It's amazing that someone at the top of his profession takes the time to teach others about his expertise. I'm not even a writer, and I have caught myself watching his videos for over an hour. This would be like Steven Spielberg posting multiple lectures on how to make a movie.
I love how his writing tendencies bleed into his lectures. He knows he's "info dumping" you for hours at a time, and he's learned when to insert a quip, or tell a funny story, or make a pop culture reference, or bring up an amusing anecdote. So not only are you learning a ton, you get bursts of levity to keep your eyes from glazing over and your head off the desk.
I had the EXACT same feeling after going through his lecture series on UA-cam!! I not only learned far more from him, but I also felt so much more confident in my writing and my story than any of my professors in my creative writing program ever encouraged me to feel.
Sarah, what was your thought about how Sanderson plots his outlines as a gardener? I thought it was interesting how he constantly rebuilds his outline as he writes allowing the book to go where it needs to. I'm not sure he mentions this in his 2020 class. Also, I highly recommend other years of his class. Or at least a session or two. It's all the same, but he says the same things differently so it is good for clarity.
@@SaraLubratt I'm sure it is only for his first drafts. However, I can't imagine the workload it is when he writes a Stormlight Archive book. Those are like 450-500k words.
I took the same course through UA-cam. Absolutely loved his lectures. His comedic comments are weaved all throughout his instructions which makes it super engaging. Recommend it to any and all. By the way, love your videos. Been following for awhile but haven't commented before. :)
There is a raw elemental beauty in the initial jagged throes of creation. Stories can be refined to a glassy smoothness that erode the original rough edges of its excitement. When revising you never want to extinguish the fire, that fundamental creative spark, out of your piece. After revisions you must be brutally honest with yourself. Is this better, or is it just different?
I watched all of his videos and follow his YT channel. Finally read the Mistborn trilogy and OMGsh! Definitely good info coming from him! And he took full control of his business and it's great for people to see that it can be done! Publishers don't have to control everything. :)
It's almost as if learning something from someone who is a master of his craft is better than sitting through a bunch of lessons... For real though, the reason his class and perspective is so good is because he is an actual writer, he is a good write, and he loves to write. He isn't interested in teaching you how to talk about writing but actually get you in there and teach you how to write. It's sort of like the difference between learning how to play basketball vs learning how to commentate on others playing basketball.
Yes, Sanderson’s approach is long overdue. He gets down to the nitty gritty of writing. However, he sails very close to the formulaic zone, where so many American writers crash their novels. He has great tips but the cat should never know its been saved.
Just figured I'd circle back here idk if u saw the wired article that just came out about Brandon but its worth talking about considering the guy just craps on him for 4k words the entire thing is ridiculous
Well of course you might get more from Brandon's course than your whole degree. Your professors specialize in pretending they are important and successful...so they specialize in teaching not being actual authors. Brandon actually became successful after a lot of years of failure and from the other side he can teach you more than all those pretend "authors" at your College/University... So find a mentor that's successful in what you want to be successful and become his apprentice...forget college, you'll pay your mentor less than all those years of college...unless you want to go into research or medicine or engineering or some other branch where you need lab equipment to do your job, then you need college.
The community surrounding Brandon Sanderson is so incredibly positive. His lectures are fantastic and everyone who watches them are super grateful for his teachings. Its all so wholesome
I haven't read any of his books so when I watched some of his lectures, I was a bit skeptical. What really got me was his emphasis on the fact that his advice won't work for everyone. That's when I realized he's a real one.
I also took his class, and then started writing the book I've been thinking about writing for the past eight years. I've read a lot of books on writing, but this was the class that finally made me feel ready to just dive in. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my book now and still going strong. Can not recommend the class highly enough.
I don't think Brandon mentions it in his lectures but one of the most helpful things I came to realize as a first-time novel writer is to embrace the core idea of writing. It gives so much freedom to think about yourself as a person to tell a story that's been trapped inside your head. Don't stress over writing too little, or writing badly. It's a tricky thing to express but you really need to be a friend with yourself when it comes to writing. Because it's hard, it's *insanely* hard. So don't stress out about missing a daily goal, or being uncertain about things. It's much more important to *try* than to be certain. If you pick absolutely any classic fantasy author and read their drafts, you will be blown away at how drastically they've changed things. And that's the miracle of writing-revisions. No, you don't have to use it as an excuse to suck, hoping you'll make it right during revisions. It's not about slacking off, it's about giving yourself the freedom to create without bothering if each and every detail falls into place or even makes sense. Make things up, take a detour, let characters do something you would've never thought of. The most important part-don't limit yourself out of fear of being bad.
I have watched Brandon´s creative writing classes several times, and find them to be, by a long shot, the best and most useful of its kind I have ever heard. And I thought that you did a fantastic job of breaking down all the highlights, in a concise and easy-to-follow manner. Excellent work with the video ^^
"This class taught me more than my entire degree did." Of course it did! It's Brandon Sanderson, the one living author who can still generate universal acclaim for his work just by blinking! I haven't picked up a single Sanderson book, and even I know that whatever he's doing, he's mastered it. Lecture 1: Cheers to the not-morning people. Lecture 2: Now I don't feel guilty about putting my eggs for a story in multiple concept baskets. I also think Sanderson has found the better way of phrasing "practice makes perfect" that we needed. Lecture 4: What he says about intros is a tough one, but it's doable. I remember the strategy Damien Chazelle used in "Whiplash", where he summarized the entire arc of conflict for the audience in the first 2 minutes of screentime. Lecture 5: Sanderson's Laws are ... uhhhhhhhh ... interesting. I'm gonna think about them. Lecture 6: "Worldbuilder's disease." I feel attacked. But in a constructive way. Lecture 8: I call it the David Lynch law. Why *should* I explain the meanings behind my story to interviewers and students and the like? No. Lecture 9: Listen ...... the characters' motivations NEVER make sense in the first draft. Unless you've gone for broke on pure simplicity, there's a huge guarantee your first draft will be spent formulating the actual plot and setting it into the structure you think will work based on an educated guess. Having a theatre background, I've learned that by revising the plot you put the onstage characters under the microscope. Why do *these specific people* need to be in the scene? What the shit are they doing and why are they doing it? If they aren't motivated, why should the actor be expected to give a good performance? Lecture 10: Dialogue, description, action, introspection? Yeah that's the right path to balance. Lecture 11: I think we as writers have been conditioned by properties like Marvel to believe that all our work is an iceberg and that for any one story to be satisfying, we must know everything that connects to it. I plead guilty to working this way. I always have faith in my beginnings but get tripped up by how the endgame will shape up. Lectures 12 and 13: Cabbage.
