Lecture #8: Worldbuilding Q&A - Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
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- čas přidán 1. 04. 2020
- Welcome to the eighth lecture of my BYU 2020 creative writing class focused on writing science fiction and fantasy.
Today's class is the Q&A on worldbuilding.
His ability to make a living with words, while not being able to spell many of them, makes me think eye can dewit two.
Lol...
Nicewon lol
Spelling is irrelevant in the age of technology. If you spell something wrong it’s immediately corrected. I spelled at least 3 words wrong in this comment.
Yup. I feal ya.
@@nathanbaca5131 I spelled your name wronge
Someone explain to me why I can’t pay attention in my university lectures and now am using free time to watch university lecture
Requirement vs. Interest. Also Brandon Sanderson is incredibly charismatic.
This comment encapsulates my entire education journey/
Because your teachers are shit, and Brandon is super entertaining AND he makes you learn through the netertainment.
The things we truly value are only when it's completely our decision to.
Most people watching this I assume are fans of Sanderson’s books. Much more interesting when you’re learning from someone you respect and in some cases idolize.
1:38 - “What flaws do you (Sanderson) have, that make you a better writer?”
4:54 - “How do you create a magic that doesn’t seem like magic?”
6:11 - Internal vs. external consistency/logic
10:30 - Goes back to explain how internal vs. external logic plays into creating a magic system, that doesn’t seem like magic.
11:56 - “How do we give enough exposition to make the reader understand the world, but maintain mystery and twists?”
17:28 - “Do you change or modify rules based on the age of the intended reader?” + “Do you, while you’re writing, ever change your rules?” (Tbc. at 24:26, after the question below)
23:13 - “Do you ever have publishers or editors try to have you put more graphic content in?”
26:02 - Follow-up question from one of the students: “My central character is eight years old. What is the danger with that? Why don’t we see more adult books with child protagonists?”
29:05 - “This is back to the internal/external logic. What do you do if there’s a case where they may conflict? How do you choose which one is better?”
32:56 - “Is there a way to see hard magic disguised as soft magic in a book?”
35:37 - “How do you prevent world building from feeling like a chore?”
40:38 - “What’s my (Sanderson’s) opinion on fanfiction?”
41:34 - “How do you know if your magic system works?”
45:54 - “I’d love to screen write for animation. Any tips?”
48:02 - “Is editing fantasy/sci-fi a good backup plan?”
52:39 - “How can you make limits or weaknesses appear natural and not contrived?”
56:58 - “What does Brandon think of The Mandalorian?”
58:52 - “Are Sanderson’s Laws absolute?”
59:45 - “How do you decide that you need to add some new magic, and how do you add it smoothly without turning it into a deus ex machina/making it feel out of nowhere?”
1:04:47 - About revision
this should be pinned
Sanderson should put this on top of the comments section!
Thank you 🐐
Not all hero’s wear capes.
Legend.
I really appreciate that Brandon doesn't have the attitude of "Lord of the Rings is outdated". I see it a lot and it really is frustrating. Thank you Brandon! I love your books!
I am not a fan of LotR, but I am very saddened when anyone says any book is outdated. Books should not have an expiry date.
We all owe so much to Grandpa Tolkien, whether we know it or not.
@rutber2000 I think this summarizes it well.
There does come a time with a book where you think, this wouldn't work if someone wrote it today and the author was less famous. Like people don't even realise a lot of Jane Austen stuff is satirising society and question what makes her interesting, if enough people these days can't recognise that without being told or reading a lot of her work, then the works have become outdated. That does NOT mean they are not good books you can still enjoy, Jane Austen is obviously timeless and her works are far more niche and older than Tolkien. But everything loses their importance as time goes on.
@rutber2000 Tolkien created that world for himself mainly, if you want to make a book like Tolkien I don't think you should expect it to be a best seller anyway. It should be a passion project.
I could listen to Brandon talk about writing fantasy all day.
In fact, I did
This is what I do at home all day. #WithMe 😂
I totally agree with Sanderson when he says that if you violate a readers external logic then you will have to work a lot harder to get them to suspend their disbelief and accept it. When writing one of my books I found that my brother got very angry with me because I was writing a necromancer in a totally different light than one would typically expect. I tried explaining the logic behind my decision, and everything made sense that way, but he still could not accept it. I found however, that if I just didn't call the character a necromancer that my brother was perfectly fine with the character because it no longer came with that excess baggage.
tbh this is just a story about your pedantic brother
tbh unless he was talking about how necromancy is a literal meaning for "talking to the dead" he was just being pedantic
I had this problem, but with vampires
"Everything in a book is contrived"
THANK YOU! I have been saying this for years
yeah when he said that I mouthed the same at the screen lol
to be fair though... everything is contrived? So we might as well enjoy our little contrivances.
