Brandon Sanderson Writing lectures

kittensartsbooks:

thewinterotter:

everything4writers:

the960writers:

barbex:

A long time ago (over a year ago?) I found these lectures on youtube. I kept raving about them and kept bugging every writer I knew to watch them until they were all sick of me. I haven’t done that in a while so I’m doing it to all of you now!

This is some of the best advice I have seen on writing anywhere ever, EVER! Sanderson’s lectures are practical and to the point.

This is his lecture from 2012 at BYU in Utah. You can find all videos and notes collected on one site. The maintainer of that site is a former student of Brandon Sanderson and has made all the recordings. http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/, under Learn > Archive.

The lectures alternate between writing and business advice. If you are an aspiring writer, you will find all of it interesting.

These are the lectures just about writing:

Lecture 1:
Intro link
Ideas are cheap link
Class goals link
Discovery writers vs Architects link
Writing group essentials link

Lecture 2
What makes a good plot link
Plots by outlining link
Plots by discovery link
YA Genres link
Adult Genres link

Lecture 3
Intro to Prose link
First Person Viewpoints link
Third Person Viewpoints link
Description part 1 link
Description part 2 link

Lecture 4
Sympathetic Characters Part 1 link
Sympathetic Characters Part 2 link
Show us the Character link
Giving Characters a Life Beyond the Plot link
Character Creation Example Part 1 link
Character Creation Example Part 2 link

Lecture 7
The Three Act Format link
Try-Fail Cycles link
The Heroes Journey link
Brandon’s Plotting Method link

Lecture 9
Misc Questions (1/7) link
Thinking of Setting as a Character link
World Building Geography Part 1 link
World Building Geography Part 2 link
Creating Interesting Nations & Towns link
Sanderson’s First Law of Magic link
Sanderson’s Second Law of Magic link

Lecture 10
Misc Questions link
Dialogue Mechanics link
Replacing Adjectives and Passive Voice link
Orwellian Prose link

Lecture 11
Misc Questions link
Making Stories Meaningful link
Three Rules for Fight Scenes link
Things Movie Fight Scenes Can’t Do link
The Larger Narrative Flow of a Scene link
Realism vs Hollywoodification link
Plotting Romances link

Lecture 13
Misc Questions link
Brandon’s Revision Process link
Misc. Questions on Revising link
Revising for Discovery Writers link
A Little Writerly Psychology link
Thriller Plotting link
Linguistic Variation link

I know it is a lot but it’s really worth it. I know it helped me a lot.

Go forth and write!

Every once in a while, this old post of mine comes up in my notifications again and it makes me incredibly happy to see that. 

I think I made this post end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. The links for the lectures go to youtube and are still valid. The writeaboutdragons website seems to be asleep though.
The english department of BYU has a youtube channel and they have the most recent of Brandon Sanderson’s classes in a playlist. 

I also want to recommend the writingexcuses podcast, where Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler and Dan Wells are handing out writing advice that you could not possibly pay enough for. And they’re doing it for free!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make time to learn with these incredible resources and become a better writer along the way.

These have always been good.

Brandon Sanderson is an EXCELLENT resource on writing, because he’s not only good at it, he’s also very good at explaining it. Definitely recommend these lectures and the Writing Excuses podcast. You can actually download every episode ever of Writing Excuses from that link (there are a lot of them) and it’s 100% worth going back and snagging them all, or reading the transcripts if you prefer that. I like to listen to them while walking the dog; they’re only about 15 minutes per episode.

And if you’re ever looking for a really good writing conference to attend, LTUE happens every February in Provo, Utah; Sanderson and many other terrific local writers usually attend as panelists. (It also has non-writing programming; there’s a track for artists and they’re working on adding more good stuff every year. This year I’m super stoked to attend a panel on selling fan art, and one with Mary Robinette Kowal on puppetry!)

This!!!! His lectures are amazing and I’ve learned a lot from them!