I love Creative Writing, and if you’re reading this blog, I have no doubt you do, too. In my ‘How to Write Like’, I will analyse what makes various writers tick, makes their stories so readable, and what we can learn.
I should mention that in order to transform your voice and adapt to a new style, you need a mastery of your voice which means sharpening up your own first. If you want help with this, I would recommend my Crowes Coaching course, as it is the exact method I employ to write at the standard I do.
Without further ado, let’s get into how to write like Patrick Rothfuss.
Patrick Rothfuss has published five books in his career, and legendary has still not released the third of his main trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicles. I went back and reread key sections of The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear, and a personal favourite of mine, The Slow Regard of Silent Things.
For readers, Patrick Rothfuss is known for having very ‘purple’, or poetic, prose. From the various pieces of media in which he has talked about it, Patrick Rothfuss’s process appears to be heavily focused on this poetic element, and his revision-heavy approach suggests that, in this area, he is something of a perfectionist.
On a surface level, the first step to writing more like Rothfuss is learning to write poetry. It is a very complex topic, and not all that appealing to people, thanks to the entire western world’s tragic failure to show young people who awesome poetry can be. But, a strong understanding of fine wording, poetic canter and metre, and the various poetic techniques that Rothfuss employs, is critical.
If you struggle with engaging with poetry, I would encourage trying to set aside what you think poetry is. Often, we are not taught to read it well, and we need to reframe how we think about poetry. Reading poetry is a performance art all of its own. When you transform it from words on a page to a performance, you can suddenly feel how every subtle shift in pace and meaning forms something truly compelling and beautiful.
Personally, almost every one of the clients of my coaching said they dislike poetry, and ended up finding it so incredibly valuable to write prose and enjoyable in its own right. It even encouraged one client to start writing music! This is all to say - I think everyone can love poetry, but not everyone was taught to love it.
The second part of writing like Rothfuss is understanding the role poeticism plays in his prose. One of the biggest mistakes I see in writers still finding their footing is that they see poetic technique in a virtue all to itself, often because for them, poetic style coincides with what they personally enjoy.
Actually, I was one of these writers. It’s incredibly hard to understand that the thing we love the most is not valuable on its own. But, it is very important we understand the role poetic technique plays, even in Rothfuss’s writing.
Poetic writing refers largely to a series of techniques that are employed to enhance the writing in various capacities. These poetic techniques can often be found in theories of poetry and rhetoric, including rhyming, alliteration, canter, and so on.
Whilst this post cannot get into the massive variety of techniques, it can discuss their application. We are taught to recognise poetic techniques and when they appear, but we are not taught why they are used or the impact they have.
For example, a strong metre, or rhythm, makes the reader more comfortable in their reading process whilst also speeding it up, resulting in a higher level of stimulation and immersion. Alternatively, a rhyme can be used to add some flair but also to tie two words together, manipulating the flow of the prose with two words that stand out, whilst also mentally linking the words in the reader’s head.
What’s important is that the value of every poetic technique in prose is that it serves something you already want to be doing. And, each poetic technique offers something slightly different. Absent how they support the rest of the author’s voice, poetic techniques can actually be immensely damaging to the prose, and this makes using poetic technique challenging and high-risk, but does offer a great deal of reward as well.
Rothfuss understands this. One thing you will observe throughout his prose is that every use of poetic technique enhances, rather than hampers, readability. Because of this, despite his writing style being quite complex and hard to replicate, he is often the entryway to the fantasy genre for many readers.
To some, this doesn’t make sense. However, if you understand that poetic technique done masterfully results in enhanced flowing of the prose and enhanced stimulation of the imagination and emotions, you can understand how Rothfuss is actually a surprisingly easy and enjoyable read.
That is one of the key aspects to writing like Rothfuss. No matter how poetic you want to be, use its strengths in your writing and empower your prose. No-one is going to be more impressed because your writing is less readable, and the idea that people simply don’t like poetic prose because they ‘don’t get it’ is a dangerous idea that can be elitist and destructive.
Ultimately, this is where most poetic writers fail. A strong understanding of poetic writing requires great fundamentals, and honestly, writing in random poetic techniques is incredibly easy. It can be done on the first try.
What Rothfuss’s focus on revisions shows us is that he understands that his writing is delicate. That is the third part of writing like Patrick Rothfuss. It is hard work, and it requires you to develop both your writing and yourself with each iteration.
A second major aspect of Rothfuss’s style is his commitment to the artistic side of the writing art. His writing is stylised, and unashamedly so, but it extends beyond that. He works through intense foreshadowing, complex framing devices, and writes whole books that he isn’t sure will be commercially successful. The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a book devoid of conflict and features only a singular character, but he wrote it anyway.
