#thank you brandon sanderson

[lolnicememe]

after a week off of reading (i have been sucked into a Yellowjackets wormhole), i finished Mistborn. this series will become my next hyperfixation, i fear.

[renarines]

keep thinking about shallan feeling weird unexplainable chills and then turning around and renarins just standing there like Some Guy so this happened

[lamaery]

I had the incredible pleasure of making @dragonsteelbooks Christmas card this year. The prompt for it was bringing all the secret projects into it, with the idea for Tress and Huck making and decorating a vine spore tree. More details and quick video of the process here on instagram I wish you all some splendid holidays and good times between the years and hope you all are able to stay healthy and if not, have lovely people who take care of you. 💕

[wellwhatnowlove]

🚨Major Wind and Truth Spoilers Below🚨

Maybe it’s bc I’ve worked in OB/gyn but all I could think about when it’s hinted at that Shallan is pregnant at the end of WaT is what a BITCH it would be for her to figure out when her last menstrual period was.

For friends who don’t know, in obstetrics, we calculate gestational age not by date of conception bc like …. That would be very difficult to determine lol. Instead we use the first day of the mother’s last menstrual period. But the thing with Shallan is that she’s been in a wild amount of differing and incalculable degrees of time dilation for the last month right?? So like not even including the MESS that would be figuring out how much time passed for her body in the spiritual realm, she was in Shadesmar even before then (where time also passes differently in relation to the physical realm? I’m pretty sure?). Then after the spiritual realm, she’s back in Shadesmar where it seems that she is inside the boundaries of the rosharan time dilation bubble…. But is there still a slight time difference btw shadesmar and the physical realm? Is it different now? EITHER WAY… regardless of when she started noticing symptoms of her pregnancy or thought to herself…. Wait it’s like…. DEFO been at least more than a month since my last period….. she has NO way of knowing how pregnant she actually is OR EVEN a way to sort of guess a due date.

Like I would bet anything she had a moment where she tried to remember how long ago her last period was and then looked straight at the camera like she’s Jim on the office bc “uh oh”. But even after she was able to say for sure that she was pregnant, without an accurate LMP (last menstrual period) date…… she got NO clue what her due date is or like if her growth is consistent with like.. say TWINS instead of a singleton or ……. idk man. That is just a ridiculous cherry on top of the fact that she is pregnant, stranded and alone in a time dilation bubble in apocolypse shadesmar……

It’s a good thing she’s bonded to two beings who are uniquely qualified to muddle through the series of quantum mechanics that would be needed to accurately estimate a due date for her….. but the fact that quantum mechanics needs to be taken into account AT ALL.

[humanfox030]

Zac Oyama moments that remind me of Hoid

(Part 5)

[autumnhortsnort]

Hello coauthor! A Residuum reader here. One thing I really like about your comic is how the consequences of the characters' actions feel so plausible, but what stands out to me the most is the pacing in how they're presented throughout the story. Do you have any tips for structuring a plot? Every time I try to outline mine, it feels a bit incoherent, and the scenes don’t seem to flow well together. I’d appreciate any advice 🐢

best advice? Write the whole outline down as much and as far as you can, doesn't matter if it makes sense, that's for editing you to figure out. Then edit the ever-loving daylights out of it, add in connecting actions, and take out things that don't work. Residuum has had Five different drafts, with major tweaking as we go. The outline is not set in stone.

Also don’t share it outside of friends, that can make you feel pressured to stick to (the previous plot) even when it doesn’t work for how your story has progressed. There’s a reason we didn’t share any of the potential endings when we were still trying to figure out where the story was going. When the first arc was being posted we had an idea of the plot til about halfway through arc 4, but we didn’t actually have a concrete ending.

how we structure a plot (and do pacing)

Write out your main plot points and then write what the characters need to do to make that event happen. We basically do the plot mountain structure, but for each arc (there are 4 of them) we tend to make the climax of each arc into turning points or decisions that the main characters have to make that they cannot undo. here's a good article to read about structuring plots. (Note! This is for the broad spanning major plot beats, each update actually gets written as needed, they aren't written into the outline.)

