Brandon Sanderson - 318R - #4 (World Building)

[@joonyaboonya]

I appreciate that he respects considers discovery writers and offers advice for them(us). I find that a lot of teachers frown upon discovery writing. But this guy gets it.

[@girlwiththemagicpen]

I identify as a 'discovery writer' as you put it :)

[@tobak952]

i have huge respect for discovery writers, but would generally discourage new/aspiring writers from discovery writing in their first few manuscripts. Im a very new writer, and started as discovery writer, outlining improved my work by orders of magnitude. So again, loads of respect from me

[@doxazo5512]

Forgive my naiveté, but what is a "discovery writer"?

[@tobak952]

basicly a writer who dont outline their story but just writes what comes to mind and see where it takes them. An outliner know the ending of the story when he starts writing- a discovery writer gets just as supriced as the reader

[@TheRedRuin]

@Mist Spirit For me both is clearly the way to go, but if someone wants to purely discovery or outline all power to them.

[@Jasonwolf1495]

I love tolkein's mentality of forever world building. I've had my own little universe that's been building up over the years. I doubt it'll ever have a story, but I really enjoy making the world for the sake of making it.

[@TheClassicWorld]

Me too, but I do have a story, the chars are the hard part, and the joining of all the dots. The worldbuilding is the easy part, normally, when I think of a concept, it comes with a story, and maybe a few chars, but that's it. Getting from A to B is difficult.

[@Jbum26]

Especially when the transition scene you're attempting to write is giving you major writer's block. I've been on the same scene rewriting it for months, but it has far reaching implications for the book so I can't just skip it and come back so to speak

[@claude-alexandretrudeau1830]

I do the continual worldbuilding to a fault. I dream a million stories in that world I constantly build with my mind. Thing is, writing is not a natural function of the brain. It's harder to put words on that continual dream than just dreaming it, and coming up with a plot is a steep hill. But the challenge is worth it. Any form of artistic expression will change the dream and add to it.

[@matthewpettipas8233]

I know what you mean. I usually build my worlds as I write my stories, but I enjoy the process so much.

[@joetheperformer]

Yes! I am the same. I have a massive Iceberg. I am trying hard to keep it underwater.

[@RyeZuul]

I've got to say, against my better judgement and realistic sense of free time, I put one of these lectures on and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's clear how much Sanderson loves the subject and has thought long and hard about it from a severely useful point of view. Now I'm going to have to watch the others.

[@Sillezbth]

Wow, the quality of the videos is way better than the other lecture series. And the links to all the works/authors mentioned are great. Thank you for the amazing effort you've put into this, Jon Deering and Earl Cahill! And thank you to Brandon Sanderson as well.

[@TheTechnicalNirl]

Good lord where has this been all my life?!

[@KlineStife]

huh. people are heavily misinterpreting his message. he isn't saying racism or sexism is unacceptable in a story, he's saying don't use tokenism or other things that makes you support those thoughts, subtle or not.

[@kroneexe]

Shut up, darkeyes!

[@josefabuaisheh6262]

Okay, but what if you know all this but still want to use tokenism? If you want to make a book about slaves, and they're all white male or female, by one other gender/race, etc.? As he described different races in his fiction he chose stereotypes and everybody laughed! Why? Because it can be very funny! If you want to be offensive or have a book about a minority, why shouldn't you be able to write that? If you want to have a world populated by white males 7 Feet tall, all named Eric, with blue eyes, blonde hair all trying to impress the only ever born girl with green hair and black skin, why shouldn't you do that? It's a fantasy? It's fiction if it makes you happy, you should write it! I think to tell people they shouldn't, is like telling people to be cooks instead of chefs ;-) Not complaining but it's interesting how the first one is called "woman as object" instead of "people as object" (Not Sexist at all :-P)

[@bigfat4172]

@@josefabuaisheh6262 I think it's more complicated than you think. It's fine if slaves are all one race/species. But the thing is that at that point, you will need to justify why only that one race/species is a slave or the world building will be super shallow and discussing this would be inherently political and at least draw obvious parallels to real life. And if you do this clumsily then you might stray into inadvertently promoting weird moral standards, as authorial intent never actually matters. This goes for all roles that may only contain one demographic. Why are all the cooks black? Why are all the miners lizardmen? Why are all the upper class giants? Why are all the women (blank)? Diversity solves this problem and actually allows yourself to be apolitical. If you have a variation of demographics being slaves then you're letting the audience know "Im not playing any race politics this is just a story". And sure, you can write whatever you want, but if all your characters are 7 feet tall and named eric, unless you're doing something avant-garde, you're gonna be hurting the overall experience as a plot/character driven narrative.

[@josefabuaisheh6262]

@@bigfat4172 I think as long as you as the writer like what you are doing, there is nothing of the table, at least till a government confiscates your literature. And yes I think this can be really successful too. There are many successful books, movies, TV-Shows and Games that have very shallow world building. And I think that's by choice. And btw there is a reason why people are racist or sexist, it's natural to animals and that's what we are. The more we fight it the more it rises. I personally think that the social justice warriors from today and modern feminists are helping the far right movements to scare people of the middle towards the right. And it's working, all over the world. Everybody should be able to say whatever the hell they want to say. And if people get offended than good, maybe they think about why they have that reaction and grow from it instead of trying to censor anybody.

