I am an author, and years ago I was invited to participate in an event at a bookstore where local authors were gathered to meet their fans and autograph books. Toward the end of the book signing, a fellow came to my table and said some very kind things about my work. He asked me to sign a copy of my book for him, and I obliged, asking "who should I make it out to?"
Turns out that fellow was Brandon Sanderson, by far the most famous and successful author participating in the event. It was around the time he published his first Wheel of Time book. Everyone around me knew who he was and they were all starstruck, and horrified that I was so oblivious. I felt silly for failing to recognize him, but he was totally cool about it. He was gracious and kind, and very supportive of this small-time author. In spite of his success, he was so down-to-Earth that his advice is probably worth heeding.
I am deliberately evasive about the book title because I do not wish to engage in obnoxious self-promotion. But if you are sufficiently curious, my username is a huge clue that should lead you to the title if you do some minimal Googling.
Disclaimer: The book was a bit of a fiasco, our website was an established property with an established audience, and the publisher insisted on taking the book design in a direction contrary to our values. I can recommend the content of the book, but its design makes me cringe to this very day.
And Brandon Sanderson, if you are reading this, thanks for being such a class act!
edit: If you really want a copy of the physical book, follow the breadcrumbs to get my email address,and I can mail you a free copy. I have a box full of them.
Just wanted to chime in that I love your website and love binge reading articles from it every few months.. Thanks for all the work you've done on it!
I never actually read the book mostly because I tend to read ebooks and it doesn't seem to be available as one? Kind of curious about the exclusive content though.
Thanks! Yes, unfortunately the physical book was never released as an e-book. It was released around the time e-books were first becoming viable, and a few months after it was published the publisher proposed we release it as an e-book. But the new contract was very far-reaching, and would have granted the publisher half of all proceeds of any "electronic distribution" of the book's content. When I asked them to revise the contract to exempt the preexisting website from this condition, they lost interest.
Sigh, that publisher really seemed tone deaf between the cover and this... Is there still exclusive content in the book that never was published on the site?
Yes, though it is not a huge quantity of content. If memory serves, there were four writings made exclusively for the book.
The publisher really was a pain in the ass. In addition to what I already mentioned, they insisted that I be listed as the book's author, despite the fact that I only wrote about half of the content. I argued for the author credit to be "The [name of the website] Editors", but they ignored my input, claiming that books sell better when a single person is named as the primary author. In so doing they drove a wedge between me and my fellow authors.
Thank you for the kind words! The reason I found the cover so objectionable is because our project has always been very careful to cover subjects accurately, and without hyperbole or embellishment. Then they make our book look like a tabloid newspaper, the polar opposite of "very careful to cover subjects accurately, and without hyperbole or embellishment."
Maybe I'm missing it, but does he actually state any views on homosexuality in this? Other than the implied views from having voted for Sanders and stating that he's 'struggled' and 'shifted' on the subject (shifted to what?). It's a non-answer and I don't understand the praise in that thread for it. "Why can't we just TALK about it?" he says, in a thread where he could very well just talk about it. "God loves his children" makes no distinctions between saints, murderers, and homosexuals, yet we know God disapproves of murder, right? So it's a non-statement with regards to homosexuality.
His two links are 404s but the Internet Archive versions of those don't seem to contain answers either (they don't mention the topic as far as I can tell).
I read it, too, and it appears that he is trying to walk the line between “the church is Truth” and “I don’t want gay people hurt” and since those are wholly incompatible, this is the best we’ll get.
Personally, I find actions far more compelling than words: I could share a pleasant meal with a man who called himself a Nazi but acted in all manners (including voting) like a good person.
I understand some people want verbal repudiation of certain views and verbal affirmation of certain views, though.
>I believe in the church--believe it has made my life better, made me a more caring person. I believe it teaches the truth.
...
>It's totally possible for people who are both rational to come to different conclusions about things based on their life experience.
He has homosexual characters in his books, though (IIRC one of the members of bridge 4 to name one)? So clearly he's making an effort to be inclusive even if his religious views on the matter are different, nuanced, or otherwise unpopular with people that are not as socially conservative.
