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Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December 19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy and science fiction.
He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set.
Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Sanderson has created several graphic novel fantasy series, including White Sand and Dark One.
He created Sanderson's Laws of Magic and popularized the idea of hard magic and soft magic systems.
In 2008, Sanderson started a podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses, involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics.
In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson's entire Cosmere universe, but the rights have since reverted back to Sanderson. Sanderson's March 2022 Kickstarter campaign became the most successful in history, finishing with 185,341 backers pledging $41,754,153.
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Brandon Winn Sanderson was born on December 19, 1975, in Lincoln, Nebraska, the eldest of four children. Sanderson became a passionate reader of high fantasy novels while a teenager, and he made several early attempts at writing his own stories. After graduating from high school in 1994, he went to Brigham Young University (BYU) as a biochemistry major. He took a two-year leave of absence from 1995 to 1997 to serve as a volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was assigned to serve in South Korea.
After completing his missionary service, Sanderson returned to BYU and changed his major to English literature. While an undergraduate, Sanderson took a job as a night auditor at a local hotel in Provo, Utah, as it allowed him to write while working.
One of Sanderson's roommates at BYU was Ken Jennings, who nearly ten years later became famous during his 74-game win streak on the American game show Jeopardy!.
Sanderson graduated from BYU in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts. He continued on as a graduate student, receiving an M.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing in 2004. While at BYU, Sanderson was on the staff of Leading Edge, a semi-professional speculative fiction magazine published by the university, and served as its editor-in-chief for one year.
In 2006, Sanderson married Emily Bushman, an English, Spanish, and ESL teacher and fellow BYU alumna who later became his business manager. They have three sons and reside in American Fork.
The idea of hard magic and soft magic was popularized by Sanderson for world building and creating magic systems in fictional settings. The terminology of hard and soft originate from hard and soft sciences, which lends itself towards hard science fiction and soft science fiction. Both terms are approximate ways of characterizing two ends of a spectrum.
Hard magic systems follow specific rules, the magic is controlled and explained to the reader in the narrative detailing the mechanics behind the way the magic works and can be used for building settings that revolve around the magic system.
Soft magic systems may not have clearly defined rules or limitations, or they may provide limited exposition regarding their workings. They are used to create a sense of wonder to the reader.
Sanderson's three laws of magic are creative writing guidelines that can be used to create magic systems for fantasy stories:
-An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.
-Weaknesses, limits and costs are more interesting than powers.
-The author should expand on what is already a part of the magic system before something entirely new is added, as this may otherwise entirely change how the magic system fits into the fictional world.
Additionally, there is a zeroth law:
-Always err on the side of what's awesome.
Sanderson is adjunct faculty at Brigham Young University, teaching a creative writing course once per year.
Sanderson also participates in the weekly podcast Writing Excuses with authors Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and web cartoonist Howard Tayler. He began hosting the podcast Intentionally Blank with Dan Wells in June 2021, where they discuss random things they enjoy.
More information: Brandon Sanderson
I'm known for very logical rule-based magic systems.
I write with one foot in fantasy
and one foot in science fiction.
Brandon Sanderson
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