/lit/ - Literature

>>21838460
Sanderson talks a lot, but almost none of it is usable, quotable. I begin to think, This is what I drove all the way from San Francisco to the suburbs of Salt Lake City in the freezing-cold dead of winter for? For previously frozen dim sum and freeze-dried conversation? This must be why nobody writes about Brandon Sanderson.

So, recklessly, I say what’s on my mind. I have to. His wife is there, his biggest fan, always his first reader, making polite comments; I don’t care. Maybe nobody writes about you, I say to Sanderson, because you don’t write very well.

The world unfreezes. He agrees.

IT’S NOT THAT Brandon Sanderson can’t write. It’s more that he can’t not write. Graphomania is the name of the condition: the constant compulsion to get words out, down, as much and as quickly as possible. The concept of a vacation confuses Sanderson, he once said, because for him the perfect vacation is more time to write—vocation as vacation. His schedule is budgeted down to the minute, months out, to maximize the time he spends, rather counter-ergonomically, on the couch, typing away. Most days, he wakes up at 1 pm, exercises, and writes for four hours. Break for the wife and kids. Then he writes for four more. After that he plays video games or whatever until 5 am. A powerful sleeping pill is all that works, finally, to get him, and the voices in his head, to shut up.

In the five months or so it has taken me to sit down and write this magazine story, which is 4,000 words long, Sanderson has published two books. During the Covid lockdowns, he wrote and/or edited seven: two for his regular publisher, a graphic novel, and four more in secret, telling no one but his wife until he surprise-announced a Kickstarter in March 2022 to crowdfund their publication. (Hence the $42 mil, raised in a month, by far the most successful Kickstarter ever.) Since his debut, Elantris, in 2005, Sanderson has published 30-plus books, the biggest ones in excess of 400,000 words; there are far more if you count the novellas and graphic novels and stuff for kids. I’ve read 17 of the actual books. Or maybe it’s 20. Exactitude is pointless here. As the major books are all set in the same universe, which Sanderson calls the Cosmere, they’re all but meant to blur together.

Most will hear this and think: At that rate, none of the words could possibly be any good. They’d be right, in a way, and that’s what Sanderson agrees with. At the sentence level, he is no great gift to English prose.

>>21838464
The early books especially. My god. Here’s a sample sentence: “It was going to be very bad this time.” Another one: “She felt a feeling of dread.” There’s a penchant for redundant description: A city is “tranquil, quiet, peaceful.” Many things, from buildings to beasts, are “enormous.” Dark places, more thesaurically, are “caliginous.” On almost every page of Mistborn, his first and probably most beloved series, a character “sighs,” “frowns,” “raises an eyebrow,” “cocks a head,” “shrugs,” or “snorts,” sometimes at the same time, sometimes multiple times a page. I count seven books in which one of the characters frets about their metaphors. “I have trouble with metaphors,” one literally says. Of his own work, Sanderson has said: “I detest rewriting,” “I write for endings,” and “I write to relax.” It shows. He writes, by one metric, at a sixth-grade reading level.

Here’s where I’ll stop using Sanderson’s words, written or spoken, against him. It’s not fair. He’s simply not, I’ll say it again, very quotable. I spent days with the man. I watched his YouTube videos, made a dent in his podcast empire (most of it, incredibly, about writing). Like his books, it all blurs together. I typed some 40 pages of notes for this story, and who knows how many pages of transcripts the AI spat out when I fed it the many hours of recorded audio. Now that I’m writing, I find I’m referring to none of it. Possibly, this is the influence of Sanderson himself, on me. Graphomaniacally get thoughts down. Have fun. Write for the ending.

