Sanderson 2012.4 - Sympathetic Characters

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8 жыл бұрын

Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 4
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 / Sympathetic characters
- In the fantasy genre, characters are the most important thing
- All of your characters should be sympathetic in some way (even the bad guys)
- Sympathetic characters….
- - Have some “everyman” attributes and some “superman” attributes
- - Underdog
- - Are proactive
- - Nice (or has friends who like them)
- - Quirks
10:53 / Proactivity
- Make your character proactive, don’t have them wait around for the villain
- Easiest one to slip on, and will weaken the character
16:43 / Show vs tell
- Give the character a unique view on life
- Show don’t tell
- - Dialogue is generally more show than tell
23:10 / Character depth
- Make your characters care about things other than the plot
- If you think of your character only by their role in the story, you will lose depth
- The character’s life did not begin when the story began; they had wants and hobbies and values before the plot started
33:50 / Love Interest alternatives
- Mentor & student
- Best friends who start as not best friends
- Teens are interested in romantic relationships, and it is one of the main things that draws them to books
36:01 / Character building exercise (with examples)
- Build into the character things that are unanticipated
- - Unanticipated doesn’t necessarily mean “weird”
- Build a scene that shows the attributes of these characters without even mentioning their actual attributes

Пікірлер: 66

@weckar 3 жыл бұрын

Of the three pillars, plot is easily the hardest for me. It is easy for me to imagine a world, and the people living in that world. It is difficult for me to imagine those people doing something important enough or caring so much about something that it is worth writing the story about.

@yerabbit6333 4 жыл бұрын

hey, sam is also ultra competent at cooking taters!

@shavedata5436 4 жыл бұрын

wwwhats t-t-taters, hobbitsies?

@mazrick247 Жыл бұрын

cook em, mash em, put em in a stew?!

@ramonarobot 3 жыл бұрын

Timeline 36:00 onwards is so helpful in coming up with story ideas

@satanbrony9235 3 жыл бұрын

Nice, thank you for making this time stamp!

@howardkoor2796 3 жыл бұрын

This teacher knows so much! Its astonishing

@mazrick247 Жыл бұрын

if you think this class is amazing, read his books... he is a credit to the human race in terms of his creative writing.

@AKNeal81 7 жыл бұрын

The 6 year old is the younger sibling that steals the magic sword

@sevenstrings9347 2 жыл бұрын

Wait a second.... the fifty two year old guy as some result of messing with time, is suffering from delusional episodes/amnesia and is clinging on to life, as well as paranoia around the aliens who hired him to do so (racism), while his daughter, the 28 year old female, has to look after as well as her siblings, despite her desire to travel around like her sports star sister. the 28 year old female is tasked by the same people who hired the 52 year old guy (her father) to create a weapon, a super magical sword that glows RED when magically activated. The 6 year old boy (her younger brother) successfully steals the sword because not only does he like the colour, but sees it as an opportunity to protect others. The aliens who helped make the sword suspect the 28 year old of hiding it, and as punishment, kill her father while he is in his zen garden of trash. The 17 year old, unbeknownst to everyone, is trying to learn necromancy in order to save their father in secret. The 6 year old boy, after finding his way home, talks with his 17 year old sister, by which he finds out about her necromancy. They then plan to work together, using some magical knowledge gained by the sword, but also through herbology knowledge, to try and resurrect their dead father (the 52 year old) from the dead. lol.

@lesath7883 11 ай бұрын

Niiiiice.

@GhoulishGwyn 4 жыл бұрын

Years later, and I’m still pissed at whoever cut out part of the lecture for “PC considerations”

@nicobones9608 5 жыл бұрын

Tales of Erets Book 3 has a scene in which five women are meeting together and talking in order to decide the fate of a sixth woman. Most of the women are either queens or former queens, except for the one who's a prophet. Bechdel, eat your heart out.

@reecenaidu6020 5 жыл бұрын

LOL. That GRRM reference after you've seen Game of Thrones season 8 and the night king is revealed to be nothing but a bland red shirt villain

@zmunk 5 жыл бұрын

lol. I do hope GRRM has a bit more up his sleeve in the books. We’ll have to check back on that one in another 10 years.

