Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 11
This video is a mirror of the materials posted by user writeaboutdragons. I’ve linked together the parts of the lecture into a single video, and provided some notes with timestamps below. Enjoy!
*Notes*
0:12 / Misc questions
13:02 / Making stories meaningful
Novel writing is a form of entertainment
Some people build stories around a meaning (C.S. Lewis)
- Some don’t (Tolkien)
Avoid being preachy by not putting in straw men
22:12 / Fight scenes
Show, don’t tell; important here
Blow-by-blow narrative is not as fun as visual media
- Many people skip fight scenes entirely
Clarity is king: be concrete and reduce metaphorical language
You want the character to feel the chaos of battle, you DON’T want the reader to feel chaos while they try to read the scene
32:08 / Things movie fight scenes can’t do
Show thoughts and emotions
- Use character thoughts as “shows”
We can control pacing better than visual media
Hit all senses
Emphasize these things over blow-by-blow
38:59 / Larger narrative flow
What is main purpose of a sequence?
- Plan the tone of the fight sequence to achieve this purpose
Advancing the plot is usually not enough; have the scene accomplish more than one thing
You don’t want filler scenes; every scene should have something cool
50:14 / Realism in fights & romance
You can take license, just decide what style you are going for
Real fights, two on one, hero dies; injury, hero is out of action
Most armies will break after 10% losses
Real romance is a lot of work in a story
- A lot of people looking for a romantic subplot aren’t looking for a strictly real-life romance
1:04:15 / Plotting romances
Make them compliment one another; not just because they are the only male/female of age in the story
1:08:30 / Exercise of plotting a romance
Relationship sub-arc should parallel the main arc, but can peak just before or just after
Build 3 scenes things go right; build 3 scenes where it goes wrong; string these together as a try-fail cycle
20 окт 2024