But magic might not FEEL contrived. Allomacy and Feruchemy do NOT seem like absurd fantasy when we read about them. The abilities are very specific, limited, but still very powerful when used correctly.
I've started seeing your class in the BYU since the quarantine begun.
I'm from Spain and these weeks my writing motivation fell off pretty quickly.
Even if this message gets lost on the comment section, I'm so thankful for your classes, the way you try to explain us your experience through the years.
It gave me hope and the words you've said at the first video made me feel like I was in your class. Thank you
PD: Sorry for my English, it's not my main language
your english is perfect, bro
@@carlosgagomaria4859 really? I think I could say it way better
@@senkiken2628 JAJAJAJA no me hagas mucho caso que hablo tu idioma y también soy estudiante de inglés
@@senkiken2628 No he's right, there were a few mistakes but you spoke better than a lot of native English speakers
@@ChaseNoseworthy Thank you then. I mean. For a foreign person, at the very beginning English seems easy. But when you go deeper into it it's way harder
46:18 One of the most selfless, mature pieces of advice I've gotten from him. For someone as highly accomplished and renowned in sci-fi/fantasy as him to state openly that he is not the one to be giving advice on how to break in in the current climate just shows how true and honest he is. It's completely the correct call too, I mean think about how exponentially fast our world changes now. We literally didn't have iPhones when he broke in, let that sink in ... let alone all the other software/hardware/devices we have now that's made eBook sales fly off the charts. Even CZcams was barely a year old, nothing like it is now. So not only is he completely right in this assessment, but it makes me trust all of his other advice 100%. Brandon Sanderson must be protected at all costs. At least until he's 72 ... iykyk 📚📚📚
This man is brilliant, but I'm also struck by just what an amazing teacher he is. He's the best blend of humor, humility, and imagination.
1:06:38 It's time for Deep Thoughts with Heinlein.
-You must write.
-You must finish what you write.
-You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
-You must put the work on the market.
-You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.
That concludes our Deep Thoughts with Heinlein.
32:00 - I think Jim Butcher's got a shining example of handing "not completely standard" vampires in *The Dresden Files*. He has three separate types of vampires (three vampire Courts), and they're brilliantly differentiated. One is the standard vampire (Black Court). Then the Red Court is quite similar, but with somewhat different rules. Finally the White Court doesn't feed on blood at all - they feed on emotional energy. Anyway, however it's done, Jim did it, and did it super-well.
Yep.
I DM dungeons and dragons for some of my friends, and one of them is playing a “lesser” vampire who feeds off dreams. Reminds me of that
These lectures are amazing. I have made more progress with my writing in the past couple weeks after starting these than the past couple years before finding these. A big thank you to B Sanderson and the CZcams algorithm
I can't believe this was just put out for free, I feel like I owe someone money after watching this whole series of lectures.
It took me 8 of these lectures to realize my science fiction story absolutely has a magic system in it. I then immediately decided to expand on that magic system and add a second one. I just thought that was amusing. :D
The last 10 minutes about revision from 1:04:47 is gold. Thank you. So enjoy these lectures. This is the third series of them I’ve watched.
I'm constantly amazed he can come up with concrete examples at the drop of a hat. An amazing lecturer. Tireless and energetic. Also, my favorite author by a wide margin.
“That’s a great question!”
-Brandon Sanderson
Realistic magic and fantastical science would be a good name for a book on that lesson
57:50
"we're gonna make some star wars shi- uh.. star wars show"
1:13:45
He was absolutely going to say "I'm gonna try to kill every character who is meant to die."
absolutely loved catching that at 57:50, also how everyone ELSE seemingly caught it. 57:56 some girl literally says "that's not what you were gonna say"
One thing I get out of all of these lectures is it is usually better to flesh out your main character(s) than anything else. A simple plot with fantastic characters will not confuse the reader and give them a strong viewpoint from which to explore. As the character explores, the reader explores and the character, like most of us, rarely have long conversations with anyone about how the world works around us unless we have a mentor. That perspective seems very helpful to keep my writing closer to what would the character think and less about what I might want to put in their head.
BYU students in comments are saying this must have been recorded beforehand. Just saying before another person takes the time to ask
Thank goodness, I love that Sanderson knows he's not an expert in breaking into the current publishing industry. So glad he doesn't give an equivalent of "Just go up to the publishing manager and give them a firm handshake and you'll get published that day!" It's so incredibly refreshing to get advice from someone who knows what he knows and knows what he doesn't know.
