i will say, i played sdv thru a class session once and paid the most attention and retained the most info i had at all that year. i hope the same worked for her lmao
@@itzfreyy532 Mistborn is a great book, the only issue is that is from the BrandoSando beginnings and is not of his best characters. But is way better than 80% of the YA books out there. So yes, buy it, something tells me that you will like that book.
@@itzfreyy532 To truthfully make the claim Buster's Brain made, you can't have read any of his books. Thus when you read any of his books, you can't truthfully make that claim. If you read Mistborn as Vinnie and his Pizza did then you will cease to "have not read any of his books". :P
@@greatcoldemptiness have you considered that maybe..... they're genuinely enjoying this? Imagine being so dead inside that other people's joy is an inconvenience to you.
Time stamps 1. Establish empathy (save the cat) 5:18 2. Establish rooting interest (motivations; why can’t they have it) 8:05 3. Showing progress 10:29 4. Sliding scales (likability, proactivity, competence) 12:26 5. The journey (stories work by a sense of progress or awesomeness overload)(start by showing a difference between what the character wants and what they need) 24:19 6. Flaws, limitations, and handicaps 26:40 7. Quirks 34:58 8. Flaws, limitations, and handicaps defined 38:20 Q&A Multiple character viewpoints 40:45 Goals and motivations 44:56
I've taken a lot of writing classes at this point. I took James Patterson's writing class. I took a creative writing class as well as some other generall writing classes from this adult school thing. I've also listened to other lectures and done extensive research on writing a novel. Nothing has been nearly as useful as these free videos. Nothing. I wish I would have watched these before I wrote my first book. In other classes, I feel like I'm being talked down to, and I feel like the teacher is hiding things. They teach the most general and obvious things (to me). Brandon on the other hand...it's almost like every idea is revelation. Some of his points are things I kind of understand, but then the way he explains boosts my understanding of it a ton. These videos are so incredibly practical. Also, the other students' questions are actual questions I have myself. Thank you so much Brandon for teaching this class, especially in such a fun and engaging way.
i like the way he organizes concepts. usually i know everything he's talking about but he frames them in such a refreshing way that suddenly its not as muddled or confusing, or even overwhelming. Sometimes there will be terms that he separates and gives distinctive definitions of, and other times he will just give things a slightly different meaning which helps a lot with getting out of my head.
65 Drums same, I tried to write a bit when I was younger but it’s been years since I tried to write anything. But I know that Brandon Sanderson is really interesting and he says good things.
So, here's the trick I have, as a 95+% discovery writer: If the characters aren't going where I want them to go, I open a new separate text document, sit down with them (sometimes framed as a dream where I use some sort of mentor figure as a mouthpiece if they aren't going to talk to *me* me), and just straight-up ask them why they're doing this, where they want to go instead, and then see if we can brainstorm together about where this goes next. I then file this conversation away in my cutting-room floor file (the same place I put the "darlings" that I have to cut from the story). I've practiced this so much that I now have these conversations with my characters inside my head while in the shower, or while walking the dog, or whatever. But a text file works really well if they won't talk to me that way.
That would actually make a really interesting story in its own right. Giving your characters a Mt. Sinai moment where you, the author, reveal yourself to them as their creator and interact with them? I'd totally read that!
As a hardcore plotter, this right here is why discovery writers are fascinating to me. Wish I could do this sort of thing! Alas, my brain just doesn't function that way...
This is actually a pretty good idea I think I'll use. Thanks for this. When I write a lot of my conversation between characters is pretty organic but that's probably because of my own background in psychology and I've put together rather complex people so I just let them chat in my head while I listen and adjust things to get a few different paths they can take.
@@calvinsbeard7423 You might like: th-cam.com/play/PLj4N-R1RQxAuAQ4qBpaUbGLb1ZWpWySAz.html My favorite part (I don't remember which season it's in) is when the character says she finally understands what's going on and the author says, "Well I don't! None of this was in the outline!"
Start low end high. Start high end low. My screenwriting teacher said every single scene should either go low to high or high to low. And if it doesn't do that then you better have a damn good reason for the scene. I like to pause movies and see exactly where the low-high, high-low happens. It's kind of neat! Of course he also said that if you're writing a comedy there better be a joke/gag every minute. That class was exhausting. Comedy is so freaking hard to write y'all.
@@the_beemer I'm interpreting that as low action to high action, and high-action to low action. No scene that is just in the middle the whole way. Stagnation is bad, essentially.
In film language we see this as emotional intensity in a scene and it's shown in the shot order. So You come in with a wider shot, get a mid shot and establish the mood. You move in as things get more intense or closer to the emotions, and then back out as we disengage. It's really cool to see the same things happen in books.
@@the_beemer A practical example of High to Low may be a fight scene that either culminates with an emotional moment by the end or, in a physical sense, wears the protagonist down. The hallway fight scene from Daredevil season 1 is the first thing that comes to my mind. We see Matt start this encounter guns (or rather fists) blazing. At first, he is taking on multiple assailants with high intensity, but as the scene progresses everyone is worn out. Matt, the bad guys, even the audience, all feel the fleeting struggle that everyone is going through in this brutal Scooby-Doo-esque situation. The scene has lots of meaning for the plot of the show and Matt's character, but keeping discussion around the ideas of High to Low, my immediate take away is it shows Matt's dedication and headstrong nature. The very thing he says is emblematic of a Murdock; like his father was someone who wouldn't stay down. That can be uplifting of an idea. But by the time the scene is over, we also get to see the foil that spirit leaves on him. We go from those idealistic heroics to a man beat to a pulp surrounded by bodies. There are probably far better takes of the concept out there, but this is what comes to me.
Notes for my personal use regarding the first 40 mins which is a little confusing, in case you would like to use them :) If I have made a mistake do let me know. YOUR CHARACTER WILL HAVE AT LEAST ONE OF THE THREE 1) Establish Empathy - They people like us, who other characters like or dislike 2) Establish a Rooted Interest for them in story - What is your character's motivation? Why can't they have what they are motivated to achieve? What is their personal connection to the plot? 3) Establishing progress - What is the flaw they have or the journey they must undertake? What question/mystery keeps readers hooked to your character (i.e. what milestones will signal to the reader that there is progress, e.g. will spiderman become a hero)? The Scales of Character Your characters will fall somewhere on these three interconnected scales (proactivity and competence can go hand in hand for example) 1) Likeability (How much empathy you establish for the character in your story) 2) Proactivity (Motivation and what they do to achieve what motivates them) * 3) Competence (Where are they on the progress scale of what they want to do/can become? This isn't always swordplay, it could be their ability to talk/become assertive and grow in their interaction with others) * difference between motivation and goal is story ends when goal is met, whereas motivation goes on. (e.g. Your character is motivated to win the tournament (goal). Why? Because his father never believed they were competent enough to make it (motivation) ) Movement on any of these scales will create a sense of motion for the story as a whole. *WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THE ICONIC HERO, COS NONE OF MY CHARACTERS ARE BUT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FIND ABOUT THEM PLEASE SEE **15:45* FLAWS,LIMITATIONS,HANDICAPS A lot of times when characters have problems its because you haven't foreshadowed their motivation at the beginning of the story. This could affect their actions and dialogue. For Example, you may artificially include an argument in dialogue that would appear wooden to your reader because you included the argument for creating tension, rather than letting your character's motivation drive the dialogue. Realistic characters have many motivations. You may want to be a novelist, but your family may want you to become a doctor, while your parish priest might want you to become a clergyman. QUIRKS/FLAWS/HANDICAPS ARE NOT PERSONALITY If you can connect either of the above with the aforementioned establishment and scale they will appear less like a replacement for personality. For example if you have a character who is a stamp collector, it could be a minor quirk, but they could be proactive in their collecting stamps when they can't be proactive in other areas, What is their motivation for collecting these stamps? It could be because they cannot travel to these locations as they have a physical or economical (in my case lol a sad South Asian passport) handicap, they prefer to collect stamps to substitute their travel. Ta Da all combined and believable and empathetic. Then if you could connect it to their journey/plot it seems very digestible to the reader even though award winning actor Nicholas Cage is present. When building your character think about the above and how they create empathy/motivation/competence and how the conflict could arise from this. 50:20 - How do you make a non-viewpoint character interesting/motivated when your main cast doesn't know what they're thinking? DO NOT MAKE THEM A VIEWPOINT FOR THE SAKE OF IT. What you could do is - suggest to the reader, that your character's inability to understand a non-viewpoint character will be a plot-point as that character has their own motivation/interest.