@jameshightower8875 5 жыл бұрын

zmunk 10 years? Aren’t you optimistic? 😂😂

@bridge4 4 жыл бұрын

His backstory hasn't been revealed yet, but for all we know, blood moon may center around the night king, with the final scene being those who sing the song of earth converting him into the night king :))

@mattkhourie4037 4 жыл бұрын

@@bridge4 wasnt Blood Moon just cancelled?

@bridge4 4 жыл бұрын

@@mattkhourie4037 unfortunately, yeah. But house of the dragon is still on :))

@001SpecialAgent 4 жыл бұрын

2:16 ok, so I was like, "Wait, that doens't look right, that isn't how you spell that word. And then I was like, dare I question Brandon Freaking Sanderson on spelling, and yep, I was right, he mispelled there. Ha! I'm kidding around, he's awesome, I so appreciate these uploads and this wonderful information.

@ammonnakai453 4 жыл бұрын

This is why he has spellcheck and an editor. ;)

@HexVexed 4 жыл бұрын

yes, love Tangled. :D

@nelsonatthehelm 4 жыл бұрын

I've literally been watching clips from tangled for inspiration for my novel! Such good story telling! Although... don't rent it with your mom for mother's day. I made that mistake when it first came out. Not exactly a heartwarming mother-daughter story! 😂😂

@nicobones9608 5 жыл бұрын

What he said about minority characters often being awesome side characters with nothing wrong with them is one of many reasons I actually really liked Finn from the new Star Wars movies. It's fun to watch him bumble and stumble, show tremendous cowardice and ignorance, but then at the end find his courage. That moment when Kylo Ren demands the lightsaber and Finn responds, "Come get it!" was a victory, in my mind, even though Finn was defeated.

@BKPrice 3 жыл бұрын

Technically Superman fits the everyman to superman progression. On Krypton he was nothing special, and it wasn't until he came to Earth that he would have been considered superpowered. The only difference is we start seeing his story after he comes to Earth.

@e.matthews Жыл бұрын

2 years later... Interesting point. But does Superman develop from his Ordinary World stage being on Krypton? I think his Ordinary World is on Earth, trying to be the everyman. Many versions of Superman maybe don't even change that much, he is tested and remains a moral paragon. He has absolute power but never becomes the tyrant (except for a few timelines I guess). He's the legendary Cincinnatus written in a time when dictators were a dime a dozen. But he's the Superman in an Everyman's role.

@mikecobalt7005 Жыл бұрын

Excellent Class.

@helenasvachova444 5 жыл бұрын

Great lecture, but it's really starting to bother me how he always presents Sam is the "true hero" of LOTR, and now he adds he's really the only one who has a "superpower." That's just... not true. Yes, Sam is awesome and grows tremendously and everything, but Frodo for sure does have a superpower, the power to carry the Ring without being much affected by its burden. The burden of the Ring is tremendous (much more tremendous than the movies were able to visually portray I guess), and although Sam is Frodo's fantastic and necessary supporter, the books show very clearly that he would have been corrupted by the Ring in a matter of days, just like everyone else except Frodo. Another one of Frodo's "superpowers" is his compassion. Although he ultimately fails to destroy the Ring, his failure can be read as a victory of compassion, as he was the only one who consistently took pity on Gollum, showed him mercy and let him live (whereas Sam, whose thinking is a lot more black and white, threatened to kill him multiple times). I honestly find it pretty sad that lately the narrative around LOTR turned so that it seems the true hero has always been Sam and Frodo is just kind of there to fill the protagonist slot. That's doing Frodo, LOTR and Tolkien himself such a great disservice. Frodo was the first true hero I'd ever read about as a preteen and his story affected me so deeply and made my passion for reading and stories so much stronger. He's a complex, intellectual, sensitive character, not your typical hero who fights his way through every situation, but a hero nonetheless.