When it comes to character decisions it’s more about, “what would make the character do this?” rather than, “would the character do this?” You can make characters do things they normally wouldn’t if you give them the right incentive.

For the pacing with residuum, because it’s serialized, we try to have something progress with each update. Either you learn something new, the plot has progressed (aka the status quo has changed), or there's set up/foreshadowing for later, most updates actually have all three. When writing in a serialized format (each chapter getting its own release) it’s a good idea to treat each update as a complete chunk. Try asking yourself: what is the goal for this part? are you using this update for anything actually important? are you conveying anything new and/or important to the plot? Is this something you want to focus on? Are you writing this to meet audience expectations or because you want to? There are parts where residuum gets almost no interaction but, importantly, those parts still meet our individual update rules. If you're writing for audience engagement you are going to get discouraged from writing long spanning plots very quickly. The audience doesn’t know whats coming, so they won’t interact with anything that doesn’t have their current blorbo™, even if it’s plot important.

for how we make the consequences make sense

Make things make logical sense? honestly i don't what to tell you.

We read. a. lot. I used to read 400 books over a school year, beaze has read about 13.6K fanfics on Ao3 over the course of 4 years. plus a ton of manhwa and manga, and that doesn’t include nonfiction, stuff from sites outside of Ao3, course assigned books, reddit fiction, royal road. Most of how we understand and structure plots is instinctual because we fire hosed our brains with them for years.

I'd recommend watching watching Overly Sarcastic Production’s Trope Talks, and reading stuff that's not rise related, as well as researching nonfiction stuff that's relevant to what you want to write we are at a place where we aren’t writing the outline anymore, just editing it if needed. We use the outline structure to make each update because it gives us a objective for the update, and gives us a road map for when to place the set up for future updates. But if you struggle to use outlines you can just… not use them. Garden writing is a valid writing strategy, I use it for one shot AU’s of residuum.

For long spanning stories written garden style the first draft can be your outline. Just edit and flesh it out once you’ve written it.

[stormingfemboy]

I love that Super graphic ultra modern girl has become the anthem of the stormlight archive

[dustofhistory]

Okay, as promised, here my thoughts after finishing my first read-through of Way of Kings!

The only Sanderson books I've read before this was the first mistborn trilogy, but i do know that all his novels are somehow connected. Not entirely sure how yet, though!

As with Mistborn, his characters are absolutely fucking amazing. They feel real and are super fleshed out and complex, so I'm very excited about and fond of all of them. That being said, my absolute favourite was Dalinar Kholin. Love the honorable leader/ noblesse oblige trope anyway, and it's so moving to see him struggle against societal expectations and entrenched cultural biases to become a better person and do what's right - need more of that for male characters imo, less of the grimdark grey choices is all you have stuff - just an absolute sucker for the responsible leader thing Dalinar has got going on. His romance with navani is so sweet as well, really hitting all of my buttons!

Kaladin (and what limited view we have of Alodin) is also such a refreshingly good character, and i love that his struggle is mostly against circumstance and caused by his severe trauma - i love the bridge 4 squad and i am obsessed with Syl! Again, the themes about how doing the right thing is hard are so good, and i also love his exploration of his new powers.

And then we have shallan - her plot was to me the most interesting one. Loved getting more of the lore through her pov and big fan of the more intrigue-focussed plot. I really hope we get a jasnah pov soon, cause she was another standout character. I love that both of them are just so passionate about research and learning, and it's good that they found each other so they have someone to nerd out with! And what a reveal about Shallan killing her own dad! I was starting to suspect it, but am looking forward to hopefully finding out more about why she did it.

I'm detecting a pattern about religion plots in Sanderson's work, and I'm super excited about that, as well. I am kinda suspecting that the person in Dalinar's vision was Sazed, but i am not sure (pls no spoilers). Would be super cool if that's the case!!