37:00 I’m going to give an example of using quirks that become so much better when connected, from the famous manga One Piece. Character: A retired general in a fishing village Quirk: Has a pinwheel on his cap Motivation: while this seems random quirk at first, a flashback establishes that when heroine was a baby, she was scared of the general’s ferocious face, so she would cry anytime he got close to play with her. But she starts laughing when the general experimentally snaps on a pinwheel on his hat. Ever since, he has always kept the pinwheel on, because he could make that girl laugh and he could get close to her without being scary. Years pass, bringing struggles and loneliness to the girl, all through which he keeps the pinwheel on his head to be a source of her laughter. And finally, when the girl makes trustworthy friends and goes on an adventure around the world with them, the general takes off the pinwheel because the girl now has a reason to laugh happily other than his pinwheel.
1:00:00 speaking as a PhD candidate in at an R1 institution, a protip on writing dialog for academics (in a modern, empiricist tradition): academics tend to hedge *a lot* more than normal people. if you have your "academic" character basically ever use the word "every" or "all", that's a red flag, unless they follow it up immediately with something to qualify that statement's scope. Chidi Anagonye is a caricature, but he's one that cuts deep.
Can confirm! Especially in the sciences, you're often advised not to state anything definitely because in general you can't be sure whether further experiments will disprove your current understanding. The situations where you *can* be totally sure are actually pretty rare, even in basic stuff they teach to first-year undergraduates.
Incredibly true! Also - coming from political science - wanting to define exactly what we are talking about in a discussion. I find myself doing this way too often...
1. Establishing Empathy -Show that the character is like us. that they are relatable . -Show that they are nice. -Let them Save the Cat. -Show people liking them. 2. Establishing rooting interest -Show that what the character wants is interesting to us -Show us their Motivation. -Characters who want things are naturally more interesting to us than characters who don't. -What do they want? -Why can't they have it? -Establish personal connection to the plot -Suddenly it's personal. 3. Progress -How are the characters going to change? -A flaw that they have. -Character Journey. -Mystery or Question -Willl they be able to become the thing that we know they can become. -What is going to change.
"What do you want for lunch, Michael?" "I want my soooooooooon!" I spit out my tea. hahahaaaaaaa My husband and I couldn't stand that character. He basically only had one line for a season- "They took my son!"
A big problem with Michael is that it's really hard to give someone a different motivation when you've kidnapped their son. If someone kidnaps your son, you bet it's going to overshadow everything else going on in your life (apart from, maybe basic survival). So the lesson here? Avoid motivations that overshadow everything else unless you're going to make progress immediately.
So I'm halfway through, and I just realized something. The 539,592 views is probably not anywhere near that number of people, just a lot of rewatches. Because that is exactly what I am going to do. There's so much to learn from this brilliant lecture.
I love (and am incredibly grateful) that Brandon added these lectures to his channel for free. This is so much more helpful than the Masterclasses a lot of other authors have done for actual money. Although I can't help but be annoyed at the lady with the messy bun and the dude right beside her in the bottom right playing freaking video games together on their laptops while in a class thousands of others would kill for the chance to sit in on physically. The camera didn't zoom out enough to see them in the audience until about 15 minutes in but once it does you can see them playing some game involving shooting guns and a blue inventory screen/hotbar against each other for THE ENTIRE CLASS! Talk about disrespectful...
Goodness, I don’t write, and don’t plan on writing….. but still this is pure gold! I never had a class this good in university! Wow and well done Brandon!
Wow, just wow your advice around character voice and conveying character and setting between the lines. "Thank you for such great content," he added politely and professionally.
Im watching these after nearly 40 years of trying to write my novel (which is itself based on a short story I wrote) and sitting here nodding my head like a bloody idiot while staring at a blank screen on the laptop. I have the entire series of books in my head but its getting it from there to the pc that is the issue. All that Brandon says here is amazing and I wish I had him around for these tips years ago. What I dont think anyone can teach is how to get it out. I'm nearly 61 now and fear my amazing (in my head) characters will never see the light of day.
Hey, I read this at work yesterday and made a reminder to come back and reply, so I hope you read this eventually. I really feel you, I could say the exact same words you did except for the numbers. I'm 20 years younger than you--just turned 41. Been thinking about and reworking my story for 20+ years, and this year was the year I finally started getting it out. These lectures are a big part of why, and I'm ecstatic about it. Probably the biggest hurdle for me was to just do it. Just knowing the writing will suck at first--but you fix sucky writing, you can't edit a blank page. A blank page will always be just that. So I hope you'll find things that work for you and help you get there. For me, I even had anxiety about brainstorming on notebook paper, but I finally got over that with the help of digital writing tablets like OneNote. For some reason it matters to me to put stuff down on paper but I don't feel like I'm "wasting" paper or ink just writing every thought down on a tablet. Sounds dumb, and it is, but try to figure out your hurdles/blocks and overcome them. I've made peace with the fact that my story may never be published or even good in my eyes, but I can't live without trying. The story's in me, and it's made to get out, even if I only write it for myself. Praying you'll do the same. I know what it feels like, brother (or sister). Best of luck to us!
@1:04:00 shows a point where Sanderson gets really passionate about a question and just spewes a ton of what seems like GOLD info. I think right there he just summarizes the entire lecture into author gold nuggets. Just an observation. I really liked it and made notes of a ton of it.
of course! Watch the entire thing, but after that, re-watch this part a few times. I follow other's passion, and you can see the passion in his description here, and it really paints a good synopsis of the entire lesson.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Greatest writing teacher of all time. I like how he explains what makes characters work. Likability, Proactivity and Competence. Never heard of that before - that's really interesting.
27:00 how to make char motivation feel “ proper” to reader 40:20 42:00 how to not write chars that feel like roles rather than indiv real chars Make each char believe they are the protag in their own story or viewpoint and write accordingly Rather than written as the “goofy sidekick” or the “love interest” 47:28 how to make chars do what I want them to
Been watching my way through all of these and loving them. They actually make me feel better about my writing rather than like I'm a fraud. Thank you! Also, the Gorilla in the phonebooth thing just reminds me of every time people have a conversation when one of them is driving in a film or TV show. I can never pay any attention to the conversation because I spend all of it going 'look at the road, you're going to crash. You're going to crash the car! LOOK AT THE ROAD!' I wish they wouldn't do that.
SO much can be learnt from Lost. Almost unlimited great examples of how awesome the audience found certain things, only to be dissapointed later when much of it was left unexplained. Tons of strong characters, who both worked and didn't work for numerous reasons.
Regarding the three sliding scales, it's cool to have just read the first 6 Dune books watching this. Dune Messiah in particular is like watching an iconic character slide down the like-ability scale.
I am absolutely loving these lessons, so much knowledge is being received on my end. Thank the student who asked the last question on how to write a character unclear of their motivations👌it answered quite a lot with regards to my current wip
Wow, I love this guy. I just discovered him, and literally has helped me so much already to understand pieces of my process I didn’t quite have gripped. Masterful.
How do you make characters people care about...Love this. I think this is crucial to writing a good story. Can’t tell you how many books I’ve put down because characters weren’t relatable or undeveloped. So glad there’s a Part 2! Gold
Any other One Piece fans here thinking that Luffy subverts a ton of these tips entirely and yet remains one of the best shonen protagonists ? Oda is truly a master. We all know Luffy's goal but 20 years later and his exact motivation for that goal is still the subject of much conversation and wonder. Great lecture!!
All characters exist on a sliding scale with three toggles. Likeability - how much empathy is established for the character. Proactivity - the character's motivation and what they are doing to achive their goals. Competence- how good they are at it. A character moving on even any one of these scales creates a sense of progress. An Iconic Hero Does not move on the scales Ex. James Bond and Sherlock Holmes If someone is high on the proactivity scale you establish a really stellar motivation.
