Brandon Sanderson Creative Writing Lectures

  Brandon Sanderson is an extremely talented, best selling science fiction and fantasy author. From the Stormlight Archive to the Mistborn series, from the Rithmatist to Steelheart, he's an amazing writer with a large fan base.

  He taught several years at BYU and recorded his 2012, 2013, and 2014 course lectures from there. What this ends up being, when watched as a whole, is basically a FREE UNIVERSITY COURSE IN CREATIVE WRITING. That's exciting, so I put it in caps. If you're looking for creative writing tips, or creative writing lectures, and you want them for free...this a great place to start.

  Below are the links to his 2012 and 2013 creative writing course lectures as provided on his website, a link to the 321 Class recorded in 2014, and a link to a podcast Sanderson is a part of called "Writing Excuses." Several of the links on his website are broken, which is why I took the time to provide every link to the different lecture videos myself.

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2012 Lectures

If you prefer, you can get notes on the entire 2012 course here and the entire downloadable audio for the 2012 course here.

Lecture 1 videos:

• Intro
• Ideas are Cheap
• Class Format
• Gardeners vs Architects
• Writing Group Essentials

Lecture 2 videos:

• What Makes a Good Plot
• Plots by Outlining
• Plots by Discovery
• Young Adult Genres
• Adult genres

Lecture 3 videos:

• Intro to Prose
• First Person Viewpoints
• Third Person Viewpoints
• Description Part 1
• Description Part 2

Lecture 4 videos:

• Sympathetic Characters Part 1
• Sympathetic Characters Part 2
• Show Us the Character
• Giving Characters a Life Beyond the Plot
• Character Creation Example Part 1
• Character Creation Example Part 2

Lecture 5 video:

• Guest Lecture on Short Stories: Eric James Stone

Lecture 6 videos:

• Networking Via Conventions
• Some Alternatives to Conventions
• Meeting Editors and Agents
• Three Goals When Meeting Agents
• Pitches
• Some Questions and Statistics

Lecture 7 videos:

• A Success Story Part 1
• A Success Story Part 2
• The Three Act Format
• Try/Fail Cycles
• The Hero's Journey
• Brandon's Plotting Method

Lecture 8 videos:

• Random Questions
• Agents and Contracts
• Agents and New York
• Agents and Translation Rights
• Misc. Agent Duties
• A Little on Getting a Good Agent
• Book Advances and Royalties
• A Tidbit on the Fiction Industry

Lecture 9 videos:

• Misc. Question 1/7
• Thinking of a Setting as a Character
• World Building Geography Part 1
• World Building Geography Part 2
• Creating Interesting Nations and Towns
• Sanderson’s First Law of Magic
• Sanderson’s Second Law of Magic

Lecture 10 videos:

• Misc. Questions
• Dialogue Mechanics
• Replacing Adjectives and Passive Voice
• Orwellian Prose
• Intro to Modern Self Publishing
• Mechanics of Self Publishing Online
• Business Models For Self Publishing
• Some Final Thoughts on Self Publishing

Lecture 11 videos:

• Misc. Questions
• Making Stories Meaningful
• Three Rules for Fight Scenes
• Things Movie Fight Scenes Can't Do
• The Larger Narrative Flow of a Scene
• Realism vs Hollywoodification
• Plotting Romances

Lecture 12 videos:

• Avoiding Being Scammed
• RoFR’s, Advances, & Royalties
• IP Rights & Publishing Firms
• Ebook vs Traditional Contracts
• Small But Important Clauses
• Getting a Good Agent

Lecture 13 videos:

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

2013 Lectures

Lecture 1 videos:

• Goal #1 Build Good Habits
• Goal #2 Learn Your Style
• Goal #3 Learn to Workshop
• Writing Group Rules of Thumb
• Writing Group Structure
• Goal #4 Write a New Story
• Brainstorm on Setting
• Brainstorm on Plots & Characters
• Turning Ideas Into a Story Pt 1
• Turning Ideas Into a Story Pt 2

Lecture 2 videos:

• The Problem With New Writers
• Info Dumps & Learning Curves
• Blending the Familiar & Strange
• Generating Physical & Cultural Setting
• Strategies for Showing Not Telling
• An Appeal to Start Small
• Magic & Satisfying Resolutions Pt 1
• Magic & Satisfying Resolutions Pt 2

Lecture 3 videos:

• What Makes a Great Character
• Ways to Humanize Characters
• The Superman & the Everyman
• Character Flaws & Handicaps Pt 1
• Character Flaws & Handicaps Pt 2
• Making Characters Proactive
• Limitations are More Interesting

