Top all-time · #1611
Brandon Sanderson
Personal blog · brandonsanderson.com/blogwritingculture
Brandon Sanderson's personal blog at brandonsanderson.com covers writing and culture. Since 2008, 45 different Hacker News readers have linked it 53 times, most often “Sanderson shares intimate details about contracting with publishing industry”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Often recommended · 14 of 35 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Brandon Sanderson's site as a starting point for his fantasy novels, via the 'Where do I start?' guide, yearly state-of-the-Sanderson reports, and essays on magic systems and writing.
- Recommended for · 14 comments
- Start guide called good; status reports an ongoing source of inspiration; magic-systems article illuminating; novels heartily recommended.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 35 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Get all the latest updates on #1 NYT Bestselling Author Brandon Sanderson.
Most-linked posts?
- /where-do-i-start/8 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2022-03-02
- Sanderson shares intimate details about contracting with publishing industry4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-12-22
- Brandon Sanderson (almost $30m kickstarter) talks Amazon and Book Publishing3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-03-17
- Sanderson’s First Law2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-01-24
- /state-of-the-sanderson-2021/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-27
- My Work Life Balance as a Writer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-03-11
- Outside (By Brandon Sanderson After the Wired Hatchet Job)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-03
- The Cost of AI Art2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-01-30
What Hacker News says?
Most authors will sacrifice some amount of "realism" in the interests of story-telling (compared to Yudkowsy with HPMOR at least). A couple of Magic examples come to mind: * Brandon Sanderson does a lot of Magic impacting Physics. The magic is often proper unexplained magic - but it's impact on Physics is pretty well modeled. In the most recent Mistborn book - there's a remark that explains that when the character m…
Comment linking /sandersons-first-law/
on “Ask HN: What are you learning?”Submitted Regarding Audible as a story · 56 points
HN discussion> Rule of thumb, never start a sentence with "There are people", it's very vague and almost meaningless. Always refer to specific groups of people. This from the person who claims the supporters of our current copyright system are by necessity "Writers, researchers, artists, architects, musicians, composers, filmmakers, actors, podcasters, even a lot of software developers" Not a terribly specific list there either,…
Comment linking /warbreaker-rights-explanation/
on “DuckDuckGo Removes Pirate Sites and YouTube-DL from Its Search Results”Submitted Outside (By Brandon Sanderson After the Wired Hatchet Job) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere is a page titled "Where do I start?" on Brandon Sanderson's website: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
Comment linking /where-do-i-start/
on “Ask HN: What book changed your life?”Submitted Brandon Sanderson (almost $30m kickstarter) talks Amazon and Book Publishing as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIt depends on on what type of fiction you like. If you're into fantasy with hard magic systems[0], I highly recommend anything by Brandon Sanderson. The narrators for the Mistborn and Stormlight Archives are pretty good. I can also heartily recommend the first 5 or so Artemis Fowl books. They also have a great narrator. [0] A hard magic is very understandable by the reader and can be used to resolve conflicts. Perso…
Comment linking /sandersons-first-law/
on “Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python”Submitted Sanderson’s First Law as a story · 3 points
HN discussion"Write about Dragons" is a video recording of one of the writing classes titled "Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" that Brandon Sanderson teaches at BYU. He teaches the class every year, and frequently updates it with new material, and most of the lectures are online (spread across myriad Youtube channels). Here are several of the others: * 2014 class lectures (via BYU English dept): https://www.youtube.com/playl…
Comment linking /2016-sanderson-lectures/
on “How to Write a Novel”Submitted Brandon Sanderson's First Law of Fantasy as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is of course a matter of taste, but I really dislike this approach to magic/alchemy that Sanderson has. He's explained it before in an illuminating article [1] about his classification of magic systems in "Soft" (less explained, more arbitrary) vs "Hard" (more logical, there are clear/mechanical rules), and how he prefers the latter. I respect this, but I dislike it. To me, magic isn't rational or logical, and…
Comment linking /sandersons-first-law/
on “Earthsea – A Rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin (2015)”Submitted The Cost of AI Art as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI found the second book of Name of the Wind really badly written and juvenile sex fantasy. Let me recommend the Stormlight Archive instead, fantastically written and imaginative world: http://brandonsanderson.com/books/the-stormlight-archive/
Comment linking /books/the-stormlight-archive/
on “Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read”Submitted State of the Sanderson 2023 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI read his 2021 retrospective, and it was kind of amazing- https://www.brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2021... just spitting out novels like crazy.
