Brandon-Sanderson

I remember a piece of writing advice from Brandon Sanderson (I’m not sure if he was referring to the words of someone else) which goes something like this. It relates to individual scenes in the story. Scenes should do the following. Progress the plot, Color the character, or help develop him further, Expand on the worldbuilding or setting. Plot, character, and setting are the three aspects of the story that must be accounted for. Each scene should work on at least two of the three, and ideally all three. ...

I finished Rhythm of War recently and am 300 pages into Wind and Truth at the moment. By the reviews I have seen, book 5 of the Stormlight Archive has not been received so well. The change in tone (the modernization of the language) from book 1, the over-elaboration of thoughts, the tedious emphasis on the characters’ mental health, the ‘softness’ of the magic, and so on have been blamed. ...

Brandon Sanderson, the author of Mistborn, The Stormlight Archive, etc. presents three points of consideration for fantasy authors. First Law Solving a problem through magic depends on how well the readers understand the magic. You cannot simply have vague magical powers and then use a wizard to enchant problems away. That would amount to deus ex machina, an unsatisfactory read at best, a betrayal of the readers at worst. Second Law Limitations are more important than powers. ...