Branderson the Manderson, I watched one of these and now I'm on the second one, just now realizing I will have to treat this as a uni course and get my notebook out and scribble. These are a treasure! Thank you!
I really like Angela from the Inheritance cycle. (I got her name right, right?) She's on-screen very little compared to other characters but is super fun to read about. Every interaction she has is fun to read because of her interesting personality. She's awesome!
I *think* Paolini based her on his sister, so perhaps he had an easier time writing banter between characters *probably* most closely analogous to his real life!
How I come up with a story: I think of a really weird event that just shakes a big portion of the world. Then I think of what effects that would have on general people. Then I have roles for fixing this problem that need to be filled. Then I think of a trait, or a quality, or a theme. And build my characters around that theme to fit the job they need to fill in the story to fix the big weird thing
Good job on your class Brandon. I watched a few of your viseoa a long time ago, and got back into it. Im a piblished author as well. A famous author once said that as soon as you're paid for your work, you're a professional author, so I am now, and proud of it.
Lecture # 9 CHARACTERS Introduction purpose of characters, how to make people care 1 Establish empathy - like us, nice, show people liking them, save the cat or kick the dog 2 Establish rooting interest - motivation, why can't they have it, personal connection to the plot 3 Progress - flaw they have, journey they have to go, sense of mystery, what is supposed to change Character scales likeability, proactive, competence iconic hero is hero who does not change in scales. Includes superheroes generally. Ex- Han solo, Luke, Leia, Joker Motivation of characters Spiderman is likeable becoz he high on empathy, increase in competence Motivation shift things he wants and need, with great power comes great responsibility Sanderson's Laws establish motivation at start of story, act in contrary to move the scene. duty to family vs. duty to yourself vs. duty of religion dangerous to give only one motivation- Michael Mars in Lost, wants to be a good father, yell only my son one note character - become very tiring, no progress Drug addict guy, who change over course of story Quirks and Personality Quirk who somehow connect to these things it makes story much better. A handicap guy who is stamp collector can't travel . Get's invited to Morocco. how to do multiple viewpoint? not writing characters in a role. Character roles limit ability of character feel real. make every character protagonist of their story. one identifying characteristics which does not give a role stereotype why motivations over goals? goals are easier then motivations. ask why question. How to use story to teach character? discovery writes question. I back up and look at the story, and if the story is stronger. I will pull the character or change the story. if you want to make a character to change, hit them hard on their decision before in story. gorilla in a phone booth. person get stabbed and continue to talk. if ending is working it is okay to change the beginning. How to separate character voices? letting the character background, motivation and personality. person who studied argue logically vs. one who lived on street talk his guts * Learn how to write dialogue without descriptions don't use adverbs more often, "shut up!" instead of "shut up" he said angrily How to craft villain motivation? how far on scales. Iconic villain like Sauron vs. Gollum who has motivations. Villain vs. Antagonist Antagonist who is not evil or good? cross purpose with protagonist. Character who do not understand their own motivation? what they need, what they want.
It is going to be really important to understand later in the story. Exhibit A: the reason the ending in Casablanca works. Rick listens to a story from a girl from Bulgaria about why she is having the affair with Claude Rains. She now regrets the affair, and she doesn't want her husband to find out she cheated to get an exit visa. So, Rick signals the guy operating the roulette wheel that the fix is in. Rick tells the husband to bet everything on 22. Remember? That one little incident is the reason he tells Elsa that she is getting on that plane and she is not going with him. Rick loves Elsa, and he wants the best for her, and it is NOT him. "Because you will regret it."
Loved the "add a viewpoint" comment, I actually did this in my epic fantasies because I thought it would be fun for a reader to see that everyone is not on the same page, even when they have the same motivation and goals.
Sanderson really does follow the idea of recognizing a character by the way they speak. I realized who someone was by using just the words “I think” as a big clue when I read Mistborn...
Characterless fiction is possible to some extent, but it almost definitionally needs to be short and have an unconventional plot which forefronts elements of setting and mood in such a way as to create a kind of character arc through those elements. The elements of place and, indirectly, the author become the protagonist. Thomas Ligotti's much-lauded horror novella "The Red Tower", which essentially stretches out the sort of conceit he had cut his teeth on years earlier writing vignettes where characters as such are largely sidelined or absent ("The Spectral Estate", etc.), does precisely this quite excellently… but then he *does* bring a narrator at the end, almost as a twist, which gives structure to the narrative, but beyond that character's relationship with the actual subject of the story, we don't learn much at all about them. This kind of plays into Ligotti's philosophy of the horrific as being about expressing personal experiences and worldviews, of being an intimate form of emotional communication between author and reader, rather than about the mechanics of storytelling and intense "objective" verisimilitude, although I suppose that's easy for him to say given the quality of his work from the get-go. :P
Do you have any idea which author he was talking about at roughly 2:19 then? I am sooooo curious to read their work even though he spoke like it's not very good
@@CaptainArthanos I have a very strong hunch it's Dune. The politics and themes are interesting, but let's be real, if you only read the book series once and were asked "where does this quote come from" it would be hard to tell.
I make up characters, and develop the character growth. Using a character sheet and stats with levels and powers, backgrounds, items. I’ll make a hundred characters this way, I use the same world. Then I try to match up characters and run them through scenes, when I figure out a good character match. I’ve already an idea of the story they may do based on the scenes I wrote to match them up. Basically complete a character, take them on an adventure, meet friends and adversaries. Let things play out naturally, by breaking your complete character up into levels from 1-20. Each level is progressing the story, each character is the same system. Conduct an interview between you and the characters. Go on mini missions, you can write a hundred different scenes to establish a plot. You can shuffle scenes you write and glue it together with plot and motivation.
My notes - How do you make people care about your characters? Need to care about characters to care about story. 3 big ways. 2:30 establish empathy to make people care about your character A magic system is only as interesting as the people using it. Action scenes only have stakes if you care about the characters in them. 4:05 brando sando is more plot-driven writer. He tends to start with idea of world and story and then “cast” characters within it. 5:15 likability creates empathy Relatability creates empathy Save the Cat - if you want someone to like the hero, have them save a cat. If you want someone to root against a villain, have them kick a dog. Showing people liking a character establishes empathy. Someone likes them, maybe I will as well. Proof from the crowd. Like women finding married men more attractive.
8:10 establish rooting interests Show what the character wants is interesting to us. Give them a motivation. Characters who want things are naturally more interesting than characters who don’t. Even if it’s just a cup of tea. They want something out of life they can’t have. What do they want? Why can’t they have it? Establish a personal connection to the plot. Luke doesn’t want to become a jedi until they kill his parents…. Establish progress / change. Show a flaw they have or establish a journey they’ll go on. Driven by a question or a sense of mystery. Will they become the thing we root for them to become? What are you signposting as the thing that’s supposed to change?
12:35 three sliding scales to describe any character Likability (Empathy for character’s goals) from scared to brave. from selfish to selfless. Some start high likability and level up their competence. Proactivity (The actions they take towards what they want) from inactive to proactive. High proactivity from interesting motivations. Leia saving the galaxy. Competence (Their skills to achieve what they want) from unskilled to skilled. These ideas connected to goals that make you want to read about a character. The scales move around across the course of the story. They are connected to each other. Villains low likability but high proactivity and mid-high competence are compelling characters.
26:00 contrast bw what character wants and needs. Spiderman wants to be cool and famous. What he needs is to understand w great power comes great responsibility.
26:45 flaws, limitations, handicaps Sanderson’s 1st law, of foreshadowing, applied to characters, is often about establishing the right motivation. And have characters act according to them. Conflicting motivations. What you want for future vs What your family wants for your future Intersections between family life, social life, religious life, create interesting tension and motivations. In Lost, character of Michael. Deadbeat dad wants to become a good father. You’d think it’s a good arc that establishes empathy. But he’s everyone’s least fave character. Because Michael became one-note. “My son! My son!” 1-note character whose
31:48 one-note characters Emotional stakes never change or vary. Gets tiring unless you do something else to show lots of progress going on with the thing they’re obsessed with. Becomes distracting annoying boring. We don’t care ab his son, feel like we should but don’t. Vs Charlie in Breaking Bad is very likeable character. Starts as dropout drug addict. But everyone’s favorite character. Lots of progress and emotional arcs. Empathy, rooting interest, progress in characters.