Lecture 4 videos:

• Subverting Expectations in Humor
• The Many Routes to Funny in Humor
• A Practice Exercise on Humor
• The Comic Drop
• Humor is Learnable
• Comedic Foreshadowing
• Q&A: Unlikable Characters, How to Practice Humor
• Q&A: Humor in Novels, Brevity, Audience, Talent
• Q&A: Prototyping, Alpha Readers, Hard Work
• The Business of Web Comics

Lecture 5 videos:

• Misc Tips & Tools for Engaging the Reader
• Pacing & the Importance of Breathers
• Some Thoughts on Outlining
• Getting Just the Right Amount of Description
• Novice Mistakes in Beginning Chapters

Lecture 6 videos:

• The What & Why of the Short Fiction Market
• Tips on Keeping Short Stories Short
• Tips on Submitting Short Stories, Category Length
• Q&A: When It’s Ready, E Shorts, New vs Familiar
• Q&A: Novel vs Short Story Ideas, Shorts Into Novels
• More on Keeping Short Stories Short
• Winning Writers of the Future & the Nebula
• The Editorial Process at Short Fiction Venues
• Some Short Fiction Economics
• Q&A: Overcoming Self Doubt, Anachronisms in SF

Lecture 7 videos:

• Revising, Esp. When You Don’t Want To
• Viewpoint & Tense Overview & It’s Importance
• Choosing Between First & Third Person Pt 1
• Choosing Between First & Third Person Pt 2
• How to Not Break Viewpoint
• Concreteness, Immediacy, & Precision in Prose
• Revising for Concreteness, Immediacy, & Precision

Lecture 8 videos:

• A Novel’s Capital P Plot
• Promises & Progression in Plot
• Relationship & Big Problem Plots
• Training, Time Bomb, & Travelogue Plots
• The Danger of Not Delivering on Promises
• Ways of Structuring Plot

Lecture 9 videos:

• Traditional vs Self Publishing
• Cover Art, Layout, & Editorial in Self Pub & Traditional
• Book Publicity Via Publishing Houses
• What to Expect with Advances
• Contract Law Pt 1
• Contract Law Pt 2
• A Short Self Pub Success Story w/ Tips

Lecture 10 videos:

• Elements of Fight Scenes
• The Role of Agents & Entertainment Lawyers
• Writer Beware: Agent Scams
• Arguments Against Agents
• A Brief Breakdown of the Book Market
• A Tour of the Major SF/F Publishing Houses
• How to Network with Editors & Agents
• Brandon’s Advice for After the Class

Lecture 11 videos:

• The Class Final
• Self Promotion & Platforms Pt 1
• Self Promotion & Platforms Pt 2
• Taxes on your Writing Income
• Business Deductions as a Writer
• Protecting Yourself with a Legal Entity
• Writing Good Query Letters
• Movie Deals on Your Stories

Lecture 12 videos:

• Critiques by Joshua Bilmes, Literary Agent Pt 1
• Critiques by Joshua Bilmes, Literary Agent Pt 2
• Joshua Bilmes, Literary Agent, on Plotting

Lecture 13 videos:

• Q&A: How Brandon Gets Ideas, Reader Trust
• Q&A: Non Traditional Story Arcs, Collaborative Fiction
• Q&A: Keeping Options, Conflict, Day Jobs
• Q&A: 80-20 Rule in research, Presenting ALL Viewpoints
• Q&A: Engaging Villains
• Q&A: Builder’s Disease, Deciding on Publishing, Viewpoints
• Q&A: What Separates Published Authors, Family & Writing
• Q&A: Writers Block, Fixing Broken Stuff, Getting Feedback
• Q&A: Getting Feedback, Scrapping Books, the Cloud

Lecture 14 videos:

• Getting Published: Standing in Line
• Getting Published: The Pre-audition
• Getting Published: Being in the Wrong Line
• Getting Published: The Audition
• Getting Published: Sealing the Deal

Lecture 15 videos:

• Q&A: What Next, Approaching Agents & Editors
• Q&A: Writing for Programmers, Pseudonyms
• Q&A: Fantasy Books By Tradition You Should Read Pt 1
• Q&A: Fantasy Books By Tradition You Should Read Pt 2
• Q&A: Why Books you Hate Get Published
• Q&A: Discovering Chars, Books on Writing, Diagnosing

2014 Class (All in one link)

• Brandon Sanderson's 321 Class (realize this is a worshop so it's much, MUCH longer)
• Notes on the worskshop can be found here.

Podcast Sanderson is a part of

• Writing Excuses Podcast