24/2020 03:50:01 pm

I guess the only thing I would say here is keep the gutter water mentality, and enjoy the success at the same time. Seems like once an author finds success they disappear. I don't mean to give your life away and keep writing like a mad man, but keep the good times rolling for us fans man!!

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Ryan
9/24/2020 04:10:56 pm

I've always wondered what happened with Elder Whisper and the First Elder. Hope to see them in the future

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Joseph
9/24/2020 04:32:17 pm

I would be very excited to see and learn more of Elder Whisper. I hope more of his story comes out now that Orthos is in Scared Valley and the main Lindon story line is starting to curve back and tie into his roots / the western labyrinth under the valley.

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Kevin
9/24/2020 04:21:39 pm

I have always thought it was crazy that your Elder Empire books were not massive hits right away. The depth of creative darkness in those books is spectacular. I was afraid Cradle was so successful we would never get to see the end. I was more than satisfied.

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Bryce
9/24/2020 04:37:48 pm

When you first came out with the idea about Elder Empire i was very interested. Then you brought up your idea for splitting the book, and i hoped and hoped that you would not go down that road.

But you did, and that essentially wiped out my interest in the series. I have the first pair simply because they were free at the time but i dont see myself even trying to read them.

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Who cares
9/25/2020 07:37:17 am

Wow, what valuable information you just provided

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Bryce
9/27/2020 01:39:25 pm

What I wrote was in relation to Elder Empire not selling well. I'm sorry that you were unable to put 2 and 2 together.

R
9/24/2020 05:52:40 pm

I would LOVE to see a scene between elder whisper and Eithan. Let’s make that happen. Keep up the good work Will.

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Vee
9/24/2020 07:24:06 pm

I love this series. The characters, the concepts and humor. The amount of books and things that you write at the same time is insane. Yes we want a cradle book. But take your time, don’t burn your madra channels.

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Zei link
9/24/2020 07:40:26 pm

Phew. Bullet dodged.

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Benjamin
9/24/2020 07:40:28 pm

It's a shame that workin on Elder Empire caused such financial hardship for you. It was a unique concept that worked very well in my opinion. I remember being slightly annoyed when Soulsmith came out because I was expecting Elder Empire next, but Soulsmith added to all the things I loved about Unsouled and added new aspects that by the next would make the Cradle series my favorite.

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Jessica
9/24/2020 08:07:44 pm

I love the Elder Empire and could never understand why it didn't do well. It was so enjoyable supporting the first character and disliking the second only to have your feelings reversed when reading the companion book. It really makes you think about life, everyone is the hero of their own story. When you decided to follow Lindon instead of finishing the Elder Empire I boycotted you and your new books (although my husband and son continued to read). Eventually, they talked me into starting the new series. I do enjoy it (Eithan is the best) and have slowly come to forgive you.

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Jeremiah
9/26/2020 03:56:45 am

Similar in our house, but it was more of a verbal boycott and not a reading boycott. We were both frustrated but Cradle just got so good... But we were thrilled in April when OKAK was released.

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Rohan Hublikar
9/24/2020 08:41:06 pm

This is really cool to read!
I remember picking up House of Blades in middle school, it was the first self published book i ever read and it absolutely blew my socks off. (You were also the first author who ever exchanged words with me, on this very blog no less). Now I'm 20 and writing stuff! Thanks for sticking to your passion and making such awesome stories.

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stephen
9/25/2020 12:22:41 am

I don't know if I like the idea of you struggling. How about you punch it up a bit? Maybe like "no matter what, I knew it would work out ". Maybe add an "aha!" dream in there.

Yeah, that's the ticket.


Seriously, I've enjoyed all your work. OKAK took me a few years to warm up to, but I eventually got into it and loved it.
I hope you get to tell a lot more stories.

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Aaron
9/25/2020 05:44:44 am

Since I read Traveler's Gate in 2014, I have never taken a dry spell to spread the word about your books.

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Me!!!
9/25/2020 09:54:27 am

Will, you’re back! What happened to your Remnant?