I get so excited every time Brandon starts the class! So enthusiastic, and I am so eager to learn! Where was this course when I was in uni? But, I am glad I found it now :)
I’m currently having a concept in mind for a vampire book in which worldbuilding and character building so this channel is perfect for me. It’s run by the legend himself
7:20 That's a good one. I recently saw a very average movie where suddenly, one of the baddies (a guy) was protecting another (female) baddie from some falling rubble. That instantly made me like that bad guy, even when he didn't even have a major role and I was like: "I see. So they are not just some sociopaths..."
this reminded me of the way A:TLA humanizes the Fire Nation guards and soldiers; they're on the wrong side, sure, but they're not necessarily evil, and it's showcased through a very small amount of dialogue and actions
Speaking of depression in characters, NHK Ni Youkoso (a short novel that has an anime adaptation) has three main characters and all of them have mental problems of some sort. But they are very, very proactive throughout the whole story, because they always try to solve whatever problems they have, just not by directly confronting these problems. It does a very good job of having progress that even seems positive, but it wraps that progress into events that make you question the very nature of mental health problems and elevates that melancholy on a higher level. It's a great anime title that oscillates well between comedy and tragedy and doesn't just waste your time with cliches, but it has a heavy "anime industry ruins people" theme used here and there. I think novel is even better, but I may be very biased, because I've read it soon after re-watching the anime. It also has some "darker" elements that weren't shown in anime, like psychedelic drugs.
"Lot of fantasy and sci-fi writers comes from a world building-perspective." So true! My project -literally- started with me imagining a bad ass-looking suit of armor.
@@All4Tanuki I disagree, afterwards I learned a lot of facinating things about storytelling, character-development etc. I would definitively be less happy with where I got, if I focused solely on world building and tried making it an TTRPG
While I'm not Australian myself, I know enough Aussie slang that 8:05 "Establish rooting interest" is saying something very different than what Brandon meant. Though in fairness, Hollywood is perhaps even more fastidious about that kind of character likability than any other, so perhaps he meant it in the Aussie fashion for any would-be screenwriters.
He nearly touched on a really interesting point during the motivation Star Wars comparison If you ask yourself WHY Han wants to save his friends and realize you need to show him being convinced, that helps your story But if ask WHY Leia wants to save the galaxy and the answer is obvious from the get go, you want to AVOID showing her being convinced of that. Because that would only hurt the story Or you can change your Leia-convincing plot to be about making her vehemently hate the empire whether or not taking it down affects the galaxy one way or another
an excellent example of what he's talking about at 1:02:28 (a few characters having a discussion with no dialogue tags or any description of the environment around them) is a short titled "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson. It's only a few minutes read and it's entirely dialogue, and it's Very good
52:53 I notice "gorillas in the phone booth" in books so often, and it's really annoying sometimes. Sometimes I get to the end of a story, and this tiny thing has been bothering me the whole time, and I can't appreciate the ending because that part wasn't resolved
Very important to make villains relatable so they aren't just a moustache twirling villain. That's very boring after a while. A good villain should be to the protagonist "in some other circumstances, we could've been friends"
Me: Rifling through a bunch of old Sanderson lectures because i already watched this semester's videos Sanderson: Uploads a new lecture Me: *Fina storming Ly*
@@mightymouse5930 That's in a series where massive storms regularly roll across the planet to fuck everything up. Of course the vernacular includes references to storms.
Another example of a quirk making a character proactive. Po from Kung-fu Panda. His quirk was he was a fat panda, but Shi-fu was able to use food as a driving vehicle to make him a Master fighter after he was willing to understand Po and see his potential rather than compare him to Tigress.
can you suggest these types of books, or books that have these properties "your opening chapters are full of almost no information dumps, full of character dialog that snaps off the page and tells you who they are by the way that they talk and gets across and evokes setting and character just through these sort of contextual clues"
28:19 "One of the things that's fascinating about characters and about human beings in general is that we tend to wear a lot of hats" + the smile makes me think he had Wayne in mind :)
This makes me feel so much better because I’ve been telling myself this about I just need to keep writing through the first draft then come back to fix the first chapter 2
I'm gonna give a shoutout to the girl playing terraria, thanks for paying for this class so I can enjoy Sanderson's lectures
I love that
Bless you
Great game, but not the best time to play it
she's worldbuilding.
i will say, i played sdv thru a class session once and paid the most attention and retained the most info i had at all that year. i hope the same worked for her lmao
Gotta give props to those students who are paying for this lecture and therefor paying for my college level education too.
Now I kinda feel bad that we're watching this for free.
*My wallet*
I don't!
Obxx@@xxnxxxxxx poo
@@lordextinction8322 Don't worry they're also receiving about 4 more years worth of courses curated into a focused study to refine the education
@@josephevers9312 they’re also writing stories and receiving feedback from peers and professors.
They are also receiving college credit.
I am a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson even though I have not yet read any of his books.
That was me before I read Mistborn.
@@vinnieandhispizza6299 why? is mistborn bad ? Am gonna buy that book cuz it has very great reviews but is it bad ?
@@itzfreyy532 Mistborn is a great book, the only issue is that is from the BrandoSando beginnings and is not of his best characters. But is way better than 80% of the YA books out there. So yes, buy it, something tells me that you will like that book.
@@itzfreyy532 To truthfully make the claim Buster's Brain made, you can't have read any of his books. Thus when you read any of his books, you can't truthfully make that claim.
If you read Mistborn as Vinnie and his Pizza did then you will cease to "have not read any of his books". :P
@@setroid8235 Yeah I think that's what he meant haha.
I wanna say thanks to the on-site students. Asking good questions and bringing a cool vibe.
I AM SO JELLY
@@xarmanhsh2981 wha…?
@@memcgiffin jealous of the students that are there
Nah its cringe when they overlaugh at everything. I hated that about university
@@greatcoldemptiness have you considered that maybe..... they're genuinely enjoying this? Imagine being so dead inside that other people's joy is an inconvenience to you.
Time stamps
1. Establish empathy (save the cat) 5:18
2. Establish rooting interest (motivations; why can’t they have it) 8:05
3. Showing progress 10:29
4. Sliding scales (likability, proactivity, competence) 12:26
5. The journey (stories work by a sense of progress or awesomeness overload)(start by showing a difference between what the character wants and what they need) 24:19
6. Flaws, limitations, and handicaps 26:40
7. Quirks 34:58
8. Flaws, limitations, and handicaps defined 38:20
Q&A
Multiple character viewpoints 40:45
Goals and motivations 44:56
@Caleb Vejvoda Thanks!
Very helpful
Replies like this should always be the top-voted one.
Thank you sir
Thank you!
I've taken a lot of writing classes at this point. I took James Patterson's writing class. I took a creative writing class as well as some other generall writing classes from this adult school thing. I've also listened to other lectures and done extensive research on writing a novel. Nothing has been nearly as useful as these free videos. Nothing. I wish I would have watched these before I wrote my first book. In other classes, I feel like I'm being talked down to, and I feel like the teacher is hiding things. They teach the most general and obvious things (to me). Brandon on the other hand...it's almost like every idea is revelation. Some of his points are things I kind of understand, but then the way he explains boosts my understanding of it a ton. These videos are so incredibly practical.
Also, the other students' questions are actual questions I have myself.
Thank you so much Brandon for teaching this class, especially in such a fun and engaging way.
I agree! and also highly recommend Brandon's (and other very cool authors!!) podcast named writing excuses. so many great writing tips!
i like the way he organizes concepts. usually i know everything he's talking about but he frames them in such a refreshing way that suddenly its not as muddled or confusing, or even overwhelming. Sometimes there will be terms that he separates and gives distinctive definitions of, and other times he will just give things a slightly different meaning which helps a lot with getting out of my head.
if i was even a third as invested in my online classes as i am in these lectures...
I don't even write and I keep watching these for some reason. They are so interesting
65 Drums same, I tried to write a bit when I was younger but it’s been years since I tried to write anything. But I know that Brandon Sanderson is really interesting and he says good things.
@@65Drums Watching someone knowledgeable talk about something they're passionate about is usually pretty enjoyable regardless of the topic!