I believe you're being downvoted because you're referring to something that happened over 10 years ago. Not to justify what he said back then, but Brandon Sanderson has grown and changed his views since then.
He is a deeply religious man and his views are rooted in religious belief, the most powerful belief there is. I seriously doubt he has changed his views, he just wisened up to where the wind blows.
The rate at which public opinion has changed in favour of gay marriage, etc. over the past few decades could have only happened with a lot of people changing their mind. The shift happened way too fast for it to have been entirely down to old bigots dying off.
I watched all of Sanderson's lectures on YouTube for his creative writing class he teaches at BYU and honestly a ton of his advice is very useful for programmers. I have absolutely 0 desire to write a book (although admittedly that class had me thinking about trying it), but his general advice on how to work and how to think through things was rather useful and a really neat insight into one of the most efficient people I've ever seen.
Honestly this does not surprise me as his books, especially in the Cosmere universe, are one of the best books of our time. Will definitely look into this, thanks for sharing.
His podcast, Writing Excuses, is also a great listen. I’m not a writer at all, but I listened to a ton of episodes just because it was so interesting to hear what makes good writing. Such as characters driving the plot, not the plot driving the characters. Things like that. He’s been doing the podcast for years, so there is a huge backlog.
This is almost exactly how I work[0]. I’ve been doing hard things, all my life.
It gets annoying to encounter the inevitable “If you do so well, how come you’re not rich or famous?” retort; which assumes that money and fame are the only metrics that count.
The simple answer is that I’ve never wanted to be rich; at least, not wanted it enough to put in the type of work it would take, to get there. I also see absolutely no value at all, in fame; other than as an avenue towards being rich (see “I don’t really want to be rich, badly enough to deal with the agita,” above).
I could certainly have helped others get rich, but people that want to be rich, have had such a difficult time, respecting my approach, that it has never worked out. Instead, I always end up working with organizations and people, to whom money is not a principal metric.
Oh, absolutely. Especially in this crowd. There’s a ton of folks that are convinced that the only measure of success is money and/or fame. American culture, especially amongst entrepreneurial types, has reinforced this.
I’m often accused of “sour grapes,” and “I’m just jealous.”
Makes for a fun conversation.
And yes, it is dumb.
Look at the various posts, here. Whenever someone talks about their company being a "success," they always mention valuations, investments, brand recognition, etc. Open-sourcerers always talk about how many stars their repos have, etc.
Schlubs like me are not really invited to too many VIP tents at Burning Man...
For what it's worth, I'm definitely in the "want to get rich" camp, but I've seen enough hard work and good stuff from people which has nonetheless managed to not enrich them (either because the purpose was not that or because of just how the market operated).
Take all advice you see online from successful people with a grain of salt. It is inherently biased.
The software industry, for example is filled with people who are extraordinarily talented at math in high school and thus get into the good schools. There are exceptions where people find the passion to code later on in life, but by and large, the "cream of the crop" fits the definition of the former.
Stephen King is famously a seat-of-the-pants writer, not knowing where his characters and settings are going to take him. He is also famous for reading constantly whenever he isn't writing or sleeping. Where other writers might avoid reading to avoid plagiarism or distraction, King eats books for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert.
R.L. Stine is famous for cranking out hundreds of horror novels. I recall him writing that a good horror novel requires a good ending, so he actually writes the ending first to make sure that it does. In contrast to Stephen King, he always knows exactly where he is going and about in how many pages.
It took (the non-prolific and perfectionistic) Gustave Flaubert 5 years to write Madame Bovary, and he wrote that he worked from 1pm to 1am (presumably shifting to 2pm when he started spending an hour a day tutoring his niece.)
Neal Stephenson famously quit email to apply more of his time writing for a larger audience.
I heard Brandon Sanderson talk once and I was like "wow, this is one of the most organized writers I've ever heard of."
I suspect his organization, methodology, and work style are partially responsible for his success.
I kind of wish we had been able to lock Sanderson in a room with George RR Martin to finish Song of Ice and Fire before Game of Thrones went past the novels.
