May 2022 - Stacy Lyn Jensen

Warbreaker Book Review

If you are a reader of contemporary fantasy, you’ve heard of the author Brandon Sanderson. Whether you’re a fan of his work, is a different story. I have recently finished one of his standalone novels, Warbreaker, and I would like to discuss it. Here is my Warbreaker book review.

Warbreaker Book Review

Worldbuilding

person holding world globe facing mountain — Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

The highlight of Sanderson’s work is always the worldbuilding. If you are a lover of fantasy, this is always a major component of the work. The audience of fantasy has certain expectations that they will step into a new world, alien from our own, and that want to be completely immersed in it. Sanderson does this better than almost any other author I’ve read. He always takes religion, commerce, trade, etc. and he weaves them into the story so that the reader understands the tapestry that the characters are build upon.

If we think of our story as if it’s a rug; then, Sanderson uses all of the browns and tans to weave the background into a rich landscape–with some greens and blues really making the entire thing a rich piece. And then, he takes the main characters and makes them bright colors (relevant due to the story I’m reviewing) that we want to see, but the whole picture is fascinating too. Essentially, what I am saying, is that Sanderson is successful at world building because he not only makes us care about the characters, he also makes us fascinated in the world.

Characters

Sanderson’s books are not character studies. They are books where there is action. Think Epic battles, in some of them there are literally world altering events and battles where everything changes. These are not books where you can figure out how to imitate the quiet psychological horror a woman feels when she realizes that she’s being stalked, or something. However, that is not to say that the characters are not interesting.

Having read several of his books, I do feel like he has some archetypes that he likes to go back to, for his characters. Which is totally fine, he is a really fast writer and the characters he likes to draw on more than one time, they tend to be background characters. Personally, I don’t feel like Sanderson is the author to emulate if you are a writer who is looking to write a book that takes place in one location and is mostly in a person’s head.

Plotting

multicolored illustration Warbreaker Book Review — Photo by Anni Roenkae on Pexels.com

Sanderson has a lot of ideas about plot that are more complicated than I’ve discussed. Although I have discussed that basic plot structure, which doesn’t really vary all that much–I mean really, we begin, see our main character living their life, something happens, the hero doesn’t want to change, then they have to change, a bunch of trial and error happens, and then the big action scene happens where they finally are triumphant, and then the story ends. There are a bunch of different things that happen in the middle, depending on what kind of plot you are following.

Sanderson has a LOT of thoughts about plot. He has a tendency to notice a “heist” plot, and then want to mix it with a “romance” plot or an “overthrow the government” plot. I find it interesting that he labels everything like that. I suppose that they are all plots, but I think of the plot as the structure, and then the story itself is the meat. But, it can all be the plot.

Review

As far as the actual review of the story. Warbreaker is an interesting concept, and it is well-written. The plot of the story has more romance elements than other stories of his that I’ve read. This story is one about a girl who is unexpectedly ripped from her home, and has to adapt to a new culture. It’s also about sisters, and kind of about zombies, in a very small way.

For an aspiring writer, if you are looking to write in the fantasy space, all of Sanderson’s writing is important to study. Not as important as like Anne McCaffrey or J.R.R. Tolkien, maybe, but still important. Also, he is an author that engages with his fan-base, and he also puts a bunch of writing advice out. Sanderson, as a person, is admirable. He seems to be a genuine person who wants to give others a hand up. Also, Warbreaker is available for free on his website for download.

I also want to mention, that you can view differing versions of the book on his website, so like you can view his process and how it got to be the polished end product.

The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is the first plot type that I looked at when it first occurred to me that there was such a thing. I think it may have been the first one that appeared when I began a search. I feel like this plot type ends up in so many places, because it is so easy to recognize. Once I read about it, I immediately thought of Lord of the Rings. Joseph Campbell wrote a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This book goes through all the stages of this plot type. Without further ado, here are the seventeen stages:

The Hero’s Journey: Stages

1. The Call to Adventure

As we’ve seen with Plotting: Freytag’s Pyramid, Plotting: The Three-Act-Structure, and Save the Cat Story Structure plots have a tendency to begin with a “day in the life,” The Hero’s Journey is no exception. Our hero starts out living their normal life, and then something happens, changes, or someone invites them to do something that starts them on their journey.

2. Refusal of the Call

This is also a typical moment. The hero doesn’t want to go on an adventure. They want to keep on living their life, but there are reasons that they cannot say no, or other forces that keep them from saying no.

3. Supernatural Aid

The hero receives some kind of otherworldly help in the beginning of their journey.