LOLLLLL
Good teachers........
So, here's the trick I have, as a 95+% discovery writer: If the characters aren't going where I want them to go, I open a new separate text document, sit down with them (sometimes framed as a dream where I use some sort of mentor figure as a mouthpiece if they aren't going to talk to *me* me), and just straight-up ask them why they're doing this, where they want to go instead, and then see if we can brainstorm together about where this goes next. I then file this conversation away in my cutting-room floor file (the same place I put the "darlings" that I have to cut from the story).
I've practiced this so much that I now have these conversations with my characters inside my head while in the shower, or while walking the dog, or whatever. But a text file works really well if they won't talk to me that way.
That would actually make a really interesting story in its own right. Giving your characters a Mt. Sinai moment where you, the author, reveal yourself to them as their creator and interact with them? I'd totally read that!
@@calvinsbeard7423 Yes, it would be an interesting format.
As a hardcore plotter, this right here is why discovery writers are fascinating to me. Wish I could do this sort of thing! Alas, my brain just doesn't function that way...
This is actually a pretty good idea I think I'll use. Thanks for this. When I write a lot of my conversation between characters is pretty organic but that's probably because of my own background in psychology and I've put together rather complex people so I just let them chat in my head while I listen and adjust things to get a few different paths they can take.
@@calvinsbeard7423 You might like: th-cam.com/play/PLj4N-R1RQxAuAQ4qBpaUbGLb1ZWpWySAz.html
My favorite part (I don't remember which season it's in) is when the character says she finally understands what's going on and the author says, "Well I don't! None of this was in the outline!"
Start low end high. Start high end low. My screenwriting teacher said every single scene should either go low to high or high to low. And if it doesn't do that then you better have a damn good reason for the scene. I like to pause movies and see exactly where the low-high, high-low happens. It's kind of neat! Of course he also said that if you're writing a comedy there better be a joke/gag every minute. That class was exhausting. Comedy is so freaking hard to write y'all.
What specifically are you referring to with high and low?
@@the_beemer I'm interpreting that as low action to high action, and high-action to low action. No scene that is just in the middle the whole way. Stagnation is bad, essentially.
@@the_beemer The escalation and and de-escalation of tension aka conflict in a scene. Whether that's action or dialogue.
In film language we see this as emotional intensity in a scene and it's shown in the shot order. So You come in with a wider shot, get a mid shot and establish the mood. You move in as things get more intense or closer to the emotions, and then back out as we disengage. It's really cool to see the same things happen in books.
@@the_beemer A practical example of High to Low may be a fight scene that either culminates with an emotional moment by the end or, in a physical sense, wears the protagonist down. The hallway fight scene from Daredevil season 1 is the first thing that comes to my mind.
We see Matt start this encounter guns (or rather fists) blazing. At first, he is taking on multiple assailants with high intensity, but as the scene progresses everyone is worn out. Matt, the bad guys, even the audience, all feel the fleeting struggle that everyone is going through in this brutal Scooby-Doo-esque situation. The scene has lots of meaning for the plot of the show and Matt's character, but keeping discussion around the ideas of High to Low, my immediate take away is it shows Matt's dedication and headstrong nature. The very thing he says is emblematic of a Murdock; like his father was someone who wouldn't stay down. That can be uplifting of an idea. But by the time the scene is over, we also get to see the foil that spirit leaves on him. We go from those idealistic heroics to a man beat to a pulp surrounded by bodies.
There are probably far better takes of the concept out there, but this is what comes to me.
Notes for my personal use regarding the first 40 mins which is a little confusing, in case you would like to use them :) If I have made a mistake do let me know.
YOUR CHARACTER WILL HAVE AT LEAST ONE OF THE THREE
1) Establish Empathy - They people like us, who other characters like or dislike
2) Establish a Rooted Interest for them in story - What is your character's motivation? Why can't they have what they are motivated to achieve? What is their personal connection to the plot?
3) Establishing progress - What is the flaw they have or the journey they must undertake? What question/mystery keeps readers hooked to your character (i.e. what milestones will signal to the reader that there is progress, e.g. will spiderman become a hero)?
The Scales of Character
Your characters will fall somewhere on these three interconnected scales (proactivity and competence can go hand in hand for example)
1) Likeability (How much empathy you establish for the character in your story)
2) Proactivity (Motivation and what they do to achieve what motivates them) *
3) Competence (Where are they on the progress scale of what they want to do/can become? This isn't always swordplay, it could be their ability to talk/become assertive and grow in their interaction with others)
* difference between motivation and goal is story ends when goal is met, whereas motivation goes on. (e.g. Your character is motivated to win the tournament (goal). Why? Because his father never believed they were competent enough to make it (motivation) )
Movement on any of these scales will create a sense of motion for the story as a whole.
*WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THE ICONIC HERO, COS NONE OF MY CHARACTERS ARE BUT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FIND ABOUT THEM PLEASE SEE **15:45*
FLAWS,LIMITATIONS,HANDICAPS
A lot of times when characters have problems its because you haven't foreshadowed their motivation at the beginning of the story. This could affect their actions and dialogue. For Example, you may artificially include an argument in dialogue that would appear wooden to your reader because you included the argument for creating tension, rather than letting your character's motivation drive the dialogue.
Realistic characters have many motivations. You may want to be a novelist, but your family may want you to become a doctor, while your parish priest might want you to become a clergyman.
QUIRKS/FLAWS/HANDICAPS ARE NOT PERSONALITY
If you can connect either of the above with the aforementioned establishment and scale they will appear less like a replacement for personality. For example if you have a character who is a stamp collector, it could be a minor quirk, but they could be proactive in their collecting stamps when they can't be proactive in other areas, What is their motivation for collecting these stamps? It could be because they cannot travel to these locations as they have a physical or economical (in my case lol a sad South Asian passport) handicap, they prefer to collect stamps to substitute their travel. Ta Da all combined and believable and empathetic. Then if you could connect it to their journey/plot it seems very digestible to the reader even though award winning actor Nicholas Cage is present.
When building your character think about the above and how they create empathy/motivation/competence and how the conflict could arise from this.
50:20 - How do you make a non-viewpoint character interesting/motivated when your main cast doesn't know what they're thinking?
DO NOT MAKE THEM A VIEWPOINT FOR THE SAKE OF IT.
What you could do is - suggest to the reader, that your character's inability to understand a non-viewpoint character will be a plot-point as that character has their own motivation/interest.
appreciate you!
Thank you!
Woot! Thanks :) I'm definitely going to use this.
Awww! Thts so nice of u!! Thx!!!
Thanks, your notes were succinct and clear. Very helpful to read and watch at the same time.
37:00 I’m going to give an example of using quirks that become so much better when connected, from the famous manga One Piece.
Character: A retired general in a fishing village
Quirk: Has a pinwheel on his cap
Motivation: while this seems random quirk at first, a flashback establishes that when heroine was a baby, she was scared of the general’s ferocious face, so she would cry anytime he got close to play with her. But she starts laughing when the general experimentally snaps on a pinwheel on his hat. Ever since, he has always kept the pinwheel on, because he could make that girl laugh and he could get close to her without being scary. Years pass, bringing struggles and loneliness to the girl, all through which he keeps the pinwheel on his head to be a source of her laughter. And finally, when the girl makes trustworthy friends and goes on an adventure around the world with them, the general takes off the pinwheel because the girl now has a reason to laugh happily other than his pinwheel.
Reineeeeeer!
Is that the guy from Arlong park
@@suf1an658 aye
Man these manga writers have some other level of creativity
Nami (the herione) also gets a pinwheel tattoo on her arm before leaving with her friends showing just how deep on an impact it had on her.
1:00:00 speaking as a PhD candidate in at an R1 institution, a protip on writing dialog for academics (in a modern, empiricist tradition): academics tend to hedge *a lot* more than normal people. if you have your "academic" character basically ever use the word "every" or "all", that's a red flag, unless they follow it up immediately with something to qualify that statement's scope.
Chidi Anagonye is a caricature, but he's one that cuts deep.