@henbane2247 5 жыл бұрын

Carrying the Ring like Frodo did is definitely a superhero power. My favourite characters in the books were Sam and Aragorn

@princessthyemis 4 жыл бұрын

Fantastically said!! I totally agree! It's been a while, though, so I don't remember it being clear that Sam would've been corrupted by the ring, too...Sam was probably my favorite character but I liked Frodo a lot too!! He was so brave!

@AfroNinja0077 4 жыл бұрын

In Tokien's opinion Sam showed the greatest heroism. At the very least I'd say they're on the same level of heroism :p

@shavedata5436 4 жыл бұрын

I can't carry it for you.... . . . . BUT I CAN CARRY YOU!

@satanbrony9235 3 жыл бұрын

@@shavedata5436 wonderful moment that makes some people cry.

@shethewriter 4 жыл бұрын

Standing up for diversity and realistic female characters way back in 2012 👏🏼

@nononouh Жыл бұрын

@howardkoor2796 3 жыл бұрын

Someone please explain the not perfect ending of Game of Thrones. #GOT

@ImIndavyjoneslocker Ай бұрын

the show was only good when they were adapting it. anything the show writers had to write themselves was absolute garbage. hence why seasons 1-4 is the best television ever & seasons 5-8 are just standard mindless hollywood shlock. a few good things in 5&6 (that were still being adapted) were good but the majority of those 2 seasons were straight up bad. so yeah that’s what happened with the show. was nowhere near just being a terrible ending, it had been terrible since season 5 and onward

@Bazonkaz 7 жыл бұрын

What happened to the audio?

@lesleywalker7376 3 жыл бұрын

@TheOnceAndFutureKing 5 жыл бұрын

49:07 I find, more often than not, it's feminist writers who fall into that trap. You've seen this a lot recently in comics. Also Rei, in the recent Star Wars movies. Either written specifically by a radical feminist, or an attempt to please feminists, (by people who might not necessarily be radical feminists themselves). The journey of these characters is obvious; the intention is to create likable, strong female characters, but the result is creating flawless, uninteresting, boring female characters, sucking all of the humanity out of them.

@Pablo360able 4 жыл бұрын

You know, a lot of people *say* that about Rey. I don't see it. One part of me acknowledges that it could be a difference in opinion, but a larger part thinks it's projection - or more accurately, anticipation. You *expect* a character Rey to fit that mold, so you interpret the story in the way that most easily reinforces that theory. Or maybe I'm doing the opposite, but if I am, I'm okay with that, since I think it's good to try to interpret something in whatever lens is most generous.

@Pablo360able 4 жыл бұрын

I'm not even saying you're wrong in general, I just take issue with that example in particular because it's so common and so weird to me.

@AnakinTheWeird 4 жыл бұрын

@@Pablo360able Forget about all the good setup she got from TFA, and try just rewatching TLJ while keeping in mind to watch for "Rey is perfect in every way" stuff. You'll see it.

@Pablo360able 4 жыл бұрын

@Vincent Rando You're right, if I go into the movie with the expectation that Rey is perfect it's very easy to come to that conclusion.

@quirkyjoeAnimated 3 жыл бұрын

@@Pablo360able But Rey IS the main character. Sanderson is talking about tokenism in secondary characters to check the PC box, he isn't talking about the idea of a powerful protagonist (the common and short-sighted criticism of Rey is that she is a 'Mary Sue')

@StarlasAiko 6 жыл бұрын

Education does not need to be concerned about PC considerations. Foul or graphic language and imagery do not fall foul of decency regulations or similar if they are part of an educational, commentary or art program.

@changelingx7615 7 жыл бұрын

Neat lecture, but bechdel test is bullshit and forces people to muddy their plot with unneeded distractions. If a story happens to pass it, that's fine, but a story should never be required to pass it to be considered a valid story

@IchibanOjousama 6 жыл бұрын

Changeling X yes it does

@keegster7167 6 жыл бұрын

That's true, but I think that Brandon Sanderson's point is to beware not to overreact to it by making some Mary Suelike character, which is really annoying.

@shavedata5436 4 жыл бұрын

The Bechdel test is more of a description of gender representation in entertainment as a whole, but it's certainly useful to keep in mind, especially for developing male writers.