Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, need more info. Sanderson’s “style” is more about magic systems than his writing. He is more concrete than abstract, or in other words, less flowery. But I’ve never tried to sound like anyone, not sure how to even go about that... except to write your books while reading their’s, and if you are a natural mimic, it’ll start happening.

 

I think Sanderson has specifically said that he's always aiming for the "invisible author" narrative voice. Maybe he used the metaphor of the transparent window; I can't remember. It's not his invention of course, but a general style.

But I'm not sure that's what Rkcapps meant, so I'd need more info. How you handle character voices, pacing, plot points and subplots, the word choice, magic system...yeah, all that stuff might be in the mix.

 

I'd say Sanderson's style differs depending on the series. I consider his writing in the Mistborn Series to be clean concise and quite careful. I think in The Stormlight Archive, so far, he's been a bit more colourful, a bit warmer, much more descriptive.

I think the one thing a lot of people gravitate towards Sanderson for is how consistent his work is, in terms of quality and story continuity. So I think most are more impressed with his world building and clever plot links than style.

 

I found the Writing Excuses podcast I was remembering: 12.11: Diction | Writing Excuses

Excerpt, when talking about editors:

[Brandon] My editor's really good at this. Which is great. Moshe. I'm… I am weakest in this area. I shoot for what I call Orwellian prose. If you read essays by George Orwell, he talks about this idea of prose that is a windowpane through which you can see the story. Prose that does not draw attention to itself. It doesn't mean I don't like beautiful prose. I love beautiful prose. But I have chosen a style for myself that is I'm going to try not to distract you. Except maybe like the first paragraph, I'll occas… Of a scene, I'll occasionally throw one in there. But I want…

[Mary Anne] [inaudible]

[Brandon] You to be able to see through the prose beautifully. Because of that, I do a… I'm just… This is my weakest point. I'll often have pet words that I'll use over and over again. I will use sometimes the wrong word, like… And all of this stuff. I have a good editor who catches the unintentional rhymes, the unintentional innuendos that you don't intend…

[Mary] Oh, yeah.

[Brandon] He will often say things like… I'll be like, "This person was so annoying." He's like, "Do you mean annoying or did you mean aggravating? Because the context sounds like aggravating." I'm like, "Oh. That's… Those are different words. Yes, they mean different things."

[Laughter]​

I think I've encountered the term serviceable in critiques of Sanderson's writing...Weird thing is that maybe he aims for serviceable, heh, because his primary focus is on world building, magic systems, and the concrete events happening in the story.

I feel I ought to be able to add my own observations, but I've only read the first three Mistborn novels, and that was a long time ago. I have another couple novels written by Sanderson, a novella, and a collection of stories from the W.E. podcasters but have never cracked those open. Someday, I keep telling myself. Someday.

 

Yeah, Sanderson’s BYU lectures are full of solid basics. I like Sanderson’s outreach to writers more than his writing and stories, LOL. He seems like a genuinely good and approachable guy with a level head.

 

I find it kind of amazing just how busy his book project schedule is!

 

I'll just leave this here . . .