So I will. This story has an ending, I promise, and I’m sprinting toward it, as if to a vacation. Like the best of Sanderson’s endings, my ending should surprise you. Because, you see, Sanderson actually did say one thing to me, one miraculous thing, that stuck, that I remember, these five months later, with perfect clarity. Just seven words, but true ones. You’re not ready for them just yet. You need more story first. For now, there is only Sanderson, both wordful and wordless, the best-selling writer no writer writes about because writers only know how to talk about words. Sanderson’s readers—loving, legion—care about something else.

source: https://www.wired.com/story/brandon-sanderson-is-your-god/

Reddit thread

IAN BRANDON ANDERSON

>>21838460
You seem obsessed

>>21838460
>>21838464
>>21838464

The person who wrote this article is an odious cunt. I mean really, what an absolute fucking prick. I haven't read any Sanderson books and I probably never will, but god damn. 'Journalists' are loathsome scum. This douche got paid to write this shit?

On every level he reminds me of a 13 year old kid, who has been allowed to stay 13 forever and has never once had to contend with puberty or any of the trials of adolescence. It's honestly fascinating. Where most of us had to grow up at some point, he simply has never had to, and has grown his childhood playroom into a massive industry. It's not surprising he's (supposedly) emotionless.

>I DO CRY the next night, my last in Utah. We’re down in Sanderson’s below-ground movie theater, in plush red-leather seats that not only recline but also have adjustable headrests. He wants to show the specs off, so he plays the opening scene of The Greatest Showman. I don’t tell him that, while I like musicals, I hate The Greatest Showman, and especially Hugh Jackman. The scene starts. The chair shakes with otherworldly sound. When Hugh, lame Hugh, opens his mouth to sing, I can’t help it. I burst into tears.

fucking kek. this is an amazing article, I love when weirdos collide

>>21838872

>>21838901
good insight how the world of fandom works

>>21838982
but the nigga writes like hell, genre fiction is bottom of the barrel but this dude doesn´t care about that and his writing output is INSANE

how can /lit/ even compete???

>>21838460
>>21838464
>>21838470

>>21838460

>>21839577
>comes to /lit/
>doesn´t want to read

>>21839630
I don't want to read gay walls of text written by retards. I'd rather use that time to read actual books

I don’t a give a damn about Brandon Sanderson or his shitty books but I just find it funny that this journalist probably fancies himself very interesting, and probably even a good a writer!

I’d say it’s calling the kettle black but it’s too depressing to keep joking about.

Actually good writers can’t even get their manuscripts read let alone a staff job at Wired.

>>21839563
When I was younger someone here gave me the advice to not even try to publish until I was 30. I think his sense was that nobody under 30 will write anything good and maybe the publishing scene and market for literature will change enough in a few years that it will be good for someone who shut up and read. Back then I didn’t know enough to know that he was fucking retarded and that the secret was to just pump out as much writing as humanly possible, regardless of the quality. If Brandon wants to make a good at an actually classic literary work, he can. But all the anons who just read and read and read and never put pen to paper will never publish anything, not even trash.

>>21839679
>If Brandon wants to make a good at an actually classic literary work, he can. But all the anons who just read and read and read and never put pen to paper will never publish anything, not even trash.

hence why i made this thread ;)

>>21839679
Is it better for everyone that we have a baker that makes burnt apple pies, raw imgredients that will either increase/decrease in value depending on who bakes it, or a professional baker who makes mouthwatering dishes? Keep the mistakes in your diary desu, away from the masses, who will vomit on your trash and thus prove that quality trumps quantity.

>>21839709
learn from sanderson and START WRITING

>>21839654
your gonna have to explain the difference

>>21839709
>>21839755
there are many restaurants who serve crap food for money, but many people can cook better in their own homes.

>>21839755
disagree, see sonichu #1

>>21838872
He's free

>>21839679
>the secret was to just pump out as much writing as humanly possible
if that's the secret why aren't you a successful author yet

>>21838460
>Wired
Oh no, the stinky place with all the stinky people.

Literally who cares? Just ignore this shit and move on. People are like an ecosystem. If a person is trash, this person will stay trash. If you ignore people, you harm them the most, because attention means you dedicate your time, the most valuable commodity, to garbage. It's an insane power for psychopaths to steal your time. The easiest way to harm psychopaths is by ignoring them and move on. While this doesn't look like you won, you actually did.

