Sanderson 2012.2 - Plots and Genres
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- Опубликовано: 27 авг 2024
- Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 2
This video is a mirror of the materials posted by user writeaboutdragons. I’ve linked together the parts of the lecture into a single video, and provided some notes with timestamps below. Enjoy!
*Notes*
0:12 / What makes a good plot
- Book is an intersection of three things: character, setting, and plot (concept), with a conflict
- Biggest rookie mistake is making an inactive protagonist; you should place them close to the conflict
- As soon as you start to place your characters at these conflict points, the story begins to emerge
10:25 / Idea generation from stories you loved reading
- Boil down the story to its core, and build your own story with a similar core
- Usually one idea is not enough; try to intersect a few separate ideas
14:44 / Examples of conflicts between parts of a story
16:30 / Outlining
- Brandon thinks of cool ideas then looks for conflicts/relationships between ideas
- - When he has enough of these links, he starts a story
- Brainstorm to fill in holes in the ideas to have good conflicts
- Plot backwards: what are the cool things to happen in the book?
- - Cool things trump idea consistency; you can find ways to make it work after
- - Once he has these “big moments”, then step backwards: what needs to happen before this moment will be satisfying?
28:16 / Points on a map
29:12 / Questions on brainstorming and plotting
37:42 / Plotting by discovery for Alcatraz books
- Adding viewpoints complicates a book; as a new writer don’t over do it off the bat
- - Fewer viewpoints also makes it easier to write without an outline
- Generate a few interesting/funny/cool events, then brainstorm to make it work together
- - For kids, random elements mixed together can be humor; doesn’t work for adults as well
51:10 / Children’s genres and audience
- Knowing your genre will help you place where you are going to market you book, and help guide decisions
- Middle grade: targets 8 - 13
- - Sweet spot is 6th-7th grade
- - Max is 55k words
- - Often whimsical stories; leave our world go into another; often the adults are useless in the plot
- - Usually 3rd person; usually 1 viewpoint
- YA; targets 13-19
- - Max is ~75K words, but less strict
- - Frequently set at or around school; frequently boys & girls; often adults are untrustworthy
- - YA is not content curated by publisher as MG, so books can be graphic and intense
1:09:00 / Adult genres
- The big fantasy divisions are: epic, heroic, and urban.
- The big SF divisions are: military, space opera, hard sci-fi.
- - Dystopian right now is more often in YA
1:11:50 / Epic fantasy
- Large cast
- World-building focus
- The world is at stake
- Suggestion for new writers: write it as a stand alone with sequel potential
- - Don’t stop in the middle until you are an established author
- 120-150K words
1:14:31 / Heroic fantasy
- Gritty “dudes with swords”
- Smaller cast
- 80-100k words
- Lots of action and movement
1:16:42 / Urban fantasy
- “Chicks in leather kill demons”
- Our world but with a dark fantasy underworld
- Often mystery-style plots; often very fast paced with thriller-style hooks in each chapter
- 70K words
1:18:43 / Military sci-fi
- Space marines; big space battles that are realistic
- Familiarity with military helps; guns and ranks
- 80-100K words
1:21:00 / Space opera
- Adventures in space
- - Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars
- 80-100K words
1:23:28 / Hard sci-fi
- “Written by people with PhD”
- The details matter, the science and how-it-works are part of the story
- 80-100K words, but much more lenient
Those jeans... that hat... he emanates power..
One jeans to rule them all
note: a book that is more ambitious to write is also more ambitious to read. So a smaller scale book may actually appeal to a wider audience
The creators of that new show in amazon should have watched this: "Why did you love LOTR so much? It was not about the setting, elves and dwarves. It is its HEART that really grabbed you" 10:53
46:36 I did the same thing once in a chat room. It was actually the story I'm working on now... like, 20+ years later. I just started with what I knew, which wasn't much at all, and just started telling the chat room what happened. It led to interest, and they wanted to know more, so I wrote more. I wrote a complete chapter's worth of scene and dialogue, little narrative because of the medium, and it was the most I had done for that story than in all the months before, where I daydreamed and pondered and hoped I could write.
I think, just doing it, and doing it live, was what spurred me to continue and finish the tale. I didn't even know what I was going to say, because for all that time pondering and wondering for months, I had almost nothing to show. When I began to tell what little I knew, it led directly into what I knew should happen next, and then what should happen next, and after that. I didn't even know I had these things in me until they came out in the chatroom.
That one little session, and especially the interested audience and the feedback, really helped to shape the future story I would eventually want to tell. It's not the same story now, but it is a better story for having been told in that way in that place at that time. I highly recommend doing something like this if you feel stuck. The mere fact that someone else is asking you "Woah, cool, then what happened?" is so inspiring and motivating, you find the writing to be fun and more like a game. "Can I convince them I know what is going on here?". I didn't think I could, until I found out I could by trying.
Hideo Kojima knows how to integrate the silly within the serious quite well.
I love this classes but man... that hat
Dat Ass, Dat Belly, He Got It Goin' On.
Ya gatta luve that hat. Or you an't coooool.
Say my name...
This is before his sister gave him a consistent dress style. His sister Lauren came up with his current jacket + nerdy shirt look.
