Here’s a collection of links to writing resources that I have found immeasurably helpful. This is a work in progress and will continue to grow and change. If anybody has ideas for more, feel free to send me an email.
Brandon Sanderson is one of the best and most successful fantasy writers of our time. This a link to a playlist of lectures from his Science Fiction and Fantasy class at Brigham Young University. He teaches the class every year, but this playlist itself is from the 2020 school year. I watch Brandon’s videos and podcasts all the time, and I can honestly say that I think it has made me a better writer. He releases all of these videos for free, and which in my opinion could easily be offered on Masterclass and a fee. His website also offers a couple free books, and Warbreaker even comes with annotations so you can read each chapter and then go into the details as Brandon talks about the choices he made, and why it makes the section work. Think of it as kind of a commentary track on a movie.
Writing Excuses is a podcast featuring hosts Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal, as well as guests from all over the writing and publishing sprectrum. Each episode is pretty short, and talks about various aspects of the writing process, with a strong emphasis on science fiction and fantasy. Their tagline is “Fifteen minutes long, because you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart.” Which is a complete lie because their advice is amazing. I’m still working my way through the seasons and listen at least once a day.
Daniel is a booktuber and fantasy author. His insights into the fantasy publishing world are, well-fantastic. He talks about what makes a book great, what makes characters great, and what makes the genre so engaging. He has several videos where he talks about various subjects such as hard versus soft magic systems, popular fantasy and science fiction tropes, worldbuilding, and even topics like religion in fantasy. He’s awesome and I can’t recommend him enough.
Merphy is another wonderful booktuber. She has the best recommendations of anybody around, and if she says a book is good, trust her it is. She talks about a number of topics like Daniel, but she has this really great video format where she just talks about why she loves the books she reads, and gives us a good sense of them. She goes in depth with every topic she covers, and her thoughts on each subject are fascinating. I could listen to her talk all day.
Relatedwords.org is one of my go-to tools when brainstorming, outlining, and worldbuilding. It’s a bit like a thesaurus, but in my opinion better, not just giving synonyms, but words that are tangential to the word you are looking up. When I’m creating magic systems and want to convey an idea that could have multiple meanings depending on the context, I go here and usually find what I’m looking for.