Brent Weeks

Epic fantasy writer. The Night Angel Trilogy & The Lightbringer Series. NIGHT ANGEL NEMESIS. Working on sequel to NAN now. **Business tweets only for a while**

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@timmckay52 I've written 7 NYT bestsellers and sold millions of books by being a Bob. (Ok, maybe I read more.) Point is, writers aren't all the same. That's okay; readers aren't all the same either.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@MathiasChu It's analyzing human _text_, which was written by the humans who write. Writers generalizing about humans may be correct, and this AI analysis of the writers themselves may be correct at the same time.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@shinessstory @Randzky7 I'm not looking for beta readers right now. But thank you.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

Today I suddenly realized a Big Plot Secret would actually be super obvious to the character who needed not to know it.
Minute 1: Plot Hole Panic.
Minute 2: Bargaining: "Maybe I could just--? No, that's even worse!"
Minute 3: Desperation. "How about if I--? That wrecks three other plans!"
Minutes 4-5: Breathed. Measured the hole like an engineer, not an aggrieved pedestrian.
Twenty minutes later, not only was the plot hole fixed seamlessly, but the changes strengthened other plans I thought were unrelated.
Minimal word count impact.
Tough half hour though.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@JosephPConlon A balanced, fair review that honestly defines its own parameters and proceeds honestly? What, sir, on you doing in a neighborhood like this? There's a culture war going on!
But seriously, excellent thoughts, well-presented. Thank you.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@megievalist Headline: "Subversives Salty after Spicy Slander Sinks," says Seasoned Scholar.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@shinessstory @Randzky7 Epic fantasy.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@orthodoxmason Every so often, I'm tempted to quit this site. Then I come across something genuine and learn something new. Thank you for being part of my problem, I think. ;)

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

My approach is, I work on it 5-6 days a week. I work hard, it stays my Main Thing, and I release it when I feel like I can be proud of it for the rest of my life. I don't expect perfection (or I'd never release anything), but I do expect excellence. This book is hugely ambitious. It's taking longer than I would like. I don't get paid until I turn it in. I want it done more than anyone, and I'm doing what I can to get there.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

Immediately knowing exactly how magic works, while setting a story in a time when people "knew" all sorts of incorrect things about the observable world around them always annoys me. Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ruined me. Maybe.
But doing what I did is a risk: Some readers see any contradiction and think they caught the author's mistake. You may lose them. Not just true in magic or perceptions of conflict either: have a young person act like a kid one minute and a grown up the next? "Inconsistent!" but... that's exactly how young teens are. So good art and bad art can look similar (briefly). If a reader is making up their mind about you during that window... This is why some writers will feel the need to stress how funny a funny character is [or whatever]. Professional comedians never do.
I always want to see Guy Y tell a lame joke and have Character X stress that Guy Y is hilarious and be told eventually by Girl Z that no, he's really not, and have everyone concur. He's not funny. None of those jokes were funny; they were being nice because X was so insistent about it. In a moment, we'd see that the author wasn't trying to convince us HE is funnier than he really is, but that Character X thinks Guy Y is funny because she likes him. Annoyance at unfunny author turns into rug-pull with a side of character building and a knowing wink at the audience.
Actually, never mind, I'm gonna have to use that myself someday.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@hwjohnston7 Can a bridge have three supports? Of course. For reader experience, mini-arcs within each novel are more satisfying. If the character only has one area to grow, it's a flat character, and stretching over three books will make it obvious. Connect the scaffolding to the whole.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@WardedOne_ Kip needs to sit quietly in his closet for a few years at least. Mom's not stoned, just busy with other kids. (Glad you aren't tired of one of my favorite characters, but yeah, I'm gonna be in Night Angel for a while.)

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

Not sure how to put this on social media without looking pretentious, but a core exploration in Lightbringer is the interplay of the subjective and objective. Light is objective, color perception at least partly subjective (diff cultures have color words that cover diff nanometer ranges/ppl can be color blind in numerous ways, etc). Wanted to explore perception and moral blind spots. Shakespeare's "there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so" or Epictetus's “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them”.
Most of the above sentences need further hedging or elaboration, but ... that's enough nerd hat.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@ReallyRadley Oh, rats. I knew it. Just didn't know the proper name for it. But maybe I'll tuck away that for Nerd Trivia Grieving Night. Will probably help listener move into the Anger stage.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@ReallyRadley Oooo! One I have to look up! And it even has an umlaut. Thank God for copy and paste. ;)

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@PaulVanVleck Would've burned through my halos years ago.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@thompsfd72764 It's convenient to the author for characters to be selectively blind. Sometimes makes character sense (biases, age). What I see more often is that only the main character ever comes up with original insights. More glaring when the cast is large. Oh, and thank you! I give my best.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@MJD040865147265 @AuthorGoodwin You'll be at your most creative when you paint yourself into a corner and have to figure out a way out. ("MAGIC!" is the first thing you'll think of, and it's usually the wrong answer.) Trust yourself enough to start creating, and trust future you enough to get you out of jams.

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

@PaulVanVleck Briefly. Feeling like Bob Parr, though: "No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved, you know? For a little bit. I feel like the maid."

[Brent Weeks @BrentWeeks]

Mom, people are saying stupid things on the internet again. I'll be down for dinner once I fix them.