Thank you Sanderson for these lectures. You have the gratitude of thousands of aspiring writers.
Your story about not talking about the sprens on the emotion scenes is amazing. They are the driving element of the advance of the characters and the world state and you managed to add their "common" presence only in a revision. That is a great revision work right there.
I like how Brandon discusses the difference between MG & YA. But as with everything, there are exceptions...
As a teacher, I wish there were more writers who wrote more complex works but for younger students content-wise. This is because there are plenty of middle grade students who can read at very high levels, but they can’t find a lot except for classics that are appropriate for their age.
Likewise, there are plenty of high schoolers that read below their grade level (the majority in fact), so having YA books content-wise but are easier to read would also be welcome :)
So true. It's a trap for able young readers -- the best compliment to an 11 year old is to say they have a 16 yr old's reading age...but then you don't want them to read books that are aimed at 16 year olds. There's such a big gap in the market for appropriately challenging middle grade books.
The difference between reading levels in students through elementary all the way to high school was why I struggled so much in school. I come from a family of avid readers and found most of my assigned reading far beneath my reading level and didn’t even bother reading a lot of it. I was rebellious and immature to not do my assignments because they weren’t engaging for me, but children and adolescents are by definition immature. Giving children books below their reading level is a huge reason why many people find reading to be boring and end up hating reading. Many people haven’t read an engaging book by their teen years and give up because they don’t realize they’ve just been reading the wrong books.
@@nathanbaca5131 My solution to that problem was just reading adult books. Between about 9 and about 35 I read zero MG or YA books except maybe for a couple for school.
What's wrong with classics?
@@nathanbaca5131 I see this happen to my students far more often than you’d think!
I am watching this in 2024. amazed at this series. It answers so much about my writing. Hopefully I can learn. THank you very much. It's sad that so many more people started this course than finished it. It truly is their loss.
So nobody else has wondered what Brandon wrote during this session? I neeeed to know.
Also, thanks for providing this online. Here I am watching it 2 years later and learning so much. Really inspiring. I wrote my first piece of flash fiction, and my first writing in years… seriously, thanks.
I knew everyone is probably worried about this, because I was, this is MOST LIKELY a pre recording.
He states that he will two weeks on the business side, and the livestream was about the business side of writing (ie, publishing, agents, etc.). He usually does only 2 weeks on each "subject" on writing (given his previous lecture from 2016 posted by CameraPanda). It is logical to think that this was before the livestream. Also, he/Isaac states somewhere that they have finished six weeks left of a thirteen week semester, and this is numbered as EIGHT, and there are seven lectures published online *before* the livestream. So : Total weeks (13) - Weeks left, not counting the week this was recorded on (6) = 7 (weeks done), which lines up with the number of currently posted lectures (not counted livestream).
Hope I quell your anxiety/concerns. :)
but the very first line is "you get me back this week", i.e. after the live stream.
@@roceb5009 Lecture #7 was with a guest lecturer and not him..
Also at 47:30 or so he refers to Mary's class as "last week".
Worst case scenario he'll livestream his lectures to the class
PTL
At 57:50, was one of the quickest censorings I've heard yet. Had me cracking up! Nice save! 😆👍👍
Hello Brandon, I live in Prague and I stumbled upon these lectures as I first tried to find out what writing is about and whether that would be for me. So, thank you for the recordings and please continue as the semester progresses if it is possible with current covid situation. Cheers.
Thank you SOOOO much for posting these videos! I love the humility you show and how you always point out that you can only teach what you know works for you and may work for some others, but that there are many other ways that may work better for some people. And frankly I love that you are the kind of person some people would consider a nerd like me, who is not afraid to show his flaws and admit his mistakes!
The best example of writing that has no internal consistency but works brilliantly is Douglas Adams. He even changed the story on purpose so the radio plays wouldnt be exactly the same as the books but still ended up in the same place.
Ironically, that lack of consistency is itself a form of consistency.
Everything in life is coincidence?
No sir.
First time is a mistake.
Second time is coincidence.
Third time is enemy action.
Ah. So that's why the third entry in a trilogy ends up being awful.
I love the bit about the revision process. Brandon is almost approaching an agile methodology! Really cool!
The best advice I ever got about designing something for a young audience:
You make it for the intelligence of an adult, but with no worldly experience. Kids understand emotional complexity, they just often don't have the vocabulary for it.
Ok, if i a 14 yr old can watch a college lecture cause it’s informative yet enjoyable means your doing something right
Every year or so I come back to Brandon's videos, and I get a new, deeper understanding of how to implement his advice in my writing. I wish I had rewatched this a couple of months ago - it would have saved me a lot of headaches in revision.
