Brandon Sanderson’s 2013 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 2

This video is a mirror of the materials posted by user writeaboutdragons. I’ve provided some notes with timestamps below, and occasional color correction. Enjoy!

*Notes*

2:00 / Writing stories
- Plot, Setting and Character are the three elements of a story that meet over conflict
- Irony: world-building defines SF/F, yet it is generally the least important thing in a good story

7:02 / Info dumps
- Avoid info dumps, particularly at the start of the story
- Always be in-character
- Writing should be lean, but this can be cleaned up in later drafts

9:40 / Learning curves
- How long it takes for the reader to get proficiency in your world
- All books have a curve for the reader to learn the setting, conflicts, etc
- Lots of books choose their learning curve very deliberately

13:50 / Tools for keeping YA learning curves lower
- Often the MC will start in the real world before going to fantasy world; this lowers learning curve
- - Reader only has to get used to a few things at a time
- “Watson” character is someone in the book who doesn’t know the same things the reader doesn’t know, so you have an excuse to explain things to the character (and thus reader)
- First person protagonist allows you to info dump in character easier

19:40 / Familiar vs Strange
- Each genre expects a certain balance, which changes over time

24:00 / Example trend: gritty from Game of Thrones

27:56 / Generating physical setting and cultural setting
- physical= cool stuff that would be there even if people didn’t exist
- cultural= cool stuff that is only there because of the people
- Take the most chances to do something original in your setting

36:55 / Show vs Tell: ways to make info interesting
- Dialogue is more interesting to a reader than description, so have people discuss things
- Inner thoughts that show a reaction to something instead of describing it
- Description through a character lens

45:34 / Focusing your story
- Avoid world-builder’s disease
- Pick a couple things to emphasize and make unique, don’t try to do them all

53:10 / Start small if you want to be a career writer
- Very risky to put all your eggs in one basket

1:02:12 / Question on world building
- What do you focus on when the world is not very different?
- How do you focus on setting without overemphasizing it?
- Before you are established, you can’t test reader patience very much

1:09:28 / Magic and satisfying resolutions
- Them more you want magic to resolve conflict, the better your readers need to understand the magic system
- - Really a comment about foreshadowing
- Limitations are more important than powers themselves