Comment linking /state-of-the-sanderson-2021/
on “Brandon Sanderson’s advice for doing hard things”Submitted Audible uses drm to lock in customers as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSomeone is doing Mistborn. Let's hope they don't bungle it. http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/1074/Mistborn-Movie-Upd...
Comment linking /blog/1074/Mistborn-Movie-Update-and-Hugo-Nomination
on “The Economics of Netflix's $100 Million Show”Submitted Outside: Why Brandon Sanderson likes to write as a story · 1 points
HN discussionHe actually has a section on his website with suggestions for where to start. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
Comment linking /where-do-i-start/
on “Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson”Submitted Sanderson shares intimate details about contracting with publishing industry as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI enjoyed this blog post where he talks about his writing process. https://www.brandonsanderson.com/my-work-life-balance-as-a-w... He seems very disciplined. Hate to say but I'm glad I'm not one of his kids. He wakes up around noon and then writes for five hours, and _then_ he hangs out with his family. So basically his kids don't see him all day until shortly before they go to bed.
Comment linking /my-work-life-balance-as-a-writer/
on “Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson”Submitted State of the Sanderson (Brandon Sanderson Speaks on Audible, Spotify, Speechify) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionThere's other replies in this thread linking to [0]. My personal recommendation is his Mistborn trilogy. He wrote all three before publishing any, so the books feel like a cohesive whole, but he wrote it in a way that the first book ends in a manner that you could feel satisfied with a good story after only reading one book. Mistborn is my favorite trilogy ever. I've read it multiple times and I know the plot very w…
Comment linking /where-do-i-start/
on “Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson”Submitted Some FAQs You Might Enjoy as a story · 1 points
HN discussionFirst time hearing about this author - what's the hacker news angle here? From what I gather it is that: 1) he's a very popular sci-fi/fantasy writer, 2) it's an incredible amount of funding for a kickstarter campaign I'm genuinely interested - for someone new to his work, where is a good book to start? Edit: as mentioned in other comments: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
Comment linking /where-do-i-start/
on “Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson”Submitted My Work Life Balance as a Writer as a story · 1 points
HN discussionhttps://www.brandonsanderson.com/where-do-i-start/
Comment linking /where-do-i-start/
on “Four Secret Novels by Brandon Sanderson”Brandon Sanderson is a good example. http://twitter.com/BrandonSandrson/ http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/ etc.
Comment linking /blog/
on “The confessions of a semi-successful author”You think they're horrible bc you see the world from rand/mat/perrin's eyes. If you were aes sedai & a bunch of ignorant kids with that much power popped up you'd do anything to control them. Brandon Sanderson said that as he gets older he finds himself thinking more like Moiraine. I feel the same way. link: http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/599/WoT-Read-Through-EY... ( running off to shadar logoth without tellin…
Comment linking /blog/599/WoT-Read-Through-EYE-OF-THE-WORLD
on “Terry Prachett: Why Gandalf Never Married (1985)”I'm not surprised. I'm not a big fan of his output. Sanderson is competent, but he's more of a "writer" than an "author" in my opinion. He's definitely impressively prolific and hard-working, and has some good ideas, but I don't think he's got "it". I've watched some of his lectures, and read his blog back in the day, and my take is that he has this opinion that just hard work and practice can make you a good author…
Comment linking /writing-exercise-dialogue/
on “The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of the Past Decade”
