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Can three characters represent the B character, with one of them receiving most of the spotlight?

Thank you bro, this makes writing feel so much more straightforward and it’s a lot shorter than Brandon’s lecture videos. I like how I can easily come back to it as I go through each step to anchor myself and determine a concrete objective.

This just might be the outlining method that helps me finally finish my WIP...The structure of it all!

Game changer! You just don’t know how much you’ve helped me clear up the vision for my story! 😩😭

hi past person

I have an actual new idea for a novel, but am too flowery & verbose... should I try, or get a ghostwriter?

Great video, thanks for the help :D

Getting an overview of the story has always been the most difficult part for me, this method forced me to start with that step and oh god it helped a LOT. Thank you for sharing this and huge thanks to Brandon Sanderson as well!

Just found your channel and binged all your videos even though I've seen BAs lectures a couple of times. They are really well made and interesting to watch. Hope you find time/motivation to do more content

This is such a great video. You had me laughing out loud when you were talking about the speed limit and being happy that people still cared about writing in the "future"!

i spent this entire video self loathing about how lazy of a writer i am because i'm this when i should be writing

Great content and introspective, as well as observant of others critiques. Keep up the informative work, you have a subscribe from me!

Maybe I'm alone in this one, but not only I've tried to read The Final Empire many times and I hate it more each time I try to read it, but also I'm convinced that it makes sense for it to not work, and I don't understand what am I missing, what is it that make this work with so many people when in theory it should not. Ignoring the fact that starting with the pov of a character like Lord Tresting is something most people would advise you against for obvious reasons, I just can't stand how black and white that character and the whole conflict presented in the prologue is. Star Wars told a similar story (not to mention it feels like a rip-off, at least in the beginning) and fixed these issues by making the antagonists charismatic and not focusing unnecessarily on how evil the empire was (as well as hinting at something supernatural being behind the evil empire, which made its evil nature more believable). In The Final Empire, I feel like I'm reading a pamphlet, like if someone's constantly trying to manipulate me into siding with the "good guys", which makes me dislike them already since it feels super narcissistic, like the protagonists are writing the story themselves to make themselves look good (and no, this is not what Disney does, you've never paid attention to a Disney movie if you think this is what they do). Both Kelsier and Vin always give me an awful first impression: they're so perfect that they're annoying (just like the average Mary Sue that readers criticize so much) and they seem exactly like the cliché of the pedantic "charismatic anti-hero" and your typical "strong independent heroine" (which were old even back in 2006). And both Lord Tresting and Vin's boss feel like your typical "bully" cliché character meant only to manipulate you into liking the poor innocent heroes. I don't care if the story becomes more nuance later, if the novel starts over three times, and each time it seems cliché and biased, I don't know how so many people don't find it annoying like I do. PS: I have absolutely nothing against Sanderson though, I'm sure he's a great writer and a great guy. My problem is only with the first chapters of The Final Empire.

This actually helped me quite a lot, thank you.

Yeah, but you can just tell from the tone of the "broom smacking person" that this person is an older, well-established professional in the field of literature. Either a writer, editor or teacher. The attitude smacks of accomplished writer, or quite possibly teacher who marks written essays and to whom this feels like a cardinal sin because they've been trying to drum into their students' heads for the past 25 years, "Don't try to hide things from your readers!!!" But I

"wore a grave expression" is a valid term, so "wore grave eyes" is not confusing at all, at least to anybody who's ever read, ever. If fact it seems quite clever, especially because it relates so closely to the origional expression, but adds it's own ambiguity. Read some Harry potter, and you'll see that you don't have to be perfect, not even close. You just have to be fun to read. Make up you own words, phrases, be as clever or as silly as you choose. Throw grammar out of the window, even break the 4th wall. " The thought suddenly struck Corben that the expression "wearing eyes" was a confunding one. Imagining a young lad waking up and physically adorning a headdress with brooding eyes dangling from it, he couldn't hold back. The tense expression on the boy's face turned quizzical as Corben burst out laughing. 'Is he mad?' he wondered. Or have I forgotten my pants at home again? Looking down at his own feet, the boy breathed out a huge sigh of relief just as Corben, trying desperately to get his laughter under control gulped huge lungfuls of his own." See?

please come back !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wait, worlbuilding is his second step after the superficial plot summary? Even before the main character? Perhaps this is why I could never really get into any of Sanderson’s books - they seem to go wide way too early. By “wide”, I mean showing the worldbuilding, whereas by “forward”, I mean the pacing of the plot, and giving the reader an idea early on of what the actual story (including on a thematic level) is going to be about.