I've been looking forward to watching more of these! Thanks for being willing to post them.
Love these Brandon they help a Lot thank you very much
At 34:18 when Sanderson referenced the plot in Fred Saberhagen's Book of Swords, i remembered Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. Great book.
Yeah, I missed the name and thought that he was talking about Lord of Light for a few moments.
@@ja8ames Me too!
Great class - especially the bits on your revision process. Thanks, Brandon.
Hey Brandon thank you for helping to finish the wheel of time series.
This is so much fun to watch. So many golden nuggets.
I watch these classes to help improve my writing methods. I watch them so much that they now interfere with my actual writing. No regrets
I'm an engineer and have 0 plans or aspirations to become an author, and yet I find these lectures interesting.
Engineer a killer book
I love your books and really appreciate you sharing your knowledge ^^
That’s the best description of revision I’ve ever heard.
I really appreciate that last point about revision and edition.
I use fictionary system, it's really great for a second revision and gave me so much information for edition, anyway, think I'm going to put more attention in that in the video, I really need it.
Thanks for all this videos, Mr Sanderson.
I've been bingeing this series, but I finally have to comment because FINALLY someone agrees with me about the Mandalorian. All the important story and character was in the beginning and the end. Feels like it could've just been a movie, but still so good.
The bit at the end regarding revision was pure gold.
I know it's minor but it's actually quite incredible that he says "let's talk for 10 minutes about revisions" EXACTLY 10 minutes before the video ends
Brandon, I hope you read through your youtube comments sometimes. I've never seen a more overwhelmingly positive review of a youtube video than I do here (I'm a big youtube comment reader). Deservedly so, these are incredibly valuable videos that make this giant process in the modern age seem so doable, achievable and worth it. I wish we could see how many authors moved to publishing just because of these videos
'Remember the bucket.'
Great advice.
I like the sculpture analogy. I also heard that on The Creative Penn podcast
best advice ever. (also that t-shirt is amazing)
Thank you for sharing your lectures. As someone who is trying to become better at what I love to do your insight has been very helpful to know where to start and that i didnt infact do everything backwards.
In regards to the mention of editing, there's a huge indie writing market, and many if them hire editors. Usually freelance editors.
And anyone can call themselves a freelance editor and meet any degree of success.
17:20 This is exactly how Roger Zelazny explained the Amber universe in the first book of his Chronicles of Amber - SPOILER ALERT - Corwin wakes up in a sanitarium with amnesia, he has no idea why he is tougher and stronger than normal human beings, he discovers that he has to walk the Pattern to get his memories back, which includes an explanation of how magic works in that universe. Even on second and third readings, this device works really well for explaining how things work and why Amberites (Amberlings?) are different than normal everyday people.
Jojolion also does this really really well too!
First I thought, I should recommend Worm by wildbow to everyone. Then I realized the (slim) chance of Brandon reading it because of this comment and got worried for his beautiful characters, in case he got influenced.
But I love both writers equally. Both very high on my favorites list
Spelling consistency inconsistently. An alternate answer to the first question.
Thanks for this :) Always valuable content, I love it.
If ever my scribblings find their way onto the printed page, I will be sure to include Mr Sanderson in my acknowledgments. Not because I love his books (while they're quite good, IMO, and consistently so, they are not my favorites), but because this series of videos puts my university-level creative writing education to shame.
I learned the word deus ex machina from this video & it’s probably the coolest word I’ve ever heard
Interesting to see this viedeo 3 years later. I personally feel that New Adult has definetly become a thing in the book industry nowadays.
I love you mr Sanderson.
Your writing process is really interesting. Great video
Glad to see the notofication😁
I love this channel
54:00 "A wizard did it!!!"
Really helped me on so many levels with my creative writing thanks so much.
Really enjoying these lectures :) going through it a second time, making notes now that I have a draft for my world.
Comming from an angle of writing shorter stories for fun (fiction) and having done non-fiction/technical writing professionally, but my goal for 2024 is to write a longer fiction. The things I'm most unfamiliar with is a longer plot with subplots, and having tension. So I really hope the tips on outlines will give me a workable first attempt :)
Another master class
It would be so great, if Brandon Sanderson wrote the book about writing! It would be the best present for people who admire him as the teacher of writing classes
"Brandon absorbed stormlight from a nearby fluorescent lamp and the coronavirus sprens flew out of class"
Lmaooo
This man is the Goat.
I find it hard to get into revision but once I'm in... Oh boy I can tweak and change stuff so much.
Am watching this from Australia 3 years later. Thanks for reminding me why I wanted to write😊
Can't wait for the character week.