I started writing a year ago and have been writing consistently every day. One thing that would've helped me tremendously if I had heard it when I started would be to invest in the fundamentals of storytelling. Think through your setting, think through your characters and their motivations. It pays off in ways you would've never imagined. I remember starting a novel for the second time from scratch, faced with that intimidating blank page. I wanted to start it with a dialogue between the main characters but I had zero ideas what they should speak about. Should it be about their plans? Should it be about their past? The weather, perhaps? And then it just clicked. And it didn't click because I sat down and thought of all the possible options, picking the one I found to be the best for the scene. No. The dialogue in its entirely had come to me in a single session just because I stopped thinking about what the characters should say and instead just let them speak. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but it was all it took. Have a character you think you know. Understand their motivation. Have a constraining, realistically designed world. And the things will tell themselves without you interfering much. The dialogues will be natural and the character actions fluid. Don't be afraid to let your characters live in the world you created, don't plan and make each step for them.
This is so relatable. Started last March and have written about 500k words so far, spending so much time rewriting my epic fantasy since I feel the lack is fundamentals in the first chapters. Writing your first book is so fun and exciting but the steepness of the learning curve lets you waste a lot of time rewriting if you just jump in.
@@benjaminzirngibl5169 Awesome to hear you've reached 500k! Great job. I try not to focus on rewriting at all unless I'm spotting an obvious mistake or a place that can be improved immediately. I think it's important to balance writing the draft and then doing revisions so I won't be stuck in the endless cycle of rewrites. That's also one of the things that liberate me: I strive for my writing to be good but never perfect. Getting a perfect draft is pretty much impossible and, frankly, quite redundant. Revisions are there to make good drafts perfect!
I remember watching the highlights of Brandon's class years ago. I still have my notes. I think he updates the channel, meaning there's a new class every new semester or maybe it was just in a different channel. It is highly educational. You forgot to mention, Brandon throws free gums/candies to his students. ;)
He teaches the class once a year. You have to apply to get into the class. He also does a writing group with about 15 students who are close to being ready to publish. This is my goal to get into someday.
14:49 - This is a pretty good advice, I remember reading Elantris and being super curious about how the magic worked and instead of just throwing a lot of information on the reader, the book describes the protagonist experimenting with magic formulas, failing, and when he realizes what he's doing wrong is when we learn more about it too, without someone literally explaining it
also, granting that i HAVE watched these a hundred times, it's so nice to hear you kind of sum up what all was said in each lecture, in that it actually gives me a perspective on UNDERSTANDING what he says about certain things. you actually helped me greatly to "decode" certain pieces of advice or counsel that he goes on to talk about in the lectures. so thanks for clarifying. :)
That was a problem for me too. Trying to get a proper understanding and perspective of what he's saying wasn't easy for me even after listening to so many of his lectures. The decoding is a real issue. I feel like I've saved money on taking a course now.
idk how i've missed this (i've watched his lectures a hundred times) but the idea of everything in life basically being contrived and coincidental...... that helps me SO MUCH that it makes me want to scream. :O
Sara, thanks for condensing the main points from the lectures! For myself, the most inspiring part of Brandon's approach to writing is his diligence to the craft. He treats writing as an actual job and truly commits to it. Also, having a writing group for feedback doesn't hurt. Writing consistently is one thing, but I wish I could get regular feedback on my writing to stretch my capabilities.
Absolutely! I agree that he is amazing at making his writing a priority but also not letting it overwhelm his life and burn out. Writing groups are very helpful, have you looked online in your area to see if there is one you can join? Thank you for watching!
@@SaraLubratt Unfortunately, there's not many writer groups based in my neck of the woods. Do you know of any online-only writing groups that aren't super intimidating? That might be an interesting video...just sayin' ;)
I watched some of that Sanderson course. That dude spent a LOT of time really getting that surface scratched. When I create a fictional world, I should create fictional religions, too? Thanks, Brandon.
Been struggling to get in the right mindset to start a novel, yet hearing the passion you and Brandon speak about writing is getting me there. Thanks for the push Sara!
Terry Pratchett did an amazing job of world building, it wasn't till I read the 4th book of his that I realized they were all parts of the same world, and there was an overarching timeline. Almost every book of his was a standalone story.
I highly recommend watching the lecture on short stories by Mary Robinette. A fair bit of it obviously wouldn’t apply to your series, but her explanation of the MICE quotient was fantastic and is an excellent tool for writers of works of any length.
Watched his whole lecture series myself and I am still redoing my notes.... which made me realize, can't an iconic character be someone on the low bar of the either of the 3 sliders? Like Likeability, High Proactivity, High Competence.... well, basically, that's the superheroes nemesis, right?
@@SaraLubratt It feels a bit like joining Brandon's writing group. I spent weeks going through the topics I was interested in, back in 2020. Mostly it reinforces what he already says in the lectures, but there are little gems here and there from Brandon and his peers and even different perspectives on his writing philosophies. And specifics that aren't covered in detail in his lectures. I should probably check out their latest content.