Can confirm! Especially in the sciences, you're often advised not to state anything definitely because in general you can't be sure whether further experiments will disprove your current understanding. The situations where you *can* be totally sure are actually pretty rare, even in basic stuff they teach to first-year undergraduates.
at a certain point in education you realize there are few absolutes. Even a 0.0001 percent chance of error disallows those types of statements
I wish I could like this comment twice
Incredibly true! Also - coming from political science - wanting to define exactly what we are talking about in a discussion.
I find myself doing this way too often...
Only exception to that rule might be mathematics by its very nature.
Brandon thanks for more exposition on how to do everything involving the writing process. Have a blessed one with your family and stay safe.
1. Establishing Empathy
-Show that the character is like us. that they are relatable .
-Show that they are nice.
-Let them Save the Cat.
-Show people liking them.
2. Establishing rooting interest
-Show that what the character wants is interesting to us
-Show us their Motivation.
-Characters who want things are naturally more interesting to us than characters who don't.
-What do they want?
-Why can't they have it?
-Establish personal connection to the plot
-Suddenly it's personal.
3. Progress
-How are the characters going to change?
-A flaw that they have.
-Character Journey.
-Mystery or Question
-Willl they be able to become the thing that we know they can become.
-What is going to change.
"What do you want for lunch, Michael?"
"I want my soooooooooon!"
I spit out my tea. hahahaaaaaaa
My husband and I couldn't stand that character. He basically only had one line for a season- "They took my son!"
"But he is BOOORING !" Lmao
From what series is the character
Me too hahahaha
@@francorodriguez3499 Lost
A big problem with Michael is that it's really hard to give someone a different motivation when you've kidnapped their son.
If someone kidnaps your son, you bet it's going to overshadow everything else going on in your life (apart from, maybe basic survival).
So the lesson here? Avoid motivations that overshadow everything else unless you're going to make progress immediately.
So I'm halfway through, and I just realized something. The 539,592 views is probably not anywhere near that number of people, just a lot of rewatches. Because that is exactly what I am going to do. There's so much to learn from this brilliant lecture.
'Repeated for the internet audience' thanks Brandon! :)
Hodor was a one-note character who really paid off in the end.
Hey we got a third syllable out of him eventually
B. B. B. Oooooobooooooobooobb hbo. J,voohooiuzuz
Honestly in the books he is way less riveting of a character
He is more of a plot tool for Bran than an actual character.
I just wonder how tf other countries translated that twist
I love (and am incredibly grateful) that Brandon added these lectures to his channel for free. This is so much more helpful than the Masterclasses a lot of other authors have done for actual money. Although I can't help but be annoyed at the lady with the messy bun and the dude right beside her in the bottom right playing freaking video games together on their laptops while in a class thousands of others would kill for the chance to sit in on physically. The camera didn't zoom out enough to see them in the audience until about 15 minutes in but once it does you can see them playing some game involving shooting guns and a blue inventory screen/hotbar against each other for THE ENTIRE CLASS! Talk about disrespectful...
Goodness, I don’t write, and don’t plan on writing….. but still this is pure gold! I never had a class this good in university! Wow and well done Brandon!
This guys needs to go teach hollywood writers. They need the help.
Lolll
Wow, just wow your advice around character voice and conveying character and setting between the lines. "Thank you for such great content," he added politely and professionally.
I graduated university with 2:1 BA in English Literature and Creative Writing; and I’ve learnt more from Brandon than my previous university syllabus.
I am floored that all of this is available for free. Thank you so much!
"Hit your characters HARD in their flaws, if you want the story to encourage them to change."
GOLD
Im watching these after nearly 40 years of trying to write my novel (which is itself based on a short story I wrote) and sitting here nodding my head like a bloody idiot while staring at a blank screen on the laptop.
I have the entire series of books in my head but its getting it from there to the pc that is the issue.
All that Brandon says here is amazing and I wish I had him around for these tips years ago.
What I dont think anyone can teach is how to get it out. I'm nearly 61 now and fear my amazing (in my head) characters will never see the light of day.
You just have to start writing and not stop, it’s that simple. If it’s garbage, go back and revise it
Hey, I read this at work yesterday and made a reminder to come back and reply, so I hope you read this eventually.
I really feel you, I could say the exact same words you did except for the numbers. I'm 20 years younger than you--just turned 41. Been thinking about and reworking my story for 20+ years, and this year was the year I finally started getting it out. These lectures are a big part of why, and I'm ecstatic about it.
Probably the biggest hurdle for me was to just do it. Just knowing the writing will suck at first--but you fix sucky writing, you can't edit a blank page. A blank page will always be just that.
So I hope you'll find things that work for you and help you get there. For me, I even had anxiety about brainstorming on notebook paper, but I finally got over that with the help of digital writing tablets like OneNote. For some reason it matters to me to put stuff down on paper but I don't feel like I'm "wasting" paper or ink just writing every thought down on a tablet.
Sounds dumb, and it is, but try to figure out your hurdles/blocks and overcome them. I've made peace with the fact that my story may never be published or even good in my eyes, but I can't live without trying. The story's in me, and it's made to get out, even if I only write it for myself.
Praying you'll do the same. I know what it feels like, brother (or sister). Best of luck to us!
I order you to write one sentence right now.
Hope you and your book are doing good today.
@1:04:00
shows a point where Sanderson gets really passionate about a question and just spewes a ton of what seems like GOLD info. I think right there he just summarizes the entire lecture into author gold nuggets. Just an observation. I really liked it and made notes of a ton of it.
of course! Watch the entire thing, but after that, re-watch this part a few times. I follow other's passion, and you can see the passion in his description here, and it really paints a good synopsis of the entire lesson.
Thanks so much for making these public, Brandon. I can't tell you how valuable this is to me.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Greatest writing teacher of all time. I like how he explains what makes characters work. Likability, Proactivity and Competence. Never heard of that before - that's really interesting.
Last time I was this early, Kelsier and Mare were robbing a house.
Last time I was this early there were murderous penguins
Last time I was this early, Adonalsium was whole.
TOO EARLY. I mean.... yes. Yes you are too early.
Dude, that hurt.
27:00 how to make char motivation feel “ proper” to reader
40:20
42:00 how to not write chars that feel like roles rather than indiv real chars
Make each char believe they are the protag in their own story or viewpoint and write accordingly
Rather than written as the “goofy sidekick” or the “love interest”
47:28 how to make chars do what I want them to
Wooo, finally! I've been looking forward to the lectures on characters for weeks.
Me too.
Been watching my way through all of these and loving them. They actually make me feel better about my writing rather than like I'm a fraud. Thank you!
Also, the Gorilla in the phonebooth thing just reminds me of every time people have a conversation when one of them is driving in a film or TV show. I can never pay any attention to the conversation because I spend all of it going 'look at the road, you're going to crash. You're going to crash the car! LOOK AT THE ROAD!' I wish they wouldn't do that.
SO much can be learnt from Lost. Almost unlimited great examples of how awesome the audience found certain things, only to be dissapointed later when much of it was left unexplained. Tons of strong characters, who both worked and didn't work for numerous reasons.
So true... Now I kinda wanna go back and watch it from a note taking p.o.v.
This is seriously valuable information for every fiction writer to learn. I recommend taking notes.
"You're wrong. I've stabbed three people like you and they all died. You're wrong." That is an interesting character. Lol.
Sounds a bit like one of Kaladin's dialogue.
@@Snehu I was pretty sure that's vin particularly in well of ascension.
@@Snehu Yes it does
@@Isaiah_McIntosh Yeah youre right its hers xD i was dumb i commented that before reading mistborn trilogy
Regarding the three sliding scales, it's cool to have just read the first 6 Dune books watching this. Dune Messiah in particular is like watching an iconic character slide down the like-ability scale.
I am absolutely loving these lessons, so much knowledge is being received on my end. Thank the student who asked the last question on how to write a character unclear of their motivations👌it answered quite a lot with regards to my current wip
Wow, I love this guy. I just discovered him, and literally has helped me so much already to understand pieces of my process I didn’t quite have gripped. Masterful.
Can confirm, Nick Cage whisked me away to Morocco three years ago.
How do you make characters people care about...Love this. I think this is crucial to writing a good story. Can’t tell you how many books I’ve put down because characters weren’t relatable or undeveloped. So glad there’s a Part 2! Gold
I just love it when I have a burning question and then one of the students asks that very question.
these lectures are SO GOOOD
This man is a genius in every sense of the word. Brandon Sanderson is a master of writing and storytelling. Just wow.
