But anyways. Speaking of super nice people, Brandon Sanderson is one of them! and I'm so glad that's the case, because if my inspiration and role-model of a writer were a jerk, that would...be sad. But he's super awesome so its Ok!
The Man, The Legend, The Sanderson. So first he did a reading from the prelude (aka, prologue to the prologue) of The Way of Kings, his new book. And already I am hooked and can't wait to actually read it for myself. Its unfortunately been a long day with a lot of choir performances before and after the signing, so time has been sadly lacking.
The Way of Kings is a gorgeous book, possibly the only tome of its kind that I have ever seen. Its filled with in-world illustrations (because sometimes we forget that characters can be documentors as well) and it just seems like a really intricate piece of fantasy that needs some heavy duty reading. And I'm very very excited to do that.
I got a question in during Brandon's Q&A About book endings, asking how he approached them and if he knew how books ended as he wrote them.
So what he said was that he plots out books backwards, but writes them forwards. He outlines the big climactic events and works back to figure out how they happen.
BUT, and this was the interesting part to me, the characters are the most important part of the writing process from there. Namely, if a character forms in a way that doesn't allow the outline to play out a planned, then the outline gets chucked and redone.
This was worrying to me because with the Will of Prometheus, I don't know how it ends yet. I have a vague idea of how it ends, but (I guess in the tradition of Stephen King) I'm trying to discovery write this piece.
I guess I have my vague ideas and if something better comes along as things form more concretely, I let that take over.
Revelations like that happen all the time for me. Just last night I realized that the reason why the plot outline I thought I was going to pursue wasn't going to work was because I was trying to write the story as a murder mystery, when really it isn't a pure detective story. Its an epic redemption tale that happens to feature a detective and a serial killer.
that was huge because it means that I don't have to conceal the killer most of the time. The reason why THAT doesn't work is because...well, there's no way to conceal him. He's at the center of the story. its HIS story.
It'd be like trying to tell Star Wars from the perspective of Wedge Antilles.
Note: If that was too nerdy for you, I've listed a couple other (probably equally nerdy) analogies to help you out.
It'd be like trying to tell the Lord of the Rings from the perspective of Treebeard. (except that would be pretty cool...)
Like telling the Titanic (the Leonardo DiCaprio one) from the perspective of the captain. How foolish!
Like telling Harry Potter from the perspective of Professor Flitwick, or, dare I say it, Twilight from the perspective of a rational human being!
that kid Mike comes to mind.
BUT I ramble. Back the Sanderson!
He's got a running joke with his fans that people give him Magic, the Gathering cards because...he's a junkie. He's a HUGE nerd, basically, which is the best thing ever, basically.
A slightly more accurate The Man. The Legend. The Sanderson
So I not only got him a couple booster backs, but I did some original artwork for him, which he seemed to appreciate.
Here's a crappy photo of it:
If you can't read that words, it says "The King of Magic Systems"...because that is exactly what he is!So he signed my books, putting in a note in the Way of Kings that said "Thank you so much for the art!"
because he's amazing that way.
ANYWAYS - here are the books I picked up at Borderlands today:
1 Hardcover Way of Kings (signed)
1 Hardcover Mistborn (signed)
1 Hardcover Well of Ascension (signed)
1 Hardcover Hero of Ages (signed)
3 Paperback Mistborn
2 Paperback Warbreaker
1 Paperback Elantris
AND here's a picture of my Brandon Sanderson collection. Because...its awesome.
So I got to tell him the story of how I walked into a bookstore one day, looking to rekindle my love of fantasy, and picked up Mistborn. I got to tell him about how that changed everything for me, about how he inspired me to get into writing fantasy. He said that he loves hearing that and to keep at it.
And so keep at it I shall.
He said he'll post the picture later, so maybe I can get some notoriety and a quality photo up when that happens.
Tomorrow I aim to blast the big post about the Will of Prometheus, that I can direct people to when they ask what I'm working on these days. Its pretty exciting stuff for me, and I'm thinking I'll post some sample chapters as well.
If I remember something I forgot, I'll add it in to this post as an edit. :D
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