About Storytelling
Max: You know from the set-up, from the initial set-up of the series that Kvothe is alive. He's troubled but he's alive. So whenever he's in mortal peril it lets some of the air out of that tension because you know he makes it through. And it's an amazing feed of storytelling how much your pulse still races because you've given him this very specific fears of his hands being damaged, his very few prized possessions being taken from him...
Pat: And that's the conventional thought process. And honestly, you know, a lot of writer go into it, too. It's like you need to threaten somebody's life or else... But here is the thing and it's very sensible: it seems very reasonable, but if the only, if the best tension, came from fear of the protagonist's death nobody would ever read a book twice. [...] There are so many other ways. It's harder and one of the things I'm most proud of. It's easier to kill somebody and break your heart as the reader. But it's like I will break your heart because somebody's shirt got ruined. [...] What breaks your heart is that there is this boy, who wants nothing more than to get in the Archives for his whole life and he can't. It's like I will break your heart over a fucking library card.
(Max Temkin and Patrick Rothfuss on "Unattended Consequences", 07/14/15)