He definetly had success making me think about "Sandersons Law" whenever I am writing something.
Any other One Piece fans here thinking that Luffy subverts a ton of these tips entirely and yet remains one of the best shonen protagonists ? Oda is truly a master. We all know Luffy's goal but 20 years later and his exact motivation for that goal is still the subject of much conversation and wonder.
Great lecture!!
I dont think so. He hits all of them.
I'm so grateful for the people who gave him feedback about female characters
Yay!!! I've been waiting for this. Loving the lectures, thank you for giving these out.
An absolute gift 🙏🏾
All characters exist on a sliding scale with three toggles.
Likeability - how much empathy is established for the character.
Proactivity - the character's motivation and what they are doing to achive their goals.
Competence- how good they are at it.
A character moving on even any one of these scales creates a sense of progress.
An Iconic Hero Does not move on the scales
Ex. James Bond and Sherlock Holmes
If someone is high on the proactivity scale you establish a really stellar motivation.
Branderson the Manderson, I watched one of these and now I'm on the second one, just now realizing I will have to treat this as a uni course and get my notebook out and scribble. These are a treasure! Thank you!
I really like Angela from the Inheritance cycle. (I got her name right, right?)
She's on-screen very little compared to other characters but is super fun to read about. Every interaction she has is fun to read because of her interesting personality. She's awesome!
I *think* Paolini based her on his sister, so perhaps he had an easier time writing banter between characters *probably* most closely analogous to his real life!
AT LONG LAST! CLASSSSSS!!!!
ReaGame Thats what I thought! I dropped everything to come see this video!
Been watching 1 lecture a week. 9th week of serious study. I love that these are available!
How I come up with a story: I think of a really weird event that just shakes a big portion of the world. Then I think of what effects that would have on general people. Then I have roles for fixing this problem that need to be filled. Then I think of a trait, or a quality, or a theme. And build my characters around that theme to fit the job they need to fill in the story to fix the big weird thing
Literally me
Love these lectures. Just happened to look at the students around 1:06:10 and noticed two of them playing Terraria 😂
Lmaooo
We found the non-fiction writers.
Good job on your class Brandon. I watched a few of your viseoa a long time ago, and got back into it. Im a piblished author as well. A famous author once said that as soon as you're paid for your work, you're a professional author, so I am now, and proud of it.
Lecture # 9 CHARACTERS
Introduction
purpose of characters, how to make people care
1 Establish empathy - like us, nice, show people liking them, save the cat or kick the dog
2 Establish rooting interest - motivation, why can't they have it, personal connection to the plot
3 Progress - flaw they have, journey they have to go, sense of mystery, what is supposed to change
Character scales
likeability, proactive, competence
iconic hero is hero who does not change in scales. Includes superheroes generally.
Ex- Han solo, Luke, Leia, Joker
Motivation of characters
Spiderman is likeable becoz he high on empathy, increase in competence
Motivation shift
things he wants and need, with great power comes great responsibility
Sanderson's Laws
establish motivation at start of story, act in contrary to move the scene.
duty to family vs. duty to yourself vs. duty of religion
dangerous to give only one motivation- Michael Mars in Lost, wants to be a good father, yell only my son
one note character - become very tiring, no progress
Drug addict guy, who change over course of story
Quirks and Personality
Quirk who somehow connect to these things it makes story much better. A handicap guy who is stamp collector can't travel . Get's invited to Morocco.
how to do multiple viewpoint? not writing characters in a role.
Character roles
limit ability of character feel real. make every character protagonist of their story.
one identifying characteristics which does not give a role stereotype
why motivations over goals? goals are easier then motivations. ask why question.
How to use story to teach character? discovery writes question.
I back up and look at the story, and if the story is stronger. I will pull the character or change the story.
if you want to make a character to change, hit them hard on their decision before in story.
gorilla in a phone booth. person get stabbed and continue to talk.
if ending is working it is okay to change the beginning.
How to separate character voices? letting the character background, motivation and personality.
person who studied argue logically vs. one who lived on street talk his guts
* Learn how to write dialogue without descriptions
don't use adverbs more often, "shut up!" instead of "shut up" he said angrily
How to craft villain motivation? how far on scales. Iconic villain like Sauron vs. Gollum who has motivations.
Villain vs. Antagonist
Antagonist who is not evil or good? cross purpose with protagonist.
Character who do not understand their own motivation? what they need, what they want.
It is going to be really important to understand later in the story. Exhibit A: the reason the ending in Casablanca works. Rick listens to a story from a girl from Bulgaria about why she is having the affair with Claude Rains. She now regrets the affair, and she doesn't want her husband to find out she cheated to get an exit visa. So, Rick signals the guy operating the roulette wheel that the fix is in. Rick tells the husband to bet everything on 22. Remember?
That one little incident is the reason he tells Elsa that she is getting on that plane and she is not going with him. Rick loves Elsa, and he wants the best for her, and it is NOT him.
"Because you will regret it."
what a time when I can watch this for free whenever I want. thanks for the lessons, sir.
Loved the "add a viewpoint" comment, I actually did this in my epic fantasies because I thought it would be fun for a reader to see that everyone is not on the same page, even when they have the same motivation and goals.
Thanks for posting these videos! This is what I wish I had gone to college for.
This is probably the best lecture from the series
This deserves more views. I can't believe this is free
Sanderson really does follow the idea of recognizing a character by the way they speak. I realized who someone was by using just the words “I think” as a big clue when I read Mistborn...
Sazed!
@@cjs4247 absolutely!
Characterless fiction is possible to some extent, but it almost definitionally needs to be short and have an unconventional plot which forefronts elements of setting and mood in such a way as to create a kind of character arc through those elements. The elements of place and, indirectly, the author become the protagonist. Thomas Ligotti's much-lauded horror novella "The Red Tower", which essentially stretches out the sort of conceit he had cut his teeth on years earlier writing vignettes where characters as such are largely sidelined or absent ("The Spectral Estate", etc.), does precisely this quite excellently… but then he *does* bring a narrator at the end, almost as a twist, which gives structure to the narrative, but beyond that character's relationship with the actual subject of the story, we don't learn much at all about them. This kind of plays into Ligotti's philosophy of the horrific as being about expressing personal experiences and worldviews, of being an intimate form of emotional communication between author and reader, rather than about the mechanics of storytelling and intense "objective" verisimilitude, although I suppose that's easy for him to say given the quality of his work from the get-go. :P
Do you have any idea which author he was talking about at roughly 2:19 then? I am sooooo curious to read their work even though he spoke like it's not very good
@@CaptainArthanos I have a very strong hunch it's Dune. The politics and themes are interesting, but let's be real, if you only read the book series once and were asked "where does this quote come from" it would be hard to tell.
I make up characters, and develop the character growth. Using a character sheet and stats with levels and powers, backgrounds, items. I’ll make a hundred characters this way, I use the same world. Then I try to match up characters and run them through scenes, when I figure out a good character match. I’ve already an idea of the story they may do based on the scenes I wrote to match them up.
Basically complete a character, take them on an adventure, meet friends and adversaries. Let things play out naturally, by breaking your complete character up into levels from 1-20. Each level is progressing the story, each character is the same system. Conduct an interview between you and the characters. Go on mini missions, you can write a hundred different scenes to establish a plot. You can shuffle scenes you write and glue it together with plot and motivation.
Character is my one area I worry the most about. Really excited for this class 😁
I didn't realize these were so new that I have to wait for the next week's!
My notes -
How do you make people care about your characters? Need to care about characters to care about story. 3 big ways.
2:30 establish empathy to make people care about your character
A magic system is only as interesting as the people using it. Action scenes only have stakes if you care about the characters in them.
4:05 brando sando is more plot-driven writer. He tends to start with idea of world and story and then “cast” characters within it.
5:15 likability creates empathy
Relatability creates empathy
Save the Cat - if you want someone to like the hero, have them save a cat. If you want someone to root against a villain, have them kick a dog.
Showing people liking a character establishes empathy.
Someone likes them, maybe I will as well. Proof from the crowd. Like women finding married men more attractive.
