Most people will hear this and think: at this pace, not a single word is likely to do any good. In a way, they’re right, and Sanderson agrees. At the sentence level, he doesn’t have much talent for English prose.
Especially the early books. my God. Here’s an example sentence: “This time it’s going to be bad.” Another: “She’s terrified.” People love to repeat descriptions: a city is “quiet, quiet, and peaceful.” Lots of things, from buildings to beasts, are “huge.” Dark places, more colloquially, are “caliginous”.on almost every page mist lifehis first and probably most popular series, a character “sighs,” “frowns,” “raises eyebrows,” “raises head,” “shrugs,” or “hums,” sometimes simultaneously, with hour repeatedly page. I count seven books in which a character frets over their metaphors. “I’m having trouble with metaphors,” says one literally. Speaking of his work, Sanderson has said: “I hate rewriting,” “I write for endings,” and “I write to relax.” show. By one measure, his writing was at the sixth-grade reading level.
Here I will stop using Sanderson’s words, written or spoken, against him. It’s not fair. He’s not at all, and I’ll say it again, very quotable. I spent a few days with that man. I watched his YouTube videos, took my place in his podcast empire (most of which, unbelievably, about writing). Like his book, everything is blurred. I typed about 40 pages of notes for the story, and who knows how many pages of transcripts the AI spit out when I fed it many hours of audio recordings. Now that I’m writing, I realize I haven’t mentioned it. Possibly, this is the influence Sanderson himself has had on me. Graphomanialy jot down ideas. have fun. Write for the ending.
so i will. This story has an ending, I promise, and I’m sprinting toward it like I’m on vacation. Like Sanderson’s best endings, mine should surprise you.Because, you see, Sanderson actually done say one thing to me, a miraculous thing, these five months later, I remember very clearly. Just seven words, but true. You are not ready for them. You first need more stories. Now, only Sanderson, both verbal and wordless, has no bestsellers written by writers who only know how to talk about words. Sanderson’s readers — caring ones, there are legions — care about something else.
ten seconds to until launch. The lights flickered and the music blared. “This is awesome,” someone whispered behind me as the Cosmere nerds counted down the seconds left. Return to zero, warm applause. Then the VP of marketing and events walked out.
It’s Dragonsteel 2022, the second annual convention of Sanderson’s world and work. For the first time the previous year, 1,200 fans showed up. Attendance at the two-day event in November was close to 5,000. Even though the con was held at the Salt Palace Convention Center, the largest venue in downtown Salt Lake City, fans were turned away by spectators left and right. I was out of breath by the time I reached the end of the line on the first morning, walking down multiple city blocks next to stone Mormon Gothic buildings. The VP of merchandising and events told me later that Dragonsteel 2023 is expected to have around 7,000 people in attendance — the year Sanderson plans to release his fifth book (out of 10) by 2024 Stormlight Archives, his largest franchise, with a 400,000-word book, reached a full 12,000 people. Planners at Dragonsteel needed to think long term.