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

This is where they take their first steps into the new world. They really begin their journey at this point.

5. Belly of the Whale

This stage represents the final separation of the hero from their known world and self. The hero is showing their willingness to fully immerse themselves in the unknown and change themselves for the better. The hero may have a minor setback at this stage, or some other struggle where they lose something.

6. The Road of Trials

The hero experiences a series of trials, usually in threes; before he is able to move forward in their journey. These are fluid and ambiguous. They will lose some and have to keep moving forward and gaining confidence in order to move successfully through the story.

7. Meeting with the Goddess

The hero meets someone who provides them with something that will help them later on.

8. Woman as the Temptress

Despite the poor name for this stage; essentially it’s about something that the hero wants, but shouldn’t have. It’s really about the differences between what should be and what is.

9. Atonement with the Father/Abyss

The point of the story that everything has been moving toward. This is a confrontation with an entity that holds the power of both life and death within it. The hero has to trust in the figure that they will be able to confront whatever it is they need to confront, and come out on the other end better/unscathed, etc. The thing given by the other figure earlier in the story will be helpful at this point. The two figures should be mirror images of one another.

10. Apotheosis

The hero reaches a greater understanding. They have learned the lesson that they needed to learn.

11. The Ultimate Boon

The goal of the quest was achieved. Whatever the hero set out to do, was done.

13. The Refusal of the Return

Having found success in the other world, the hero does not want to return to the ordinary world.

14. The Magic Flight

The hero may have to run with the boon, if they have angered the gods, or have made them jealous by winning it.

15. Rescue from Without

Just as they needed aids and helpers to begin their journey, the hero may need help getting back to the ordinary world. This is particularly true if they were wounded or weakened.

16. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

This one seems a bit overly complicated. The hero, not only needs to return to regular life. But, they also need to retain the wisdom they gained on their journey. And they need to share that wisdom with the people around them. That’s a little hard to fit into the last chapters of your novel.

17. Master of Two Worlds

In the end, the hero will be a master of both their inner and outer worlds. They will be happy in both.

So, those are the stages of The Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell’s book on the subject was published in 1949, so you will forgive a lot of outdated phrasing. However, you can easily see how any adventure story can fit into the stages. Campbell studies a lot of myths from a lot of different cultures to come up with the ways in which we tell stories across cultures.

This information is always good to know as a teller of tales, because, no matter what kind of stories you want to weave; you are adding to the tapestry of your own culture. You are putting your own mark in your way, making your own folklore if you will. Adding your own voice to the many that have come before you. And it matters. Allow your voice to be heard, remember that the way you see the world is important, your views are important. Your way telling of Beauty and the Beast or that incident that happened a couple of years ago that’s now family legend; it’s yours, and it’s important. I suppose that’s a post for another day though.

Writing Habit, Time Management and Life

When I first decided to do a blog, I got into the habit of writing a post a day. That’s good, but then what about the writing of my current WIP? I got to the point where I was writing for my blog(s) and not doing the more creative writing that I went to school for, the writing that I find to be very important. The question became, how do you use your new writing habit, take up time management, and still have a life? I will discuss what I have done.

Writing Habit

In a previous post about habit-formation, found here: The Habit of Writing, I discuss how it’s important not to try to change everything all at once, and also how good it is to start small. I want to add to that idea and say that it’s also a good idea to prioritize.

Prioritize

I have recently learned that by trying to make sure that I’m posting every day, the more urgent–or creative–or whatever you want to call it–writing got pushed to the back burner, which is not where I want it to be. Because I knew that I wanted to be doing more writing for my novel, I had to re-think which kind of writing I was doing first.

Now, my writing life looks like 1-write AT LEAST X words for my WIP. I have an alert set to let me know when I have written enough. Then, and only then will I move on to post on one of my blogs. The next thing I have changed is to only post on one of the blogs a day. I have two of them. The first one is the actual website (this one) and the other one is a wordpress site, which I have continued to make content for even though I have a website that doesn’t have the .wordpress.com in the name. But, you know, whatever.

Time Management

The time management piece of this whole thing is that I have begun to use a calendar to show me what kind of time I have. What little pieces of time I can use throughout the day. I was hoping, when I started looking at blocking time out on a calendar, that I was less busy than I though, that isn’t exactly true, not if I want to do a good job, be the kind of employee that continues to be gainfully employed, but, at least I know now. I still end up doing writing at night mostly.

There are many ways to use the calendar method for blocking out time. You can plan to do focused work in the morning before you get busy, and I could, in theory wake up and do some writing before anyone in my house gets up. And, actually I used this method when I had only one child. My second one is a bit of an early bird and has a tendency to want to ‘help’ with everything, so that probably won’t work. But, it is a thought.

