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Monday, November 16, 2009

Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is currently my favorite author. His Mistborn series is fantastic. Best fantasy I’ve ever read. Amazing magic system to boot. I admit to not having read Elantris, but I plan to amend that this December. I have read one of his newer novels (the one he released before the 12th Wheel of Time* novel), entitled Warbreaker, but wasn’t too pleased with it. It’s not a bad novel, by any means, just not great. I rant about it here if anyone cares to take a gander.

Brandon Sanderson is also one of three authors who does the Writing Excuses podcast. I LOVE this podcast—it’s great. It’s in its third season now, and it’s brimming with great tips and ideas on writing. Each episode is only fifteen minutes long, because “you’re in a hurry, and [they’re] not that smart”. I recommend browsing the archives; they have a lot of great information. (The podcast on puppeteering is one of my favorites. Season three, episode fourteen.) I got to attend this podcast live at CONduit in Salt Lake City this past summer. It’s fantastic. And I’ll admit it—I’ve daydreamed about being a guest author. (Someday, someday…)

Every winter semester (January-April) Sanderson teaches an advanced writing class at BYU. There are only fifteen slots available, though he’ll let just about anyone audit. I, fortunately, was finally able to nab one of those spots during registration last month. I’m really excited, and I pray I can impress my professor with at least one bit of my writing. I’ll learn a lot, I’m sure. I really appreciate the fact that Sanderson still teaches this class—he certainly doesn’t do it for the money. Between the class and Writing Excuses, I think Sanderson genuinely wants to teach others to write. (This makes me forgive the terrible layout of his website.)

I haven’t done any editing on CSH since I started writing it in September, but I’ll have to read through my chapters come next semester so I can polish them before my classmates tear them apart. Wish me luck.



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*The Wheel of Time is an extensive series written by Robert Jordan, who unfortunately passed away before he could finish his story. Brandon Sanderson was recruited to finish it for him.

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