I think I'll try to liveblog words of radiance as I'm reading it, which I'm gonna start doing just now. Pls talk to me if you want, I'd love to chat stormlight archive through - but no spoilers, as i said! Would love to see any cool fanart anyone has, as I'm now too scared still to wander into the tags again.

[sorchasolas]

This is so random but in my head Modern AU Lirin when he was younger was like mildly goth(and Hesina was into that idc)

And Adolin is like “omg my dad used to wear such trashy clothes back in the 2000’s” and he shows a picture of just like younger Dalinar in a general 2000’s outfit

And kaladin goes “my dad dressed pretty cool in the 2000’s” (kaladin would not WEAR goth but he would find the style nice

And Adolin goes “oh fr show me” expecting like smth prim and proper because Kaladin dresses like that rn (sue me.) and thats what style he would expect 1. Kaladin to like 2. Lirin to wear because Adolin has Met Kaladin’s Father

And Kaladin just shows him pictures of Lirin in his late 20’s and its just like pictures of this mall goth with Hesina occasionally there with her very on brand 2000’s outfit but it’s noticeably more black to match Lirin

[roeoftheemeraldsea]

i can’t lie in my free time i scroll through the coppermind randomly it’s so fun there’s always stuff i don’t know

[boreal-wood]

Alright wise guy, what are your thoughts on the theme(s) of the first Mistborn book. This is literally an excuse for you to ramble about it, have fun.

VOID I LOVE YOU SM

So spoilers for Mistborn: The Final Empire! If you haven't read it, please beware because under the cut, Here There Be Spoilers (and also beware, Very Long post under the cut!)

The big running theme in The Final Empire is trust. Who can one really trust? Is it worth it to put your life in the hands of other people? What says they won't betray you as soon as it becomes favorable to do so?

Honestly this really is what Vin's character arc in the first book is about. At the beginning of the book, she's trapped in a low-level street gang where everyone is always out to get everyone else. Heck, the second time the audience ever sees her use her powers is when she is helping her boss betray a business partner.

Vin's brother has beaten into her the idea that she can trust nobody, not even him. Everyone is always out to hurt her or take advantage of her, and if she does not prove her immediate worth to her group, then at best she will be kicked out.

This, of course, is not helped by the fact that she is part of the literal slave class! Which is a whole nother essay tbh.

Then Kelsier takes her in and everything changes. There's a scene early on in the book, after vin formally joins the crew, where Kelsier and his men are all laughing and enjoying themselves while plotting their Big Plan™. And Vin, who does not trust any of them, is on the outside, quite literally. She's outside the room, watching them plan, wishing she could be included but not allowing herself to, because at this point in the book she still thinks they could betray her at any time.

I think now is a really good time to mention that being a Mistborn is built on secrecy and paranoia. Mistborn are literally the nobility's assassins. They hide their identities under hoods that blend into the mist so as not to be seen. So their powers cannot be used against them or their Noble Houses. In broad daylight they have to pretend to be normal people, or at best, regular Mistings. They can't trust anyone with the truth that they are Mistborn.

(Heck, even a quarter of their powerset- Copper and Bronze- create mistrust. With Bronze, after all, one can hear the allomantic pulses of burning another metal. Copper, on the other hand, blocks that; the use cases for these two metals lies in paranoia that someone else can use their Allomantic powers against you.)

Anyways! So we've explored some of the different aspects of mistrust in Mistborn, so what's the counterargument?

In a word: Kelsier.

Kelsier shakes up everything that Vin believes about how relationships work. He introduces his crew as something different- despite being a thieving crew, they operate under a principle of trust and camaraderie. "My crews rely on trust," Kelsier says at one point. In direct contrast to the dirty, paranoid crews Vin worked with before, Kelsier's crew is welcoming, understanding, and trusting of her.

