Video: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy Lecture #4 (Brandon Sanderson)
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Answering questions
On the topic of introductions: Introduce tone and main conflict as early as possible. Get into the main character’s head as soon as possible.
On nesting plots: Make sure the reader is really invested in the viewpoint character. Make the reader understand their motivations. Make the right promises and show progress towards those promises.
On twists: What is the purpose of the twist? What emotion does it add? If the twist — a subversion — gives the reader more than they expected, then that works. Escalate problems, don’t undermine them (with a twist).
On episodic writing: The secret is a good hook at the ending of an episode that makes a really interesting promise. Those moments need to be legitimate moments of crisis or curiosity to the reader. Avoid open-the-door suspense.
On fixing problems: Use tools like: what are my character’s motivations? What are my promises? What is my plot archetype? What is my trajectory? What is the pace?
Viewpoint
Omniscient (third person):
- Present narrator (first-person frame story)
- True omniscient
- Limited (most common; pick one character to see from at a time)
First person:
- Epistolary (diary, letters, …; past tense). Has innate mystery and is immersive. Rigid form. Can stretch disbelief.
- Flashback (classic first person; past tense). You know the character lives, which deflates the tension somewhat. Character voice is a selling point.
- Cinematic (narrating right now; present tense)
Second person: To do
Advantage of first person: If the character’s voice is interesting, you can get away with a lot of stuff (like info dumps).
To do
To do
- Pull in SB Morrison’s Plot Archetypes
- Listen to writing excuses, elemental genres season
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“Lecture #4: Viewpoint and Q&A,” 2020 Creative Writing Lectures at BYU: Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, YouTube video (Brandon Sanderson, 2020). ↩︎