Lessons from Sanderson
And how my current draft feels like building a trainš
š§ LEARNING š§
I've been listening to Brandon Sanderson's 2025 lectures through a āStudying the Craftā group that someone in Pathfinders Writing Collective put together on our Discord!
While I don't read epic fantasy, Sanderson is a storytelling genius and a fantastic teacher.
Here have been my biggest takeaways from the first three lectures:
Be quiet while taking critique group feedback. If we say too much or ask too many questions, it guides the feedback and keeps it from being natural. I've been guilty of asking what likely turned out to be leading questions when getting critique feedback from my writing group. I'm definitely shutting my mouth from now on š
Be descriptive rather than prescriptive when giving feedback. Sometimes when beta reading my mind is like "what suggestions can I give to the author for how they can make this better?" Nope - our job when giving feedback as a beta is to share reader experience, emotions, responses, etc. Then the author can do with that what they'd like and it leaves the story in their hands.
Your first few books that you write (he said your first FIVE books, actually) will likely be for practice until you hit your good one. Write more books, get better at it! Would When Death Is Coming be even better if I had written more books before it? Probably. Itās the second full book I wrote, and When Death Is Watching (book 2) is the fifth - I've written several messy first drafts of other books that I am not doing anything with right now, but might return to somedayā¦ (see Resting section below!) But this message does get me excited for my future books!
Know your bookās PROMISE, PROGRESS, and PAYOFF. Something isn't working as you're drafting? Think about what PROMISES you established to your readers at the start of the book. Are you following that? Are your characters showing steps of PROGRESS toward the main goal? Are you establishing a PAYOFF with what you have promised? Sanderson goes into this with much more depth - I realized while listening that the reason Iām struggling with a certain POV in Book 4 is because I've neglected the "promise" I established for her in Book 3!
Use the "Yes, But / No, And" technique. The third lecture has a goldmine of story structure/plotting insights, but this one was a new lens for me. Your character has a goal for a scene. Do they reach it? Well, yes, they do in a way, but no, becauseā¦ (insert some new complication) and nowā¦ (leads into the next goal). This method helps increase escalation, show efforts/failures, and improves narrative drive.
Click here for the link to Brandon Sanderonās 2025 Lecture Series!
![No Spoilers] Funny Sanderson Meme : r/brandonsanderson](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5QZf!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe715a3ab-81b8-4e37-9f80-0d1f0839a22a_1242x587.jpeg "No Spoilers] Funny Sanderson Meme : r/brandonsanderson")
š CELEBRATING š
ARC sign-ups are closed (I have 67 ARC readers, hoooooray!) ā¦
And, I got edits for When Death Is Hiding (The Severed Fates Book 3) back from Addison Horner, my editor!
I've implemented all the easy line level edits. Yay šŖ
Now I am left with a 98 item list I made of the bigger things I need to tackle. Including a plot-hole-y issueā¦ WAH. So this celebration comes with a bit of a struggleā¦
Timeline goals:
June 1: Done with edits, begin formatting
July 1: Send to ARC readers, open pre-orders
August 1: Start preparing pre-ordersā¦
September 2: WHEN DEATH IS COMING RELEASES
As long as I can resolve my plot holes and finish all 98 edits by then š«
š« STRUGGLING š«
As I edit book 3, I am also drafting book 4!!! My goal is a SIX MONTH drafting period, April 1 to September 30th. Iām ahead of my goal (already at 34k)ā¦ butā¦
It feels REALLY hard to draft this book.
This book feels so big - and it IS! Three booksā worth of characters and worlds colliding, escalating conflicts, and big stakes.
Yet my writing feels very ... small?
If writing a book is like building a train (weird metaphor but itās what popped in my head š¤·āāļø), then this draft feels like digging out the trees so that SOMEDAY I can build the tracks. Then SOMEDAY I can build the train.
After this draft is done, I already know Iāll have to almost entirely rewrite it (am I a discovery writer????). I keep realizing massive things that need to change after writing scenes the way I thought they were supposed to go.
So all in all, digging out the trees is an important first step!
Even if this is how it feelsā¦
š§āāļø RESTING š§āāļø
FOUR FUN THINGS!!!! š¤©
1) Stepping into a fun writing project
I talked in the ālearningā section about how Iāve written other manuscripts besides The Severed Fates. One was a sci-fi, black mirror-y book that I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2022. I had to shelve it because I knew it would be AWESOME, but I wasnāt ready for it yet.
After writing several more books, I think Iām finally ready to take it on. During my vacation, I re-read the manuscript, created a new outline, and started drafting for FUN. This book is going to have such a different feel to it - taking a break from TSF and dipping my toes into a new project was the creative spark I needed!
2) Writing group at our local shelter!
At the beginning of March, my writer friend Carey Ford Compton and I started a weekly writing group at a local community center The Junction, which is connected to our local homeless shelter, Home Sweet Home. For two months now, writers of ALL stages have been coming to build community, learn new skills, spend time writing, and share their pieces with one another.
Itās been such a positive and encouraging space, and the writers have been expressing that they love coming!
Our goal is to eventually create an anthology collection of short stories, poems, essays, songs, etc from the writers in the group. To make this happen, weāre going to need to do some fundraising so that writers can get a small stipend for what theyāve submitted and free copies of the book that they can have/sell.
Weāre starting conversation with Home Sweet Home to see how we might make this happen. Stay tuned!!
(Image: this past week we talked with the group about different kinds of editing!)
3) Vacation!
A few weeks ago, we flew out to Myrtle Beach for my brother-in-lawās wedding! It was a beautiful day, and I got a lot of time for reading and writing while by husband was doing groomsman stuff.
Books I read:
Esperanza Rising ( ReBoYoBo Book #8 - remember my āread the books you boughtā challenge?? Still going strong!): Middle grade book about a Mexican family immigrating to America during the Great Depression, which was unfortunately very relevant to todayās political climate
Sunrise on the Reaping ššš - so good. Now I want to reread the entire HG collection in chronological orderā¦
A Spark of Light (ReBoYoBo Book #9): Jodi Picoult always handles difficult topics with such gentleness and compassion. A hard book, but a really good and important one.
(Image: me at the wedding!)
4) Show and movie recs!
Sinners: New movie with Michael B Jordan - a powerful, intense, and beautifully told story that uses vampirism and thriller/horror excitement to show the grief of black culture, music, and identity being overtaken by white America.
The Pitt: Just started it, but already hooked!
The Last of Us: Have you watched episode 2 yet? I knew what was coming but it was still brutal š I loved the slow-down of episode 3 to help us process and gear up for whatās next
The Rehearsal: If youāre a Nathan Fielder fan (if youāre not, I think you should be š), you gotta watch season two. Itās the best of his humor and insanity. Maybe he will improve airline safety through his anticsā¦
Until next time!!! š