Dispatch — What I’m Reading

I’ve found myself rereading lately.

Not out of nostalgia, exactly, but out of calibration—the sense that a story-in-progress sometimes needs to be reminded what working looks like.

Right now, that means returning to Brandon Sanderson.

I’m moving again through Wind and Truth, alongside Elantris and The Well of Ascension. Not in a straight line, and not quickly. More like revisiting rooms in a familiar house to see what’s changed—or what I missed the first time.

What strikes me most on rereading isn’t scale, though Sanderson’s worlds have plenty of it. It’s discipline. The patience with which systems are introduced, tested, stressed, and allowed to fail on their own terms. The refusal to resolve tension cheaply. The trust that readers will follow rules if the rules are honored.

Rereading also strips away the illusion of effortlessness. You can see the scaffolding. The deliberate pacing. The quiet setup chapters that only reveal their necessity much later. It’s a reminder that wonder is constructed, not stumbled upon.

There’s comfort in that.

When I’m writing, it’s easy to feel as though a story should arrive fully formed, or at least more cooperative than it often is. Returning to books like these reminds me that coherence is earned through revision, restraint, and a willingness to let ideas take their time.

Rereading isn’t about copying voice or borrowing worlds. It’s about reattuning to standards. To ambition. To the kind of narrative patience that trusts both the story and the reader.

That’s what I’m reading right now.

And that, quietly, is what I’m aiming for.