Author Birthday – 8 November – Brandon Mull

Happy Birthday, Brandon Mull, born on 8 November 1974.

Brandon Mull Quotes

1. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always spent a huge portion of my free time daydreaming and making up stories. As I aged, those stories became more elaborate and compelling, and I decided that I wanted to share them with others. That was when I became serious about writing.
2. I figured that if I could learn to write a good scene, I could eventually write a good novel, so through high school and college I mostly practiced by writing short fiction.
3. As a writer, I try to be a good observer. To tell stories, I need details—physical details for settings and other physical descriptions, as well as a variety of specifics to help my characters seem real,
4. Usually [writer’s block] hits because I’m writing a bad scene. I have to go back and find how to make the scene interesting and important. Sometimes I discover that the scene was unnecessary, so I have to kill it and write an alternate scene. Taking some time away from the project sometimes helps, like going on a walk, getting outside.
5. Don’t stress too much about getting published. Let writing be a rewarding hobby. Give yourself time. It isn’t now or never.
6. Pay attention to how your favorite writers build their scenes. Practice building your own scenes.
7. Take it seriously, but don’t burden yourself with needing to succeed all at once. It takes time to get good, and it takes lots of time and effort to get your start.
8. A lot of writers are discovery writers; they’re improvising their stories. I definitely plan my story before I write it. I daydream about the story for months or years before I start writing.
9. The most important thing I did was pay attention to how my favorite authors built their scenes, then practice writing my own scenes. Really, a novel is a chain of scenes. If you can write a good scene, you can write a good novel. It was that. It was finding my voice as a writer; what do I sound like when I’m telling the story compared to all of my favorite authors. (I would) pay attention to how my favorite authors do it, take what I like from what other authors do, find my own voice and start telling cool stories my way.
10. The core of getting good at writing is read a lot, write a lot.

Source for quotes 1-2: Author Home Page and 3-7: LDSLiving and 8-10: East Idaho News

Brandon Mull is an American writer best known for his children’s and young adult fantasy, adventure, and science fiction. He is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Guardians, Fablehaven, Dragonwatch, Beyonders, Candy Shop War, and Five Kingdoms series. Fablehaven is published in more than 30 foreign languages. He is inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and J. K. Rowling. Themes in his stories include friendship, courage, loyalty, good versus evil, magic, and the power of imagination. His daily writing routine includes about three hours per day, which he splits across two separate blocks of time. Follow him on Instagram and Facebook

Source for Image: Author’s Facebook Page

by Amanda Patterson
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