@@woehrle17 Yes I know. She is our silent guardian.. our watchful protector.. not the stylist we deserve but the one we need
These videos are why I don’t need to pay to go to college for what I love ☺️
I have to laugh because I finally looked up Dan Wells' 7 point story structure and I love Sanderson's lectures and I'm devouring them all but I swear that 2010 50 minute crappily edited video of Wells' lecture on 7 point story structure at some conference was every bit as helpful as all of these lectures are! It looks like Sanderson taught the class in Spring 2020 because the second to last class was posted May 29, streaming. You could attend the class virtually, I think, if we can figure out what time Mountain Standard Time it starts on Friday the 5th.
coughing and throwing gel bears with bare hands, definitely something you did before 2020
I love the Stormlight archive, and Sanderson.. but him wearing that hat is the result of him being the most elite dude on campus. No one can tell him anything lol
The Chad has entered the building, all the females are now pregnant.
He's mormon, they hate anything fun
I just realized, one of the biggest differences between the characters of Superman and Batman is action. Superman reacts to events, deals with the villain, and goes back to wait for more events to react to. Batman actively prowls the night, looking for crimes and clues of crimes, plays detective, solves mysteries and generally pursues his own ideals and desires, namely ridding the streets of Gotham of the criminal element and bringing justice to the world. Wow. I think it's starting to click here.
This video series is so so good. He's phenomenal!
I write down so much. I use Notepad for notes, and I have such files as, "people, places, things", "what happens next", "things that must happen" and "woah, cool". Or maybe just a file with a character's name with all the things I know about them, or a file called dialogue with things I want said. Sometimes if it's just random, I'll call it "things and stuff", or "random wanderings of insanity". It's super helpful to sort through all these ideas and concepts and to organize them, admittedly a bit haphazardly at times, so I can see what's where, why it's cool, or just to make sure I don't forget that vampires have electric bills to pay too.
I do the same, then copy and paste the Notes file into Scrivener. Then I work out which points I can use in my WIP, open up that file in Scrivener and make notes re character or whatever in the file of the book I am writing.
I think I learned more in this one video than I have in a long time. OMG. I have so many notes! Thanks! :D
I've learn so much from every one of his videos and I have watched many of them more than once. Great information and a great teacher.
Does anyone else feel like the way he talks about the awesome ideas is the same way that Lift kind of talks her powers in Stormlight 🤣
One piece and fullmetal alchemist are the absolute best examples of this
I enjoy these videos and find them a great help but to say hitchhikers as no characters and is just a comedy novel makes me ask if he as ever read it. Marvin the paranoid android alone is an unforgettable character. Although I have a couple of prattchet novels never really got on with them-personal thing i know.
He knows his stuff
1:00:20 A twist!
Great lecture from beginning to end!
Aaahhhh... that constant coughing into a hand and then using it to give food to people >_<
Edit: okay, at least he noticed around the middle
Do you really expect a guy who thinks wearing that stupid hat in public is cool has the social intelligence not to cough in his hand
9:38 Conflict! :D
Dreams. hehe. I like it. Folding fish in a dry cleaners late one snowy summer's night. XD
Yes, you can totally steal that. :) I have a million more.
I defo have the everything in the sink problem. I always over complicate everything. Otherwise, I don't feel like its interesting.
I wonder how many students got colds from the gummy bears 😂
The number of phones ringing in this is ridiculous. Dont you hear the Don talking!
Watching this from 2021 and seeing someone cough this much in front of a class of people all sitting together and coughing as well just feels sooo weird.
I wish I had seen this video like two months ago >_> I had listened some wordcounts from one of Sanderson's other videos and, on the basis of his wordcounts, decided I should shoot for 100-110k words for my YA novel. However, earlier this month, I started to look into wordcounts again and saw 90k pitched around as being a marketable number. Already I was like "Oh shit," because at this point I'm probably going to clock in at 105-110k. Now I'm hearing Sanderson mention that YA is really more like 75k so I'm in more trouble. I guess I'll have to cut some major stuff when I go to revise? Maybe move characters and scenes to a later novel somehow.
.....he rhymed "caste" with "case"....
me watching this in 2023 and them coughing into the air gives me anxiety lol
Was Sanderson patient zero?
Is the hat a mistborn reference?
13:31 Intrigue!
Thank you for sharing this!
43:17
"you've been warned" about what?
Spittle while he is talking. Sitting in the front row.
I just realized sanderson sounds like Ben Shapiro (on 2x)...but a decent human being
55:30 isekai!
36:24 that would have been awesome haha
Hat Anderson.
👍🏻
The guy in the front looks like Tim 😂
Great lecture, but watching him cough like that makes me cringe, post covid
Take the hat off dude...I'm serious.
You don't like the Boy George look?
1021
28:13 Brandon Sanderson is a goal digger
Conflict is overrated. Stuff still happens when all is right with the world and it's ok to write about it.
Weeeell, depends on how pedantic you want to be. Conflict doesn't have to be large scale or cataclysmic. Look at something like Jane Austen. Not much happens in pride and prejudice in the grand scale, and no one is on the brink of death or anything, but there is lots of conflict.
Conflict _is_ overrated but not for that reason
Conflict is used to mean any conflicting goal or idea that two characters might have, it doesn't have to be about violence or rivalry. Two best friends debating over where to go for coffee is a conflict. It's what makes the difference between an interesting story and a list of events.
It's surely alright to write about it, just don't expect anyone to want to read it.
@@njc9911 Imagine writing for other people. You're not gonna make it.