In my journey delving deeper into the craft of writing, I become more and more impressed with Brandon Sanderson: not just with his skill as a writer, but with his breadth of activity with writing as business.

He writes best-selling novels — in multiple genres. He write fantasy, he writes science fiction, he writes young adult fiction, he writes graphic novels.

In some novels he builds worlds, in others, it’s about the dialogue, the idea, and the action. He writes books in third person, he writes books in first person. He can write novels in a range of very distinct styles. He takes disparate ideas and makes them work (hello, gunslinger who can use metals with magic in a rather steam-punk world?).

He teaches writing — not just in person at a university, but also through videos and the most excellent long-running podcast, Writing Excuses.

He’s active not just on Facebook, but also on GoodReads and Twitter. His presence on Amazon and on Goodreads are envy-producing.

How successful is he? He’s so successful he can hire a team of people to help him with his longer fantasy novels. He’s so successful movie rights have been acquired for the books set in his Cosmere universe. He’s so successful his books have sold over 7 million copies worldwide.

This is rather starting to sound like a fan going off the deep end, but in honing my writing craft, I am developing an appreciation for not only excellence in writing but also excellence in the education, encouragement, coaching, and professionalism of writing.

And Sanderson’s works are gourmet meals across a swath of cuisines.