8:10 establish rooting interests
Show what the character wants is interesting to us. Give them a motivation. Characters who want things are naturally more interesting than characters who don’t. Even if it’s just a cup of tea. They want something out of life they can’t have.
What do they want? Why can’t they have it?
Establish a personal connection to the plot. Luke doesn’t want to become a jedi until they kill his parents….
Establish progress / change.
Show a flaw they have or establish a journey they’ll go on. Driven by a question or a sense of mystery. Will they become the thing we root for them to become? What are you signposting as the thing that’s supposed to change?
12:35 three sliding scales to describe any character
Likability
(Empathy for character’s goals)
from scared to brave. from selfish to selfless. Some start high likability and level up their competence.
Proactivity
(The actions they take towards what they want)
from inactive to proactive. High proactivity from interesting motivations. Leia saving the galaxy.
Competence
(Their skills to achieve what they want)
from unskilled to skilled.
These ideas connected to goals that make you want to read about a character.
The scales move around across the course of the story. They are connected to each other.
Villains low likability but high proactivity and mid-high competence are compelling characters.
26:00 contrast bw what character wants and needs. Spiderman wants to be cool and famous. What he needs is to understand w great power comes great responsibility.
26:45 flaws, limitations, handicaps
Sanderson’s 1st law, of foreshadowing, applied to characters, is often about establishing the right motivation. And have characters act according to them.
Conflicting motivations.
What you want for future vs
What your family wants for your future
Intersections between family life, social life, religious life, create interesting tension and motivations.
In Lost, character of Michael. Deadbeat dad wants to become a good father. You’d think it’s a good arc that establishes empathy. But he’s everyone’s least fave character.
Because Michael became one-note. “My son! My son!”
1-note character whose
31:48 one-note characters
Emotional stakes never change or vary. Gets tiring unless you do something else to show lots of progress going on with the thing they’re obsessed with. Becomes distracting annoying boring. We don’t care ab his son, feel like we should but don’t.
Vs Charlie in Breaking Bad is very likeable character. Starts as dropout drug addict. But everyone’s favorite character. Lots of progress and emotional arcs.
Empathy, rooting interest, progress in characters.
Now I have to read his books. It's the least I can do for the hours of free advice he has given me
I get so excited every time Brandon starts the class! So enthusiastic, and I am so eager to learn! Where was this course when I was in uni? But, I am glad I found it now :)
Hi Brandon,
Will you please put the link to your sample outline in the description so we can access it?
Thank you so much for posting these publicly!
"Gorilla in the phonebooth" is such a fun analogy😂
Truly opening my mind. Going to improve everything I will write. Thank you.
I was looking forward to the next episode of the course. I am a big fan of your books. I have read all of them. Thank you very much.
I’m currently having a concept in mind for a vampire book in which worldbuilding and character building so this channel is perfect for me. It’s run by the legend himself
7:20 That's a good one.
I recently saw a very average movie where suddenly, one of the baddies (a guy) was protecting another (female) baddie from some falling rubble.
That instantly made me like that bad guy, even when he didn't even have a major role and I was like: "I see. So they are not just some sociopaths..."
this reminded me of the way A:TLA humanizes the Fire Nation guards and soldiers; they're on the wrong side, sure, but they're not necessarily evil, and it's showcased through a very small amount of dialogue and actions
Speaking of depression in characters, NHK Ni Youkoso (a short novel that has an anime adaptation) has three main characters and all of them have mental problems of some sort. But they are very, very proactive throughout the whole story, because they always try to solve whatever problems they have, just not by directly confronting these problems. It does a very good job of having progress that even seems positive, but it wraps that progress into events that make you question the very nature of mental health problems and elevates that melancholy on a higher level.
It's a great anime title that oscillates well between comedy and tragedy and doesn't just waste your time with cliches, but it has a heavy "anime industry ruins people" theme used here and there.
I think novel is even better, but I may be very biased, because I've read it soon after re-watching the anime. It also has some "darker" elements that weren't shown in anime, like psychedelic drugs.
Great classes, and all of them here online for free! It is wonderful.
Nothing to do at work, and I'm specifically working ON my characters right now? This must be a sign from the Cosmere...
Ever wonder what shard did we get? 😂
"Lot of fantasy and sci-fi writers comes from a world building-perspective." So true! My project -literally- started with me imagining a bad ass-looking suit of armor.
If you wanted to write stories without worldbuilding you wouldn't be writing sci-fi/fantasy.
These writers don't really belong with novels. Most would be much happier writing up a TTRPG sourcebook
@@All4Tanuki I disagree, afterwards I learned a lot of facinating things about storytelling, character-development etc. I would definitively be less happy with where I got, if I focused solely on world building and tried making it an TTRPG
While I'm not Australian myself, I know enough Aussie slang that 8:05 "Establish rooting interest" is saying something very different than what Brandon meant.
Though in fairness, Hollywood is perhaps even more fastidious about that kind of character likability than any other, so perhaps he meant it in the Aussie fashion for any would-be screenwriters.
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He nearly touched on a really interesting point during the motivation Star Wars comparison
If you ask yourself WHY Han wants to save his friends and realize you need to show him being convinced, that helps your story
But if ask WHY Leia wants to save the galaxy and the answer is obvious from the get go, you want to AVOID showing her being convinced of that. Because that would only hurt the story
Or you can change your Leia-convincing plot to be about making her vehemently hate the empire whether or not taking it down affects the galaxy one way or another
an excellent example of what he's talking about at 1:02:28 (a few characters having a discussion with no dialogue tags or any description of the environment around them) is a short titled "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson. It's only a few minutes read and it's entirely dialogue, and it's Very good
Woooooo it's class time!!!! Partyyyyyyyy!
52:53 I notice "gorillas in the phone booth" in books so often, and it's really annoying sometimes. Sometimes I get to the end of a story, and this tiny thing has been bothering me the whole time, and I can't appreciate the ending because that part wasn't resolved
This is brilliant! I feel like writing a story just to try applying these ideas. Thank you you for sharing. 🙂
This has been so useful. Can't wait to use it. Thanks.
Very important to make villains relatable so they aren't just a moustache twirling villain. That's very boring after a while. A good villain should be to the protagonist "in some other circumstances, we could've been friends"
He has to be the best teacher! He’s amazing
Sawyer was my favorite lost character. Followed by the Jin-Soo and Sun-Hwa.
Me: Rifling through a bunch of old Sanderson lectures because i already watched this semester's videos
Sanderson: Uploads a new lecture
Me: *Fina storming Ly*
Nice tmesis
🙄 “storming”
The only thing I dislike about Sanderson’s writing. So cheesy and prude.
@@mightymouse5930 a lot of his fans are Mormons, so you have to assume that he doesn't want to make them angry.
@@mightymouse5930 That's in a series where massive storms regularly roll across the planet to fuck everything up. Of course the vernacular includes references to storms.
Another example of a quirk making a character proactive. Po from Kung-fu Panda.
His quirk was he was a fat panda, but Shi-fu was able to use food as a driving vehicle to make him a Master fighter after he was willing to understand Po and see his potential rather than compare him to Tigress.
If you have a kind character quirk use that to fuel them drive them...it's not a weakness in a fight to be kind...
Thanks for posting this. I keep making notes on the lecture then stopping to make notes for my book!
1:00:28 - 1:05:28 Huge takeaway for how to write better characterful dialog
can you suggest these types of books, or books that have these properties
"your opening chapters are full of almost no information dumps, full of character dialog that snaps off the page and tells you who they are by the way that they talk and gets across and evokes setting and character just through these sort of contextual clues"
@@naiveroosterNot a book but Aaron Sorkin's dialogue is always super catchy
28:19 "One of the things that's fascinating about characters and about human beings in general is that we tend to wear a lot of hats" + the smile makes me think he had Wayne in mind :)
This makes me feel so much better because I’ve been telling myself this about I just need to keep writing through the first draft then come back to fix the first chapter 2
I wish I put half as much effort into my actual uni degree as I do this class.
Sanderson's novels speak for themselves but he is a *gifted* teacher
I love that reference to My Immortal at 1:04:27
The fanfic? The song?
@@odoloid The fanfic.