You really should go back and watch lecture 7 by Mary Robinette Kowal. She's an excellent writer and has taught Sanderson much on being less wordy. It's a great take on writing.
I'm happy that I can access Brandon Sanderson's writing advice for free, because all of my friends have told me I need to read his books because he's good at everything I'm trying to do and be.
Regarding the architect/gardener comparison, I liked it as well! It's always worth adding that writers are rarely at the extremity of either. Most often you'd have to combine, and that's, actually, perfect. Things like story arcs and main plot twists may require a good planning session (and not just one, trust me). But there are so many small things that don't have to be thought through as much. What I like doing is outlining a solid carcass of the arc, placing the main events like checkpoints I want my characters to reach, and then thinking of individual scenes in terms of starting points where it should set off from. What do the characters feel? What do they worry about? And then they carry out their journeys by themselves. It may also be good advice not to think of your outlines, your architected things, as something that must stay true no matter what. One of the greatest writing moments I had was outlining things, letting the characters go, and then watching how they come to totally different, unexpected things, which were tenfold better than I had originally planned. I believe good stories resemble life, and you can't really plan that much in your life. It's sporadic, hectic, it finds its own way. So do your characters, if you let them.
Great breakdown and quick reference for those who want to jump to certain parts of the lecture. PS your eyes look like ones writers would fail to accurately describe in a book, unable to do them justice!
This was really helpful. Thanks a lot for making this video, I took a lot of notes. I've listened to his lectures before, but it wasn't easy trying to take notes since everything he said seemed so important, and it's a pretty long series, so there was that obstacle too. This video really deconstructed the lectures well and I'll be re-listening to it later to note whatever I missed.
Thanks for posting this. I watched the entire thing, but I knew after a couple of chapters of your video that I was going to watch the entire lecture series.
Exercise in the morning and then I do some writing. I' write best in the morning and in the afternoon. On a good week I can write for to the 3 hours a day.
It's so weird to me that in the US you can major in creative writing. That's something that I would have loved to do, but it's not a valid major in my country. You can take "communication" which teaches you to be a journalist in printed media. Goes to show you how up to date our education system is. I thought of doing that, but you need perfect spelling and I'm genetically incapable of spelling correctly.
Despite what I said about my degree in this video, I really enjoyed majoring in creative writing. I think I mostly enjoyed the people I got to meet, the stories I got to read, and the workshop environment. I totally understand that it isn't in all countries but I think a writing degree has helped more than a communication degree (for me personally) in landing marketing jobs!
@@SaraLubratt It's interesting that you can get marketing jobs with it. In my country jobs are usually degree specific, so you'd need a marketing degree to get marketing jobs. Like I'm going back to school to get a degree in translating to get translating jobs. For some translations it's a prerequisite that you have to have a degree in order to be legally allowed to translate those texts. Like I love tourism and would love to be a tour guide in my hometown, but I'd need a 2-year degree for that too.
I was blown away by it. I think it's incredible and inspirational as an author who's starting out because it shows what can be done and the kind of audiences can be amassed by good writing!
Completely random, and not entirely sure you would be interested, but I highly suggest checking out Matthew Colville's Running the Game series. It's... less oriented towards writing a book, but it's very oriented on what I would call writing with intention, specifically, writing a collaborative D&D campaign, but he touches on some writing topics and specifically entertainment subjects that tie in with writing anything. He's an experienced video game writer and his videos like Brandon's are informative and entertaining.
Thank you for publishing this video. I just discovered your channel and I am enjoying it. I recently got into writing after watching “The OA” on Netflix. I was struck by the power of storytelling and its ability to move hearts and capture imaginations.
You gave some great advice based on book writing and other stuff I didn't know before. I definitely will be watching his lecture class on here. Thanks for the video, and you look beautiful with a wonderful smile. God bless.
As someone who has read hundreds of science fiction and fantasy books. Fantasy/sci-fi books should fulfill 80% of the Karaethon Cycle, epic fantasy or epic sci-fi should fulfill 100%. What it means for a character to fulfill a given passage of the prophecy can vary wildly and fulfillment can be metaphorical or abstract in some way. Sanderson's novels all fulfill the Karaethon Cycle. Ensemble novels it's best to spread out the fulfillment in each book among the characters and to not be afraid of redundant fulfillment. Though it should never feel redundant. Basically it's a way to ensure you hit all the expected markers.
I watched all these lectures last year, but this has made me want to rewatch them all! So many nuggets of wisdom that I either forgot over time or that hit me a bit differently now after another year of writing experience. Thanks for such a thorough walk-through video and your feedback on the class ☺
New to your channel. The algo is smart because I was just researching best writing professors a few days ago and then the very next day your video was at the top of my recommendation list. Subbed. Thanks, Google. Anyway, curious if you have any recommendations/thoughts on the best technical/essay/non-fiction writing classes/professors you've encountered either on YT or one of the paid course platforms (e.g. Masterclass etc.)? I know your shtick is creative writing, but perhaps you have some thoughts (or perhaps some of your clever followers do too). Thanks for the great material. Never heard of Sanderson (literature lover he decries in Lecture #1 - lol ) but was very impressed with his lectures. He is quite the charismatic gent! Now I will check out his work!