But Kelsier's trust isn't just talk, either. When we learn that the crew believes Mare betrayed them in their last heist, Vin asks Kelsier how he could love Mare even though she betrayed him. Kelsier answers that given the choice between loving Mare and being betrayed or never knowing her, he would choose loving her. "I'd rather trust my men than worry about what will happen if they turn on me."

In the same passage as above, Kelsier poses a question to Vin: where has she been happier? with the old crews that we built on lies and suspicious, or with Kelsier's crew, who trusted each other and let their guards down? It's a rhetorical question, and the meaning is clear: Vin and Kelsier both are happier for risking themselves in order to be loved.

I don't think I've nearly done this topic justice. There are a million more points I could pull out and point to, but I want to end with my favorite quote from The Final Empire. It's from Vin, in Chapter 32. She says:

“Once I may have thought you a fool, but… well, that’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren’t going to hurt you... Distrust is really the same thing, only on the other side. I can see how a person, given the choice of two assumptions, would choose to trust.”

[serial-serializednovelreader]

This might be an odd way to answer a question in the tags of a post, but yes, Hoid is a more condescending narrator in Yumi!

I believe this is actually intentional, Hoid is generally described as condescending and frustrating by characters in the Cosmere (this is why I made that post, because seeing him have the same effect on IRL people is HILARIOUS)

But a review of a book is the review of the reader's experience, there are a lot of reasons someone might have a terrible time with a condescending narrator. It's good that these people expressed their opinions and shared their experience so If someone also dislikes that kind of narration they can make the informed decision not to read the book! (Or read it later)

I am so glad to see so many new people start reading BS's books, Tress was a great read and it warms my heart to see it get so much love.

Tldr: Hoid's rank attitude is intentional, and not everyone's cup of tea.

LOLLLLL that’s actually hilarious Hoid is worse in Yumi!! Ok, that makes sense then. It is good to know the reader’s honest thoughts because — yeah if he is that bad, it makes sense they would be mad about it! And it’s good to warn other readers so they don’t have a frustrating time too! I just feel bad that some assume the narrator = the author, which is what it sounds like even though they know Hoid is a separate narrator. While I’m SUPER new to the scene, I guess I just had such a great time with my reading experience on Tress, I feel bad that some of these reviews sound like they won’t try any of his other books because they assume it’ll be the same way. But — alas, that’s how it goes sometimes! I went in with the assumption the “secret projects” were likely different from his other books (I think Tress’s author’s note makes that clear), but I looked at Yumi’s note and it doesn’t have the same clarity — so I can see how that can be confusing for new readers who happened to upon Yumi and the Nightmare Painter first!

I’m super excited to get into more Cosmere novels and actually start Yumi — though, unlike these reviewers, I know what I’m in for with Hoid!

[humanfox030]

They lined up in my gallery looking eerily similar

[yesiknowimshort]

yr12’s a bitch so i haven’t been posting my own stuff recently, but i needed to update bc i can feel a new hyper fixation coming along…

i saw this gorgeous fanart by rachel j russon, with the caption “elend venture reading at the ball”, and i was like “🤨 HELLO CUTE PERSIAN NAME? AND HE’S READING?? AT A BALL???” and pretty much fell in love with the idea of this man who i didn’t even know was an actual character. (call me biased, but i see arab name, i click).

so anyway i looked up the name and now i’m reading “the final empire” when i 1) know nothing about what the book is actually about. 2) have never read high fantasy before. 3) barely knew who brandon sanderson was.

BUT SO FAR IM LOVING IT AND I HAVEN’T EVEN MET MY BOY ELEND YET

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

would appreciate it if y'all could drop your favorite jasnah kholin quotes <3

[taurnachardhin]

Question 11: “Can Marsh bond a spren?”

Brandon’s Answer: “It’s possible, but it would require a bit of a dance. Not a huge one… I think he could figure it out without too much trouble. It would depend on which spren is willing. I could fit him into several different orders. I’ll give you a half RAFO for that.”

2024 FanX Panel