Brandon Sanderson’s 2013 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 1
This video is a mirror of the materials posted by user writeaboutdragons. I’ve provided some notes with timestamps below, and occasional color correction. Enjoy!
AUDIO CUTS OUT FROM 29:46 UNTIL 31:20. Sorry, I am just mirroring the originals, I can’t get the sound back in there.
**Notes**
0:12 / Habits of being a writer
- Most of writing becomes instinctual and intuitive, not academic
- It takes practice; editors can gauge your skill quickly
4:59 / Learning your writing style
- Writers tend to fall between “gardeners” and “architects”
- A new writer should try both to see what works best
12:53 / Writing groups
- Learn how to give and receive criticism to make you a better writer
24:14 / Giving feedback
- Be descriptive: give response to writing, do NOT give solutions and try to be proscriptive
- Where you laughed, where you were confused, where you liked the character, where the character bored you, etc
- Keep book context in mind; genre might not be to your taste, but that doesn’t help the author
29:46 / AUDIO CUTS OUT
31:20 / AUDIO RESUMES
32:59 / Writing group problems
- Pacing is very hard to determine when reading chapter-by-chapter over weeks
- If one person notices something, it can make the whole group fixate on it, even if it is a small issue
34:17 / Writing group structure for the class
- Have someone specific in charge to time things
- Start with good things; then larger problems; then questions from the author
- Make it a discussion
45:14 / Ideas are cheap
- Skill as a writer is more important than ideas
- Good story mixes three things
- - Setting
- - Character
- - Plot
- When you have a few of each of these, you can start a story
49:46 / Brainstorming settings with the class to demonstrate how easy ideas are to generate
53:46 / Brainstorming technologies / magics with the class
55:09 / Brainstorming plot hooks with the class
1:02:26 / Brainstorming characters with the class
1:04:55 / Merging different sparks into a single story
1:20:13 / Questions from the class