This is standard practice in romance novels, too! You want your reader to fall in love with, ideally, both main characters while they are falling in love with each other. So you use each character's perspective to enhance the virtues of the other character for the reader's sake, then you use a character's own perspective to bring them down to earth and keep the character realistic and relatable.

This is a FANTASTIC explanation of Save the Cat. I was already a big fan of the method, but this actually gave me some new impressions of it as it applies to my own story. Thanks!

Nice video bro 🫡

NaNoWriMo and Write or Die (kamikaze mode) taught me that I can produce 1667 words in about an hour. Good words? Maybe not, but words that can be the springboard for better writing later as this content is usually all plot-driven. These days, my daily word count tends to be 3K with some days over 5K. Mostly, these days are after spending some downtime thinking about where I want to go next and how to get there. I do throw a lot of words out when I'm working that fast, but it's easier to toss once you recognize it's just words. It's not your baby you're tossing in the trash.

God! This video is such good quality! So happy I found it

Glad I've found this video! Thank you!

This was great. Thank you.

Sometimes the B story is just a friendship. The most important part of the B story is exposition of your protagonist. The B story is where we learn about the protagonists flaws, hopes and fears, quirks and failures. We should see character arc in the B story. Thank you for your video!

❤

2:26 ironically, I started playing Oneshot yesterday! No spoilers since I just started the game tho.

Wow two years late to the party but there's an app called "choices that matter" and there is a story called "and the sun disappeared" or something and it's AMAZING

this video is amazing. I completely agree and went down a similar road

Hey man, I recently saw all your videos and noticed you stopped doing it. You had tremendous potential, sometimes the algorithm doesnt work and favours, but if you try to diversify your options you really could blow up. Great work, wish u the best

<3

learn how to write a novel from a guy just out of diapers, no thanks.

Critiques should be part of your writer-development toolbox, but it's impossible to create a good novel or short story via critiques. The story must ALREADY be good. All a critique can accomplish in the short run is polishing your story. This is probably one of the most understated truths about writing. You have to learn how to tell a good story. Extraordinarily difficult to learn that through any form of formal training. If a story isn't good, critiques are worthless (in the short run). It would be like trying to polish up an average basketball player so he can make it into the NBA. Never gonna happen. How do you learn how to tell a good story? I can only suggest living and learning about life in general and spending a lot of time thinking about who you are and about what you love about life and other books.

"...stand with a rigid spine" -- that alone shows you have a LOT of work to do as a writer. The remainder of the critique is spot-on. You need to join a writer workshop and devote a few years to reading and writing voluminously. I know that seems intimidating at this point in your very young life but that doesn't change the reality of where you're at now.

Let's make the word gambeson a thing we all know. I'm stealing that word for my own work now. Hell I might even name a character Gambeson. I love that word.

Your voice is so soothing. Make more videos please.

I like your writing. Now I have to read this book.

Nicely made good sir

Dude thanks. I finally understand how writing works

I think the wearing grave eyes thing makes sense how you did it.

I wrote 8135 words in the past 4 to 5 hours, the total amount of words(my laptop os in front of me I'm having a break watching this) is 2008135🎉 i love writing ❤😊

Watching this in 2024, when you said this was your first vid, I was utterly shocked. Very impressed, and definitely subscribing!

You have almost perfectly described the concept of Journey Before Destination and I applaud you for it

i’ve been using the simple three act structure to write my novel for almost 2 years, constantly running into problems with trying to make everything fit and makes sense with the beats. only heard about save the cat today and it’s been a lifesaver. very thankful for this video, it explains it very well

How many words did Jack Kerouac write?

Well for one, 2300 words seems quite short for chapter length. I wonder if there’s more you could add to beef it up a bit.

Amazing stuff! Subscriber earnt.

My first Yarn's vid, and im clicking that sub button. Very good quality and content, keep it up.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir has that setting!! Maybe you already know this, it's been a while. Awesome video!