Lecture #10: Characters Part 2 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Welcome to the ninth lecture of my BYU 2020 creative writing class focused on writing science fiction and fantasy.

Today's class is the second part of my lecture on characters.

[kaugummigeschmacke]

Unbelievable we can watch this for free

[masonwheeler]

7:28: "Sometimes a [character's] journey is 'apprentice to master.' They can be asking a lot of insightful questions and ... later in the story they can be *giving* the information, right? I've seen lots of great arcs where the character learns something and by the end they're teaching that thing."

Anyone else amused by the fact that this is coming from a professor who was once a student in the predecessor to this very class?

[sarahspalding]

If I'm ever a published author, I'm going to have to give Brandon Sanderson a lot of credit. People might assume it's because I've taken a lot of inspiration from his books (which are fantastic, so I don't think they'd be wrong), but really it would be these lectures that have helped me go from a vague unwritten idea to an actual first draft

[sarahspalding]

These are the only Youtube videos I watch that don't make me feel like I'm procrastinating writing

[ABFrank.]

"Said is invisible to the reader." YES!

I remember when I was a kid and my teachers would say not to say said because it's boring. If someone says something it must be okay to say that they said it. Most people don't scream, roar or whisper everything

[genericallyentertaining]

Brandon referencing "What about the droid attack on the wookies?" confirms he is a prequel memer.

[scholagladiatoria]

Thanks for the shout-out and for following the channel Brandon! I'm honoured.

[SehaChan]

"In cinema you will never lose track of where the character is in relation to everything else around them.."
Unless you're watching Transformers, that is.

[marcelocaruso]

Brandon Sanderson will be known as the teacher of all future famous authors

[RodneySloan]

And for those who want it:
Em-dash (—): Alt + 0151 on Windows, Opt + Shift + - on Mac
En-dash (–): Alt + 0150 on Windows, Opt + - on Mac
The dash (-) on your keyboard is likely neither an em-dash or an en-dash. Knowing the difference will help to prove that you know your stuff and make your copy editor's life that little bit easier :-D

[Ekkaisara]

As a college student, I had always wanted to take a creative writing class, but the time slots never worked out. There was always something I had to take for my major going on at the same time as the creative writing classes. Four years and I never got to take those courses.

Now I've written my first book and I've finished my first redraft, and I will be using these courses to further strengthen my writing through the second and third redrafts.

These courses are, essentially, a dream come true.

Thank you Mr. Sanderson.

[hellgast]

About dialect.
In Mistborn I gave up trying to understand what Spook was saying and I think that was kinda the point. I think that's a great example of using dialect for humor and worldbuilding.

[cambleton]

Shout out to the man who remembers Kronk's shoulder angel's wisdom!

[BigDaddyGameDev]

The fact these are free online is beyond words. Thank you from NZ!

[Ixidorsbane]

The term Brandon is trying to come up with at 11:20 is actually called a tag question, or question tag, and not a backchannel as the student suggests (Brandon was actually close when he calls it a tag). A tag question is when a statement is turned into a question by the addition of a "tag". For example, "You're John, aren't you?", where the statement "You're John" is turned into a question by adding the tag "aren't you". Tags can take on many forms, depending on region and language.

Alternatively, a backchannel is when one person is speaking and another interjects responses to the speaker, such as "yeah", "uh-huh", "hmm", and "right".

- Source: Wikipedia

[micheladell]

'said and asked are invisible to readers' is exactly what I needed to hear right now I'm in the middle part of a first draft novel and I'm doubting if I've overused 'said' as a dialogue tag too much

[MIKEY-jerg]

His competence, likeability and proactivity are off the charts here :)).

[lookie]

“If your doing it like this and you have 3 characters with different motivations different flaws and different areas of expertise having a conversation together where at the end of the conversation the reader feels like they know all 3 characters better and it’s given us the information about the heist they’re gonna pull of suddenly, you have just mastered characterization”
Brandon just said he is a master at characterization in the most High-Iq way possible

[jamesmecham]

I've watched Brandon's lectures several times. Learn something each pass. Now, it's beginning to click in my writing. Thank you Brandon!

[bradyjustbrady]

So far, this beginning information is exactly what I have needed for years. Every author class I have taken never explain the process and details of writing, just focusing on “follow your heart”. I can finally write the book part of my story haha this is so great