Conclusion

The ideas here are: 1-begin to block your time-out on a calendar, if you start to feel like you don’t have any time to write. Find those little pockets of time that you do have, and identify the blocks that will actually work for you to write. 2-Prioritize your writing life. If you find yourself working on several projects. Some of which are taking up a lot of time, but are not as high priority to you. Then, put the one that is the highest priority above the others. Only work on your other, lower-priority projects once you’ve reached a certain goal on the highest priority project. 3- Finally, keep your writing goals within reach. As with habit formation, make sure that you are taking baby steps before you are trying to sprint. Walk before you run, if you will.

Thank you for reading…this was my post about writing habit, time management and life. Feel free to share your tips for solving these writerly problems.

Earthlings Book Review

Ever since I finished this book, I’ve wondered what to say about it. What can I say that wouldn’t spoil some part of it for someone else? Also, what is there to say that the book doesn’t? How can I talk about what to take from the book as a writer? Even though I’m not really sure I can give this book the proper review, I will make an attempt. Earthlings Book Review.

Earthlings is by Sayaka Murata. This book is hard to pin down. I found it suggested by a horror novel reading group. However, it doesn’t fit nicely into any category. It’s part coming-of-age novel, in a really strange way, in other ways it talks about subjects that aren’t really discussed, but in an interesting way, that not only makes some of the horror more acute, but also makes it feel as though the character is real.

Earthlings Book Review

Culture

The main point this book was making, was a discussion about culture. And the topic of silence within that culture. How a simple action could brand someone forever, and could ruin their abilities to cope with life in a normal way. A simple action, done as a child, a frightened child; changes the entire course of several people’s lives.

Horror

The horror aspects, which it had to at least have some since I did it suggested in a group of horror enthustists, they weren’t an afterthought. But they also were not the main point of the text. This novel is talking more about the struggles that some people have fitting into society, and how, they can finally break from that struggle.

Narration

This book is a good example of an unreliable narrator. Unreliable narrators are best suited for a first-person point-of-view. This one was done in an amazing way. The audience can tell that there is something wrong with their narrator. But the narrator is likable in a way that makes the reader still want the narrator to come out on top.

This book is a great read for a writer who is looking for some insight about how to put horror aspects into a more literary book. Or for a writer who is looking to figure out how to write an unreliable narrator, or for a writer who is looking to write a piece that discusses a certain culture and the way that people interact. That is my Earthlings Book Review.

I didn’t want to spoil anything, so it is purposefully vague. Let me know if you would like to see some more detailed information than what I’ve put.

Tension and Conflict in Writing: What is the difference?

Tension and conflict are the heart of a story. Both are important tools to use, it is necessary to a successful story that the tension raises throughout the tale. The tension needs to pull the reader/audience along, it keeps them turning pages. While the conflict of the story, does the same thing, but in a different way. We will talk about these two important pieces of story. Tension and conflict in writing.

Tension and Conflict in Writing

Tension

Tension is the feeling that something bad is going to happen. That feeling of something around the corner. This is used in a lot of different ways, we up the tension between characters, sometimes it’s two people who don’t get along that well; sometimes it’s sexual tension. Other times, the tension is a feeling of things about to fall apart. The plan, so carefully constructed, isn’t going to work at all. Maybe, if your story is of the thriller or horror variety, the tension is the killer/monster getting closer, while the protagonist remains in the dark.

The tension in the story should draw tighter and tighter, before releasing, and then it should do it again. You should have several moments in the story where tension is released, and then it builds back up, before crescendoing during the climax, and finally breaking once and for all during the resolution

Conflict

Conflict, while easier to understand, can also be easy to misunderstand. Conflict is not always an argument or a fight. It can simply be a moment where the character has two things that clash with each other. Maybe they have two goals; but if they reach one, the other is hindered. That itself would create conflict in the story.

Conflict can also be direct, the protagonist and the antagonist, a fight or even a war, depending on the story. But, think about everyday life. There are lots of things that are in conflict with each other all the time. You have little arguments with your spouse/child/brother/sister/mother/father/the weird lady at the service counter. You have issues in traffic, or you have conflicting opinions in your own mind. All of these things feed into the story. Every step of the way, you should have tension that raises, and conflicts that need to be resolved.

Every story needs to have both tension and conflict in writing. Hopefully this article gave a little clarification on what that means, and how to apply to your own writing. Thank you for reading, let me know if you would like more of the same types of posts, or different ones.