Thanks so much for posting this lecture series Brandon. It is helping me so much. Are you going to post your lecture on Character, number 9/10? I could do with some help on how to make my characters more charcterful. Thank you
Loving this lecture series. I would have definitely done this if my university offered it. We had some play writing nonsense instead
Lol playwrights
The genre conventions can do a lot for fanfiction as well. You get genre conventions, canon references, and fanon conventions which let you evoke a lot of information in very few words. It's not an infodump if it's literally a single 12-word sentence.
How ironic is it that he was inconsistent in his spelling of the word consistency?
"As an artist, when you are creating a piece of art and a piece of writing, your focus should be on, what do i want this piece of art to achieve? What is my goal with it? I'm going to measure your success in creating that art based on how well you were able to do the thing you were trying to."
Love this cause I always hated when people pushed the idea that -you can't judge somebodies art, its subjective-. If that is true how come some things get wildly popular and others are hated or ignored? This standard of judging art is spot on. Sanderson for the win again.
Three stuff u before is more famous than others can be confirmation bias. As in your opinion is that those particular pieces are better because their popular.
58:54 Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
Ah i was looking for this comment
That’s the most hypocritical line in all of Star Wars and I love it.
The moment you realize the fact that if a sigh deals in absolutes and it is true and Sheri is sayin fit then wouldn’t the Jedi be dealing with absolutes?
I genuinely wished I had this class when I was in college
Thank you for this.
Thank you soooo much!!
Man, I wish I was able to take this class. I would blow up Q&A time. :)
41:35 - ' How do you know your magic system works?"
A: If you spell the magic words and stuff happens - it works
Well, I love revision. The way my mind works, every revision can spur new ideas, and it usually gets better. If it doesn't, I still have the former version. It is haphazard. But, my first version of my main just looks horrible by comparison, and I've even begun salvaging it for later parts in my main. It originally started out where the protagonist was a gristled survivor in a savage wasteland where you had to thrive above and beyond in order to stay ahead of the curve. But, he started living that way when he was 10. Hmmm. Didn't work. So, I had to revise him as a refugee. However, I've introduced a character near the end who did survive like that, and it works because he was thoroughly trained before doing that. It works well.
Originally, he and one of the main females were supposed to be a thing. Then, I came up with a magic court of sorts, and the backstory of one of the 'monarchs' tied her closely with him. They could have been a thing, but never got close, and that required I write them together and, then, apart. I just couldn't write them apart, and the attempt turned into some nice relationship drama that made the story stronger. However, I was able to write the original love interest with someone else created for that purpose, and that works, too. Revision is good. Just weigh whether the revision is better than the original.
To his credit, Michael Sullivan did not do any of that with his elves in "Riyria Chronicles". He still added a twist that was very interesting in regards to the way they interacted with the world. It was fun, but it touched on nostalgia in a very interesting way. How should a writer approach nostalgia towards similar circumstances?
Fun example of a magicless magic system that suffered from not following rule 1 was the tattoos in prison break. The ability of the tattoos to have a solution to every possible problem was constantly extended in a way that broke the show’s internal logic
This is interesting regarding writing kids/teens in the adult genres, in literary fiction and memoirs there are TONS of examples of this. TS Spivet is a recent one. Or Oscar Wao. There some great examples in literary fiction but you're right, there aren't any in adult genre fiction. Perhaps the market just doesn't want it??
Thank you!
I am missing my chemistry class for this and i have to become a doctor so its not good for me to miss any of the science classes.(writing is my passion and i work on it all the time and i want to be a writer and and doctor as doctor is work whereas writing is passion) and i am watching this to become a better ya fantasy medieval politics game of thrones type novel!😊
I listen to Steelheart when I was like 13, UK be crazy.
I've seen Fantasy in the historical fiction section because that's what the author usually writes.
Time turners use (or used, since Cursed Child) close loop time travel. Meaning they cannot really change the past. For example, the first time Harry was attacked by the dementors he saw his future self saving him. Therefore when eventually he travel to the past, he didnt change anything. What he did, had already happen.
I'd love to watch Brandon teach a Chekhov story or two, break down the methods and effects.
I feel like this advice on how he does revision guides is pretty useful... Like, I have difficulties just writing without revising (a 'bleeder' basically I think is the term) so it takes me a long while to write... And I WILL do sorts of these 'revision guides', but I think an issue is that I don't finish the story first before going through them... And then I find more things I want to revise and so I do that and it takes awhile while my story's plot is just kinda waiting wherever it is at for me to eventually get back around to it... I think I really just need to try and hold off more...