It is clear that Patrick Rothfuss loves the art of storytelling, demonstrated by The Kingkiller Chronicles being so strongly devoted to the passion, beauty and deep flaws of stories. Kvothe is seemingly a strong commentary on how stories can blend fiction and reality, for better or for worse, and how Kvothe himself, as a great storyteller, consistently convinces himself of the narrative that he is the ‘good guy’.
That passion, and the willingness to experiment and try wild things that you are not at all sure will succeed, is a key part of Rothfuss’s style but also a key part of being the best writer you can be. For Rothfuss, he likes to explore complex narrative structures, wordplay, prose techniques, characters, and new, meta approaches to storytelling.
You might not replicate Rothfuss, but this isn’t a guide on how to be Patrick Rothfuss. To write like him, you need to explore like he does, playing around with words and story and letting yourself get lost in it. Then, and only then, can you begin to understand that Rothfuss’s over three hundred iterations are not over three hundred iterations of the same thing.
Always experiment. Always try new things. Always try to learn more.
Now that we’ve spoken about Rothfuss’s mindset, let’s talk about a challenge he has that we might not want to replicate. His struggle with productivity is a real aspect of analysing Rothfuss as a writer, and the harmful side of perfectionism shows itself. This is not something you want to replicate, and whilst you can take from his style and accept the hard work that goes into his writing, it is important to know when it becomes unhealthy.
So, let’s talk a little bit about his perfectionism, why it emerges and why it can be problematic, and where a little bit of light can be found in the flaws.
Rothfuss has very openly discussed his past with mental health problems, something that many of us, including myself, can relate to. Sometimes, when we discuss writing motivation and what we do or don’t do, we often forget that we are writers and also human beings. Human beings with brains that can get a little funky.
This has come up in my practice as a coach. My clients sometimes don’t make the connection that poor writing productivity is often related to mental health concerns. This can be caused by many things, whether it’s self esteem, confidence, anxiety, or in cases like the one being discussed today, perfectionism.
Perfectionism emerges from the false belief that a piece of work needs to be perfect to be worthwhile. The problem with this is that no piece of work can be perfect, and thereby the mindset automatically sets impossible tasks. And, when we cannot complete that task, it is deeply motivating and damaging to our self esteem.
Damage to our self esteem then in turn makes us want to earn back worth, which we feel like we can achieve through our work. This causes a cycle of pursuing worth through perfection, falling short, and then feeling unworthy, motivating us to pursue worth through perfection again.
This can impact people who do not have a prior history of mental issues, and can be especially pronounced in people who do have a prior history.
However, an obvious question emerges. You want to write something great, and why would you do over three hundred revisions if you didn’t want it to be perfect? How could you do that amount of work on it if there was no such thing as correct?
The answer is a piece of wisdom that can only be found after a lot of time writing and a lot of experience. For a writer like Rothfuss, for whom The Kingkiller Chronicles was an early project, he has freely admitted that this has been one of his biggest hurdles.
You can always do better. There is no work that can’t be critiqued. There is no writer who can’t improve their craft.
In fact, especially early on, you can wildly underestimate how much you have to learn. There are whole facets of writing, entire schools of thought and deep journeys of growth that you will be completely blind to, and might always be blind to. This is true for beginners and seasoned writers alike, and the idea that you can be perfect is not based in the reality of the art.
It is based on that emotion, that craving of worth.
But really, the value in your writing has to be found in something that can be achieved every day. This was an excellent piece of advice shared by Brandon Sanderson, who is well-known for his productivity and positive mindset when it comes to writing.
When I sit down to write, do my best is consistently both achievable and challenging. The same is true for have fun, learn more, and countless other goals you can set for yourself that, whilst less grandiose and delicious than be perfect, is much more fulfilling and provides much more happiness to you as a writer. And, in my task as a coach, its most valuable trait is that it makes you a much better artist.
So that is how to write like Rothfuss without falling into the trap of perfectionism.
Personally, I love Rothfuss’s work. When I fell out of love with storytelling, it was The Name of the Wind that brought me back. I want to write a book like The Name of the Wind, and the beauty of its storytelling, and it reignited something in me. Whatever you think of the man, his art is truly extraordinary. Whilst I personally try to always evolve and adapt my style to the story I am telling, once I found my voice, one of my first adaptations was to integrate poetic techniques and rhythm in the way Rothfuss does.
But remember, this is about finding what we can learn from Rothfuss, not being him. Be your own writer, because you have the potential to be awesome.
If you found this post helpful, I encourage you to check out my coaching, where I have helped a ton of clients begin their journeys to being masters of their craft, and you could be next.
Until next time, folks.
