Favorite Quotes from Brandon Sanderson's Firefight

It's a joy to know writers can create books as amazing as Brandon Sanderson's Firefight. The structure of the story is superb, along with the characterization, dialogue and the wonderful twists in the plot. And with any book, it's fun to see writers when they play with English like it's their favorite toy. In this series, Brandon has established a running joke about bad metaphors. Supposedly, the protagonist, David, is really bad at making metaphors, but it definitely takes a master writer to make metaphors this horrible. Here's some of my favorite examples:

"Prof could LOOM when he wanted to. Like a gravestone about to topple on a sprouting flower."

"Marco was a short guy with light brown hair so curly it looked like he'd stapled moss to his head."

"I needed to say something. Something romantic.
'You're like a potato!' I shouted after her. 'In a minefield.'
She froze in place. Then she spun on me.
'A potato,' she said flatly. 'That's the best you can do? Seriously?'
'Listen. You're strolling through a minefield, worried about getting blown up. And then you step on Something, and you think, 'I'm dead!' But it's just a potato. And you're so relieved to find something so wonderful when you expected something so awful. That's what you are to me.'  p.174

[talking about a type of gun]
"Always jamming. And about as accurate as a blind man pissing during an earthquake."
"Wow..." I breathed.
She frowned at me.
"That was a great metaphor!" p.177

And some of my other favorite quotes that have nothing to do with metaphors:

"My only real experience with girls had been Megan; how was I supposed to react to a girl who didn't immediately seem like she wanted to shoot me?" p.155

"Oh, thank you,' I thought, feeling an overwhelming sense of relief. Dancing was stressful--but murderous demigods, those I could deal with." p.150

"This time, when she'd pointed the gun at me, she'd flicked the safety on. If that wasn't true love, I don't know what was." p.179

I hope you enjoy reading Brandon Sanderson's book, Firefight, book two in the Reckoners trilogy. You can purchase a copy here, on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Firefight-Reckoners-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0385743580/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422087712&sr=8-1&keywords=firefight+by+brandon+sanderson

Writing in a New Year!

So, for everyone who feels guilty for not writing enough in the year 2014, this year is a new chance to clean the slate and write until their fingers drop off! Here are the lesson I learned this past year: first of all, make sure your entire story is plotted out down to the last detail before you waste time writing script pages. Looking at how life works, I've figured out that I need to write faster so that I can finish all the projects in my head. One way I can do that, is plot out the story BEFORE I start writing it down in final draft. And on a positive note, I think my brain has become faster in this past year at making stories. Last year, it took a full three months before I had a solid storyline for my Ninja Turtles spec. This time around, it's only taken me about a month to put together a firm outline. I'm jaw-dropping amazed. And grateful, since I'm supposed to write three television scripts before the end of May.

I've also learned that when you edit someone's novel, sleep on it BEFORE you write any commentary. I should have slept on it so I could evaluate the novel from a more objective point of view. In other words, sleep on it so that you can rip it to shreds in a way that still give the writer hope that they are not the scum of the earth, nor the most horrible writer that ever lived. An editor's job is never to destroy, but to give hope and show writers how to reach their greatest potential.

Lesson three--you don't always have to toss everything out and start all over. I'm often tempted to do so when a story isn't working, but if you stick around long enough to figure out a different solution, a lot of times you can use the material you already have just by changing a few minor things. Figure out the REAL problem with the scene (dialogue is boring, motivations are unclear...etc), and you can fix it without rewriting your entire story. I admit, sometimes I get a little trigger happy in killing my darlings.

Happy New Year to all the writers out there! What lessons have you learned?