[@bigfat4172]

@@josefabuaisheh6262 I understand what you're saying. But it's really naive. And sure, in group out group discrimination is natural, but we as humans are intelligent enough to be self aware of how we apply it and therefore how we should solve unnecessary uses of it.

[@hannahgroves243]

One thing I do in my worldbuilding is I make a set of docs and write them as if writing a guidebook for that world. It can be funny, but the idea is accuracy and reference.

[@aarontait1751]

That is an amazing idea! Thanks for the tip I'll definitely be using that!

[@Samuel-ku1qb]

genuinely spent two years only writing on my world. I have Asperger's syndrome so I kind of get obsessed with things. Building my version of Norse Mythology that could exist in the real world because of the laws and physics. I have three languages, Latin, old English and Oaerky (my own language I've created this past year). I know it is very much like Tolkien when trying to summarize it and yes, it's based upon the same origin, but it truly isn't very much alike his stories at all. Okay this is long. Thank you for reading this very long comment for no reason.

[@BlerdDaddy85]

You're welcome

[@grayfox6930]

I enjoyed your Ted-talk

[@HelloWorldMyNameIsLyra]

Would love to read and see some of it if you see this and are willing

[@Angelo-uw9eo]

Your comment is medium longness ;)

[@Szystedt]

If this is considered a long comment then you should see mine, you're fine! 😭

[@1Kapuchu100]

Man... Sometimes I wish I could just sit down with Brandon and ask him all sorts of things.

[@1Kapuchu100]

Might as well ask the people here: I have a book in the planning stage, and in this world there is a sort of personification of death. This character is a duality of sorts: Both gentle and vicious, and I want the character to meet them at some point. Anyone have any advice how to make such a meeting impactful? My goal would be to have the reader say "Oh fuck" when this Death character suddenly appears, but I'm uncertain how to really do it. Ideally there would have been talk of this character (as they're part of the mythos of the world), and so readers will know of them, but how do I really make sure that the true introduction/first meeting between Protagonist and Death Personified sticks out as something really special and impactful? (Minor spoiler for Brandon's Words of Radiance incoming) For sake of comparison I would like the feeling of this meeting being similar to when Kaladin says the final words of Radiance, when Syl returns and he says "The Knights Radiant have returned."

[@Dartifice]

What is your question?

[@1Kapuchu100]

Danny D ...I forgot that. "How do I make a meeting between the main character(s) and this Personification of Death feel as impactful to the reader as it is to the characters."

[@deniselarnder5371]

So you want them to meet... The most important thing, in my humble opinion, is to make sure that their meeting progresses either the plot or your protagonist's character, or both. That's one thing that will make the meeting meaningful. That aside, how do we usually encounter death? I'd say it's usually totally out of nowhere (unexpected) or we are actually expecting it, possibly dreading it but knowing it's inevitable, or maybe even wishing it to come sooner. Maybe that could give you a couple ideas? Is this Personification of Death character your antagonist, or something else?

[@1Kapuchu100]

Denise Larnder The Antagonist in my story is more of a concept than a person: Greed. Death is as neutral as they come, but with the potential of being both benevolent and cruel. But I know that there should be a reason for the meeting, not just something that happens because "Hey, it would be cool!" (The Rule of Cool only extends so far). It's more like how to make the reader feel the dread and excitement the characters feel. The general Mythos is that you CAN meet this Personification of Death even if you aren't about to die. It's rare, but it's possible, so they wouldn't be at the brink of death necessarily.

[@AroundTheCampfire]

Writes amazing books, creates immersive worlds, AND he is a fantastic lecturer! What can't this man do? When we created Campfire, we had authors like Brandon Sanderson in mind. How can we make it easier to create such incredible fiction? He is truly a genius, I can only hope our worldbuilding software foster even more authors that create more great books and worlds like his. There can never be enough books to read!

[@CTBridge]

Oh man this is great, I've always wanted to attend Brandon's lectures.

[@crookedvertex7986]

This 1:06:14 line of thinking is what society needs to learn. People are not disposable and should be allowed the opportunity to learn/grow/change. Far too many people are ruined for life over something they may have had no choice in due to their upbringing/influences.

[@OurBrainHurtsALot]

You know how I know they're a bunch of classic nerds, no one said 'sports' in cultural setting

[@1Skigutt]

They also mention arhitecture, music etc. as seperate things, instead of the umbrella "art", while science is one big umbrella, including rules of magic

[@Norpfang]

jocks are nerds of sports,

[@elfstone8606]

HA! Well said

[@thegrizzlyartist5014]

Damn

[@МатвейЧ-ь6х]

I misheard "Sports" when dude said "loss of war"

[@REMurphy]

Brandon's T-shirt game is strong. Thank you so much for these vids! I watched all the old vids and this is still gold. Gold.