I pretty much did the same thing. I sat down for around a semester of my last year in highschool with these lectures, wrote about half a notebook of notes on what he said, then completed that notebook with the most interesting things from Writing Excuses(which is also very helpful, especially for specific aspects of fiction storytelling(and there are multiple POV's on the matters. Because i was in full lockdown online school, i did a lot of the homeworks from the podcast, and you basically learn a lllllot more from this than traditional english literature majors, or writing majors...I'm currently striding through the first year of an english and french literature bachelor's degree and i'm curious to see if i learn anything as advanced in the writing classes, than what Brandon shared with us.(BIG doubt, but i wanna get that degree anyway for credentials, because i'm not a native English speaker and a full education and acreditation in the language could make more considerable by some editors when i'll try publishing the books i'm working on.
i absolutely loved his lecture series, so lucky and grateful to have access to them as not only a writer but a huge fan of his work! thank you for the time and effort it took to make this condensed version of the lectures, this will prove to be very helpful as i go back to his lectures for refreshers 💖💕
I've watched Brandon's BYU lecture series 2-3 times and I consider him my writing mentor. Your video was excellent in summarizing his lectures, thank you so much! I set aside my writing for a couple of years since I found I have a ton of revisions to do on my first book. This video was very encouraging--just what I needed at my writing stage. btw I just looked at your profile and decided to subscribe. I think that is actually the first time I ever did that.
To this day, I still read my favorite novel Misborn 123 every 2 weeks. I am in love with the character Vin and it has turned into an obsession. It is a blessing an a curse because I know she is not real but she aspires me to be brave in face of adversity, to not quit and to face the challenges of the world with style.
As far as the 7th (guest) lecture on writing short stories goes, I finished all of Brandon's lectures then watched 7. Having done so, I would definitely watch it and participate in the activity. All you need is a laptop or computer with word processor or just a pencil and paper. The aspect of having to be concise in short stories really helped me with creating a hook at the beginning of my book more than anything else ever has. Plus by the end of the class you'll have written a complete short story. 😁👍
If you're having a hard time with revision, I can recommend Holly Lisle's How to Revise your Novel. It's a beast of a course, but she really helps you get the story out of the pages of words that you have, and there's a great community around to support you when you're struggling with it
This is a great summary of the lectures. I watched them last year and applied them more to lyric writing. But that whole concept of promises and payoffs really elevated how i think about lyrics. Also give audience less than you think they need helps a ton when trying to convey ideas and have the limitations of 1 verse to do it
It's amazing that someone at the top of his profession takes the time to teach others about his expertise. I'm not even a writer, and I have caught myself watching his videos for over an hour. This would be like Steven Spielberg posting multiple lectures on how to make a movie.
Absolutely!
I love that his philosophy is that everyone should know how to write because writing is good for your health.
For free!
Me too Theia Moon
I love how his writing tendencies bleed into his lectures. He knows he's "info dumping" you for hours at a time, and he's learned when to insert a quip, or tell a funny story, or make a pop culture reference, or bring up an amusing anecdote. So not only are you learning a ton, you get bursts of levity to keep your eyes from glazing over and your head off the desk.
Absolutely!
yeah. great story tellers usually know how to keep attention, even if they talk for hours.
Each year he teaches the class slightly differently. I think I've watched them all, and I've gotten something out of all of them.
Yes! Which is awesome that there is slightly different information in each class!
I had the EXACT same feeling after going through his lecture series on UA-cam!! I not only learned far more from him, but I also felt so much more confident in my writing and my story than any of my professors in my creative writing program ever encouraged me to feel.
Right?? It's crazy how well Sanderson teaches this class!
Sarah, what was your thought about how Sanderson plots his outlines as a gardener? I thought it was interesting how he constantly rebuilds his outline as he writes allowing the book to go where it needs to. I'm not sure he mentions this in his 2020 class. Also, I highly recommend other years of his class. Or at least a session or two. It's all the same, but he says the same things differently so it is good for clarity.
It's a very interesting idea but stresses me out 😂 I'm glad it works so well for him but I don't think I could do it because of the constant reworking
@@SaraLubratt I'm sure it is only for his first drafts. However, I can't imagine the workload it is when he writes a Stormlight Archive book. Those are like 450-500k words.
@@TimRG Yeah no kidding!
Love Brandon! Thanks for giving this synopsis of the vids. I'll definitely watch them. Keep up the good work and keep writing!
Thanks! And yes, I highly recommend watching them in full!
You are very pretty and the way you express is really wonderful.
Thank you!
This video is amazing. It's like having Brandon Sanderson sit in my lap, editorialising as I write.
Thanks for watching!
I took the same course through UA-cam. Absolutely loved his lectures. His comedic comments are weaved all throughout his instructions which makes it super engaging. Recommend it to any and all.
By the way, love your videos. Been following for awhile but haven't commented before. :)
Thanks for commenting, happy to have you here!
Thanks for the breakdown... I'm about 5 lectures in. It was good to get a synopsis.
Good luck with your book!
Thanks for watching!
There is a raw elemental beauty in the initial jagged throes of creation.
Stories can be refined to a glassy smoothness that erode the original rough edges of its excitement.
When revising you never want to extinguish the fire, that fundamental creative spark, out of your piece.
After revisions you must be brutally honest with yourself. Is this better, or is it just different?
I watched all of his videos and follow his YT channel. Finally read the Mistborn trilogy and OMGsh! Definitely good info coming from him! And he took full control of his business and it's great for people to see that it can be done! Publishers don't have to control everything. :)
It is incredible what he's accomplished and how much control he has over his business and his writing!
I also majored in creative/tech/lit, and his free YT video series was also way more helpful than the majority of the English classes I took.
Right??
Omg thank you so much for this video, it is so useful!
Thanks for watching!
Damn. I want to go watch his videos now. And I'm just a reader not a writer.
It's a cool new perspective on things even if you have no desire to write!
Thank you Sara! I just went straight to Brandon's lectures since you're so distractingly pretty :-P
Some things we can't help 🤷♀️
Awesome video. Be sure to watch the Mary Robinette guest lecture. It applies to novels as well and is extremely insightful.
Ok thanks for the tip, I will go back and watch that!
Ugh... No auto generate english. English is my third language. It's killing me. But thanks to your video, I get what I need with no cost.