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Decorus
9/25/2020 10:49:33 am

I dunked it in a vat of Chocolate milk and then ate the whole thing Oreo Madra is so tasty not like word Madra which is dry and hard to swallow.

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Kris
9/25/2020 12:21:37 pm

Thank you for sharing these tidbits. It's interesting to see not only how the book changed, but also to see a little of what was going on in your life that also helped shape the series.

While I've read most of the EE books, they were very difficult for me to get into. For me it felt as if I were jumping into the middle of the series. Both the Traveler's Gate and Cradle series have their main protaganist starting at the 'bottom', and we follow their progress. This allows us to learn about about the world/magic system along with the character. EE sort of dives straight to the Emperor being dead without understanding WHY it had such an impact, then there were these other 4...Regents or something ??? It's been a while since I read the books. Anyway, you put all that together with the story itself jumping back and forth in the timeline, and I just had a hard time immersing myself in the story.

However just like another commenter, I really did enjoy the dual viewpoints and seeing that neither character was 'bad'. Just both driven to similar goals from different starting points. Looking forward to Wintersteel.

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Malachi
9/26/2020 09:59:42 am

Yeah, I agree with what you said, in fact that’s what made me like Traveler’s Gate so much (First of his books I read). In addition to the interesting characters, the humor, and the awesome magic system, I liked how there weren’t clear “good guys” there were two sides that both did things that could be considered evil or good. It really made it feel more like an actual world to me, and I can’t wait to see what’s outside the region we have explored in the first three books.

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Andrew Fleming
9/25/2020 01:31:42 pm

You know what ? Where Cradle is concerned, it is your bat and ball, as I tend not as to require anymore than 3 days to read any new book, I'm simply happy that a new one is coming out even if my wife bugs me with the "What are you doing" for those days.

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Graham
9/25/2020 02:32:01 pm

Huh. I never thought about that in-between period as a place sales go to die, though it makes sense. Leads me to a lot of soul searching to figure out whether I would forget about Cradle between releases. Well, not *forget*, but as it stands I evangelize unapologetically the whole 6+ months. No, that's not true, I do apologize every time, but everyone who actually reads the books ends up thanking me.

Reply
BlackMage
9/25/2020 11:29:43 pm

"The dry spell in between book releases is when people forget about you, forget about your books, and don't talk about you or spread the word about you or buy books."

I have just three words in reply to that statement - "Doors of Stone".

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Matt
9/26/2020 05:45:09 am

About OKAK. It's like one of those literary masterpieces. Think War and Peace. I really want to dig in but every time I do it rebuffs me.

I had read the first book and recently garnered all my will and bought the second book. But I bought the second book on the opposite side. I'll get them read eventually.

I think that Tolstoy guy may have lost his shirt and died bankrupt too, just don't quote me.

The Cradle universe has all the required elements. Hard work pays off, good/bad characters, character growth and expansion, funny stuff, and each book builds on information from the prior books. In retrospect, no wonder it is a winner.

Having Orthos end up in Sacred Valley was masterful. Its those kinds of decisions that draw us to this world. And it may have been random. But keep doing it.

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Guyfriday
9/27/2020 05:56:07 am

I struggled to stay engaged with the first pair of books as well. I see a lot of comments that some couldn't get through the first couple of chapters. I remember picking it up and putting it down a lot and taking several months to read both books. The second pair of books flowed much more smoothly for me, I think I completed them in a couple of weeks. The third books are in my humble opinion the best of the series, I poured through both books in about four days. Still liked Travelers Gate and Cradle better but if you've gotten through the first books I think you will enjoy the story more from here.

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Juan
9/26/2020 09:33:16 am

Hey Will, which short stories do you have for Cradle?

I've read the one for Ziel, and sword unclean. Are there any others?

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Jason
9/26/2020 10:49:51 am

There are the death matches which feature cradle characters

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Kris
9/26/2020 11:28:13 am

Also the blog posts with background on the current Abidon Judges. That had a lot of information about the larger universe.




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