- Author Leigh Bardugo emphasized how discomfort in writing fosters strength and skills for authors.
- A new Grishaverse short story, “A Darker Shore: Letters from Ketterdam,” was announced for next year.
- Bardugo and Brandon Sanderson shared how they are inspired to write.
Sitting on the stage at Olympus Jr. High School in front of a packed auditorium, as author Leigh Bardugo answered questions with Brandon Sanderson, she shared that she became a fantasy writer because she was “always waiting for magic.”
The event, hosted by The Kings English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, took place on Friday as part of Bardugo’s book tour for the 10-year anniversary of her bestselling novel, “Six of Crows.” Ten years ago, almost to the day, on Oct. 2, 2015, Bardugo was in town on a promotional tour for the book’s release.
Through the night, Sanderson asked Bardugo questions submitted by the audience, and the two authors engaged in a dynamic discussion about topics such as fantasy heists, trends in popular books and what AI is taking away from young writers.
Bardugo said she first met Sanderson on her book tour for the release of “Six of Crows” 10 years ago, when they did a similar event in the U.K.
Seeing Sanderson interact with his fans was “like a master class on how to be a good literary citizen,” Bardugo added.
Exciting addition to Leigh Bardugo’s ‘Grishaverse’
Many of Bardugo’s books, including “Six of Crows” and “Shadow and Bone,” take place in a fictional universe known as the “Grishaverse.” At the start of the event, the author announced that the latest addition to the Grishaverse will be released next year.
“A Darker Shore: Letters from Ketterdam” is a short story set after the “Six of Crows” sequel “Crooked Kingdom.” This short story will be a mystery told through letters and other found documents, including sheet music and wanted posters.
How AI takes away the ‘uncomfortable’ parts of writing
Before Sanderson began reading audience questions to Bardugo, he asked her a few of his own questions. Sanderson asked Bardugo about a TED Talk she gave, in which she discussed how writers need to feel uncomfortable and experience the difficult parts of writing, and how artificial intelligence is taking that away.
“Writing with AI is like going to the gym and having a forklift lift the weights — the weights got lifted, you’re not any stronger,” she said. “So yes, the discomfort of writing is how you learn. It’s how you get better.”
She added that AI is also taking away the pleasure from writing.
“We talk about AI theft in terms of copyright theft and intellectual property theft, all real,” Bardugo said. “What we don’t talk about is the theft of pleasure from writing, from creating art, and AI is stealing that from us too.”
Brandon Sanderson and Leigh Bardugo share advice for writing and how they get their inspiration
“I became, I think, a fantasy writer, because I was always waiting for magic, you know, I always believed,” Bardugo said. “Fantasy readers see possibility where other people don’t.”
A number of the questions the two authors answered were about advice for writing and getting books published, as well as how they get inspiration to write.
When asked about unusual writing advice, Bardugo said that she talks to herself a lot while writing.
She also emphasized the power of one’s subconscious when putting together a story.
Bardugo said that if people are busy and only have a short amount of time to write one day, the most important thing they can do is set a goal for the next day, such as finding a problem they need to solve or the next thing they want to work on.
Then, before that next writing session, “your subconscious is doing that work.”
Sanderson shared that his best ideas come from reading a book or watching other media and thinking, “Oh, they did it wrong.”
He said that the idea for “Mistborn” came from reading “The Lord of Rings,” though he added he doesn’t believe Tolkien did anything wrong.
“I was reading it, and I’m like, ‘Oh, hey, what if Frodo got to the end of ”Lord of the Rings” and Sauron said, “My ring, I’ve been looking for that. Where did you find that? You brought that all the way here? That must have been a long trip, thank you.” And then killed him and took over the world?’”
“That’s what really gets a story going for me is like, where can I add something? Where can I do something new?” he added.
When sharing advice for people who are trying to get their first book published, both authors emphasized that they should always be working on something else.
“Because it is important to remember that you don’t just have one story. And it can feel that way, you feel like if this book doesn’t make it, then that’s it. But that’s not the way it works,” Bardugo said.
She added that lots of authors don’t sell their first book, and that’s OK.
Why ‘fantasy heist’ is the best genre
Both Bardugo and Sanderson have written books that fall under the “fantasy heist” genre. Sanderson’s fantasy heists are the “Mistborn” books, while Bardugo’s is “Six of Crows” and “Crooked Kingdom.”
Another one of Sanderson’s questions for Bardugo had to do with this genre. He called fantasy heist the “best genre” and then asked the other author, “What do you love about fantasy heist?”
“I like heist to begin with, I love the moment of the turn, the big reveal,” Bardugo said.
She added that when writing heists, they have to not only fool the mark in the book but they also need to surprise the reader, “so it has to be a convincing foil.”
Both authors emphasized that in fantasy heists, the story shouldn’t be overrun with magic, that each character should have their own set skills that they bring to the table with some magical enhancements.
Bardugo said she likes to get to the point “where you can almost do it without magic,” but then the magical element will kick in, like necromancy.
Sanderson shared that when he first came up with the idea for “Mistborn,” he thought, “Nobody’s done this, I’m going to do it.”
“And then a bunch of us came up with the same idea, because within the next little time, there were just a plethora of really fantastic fantasy heists that came out, and that actually made me really excited,” he added.
They both also emphasized that movies and TV shows about heists can get away with more things than books can, because readers are slowly reading through and will call out inconsistencies or things that don’t make sense.