His class has no cost! It's available on youtube. I'm still trying to figure out the auto-generated English
It's almost as if learning something from someone who is a master of his craft is better than sitting through a bunch of lessons... For real though, the reason his class and perspective is so good is because he is an actual writer, he is a good write, and he loves to write. He isn't interested in teaching you how to talk about writing but actually get you in there and teach you how to write. It's sort of like the difference between learning how to play basketball vs learning how to commentate on others playing basketball.
Lol right? It's amazing listening to a master vs some random dude hired by a school that taught my classes in college 😂
Yes, Sanderson’s approach is long overdue. He gets down to the nitty gritty of writing. However, he sails very close to the formulaic zone, where so many American writers crash their novels. He has great tips but the cat should never know its been saved.
😂 I agree that save the cat is far too formulaic for my personal taste but I thought his advice was much more flexible. Thanks for watching!
His one class taught more than an entire degree. I'm not sure if that says more about Brandon or the state of degrees.
I think that's a compliment to Brandon and a diss to the instructors that taught me in my degree 🙃
Excellent commentary.
Thanks!
Just figured I'd circle back here idk if u saw the wired article that just came out about Brandon but its worth talking about considering the guy just craps on him for 4k words the entire thing is ridiculous
No I haven't seen that but I might have to go look it up
@Sara Lubratt the guys a tool lol read it in the ac bc it's going to boil your blood
Well of course you might get more from Brandon's course than your whole degree. Your professors specialize in pretending they are important and successful...so they specialize in teaching not being actual authors. Brandon actually became successful after a lot of years of failure and from the other side he can teach you more than all those pretend "authors" at your College/University...
So find a mentor that's successful in what you want to be successful and become his apprentice...forget college, you'll pay your mentor less than all those years of college...unless you want to go into research or medicine or engineering or some other branch where you need lab equipment to do your job, then you need college.
Brandon certainly is an experienced professional, rather than my professors who are paid indeed... to be professors
"You are the product of your time writing, not your book" is life changing advice and revelation for me
Yeah that's great advice!
The community surrounding Brandon Sanderson is so incredibly positive. His lectures are fantastic and everyone who watches them are super grateful for his teachings. Its all so wholesome
It is so wholesome!
I haven't read any of his books so when I watched some of his lectures, I was a bit skeptical. What really got me was his emphasis on the fact that his advice won't work for everyone. That's when I realized he's a real one.
I really appreciated that part too! It really shows an appreciation and understanding of the craft!
you lucky eel go read his books they are phenomenal. Especially the Mistborn trilogy and the stormlight archives
I also took his class, and then started writing the book I've been thinking about writing for the past eight years. I've read a lot of books on writing, but this was the class that finally made me feel ready to just dive in. I'm about 2/3 of the way through my book now and still going strong. Can not recommend the class highly enough.
Did you finish? Just curious...
@@epbrown01 I did! A first draft anyway. Reading through it now and taking notes for revisions before line editing takes place.
@@Orloft how's it going with the book now?
@@marshey1579 got the first draft complete end of last year. Still working on revisions right now. Editing is taking way longer than I expected lol.
Sorry for too many questions. How long did the first draft take you?
I don't think Brandon mentions it in his lectures but one of the most helpful things I came to realize as a first-time novel writer is to embrace the core idea of writing. It gives so much freedom to think about yourself as a person to tell a story that's been trapped inside your head. Don't stress over writing too little, or writing badly. It's a tricky thing to express but you really need to be a friend with yourself when it comes to writing. Because it's hard, it's *insanely* hard. So don't stress out about missing a daily goal, or being uncertain about things. It's much more important to *try* than to be certain.
If you pick absolutely any classic fantasy author and read their drafts, you will be blown away at how drastically they've changed things. And that's the miracle of writing-revisions. No, you don't have to use it as an excuse to suck, hoping you'll make it right during revisions. It's not about slacking off, it's about giving yourself the freedom to create without bothering if each and every detail falls into place or even makes sense. Make things up, take a detour, let characters do something you would've never thought of. The most important part-don't limit yourself out of fear of being bad.
Sarah is my inspiration towards Book writing! I started writing books after watching Sarah's videos and i don't regret it.
Aw thank you!
I have watched Brandon´s creative writing classes several times, and find them to be, by a long shot, the best and most useful of its kind I have ever heard.
And I thought that you did a fantastic job of breaking down all the highlights, in a concise and easy-to-follow manner. Excellent work with the video ^^
Thank you so much!
"This class taught me more than my entire degree did." Of course it did! It's Brandon Sanderson, the one living author who can still generate universal acclaim for his work just by blinking! I haven't picked up a single Sanderson book, and even I know that whatever he's doing, he's mastered it.
Lecture 1: Cheers to the not-morning people.
Lecture 2: Now I don't feel guilty about putting my eggs for a story in multiple concept baskets. I also think Sanderson has found the better way of phrasing "practice makes perfect" that we needed.
Lecture 4: What he says about intros is a tough one, but it's doable. I remember the strategy Damien Chazelle used in "Whiplash", where he summarized the entire arc of conflict for the audience in the first 2 minutes of screentime.
Lecture 5: Sanderson's Laws are ... uhhhhhhhh ... interesting. I'm gonna think about them.
Lecture 6: "Worldbuilder's disease." I feel attacked. But in a constructive way.
Lecture 8: I call it the David Lynch law. Why *should* I explain the meanings behind my story to interviewers and students and the like? No.
Lecture 9: Listen ...... the characters' motivations NEVER make sense in the first draft. Unless you've gone for broke on pure simplicity, there's a huge guarantee your first draft will be spent formulating the actual plot and setting it into the structure you think will work based on an educated guess. Having a theatre background, I've learned that by revising the plot you put the onstage characters under the microscope. Why do *these specific people* need to be in the scene? What the shit are they doing and why are they doing it? If they aren't motivated, why should the actor be expected to give a good performance?
Lecture 10: Dialogue, description, action, introspection? Yeah that's the right path to balance.