It sounds actually insane, but this is why so many stupid people are insanely happy and so many smart people so unhappy. The gift of not caring about something is in a lot of stupid people by nature, while smart people have to learn this gift.

That's why all East Asian religions focusing of "inner peace". It's not about "meditating in silence". It's all about just ignoring the harmful surrounding. If you can life your life without spending any time on garbage, you will reach the highest living on earth.

That's why some emperors literally threw their crown on the ground and just became farmers for the rest of their lives. That's why some kings just gave up their land and lived as minor underlings. That's why so many insane scientists have a life like a hobo. That's what all of Aurelius' philosophy is about.
The skill to completely remove negative external bullshit is the most valuable skill on earth.

If you respond to psychopaths, you lost. If you care about psychopaths, you lost. If you bother with psychopaths, you lost. But if you mastered the skill of ignoring psychopaths (for real and not just pretending to ignore them), you will reach the highest happiness.

If you only think about people who love you and only dedicate your time and effort for things you love to do or want to do, you will succeed.

While this sounds all so general, what the stinky retard of Wired did is as old as human history. Personal attacks to trigger someone and steal his time, while also hoping to ride a cloud, and if you react or even care, you lost.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. For example if you have no money and can use someone who attacks you to gain a viewership. But the rule still applies. You ignore this person, but your respond is for commercial gains and not because your inner psychology actually reacts to this person.
It's like working in the call center and having an angry customer on the line. An advanced worker will sound like he really cares, while in his inner world he has forgotten this person the moment the conversation is over.

>>21840033
huh, I was about to mock you but you sound like you'd benefit from this, >>21837718
my fellow cabbage farmer

>>21839830
too late

>>21839830
I’m 29 and 11 months.

>>21839709
I think if you want to be a writer, you should write early and often and publish some of it. The advice was “don’t write until you’re 30” not “don’t publish until you’re 30” but I think both are bad advice.

>>21838872
SANDON BRANDERSON

Nobody really understands that the formula is competence + lowest common denominator. Works for everything: music? Somewhat attractive thot who can sing well + 4/4 catchy beat + absolute shit nigger lyrics, bam you got a million dollars. Competent actors + standard production pipeline + fucking braindead capeshit, bam billion dollars. well drawn anime thots + gambling bam you got the meme vidya of the year. Place absolute cancer on the framework of competence (all the people involved here are competent, not masterful, competent because mastery isn't as palatable) and success is guaranteed

>>21840142
>Nobody really understands that the formula is competence + lowest common denominator. Works for everything
i disagree, this is fundamental error of the perception, passed along, of "the market" when history shows that the market isn't good for toffee and all great things have been undertaken by the patronage of one wealthy person giving a large sum of money, not by a hundred paupers giving copper bits.

I write as I please with this in mind, thinking moreso as to who possesses the station to carry my ideas, and that thought does not find itself resting easy amidst the trampling feet of the bleating gaggles.

>>21840194
>one wealthy person
This breed is extinct

>>21839828
that is disturbing news

>>21840209
this isn't true 'but' the latter part of the point remains; the 100 paupers will still demand their alterations, whilst the single patron may make demands to, but they won't be constant and x100.

DEAR GOD NO

NOOOOOOOO

>>21838460
So let me get this straight. Some journo wanted to destroy and cancel le evil Mormonson because he's a white christian cis straight male but it blew on his face because Brandon didn't gave him any incriminating material to work with and the person wrong here is Sanderson and not the journo trying to write a yellow press note, correct?

>>21839709
difference is that reading a bad book won't kill you or make you vomit, but will just waste your time and/or money (if you were retarded enough to pay for the book, which you fit the profile, anon)

>>21840295
>reading a bad book won't make you vomit
Patrick Rothfuss

>>21839679
I'm on the second draft of a book and turn 30 this fall. Checks out.

>>21840092
>>21840112
no, that cannot be the excuse because you can just start pumping out fantasyslop right now. If your theory is correct, by the time you're 35 you should be a famous multimillionaire author. IF your theory is correct.

Pretty funny article. The man himself is inspiring, even if autistic.