Why Great Writers Steal Ideas | With Brandon Sanderson

0:00 Intro
0:10 Brandon Threatens Me
1:20 Who is Brandon Sanderson?
2:00 Good writers borrow, great writers steal
6:00 Telling the same story twice
11:50 What inspired Yumi?
13:20 Combining writing style with tropes
14:30 new writers
17:00 when Brandon wrote something new
17:30 The 3 inspirations for the Stormlight Archives

POSTAL ADDRESS (if you're kind enough to send me a letter or something!)

Tim Hickson
PO Box 69062
Lincoln, 7608
Canterbury, New Zealand

Script by meeeeeeeee
Video edited by Lalit Kumar

The artist who design my cover photo:

Stay nerdy!
Tim

[Pegasi_Perfecti]

9:04 "my wife had been reading ero... a lot of romance novels" brilliant save

[saphna]

i just love how Brandon speaks straight from his enthusiastic mind, without an in between layer of self-entitlement or arrogance

[johngr]

"Great ones steal. Mediocre ones imitate"
- Manos Chatzidakis, a famous Greek musician

[Aguza]

I love that the actual underlying message is, that you can tell the same story twice if you do it from your authentic perspective. That is incredibly empowering and freeing.

[elserin]

Brandon reassuring by saying 'There's too much good media' is such a kind and smart way of saying it. Such kindness is so rarely represented nowadays it's good to remind ourselves that we cant see everything all the time

[DanCreaMundos]

the fact that Brandon mentioned watching the Last Airbender film in that context is simply amazing, it means he and/or his team took the time to see who you are and what you value the most, that's a great sign of respect by a very respected author

[bananapeel]

I haven’t read anything by Sanderson. I tried something, but it didn’t really vibe with me. But man do I respect him. Not pretentious. Ready to share knowledge. Humble. Open-minded. What a legend.

[wangtoriojackson]

I'm rather partial to a quote from filmmaker Jim Jarmusch on this subject:

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.'"

[farkasmactavish]

2:40 Based Brandon choosing not to announce his opinion on generative AI, but to instead write an entire book where genAI is the villain.

[Selverna]

The man, the myth, the legend himself, Brandon Sanderson.

[SlowBurnReader]

Two intelligent men in a room, and they share an amazing conversation

[brianberg]

Rubbing sheep together - new magic system in Brandon's next book. :D

[zacbranch]

Your Name has been on my watch list ever since watching Suzume last year. I think I know what I'm sitting down to watch this weekend!

[GaasubaMeskhenet]

One of my biggest hangups was so dumb.
I worried about copying myself.
"I've already written that tho"
Being worried about writing a kiss too similarly in two different stories. Having a short story that would go well as a scene in something I'm working on, but I already uploaded the scene on its own alone and copy pasting from there feels like cheating

[nomado-sensei]

The best thing you can do to make something original appear is inspire someone. It's like the copy-of-a-copy concept. Even if you imitate something—I don't say copy, cause copy is identical—you make something different, and if you inspire someone to imitate your work, somewhere down this imitation line someone will eventually produce something that is drastically different from what you originally imitated.

[sabikikasuko]

Honestly if I got one thing from this interview is that the guy is so down to earth I think if we ever gave him a shovel he'd just dig himself to the core of the planet. I feel very thoroughly identified with the way he talks, his timbre, good intonation, the way you just KNOW everything he'd saying is something that he's thought of a lot because he's a lot of a writer as he is a reader, like he feels like someone you could find in a fandom on Reddit replying to a cool post about his own books on an alt and at no point you'd know he's the author. He seems incredibly approachable in a way very few gone-big authors are, and that I think is trying worthy of admiration of the highest kind.

[anderporascu]

The thing to always be proud of is the existing pool of talent and imagination in today's world. Brandon Sanderson breaks the final barrier fantasy was best with, being in a medieval stasis with a steampunk society as the goal.

[xskyhawkx]

Probably one of my biggest inspirations is the Legend of Zelda. I love how it veers away from using the usual fantasy races, I love the mythology of the older games, and I kind of just love the world itself.

[AndaraBledin]

The last point about starting the story in media res and then flashing back to learn how we got to that point is a standard for sci-fantasy adventure shows. I love the concept and have used it in my own writing when it's been thematically approrpiate.

[themanbehindthecurtains]

I think one of my biggest inspirations is the Dresden Files. For the series's problems, the both simplistic and yet complicated magic systems and integration of multiple factions, and the stubbornness in the face of hope, and the way only *you* can choose where you wind up and who you become and how you can always choose kindness is very dear to me. I appreciate Butcher's take on Urban Fantasy a lot