Lecture 11: I think we as writers have been conditioned by properties like Marvel to believe that all our work is an iceberg and that for any one story to be satisfying, we must know everything that connects to it. I plead guilty to working this way. I always have faith in my beginnings but get tripped up by how the endgame will shape up.
Lectures 12 and 13: Cabbage.
😂 wow that was a joy to read
I didn't understand what you meant by "Cabbage" there, but that was fun to read. 😂
you skipped 3
and 7
I started writing a year ago and have been writing consistently every day. One thing that would've helped me tremendously if I had heard it when I started would be to invest in the fundamentals of storytelling. Think through your setting, think through your characters and their motivations. It pays off in ways you would've never imagined.
I remember starting a novel for the second time from scratch, faced with that intimidating blank page. I wanted to start it with a dialogue between the main characters but I had zero ideas what they should speak about. Should it be about their plans? Should it be about their past? The weather, perhaps? And then it just clicked. And it didn't click because I sat down and thought of all the possible options, picking the one I found to be the best for the scene. No. The dialogue in its entirely had come to me in a single session just because I stopped thinking about what the characters should say and instead just let them speak. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but it was all it took.
Have a character you think you know. Understand their motivation. Have a constraining, realistically designed world. And the things will tell themselves without you interfering much. The dialogues will be natural and the character actions fluid. Don't be afraid to let your characters live in the world you created, don't plan and make each step for them.
This is so relatable. Started last March and have written about 500k words so far, spending so much time rewriting my epic fantasy since I feel the lack is fundamentals in the first chapters.
Writing your first book is so fun and exciting but the steepness of the learning curve lets you waste a lot of time rewriting if you just jump in.
@@benjaminzirngibl5169 Awesome to hear you've reached 500k! Great job. I try not to focus on rewriting at all unless I'm spotting an obvious mistake or a place that can be improved immediately. I think it's important to balance writing the draft and then doing revisions so I won't be stuck in the endless cycle of rewrites. That's also one of the things that liberate me: I strive for my writing to be good but never perfect. Getting a perfect draft is pretty much impossible and, frankly, quite redundant. Revisions are there to make good drafts perfect!
Amazing summary! Thank you so much for this incredible effort! Will watch the entire series now, thanks for the motivation!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I really appreciate how hard you've worked on this video, Sara. I love seeing rich and useful content like this. Thank you.
Thank you for watching! I put a lot of time and effort into this video and I think that came through :)
I remember watching the highlights of Brandon's class years ago. I still have my notes. I think he updates the channel, meaning there's a new class every new semester or maybe it was just in a different channel.
It is highly educational.
You forgot to mention,
Brandon throws free gums/candies to his students. ;)
He teaches the class once a year. You have to apply to get into the class. He also does a writing group with about 15 students who are close to being ready to publish. This is my goal to get into someday.
He didn't throw anything to his students in the 2020 lectures I watched but that's really funny!
That would be awesome!
Any chance you can share the notes?
One thing that I think a lot of people gloss over is when he states “… and one is UNPRACTICED.” He doesn’t say untalented or unskilled.
100%!!
I've absolutely loved watching his lectures! The way he describes stuff is just so helpful.
Absolutely!
14:49 - This is a pretty good advice, I remember reading Elantris and being super curious about how the magic worked and instead of just throwing a lot of information on the reader, the book describes the protagonist experimenting with magic formulas, failing, and when he realizes what he's doing wrong is when we learn more about it too, without someone literally explaining it
I had a short story featuring Sherlock Holmes sell last night! It was the first time in a few years it had sold. I'm stoked!
That's so exciting! Congratulations!
also, granting that i HAVE watched these a hundred times, it's so nice to hear you kind of sum up what all was said in each lecture, in that it actually gives me a perspective on UNDERSTANDING what he says about certain things. you actually helped me greatly to "decode" certain pieces of advice or counsel that he goes on to talk about in the lectures. so thanks for clarifying. :)
I'm so glad! Thank you for watching!
That was a problem for me too. Trying to get a proper understanding and perspective of what he's saying wasn't easy for me even after listening to so many of his lectures.
The decoding is a real issue.
I feel like I've saved money on taking a course now.
Realizing your novel is too awesome to fit into one book is a problem I yearn to have
😂
idk how i've missed this (i've watched his lectures a hundred times) but the idea of everything in life basically being contrived and coincidental...... that helps me SO MUCH that it makes me want to scream. :O
Right??
Sara, thanks for condensing the main points from the lectures! For myself, the most inspiring part of Brandon's approach to writing is his diligence to the craft. He treats writing as an actual job and truly commits to it. Also, having a writing group for feedback doesn't hurt. Writing consistently is one thing, but I wish I could get regular feedback on my writing to stretch my capabilities.
Absolutely! I agree that he is amazing at making his writing a priority but also not letting it overwhelm his life and burn out. Writing groups are very helpful, have you looked online in your area to see if there is one you can join? Thank you for watching!
@@SaraLubratt Unfortunately, there's not many writer groups based in my neck of the woods. Do you know of any online-only writing groups that aren't super intimidating? That might be an interesting video...just sayin' ;)
I watched some of that Sanderson course. That dude spent a LOT of time really getting that surface scratched.
When I create a fictional world, I should create fictional religions, too? Thanks, Brandon.
Been struggling to get in the right mindset to start a novel, yet hearing the passion you and Brandon speak about writing is getting me there. Thanks for the push Sara!
Thanks for watching! Good luck and happy writing!
Terry Pratchett did an amazing job of world building, it wasn't till I read the 4th book of his that I realized they were all parts of the same world, and there was an overarching timeline. Almost every book of his was a standalone story.
I’m not a writer or ever plan to be, but I still watch his writing classes
That's so cool!