Not "almost certainly". He has explicitly said he wouldn't do it.
He doesn't like the series, disagrees with Martin's pessimistic take on humanity, and believes the content clashes with his religion.
Quote from him:
"….the point is moot, as I wouldn’t say yes to finishing ASOIAF, if asked. (And I don’t think they’d ask me.) I’d respectfully decline. I wouldn’t be right for the job for many reasons."
I think it helps to find people slightly ahead of you on the same journey. Their internal map of the topic is slightly more filled out, so the difference is easier to manage. I want to learn AI programming, and I'd more effectively learn from someone who has just gotten their head around Prolog than from a PhD at DeepMind.
One of his lectures centered around what to do once you are finished writing the book. And it was to do your best to make changes to make it commercially viable.
I think that is a great example for the kind of teaching style. He lists all the important perspectives without which you will crash into problems. Its not a "How to make it as a successful author", but "How to be less of an unsuccessful one".
> I’ve been working on a video game for several years, and I suspect it will be announced this year. So, commence speculation! (Note: it’s not for one of my properties, but something new that I built with them. It’s a game company many of you will have heard of, but probably not the one you’re thinking about right now. Not that other one either.)
Assuming the first guess was Bethesda, what about the second one?
I've just recently started framing more and more of my options as if-thn statements, with an emphasis on the then being some emotion tht I predict I will feel. I think some people probably naturally do this, but it takes effort for to me to think of now vs future.
I base my understanding of generating internal motivation of of the WOOP model, academically known as implementation intentions with mental contrasting. Focusing on mounting my internal dialogue on simple if-then models is easier than running through the whole WOOP model.
I'd love to know of any mental heuristics others here use that help them effectively close the current state vs ideal state gap.
This idea of 'word count' that an Author can use to hold themselves accountable is intriguing. I wonder if a 'lines changed per day' metric (purely as a personal motivator) would be useful for side-projects that we all procrastinate on.
There's got to be some way using git log to get a rough approximation of 'lines changed per day' that you could represent somewhere like a histogram.
I think the context is different. The Motivation Myth needs wins. Play to your strengths.
But when picking a strategic goal, like a startup product, building a moat is advantageous.
I did Mathematics instead of CS before switching to CS. The maths in the latter was so easy in comparison. I should have always done the latter. I would have been where I am much sooner with a lot less heartache. There’s no moat with this degree. Other people find Algebra far easier than I did. It is pointless to go play where you don’t have home advantage.
And also, ultimately, the heuristic is good but heuristics aren’t always correct. That’s why they’re heuristics but not laws. I believe this is a heuristic.
I've done this in the past, for example when choosing college: do I study Chemistry that I intuitively understand or do I study Physics that will be a challenge? I chose Physics and I will always regret it: there's something to be said in favor of training your strengths instead of mitigate your weaknesses.
Well in my case when choosing a college degree: do I study CS that I know I would be very comfortable with or do I study Computer Engineering which would be much more challenging since it requires EE classes? I chose Computer Engineering and I don't regret it one bit. Even though I still ended up in software, I feel like I have useful foundational knowledge about lower-level operation of computers that a lot of my peers don't have.
I don't know, I've instinctively done this for a really long time, and it has brought me a lot of heartache. Maybe one should occasionally pick easy stuff just to feel better about oneself.
I’d argue that in a professional context you should pick the hard things, if it’s a side project do something easy and get some quick wins before you run out of enthusiasm for it.
Related, a business leader from my 20s regularly said he wouldn't take a small problem. It has to be "a big, fat, hairy problem" or it's not worth the time.
Turns out that fellow was Brandon Sanderson, by far the most famous and successful author participating in the event. It was around the time he published his first Wheel of Time book. Everyone around me knew who he was and they were all starstruck, and horrified that I was so oblivious. I felt silly for failing to recognize him, but he was totally cool about it. He was gracious and kind, and very supportive of this small-time author. In spite of his success, he was so down-to-Earth that his advice is probably worth heeding.