Sanderson 2012.11 - Fight Scenes & Romances

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8 жыл бұрын

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

Пікірлер: 167

@nicobones9608 5 жыл бұрын

His commentary on politics in novels here is clever. Dostoevsky did a great job of fulfilling what Brandon Sanderson talks about here. Not only did Dostoevsky not straw-man the people he disagreed with, he made them intellectual giants to be truly difficult for the main character to overcome.

@Jeneric81 5 жыл бұрын

Sanderson's take on romance: Takedown, headlock, ground and pound.

@Stitchpuppy01 7 жыл бұрын

Sanderson is the uber nerd every nerd should aspire to be.

@Andrea_Manconi 7 жыл бұрын

So the first rule of fight scenes is you never talk about fight scenes.

@ArielGarcia7 Жыл бұрын

There is no martial arts to what you describe, sorry but you are wrong about the truly trained. You are right about the average fighter. Ugh

@TheOnceAndFutureKing 5 жыл бұрын

I love these, but I think that Sanderson grossly underestimates human willpower when it comes to taking wounds. It is possible to walk or run with a wounded foot, or punch or grip a sword/gun with a wounded hand. it is, at least for a little while. What matters is how deep and severe that the wound is, how well they're trained, and how many years of experience they have. That's not to say that humans are invisible, but they are much stronger than what he's trying to say, some of them anyways, (obviously not all of them).

@nicobones9608 5 жыл бұрын

Regarding Knight's Tale, totally agree! The blacksmith woman was far more interesting, cool, beautiful, and awesome than the "Noble Lady." The "Noble Lady" was a bit of a sadist and a nut. The blacksmith was truly amazing. She should have had a romance with someone and it should have had more focus than the knight's relationship with the lady.

@nicobones9608 5 жыл бұрын

I respectfully disagree with the "kids don't profess true love" comment. Certain kids are in love with love, and those kids definitely profess feelings of "true love" for one another.

@codyvandal2860 4 жыл бұрын

I've never read any of Sanderson's work but watching these lectures has really made me want to.

@excogitatorishominum6819 4 жыл бұрын

So I slept with the videos rolling.. I was watching Skallagrim, and I wake up watching this. I love it.

@BlueGuitarMusic 7 жыл бұрын

It's really rare to see someone who has had success and can explain what they did and how to observe others- it's rarer still to see someone with those attributes who can teach a good class- and this is a good class.