I highly recommend watching the lecture on short stories by Mary Robinette. A fair bit of it obviously wouldn’t apply to your series, but her explanation of the MICE quotient was fantastic and is an excellent tool for writers of works of any length.
Good to know! Thanks, I'll check it out!
Love this. Thank you so much for sharing this gem of info. Ill definitely watch the lecture tomorrow
🙌🙌
Watched his whole lecture series myself and I am still redoing my notes.... which made me realize, can't an iconic character be someone on the low bar of the either of the 3 sliders? Like Likeability, High Proactivity, High Competence.... well, basically, that's the superheroes nemesis, right?
Lol pretty much! That's a great point!
The Writing Excuses podcast is also an amazing free resource, with Brandon and others, and you can search by topic.
I'll have to check it out!
@@SaraLubratt It feels a bit like joining Brandon's writing group. I spent weeks going through the topics I was interested in, back in 2020. Mostly it reinforces what he already says in the lectures, but there are little gems here and there from Brandon and his peers and even different perspectives on his writing philosophies. And specifics that aren't covered in detail in his lectures. I should probably check out their latest content.
@@Ruylopez778 Absolutely!
Moved to Utah to join the 318R workshop this semester!
So pumped 💪 good luck with your book!
That’s so cool!!
@@SaraLubratt - It’s awesome! Getting individual time with Sanderson is amazing. He’s a great teacher!
Regarding Mr. Sanderson waking up at noon - why is sleeping in considered lazy but going to bed early is not???
A great question!
How beautifully you speak and convincingly teach us !Love from Pakistan.
Thank you!
You really should go back and watch lecture 7 by Mary Robinette Kowal. She's an excellent writer and has taught Sanderson much on being less wordy. It's a great take on writing.
Sounds good, I'll have to go back and watch it. Thanks for watching!
I'm happy that I can access Brandon Sanderson's writing advice for free, because all of my friends have told me I need to read his books because he's good at everything I'm trying to do and be.
I love that he has made them available for free as well! A great resource
Regarding the architect/gardener comparison, I liked it as well!
It's always worth adding that writers are rarely at the extremity of either. Most often you'd have to combine, and that's, actually, perfect. Things like story arcs and main plot twists may require a good planning session (and not just one, trust me). But there are so many small things that don't have to be thought through as much. What I like doing is outlining a solid carcass of the arc, placing the main events like checkpoints I want my characters to reach, and then thinking of individual scenes in terms of starting points where it should set off from. What do the characters feel? What do they worry about? And then they carry out their journeys by themselves.
It may also be good advice not to think of your outlines, your architected things, as something that must stay true no matter what. One of the greatest writing moments I had was outlining things, letting the characters go, and then watching how they come to totally different, unexpected things, which were tenfold better than I had originally planned. I believe good stories resemble life, and you can't really plan that much in your life. It's sporadic, hectic, it finds its own way. So do your characters, if you let them.
Great breakdown and quick reference for those who want to jump to certain parts of the lecture. PS your eyes look like ones writers would fail to accurately describe in a book, unable to do them justice!
Thank you on both accounts!
This was really helpful. Thanks a lot for making this video, I took a lot of notes. I've listened to his lectures before, but it wasn't easy trying to take notes since everything he said seemed so important, and it's a pretty long series, so there was that obstacle too.
This video really deconstructed the lectures well and I'll be re-listening to it later to note whatever I missed.
IMO Sanderson is probably one of the best writers ever. Definitely the best among modern writers.
He's awesome!
thanks much. I have seen some of these videos but not all cause yeah they are long. Thanks so much for making this video. Best of luck on draft 5.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for this video. It will be easier to understand, at least for me, if it had the substitles included
Yeah, I need to figure out subtitles...
Thanks for posting this. I watched the entire thing, but I knew after a couple of chapters of your video that I was going to watch the entire lecture series.
You totally should!
MRK's guest lecture is problably my favorite part of the course.
:)
Interesting! I couldn't make out Sanderson's 0th law, what did he say it was?
Always err on the side of what is awesome!
Someone: I took Brandon´s class
Me: *listens to them in a loop like a podcast while doing other tasks every other month*
😂 yesssssss
Exercise in the morning and then I do some writing. I' write best in the morning and in the afternoon. On a good week I can write for to the 3 hours a day.
That's awesome!!
It's so weird to me that in the US you can major in creative writing. That's something that I would have loved to do, but it's not a valid major in my country. You can take "communication" which teaches you to be a journalist in printed media. Goes to show you how up to date our education system is. I thought of doing that, but you need perfect spelling and I'm genetically incapable of spelling correctly.
Despite what I said about my degree in this video, I really enjoyed majoring in creative writing. I think I mostly enjoyed the people I got to meet, the stories I got to read, and the workshop environment. I totally understand that it isn't in all countries but I think a writing degree has helped more than a communication degree (for me personally) in landing marketing jobs!
@@SaraLubratt It's interesting that you can get marketing jobs with it. In my country jobs are usually degree specific, so you'd need a marketing degree to get marketing jobs. Like I'm going back to school to get a degree in translating to get translating jobs. For some translations it's a prerequisite that you have to have a degree in order to be legally allowed to translate those texts. Like I love tourism and would love to be a tour guide in my hometown, but I'd need a 2-year degree for that too.
Great video! I love Brandon Sanderson's lecture series, his advice is gold. I learned so much from watching them.
Thank you! His advice is really amazing!
BYU is 45 minutes from me as well, hello neighbor!
:)
What are your thoughts on the success of Brandon's Kickstarter?
I was blown away by it. I think it's incredible and inspirational as an author who's starting out because it shows what can be done and the kind of audiences can be amassed by good writing!
Completely random, and not entirely sure you would be interested, but I highly suggest checking out Matthew Colville's Running the Game series. It's... less oriented towards writing a book, but it's very oriented on what I would call writing with intention, specifically, writing a collaborative D&D campaign, but he touches on some writing topics and specifically entertainment subjects that tie in with writing anything. He's an experienced video game writer and his videos like Brandon's are informative and entertaining.
