Brandon Sanderson 2013 Lecture 12: Critiques by Joshua Bilmes, Literary Agent Pt 1

[@BlankKnight]

KZbin has a speed setting. watching at 1.5 speed makes him sound like he's talking normally. Very good tool, because this guy has really good insight.

[@Maerahn]

Being hearing-impaired sucks when all you have is the KZbin translate settings and no faces to lip-read. :(

[@Incurafy]

I don't know if it's changed since you wrote that comment, but the video now has proper subtitles. :)

[@critrpg]

General Rule of thumb: Unless your character is ditzy and you want them to read as such, try to avoid the sentence "No, he had to focus" and it's derivatives. Exceptions do apply!

[@DavidFosterZen]

This is a very interesting (and eye-opening) addition to Brandon's Lectures.

[@Grimscribe732]

Wow, that guy is spot on. That is some great critique. But I cant help but picture the dude with a monocole, white satin gloves and a gargoyle headed golden cane. Oh, and that Babbit stuff was quite cool too.

[@critrpg]

+jann1k You are right. I suddenly suspect Brandon fashioned Breeze after him, ha!

[@beefdlo]

Yeh this is really interesting, especially where he talks about not doing the hand-holding thing. Among aspiring writers there's a tendency to compare yourself to other amatuers. People think "Oh well at least i'm better than most..." but really it doesn't matter because you need to be better than 99% of what lands on an agent's desk to have the remotest chance of success

[@nicholer9]

I never realized that people really talked like Mort Goldman.

[@Stitchpuppy01]

"By now I was used to Babbit's many forms" I thought was fine where it was. It was relevant to the action, since it was the first instance where Babbit actually transformed in front of the reader.

[@TheMangoDeluxe]

I feel like he should give a mark out of 10. It just seems a little silly to say "oh it doesn't matter because it's a failure". I think the writer needs to know just how much of a failure it is so that they have a reference point as to how much further they need to go.

[@A4Nightblade]

Aww, no video :(

[@87jadams]

This is amazing, Joshua sounds like the impression Jon Stewart does of of the stereotypical Jew. I couldn't help but laugh but he such a beautiful way of speaking, it sounds like he's always telling a story. Does that make me a bad person?

[@LydiLockhart]

Wow, this was a really good listen - very good insight