I'll look into it!
@@SaraLubratt hope you enjoy them as much as I do
i like that you said it was the most helpful class cuz he says the same thing in his lectures. awesoeme!
Thanks for watching!
I also live about 45 minutes away from BYU 😅
Lol!
Great and helpful video. Thanks :)
Glad it was helpful!
It's free? So the value/cost ratio is infinite? :D
Yup!!
Brandon Sanderson's writing is awesome. The man finished Wheel of Time, and if you've read that, it could not have been an easy feat!
I haven't read it but I'll have to!
@@SaraLubratt 14 books and 2,000 + unique characters in those pages. It's dense, lol
I love your gorgeous hair because I'm about to be bald.
Thank you!
Thank you for publishing this video. I just discovered your channel and I am enjoying it. I recently got into writing after watching “The OA” on Netflix. I was struck by the power of storytelling and its ability to move hearts and capture imaginations.
Is the course free? I’m confused as to where to find it
Yeah it's free here on UA-cam! Just search "Brandon Sanderson Lecture"
I realized that I have world building thing
nice!
You gave some great advice based on book writing and other stuff I didn't know before. I definitely will be watching his lecture class on here. Thanks for the video, and you look beautiful with a wonderful smile. God bless.
As someone who has read hundreds of science fiction and fantasy books. Fantasy/sci-fi books should fulfill 80% of the Karaethon Cycle, epic fantasy or epic sci-fi should fulfill 100%. What it means for a character to fulfill a given passage of the prophecy can vary wildly and fulfillment can be metaphorical or abstract in some way.
Sanderson's novels all fulfill the Karaethon Cycle.
Ensemble novels it's best to spread out the fulfillment in each book among the characters and to not be afraid of redundant fulfillment. Though it should never feel redundant.
Basically it's a way to ensure you hit all the expected markers.
Those lectures are absolutely invaluable. I try to rewatch one semester's worth each year to keep the ideas fresh.
That's so smart!
I watched all these lectures last year, but this has made me want to rewatch them all! So many nuggets of wisdom that I either forgot over time or that hit me a bit differently now after another year of writing experience. Thanks for such a thorough walk-through video and your feedback on the class ☺
I just watched his lessons online.
Yup that's where they are!
He is a great writer, I love most of the books he releases. I also have several audiobooks he had released to the media.
That's awesome!
New to your channel. The algo is smart because I was just researching best writing professors a few days ago and then the very next day your video was at the top of my recommendation list. Subbed. Thanks, Google. Anyway, curious if you have any recommendations/thoughts on the best technical/essay/non-fiction writing classes/professors you've encountered either on YT or one of the paid course platforms (e.g. Masterclass etc.)? I know your shtick is creative writing, but perhaps you have some thoughts (or perhaps some of your clever followers do too). Thanks for the great material. Never heard of Sanderson (literature lover he decries in Lecture #1 - lol ) but was very impressed with his lectures. He is quite the charismatic gent! Now I will check out his work!
This is a great summary.
Will definitely go back and rewatch everything again.
Thanks.
Brandon Sanderson is an amazing teacher.
Totally!
I pretty much did the same thing. I sat down for around a semester of my last year in highschool with these lectures, wrote about half a notebook of notes on what he said, then completed that notebook with the most interesting things from Writing Excuses(which is also very helpful, especially for specific aspects of fiction storytelling(and there are multiple POV's on the matters. Because i was in full lockdown online school, i did a lot of the homeworks from the podcast, and you basically learn a lllllot more from this than traditional english literature majors, or writing majors...I'm currently striding through the first year of an english and french literature bachelor's degree and i'm curious to see if i learn anything as advanced in the writing classes, than what Brandon shared with us.(BIG doubt, but i wanna get that degree anyway for credentials, because i'm not a native English speaker and a full education and acreditation in the language could make more considerable by some editors when i'll try publishing the books i'm working on.
i absolutely loved his lecture series, so lucky and grateful to have access to them as not only a writer but a huge fan of his work!
thank you for the time and effort it took to make this condensed version of the lectures, this will prove to be very helpful as i go back to his lectures for refreshers 💖💕
Thank you so much for watching!
I've watched Brandon's BYU lecture series 2-3 times and I consider him my writing mentor. Your video was excellent in summarizing his lectures, thank you so much! I set aside my writing for a couple of years since I found I have a ton of revisions to do on my first book. This video was very encouraging--just what I needed at my writing stage.
btw I just looked at your profile and decided to subscribe. I think that is actually the first time I ever did that.
To this day, I still read my favorite novel Misborn 123 every 2 weeks. I am in love with the character Vin and it has turned into an obsession. It is a blessing an a curse because I know she is not real but she aspires me to be brave in face of adversity, to not quit and to face the challenges of the world with style.
As far as the 7th (guest) lecture on writing short stories goes, I finished all of Brandon's lectures then watched 7. Having done so, I would definitely watch it and participate in the activity. All you need is a laptop or computer with word processor or just a pencil and paper. The aspect of having to be concise in short stories really helped me with creating a hook at the beginning of my book more than anything else ever has. Plus by the end of the class you'll have written a complete short story. 😁👍
Nice video Miss Lubratt👍
Thanks!
Ur eyes are amazing rn
Thanks!
If you're having a hard time with revision, I can recommend Holly Lisle's How to Revise your Novel. It's a beast of a course, but she really helps you get the story out of the pages of words that you have, and there's a great community around to support you when you're struggling with it
This is a great summary of the lectures. I watched them last year and applied them more to lyric writing. But that whole concept of promises and payoffs really elevated how i think about lyrics. Also give audience less than you think they need helps a ton when trying to convey ideas and have the limitations of 1 verse to do it