[@claireworrell4944]

Nah mate Cisco from The Flash has the best T-shirt game in TV history.

[@thedevicedrummer]

Sanderson: the intro will be slow and boring so let me put a crazy prologue Tolkien: hey man first thing let me tell you about pipe-wide and hobbit stuff

[@juanmarodriguez6010]

This

[@lauralaura396]

I actually haven't read anything from Sanderson yet. Only last year I started reading (for pleasure) again and I'm a slow reader so despite hearing his name come up many times, I haven't read anything from him yet. But seeing this lecture makes me like him, so I'm excited to read stuff from him in the future. I really liked this lecture and I am very thankful for uploading this video, it was super interesting and I'll definitely watch some more of his lectures. I think he's a pretty good teacher too, it's not because you're skilled at something or that you know much about it that you can actually teach it well. I had a professor in university who was very intelligent and passionate about his area of expertise, it was more than obvious that he knew so much about it. But he was a horrible teacher (with that I don't mean a horrible human being). He had no structure, jumped from one thing to the other, wasn't good at slowly introducing information on students so they would understand, he just dumped so much info on us like he expected us to already know half of it, during his class I was in a perpetual state of drowning in information. His classes and the exam were so difficult. I did learn a lot but I don't feel like I learned it in an clear and efficient way. So yes, I really appreciate that Sanderson can teach well and teaches passionately, explains things clearly and gets students to participate in the class. Well done!

[@thehubbabubba667]

Have you read anything of his yet? His audiobooks are awesome. I recommend starting with Mistborn!

[@lauralaura396]

@@thehubbabubba667 Thanks for the recommendation. I haven't started on anything from Sanders yet. I'm a really really slow reader (get distracted by internet/series too). And I've been reading other books first. But Sanders is definitely on my list.

[@metalaarsix]

Erikson's learning curve lol

[@ZidaneFC]

It's so damn accurate! That's exactly how I felt reading those books.

[@metalaarsix]

Haha I know, it's funny because it's so true.

[@IptenT]

Can confirm.

[@yourfriendlyneighborhoodsp3662]

No one laughed....I would have been the only one lol

[@zanderrose]

Glen Cook is a bit like that too

[@Jasonwolf1495]

Rewatching because I finally lost my last burst of creativity from watching it the first time.

[@arnoldarun7655]

If u are steven Ericsson Your learning curve looks like that. Epic

[@fredrikfjeld1575]

The first Malazan doesn't have a curve. It's a wall. At first, you don't know how ti even climb one step up. Then you find some handholds and try depseratly to get further. You will probably fall a couple of times, but after a while, you will be able to climb further. Not fast, not gracefully, but you are climbing.

[@deana7310]

Camera Panda: I almost think you should add a link for the T-Shirt Brandon wears. Or keep a running count. :-) Cosmere Shirt: 2 Band Shirt: 1 Other Fan group Shirt: 1 Thanks for these videos.

[@AbsqueArte]

I'm going nuts trying to figure out what it says!

[@TheMagicRat]

@@AbsqueArte It says "Hello. Would you like to destroy some evil today?" You can find it in his official store (8-Bit Szeth T-Shirt)

[@crstph]

imagine knowing nothing about the class and trying to decipher the whiteboard at 25:23

[@sumirewhisper6707]

the weird doodles of a math nerd...

[@Luka1180]

One of my favorite aspects of magic / powers is their origin/source, and I hope Brandon will touch more upon this in a lecture some day. More than he has done :)

[@theelliotchan]

14:09 I like the ice berg analogy. discovery writing the tip, and then filling in what's underneath to make sure it is still visible beneath the water. Never thought I approached it this way, but I guess it's what I do. Thanks!

[@limbitlesskyle2763]

I've always wanted to be a fantasy author, but never had the opportunity to take any classes, remotely like this one. I'm going to watch all of these lectures. This lecture clearly shows why Sanderson is my favorite author. Definitely, one of the best videos that I've ever found on KZbin ^_^

[@ethanrichmond3992]

As you know, Brandon Sanderson is a fantastic author.

[@Poisonedblade]

World Building, "General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the clone wars. "

[@zanderrose]

55:23 "This is not the Catholic Church, but it's exactly like the Catholic Church, and they're all evil" His Dark Materials in a nutshell lol

[@MiyamotoMusakaki]

Piece of shit

[@chadhardt6136]

>literally every JRPG ever.

[@wx7fm]

A Certain Magical Index litterally had the actual real life Catholic Church be evil

[@manofthehour8945]

Not a bad book but Jesus I lost myself sort of on the last piece

[@Sven2andahalf]

@@chadhardt6136 I would like this twice.

[@Tigreblanco229]

55:20 wow, I heard that slap on Philip Pullman's face, and I'm not even living in the USA

[@Derayne33]

43:14 Is some of the best advice I have ever heard relating to managing time relating to worldbuilding and how to release it to your readers.

[@nickp9646]

A world where everyone can summon snowballs at any time sounds pretty cool.

[@4winkyness462]

Where would the water come from? Law of Conservation of Matter? I think there WOULD be water shortages, as massive snowball fights would occur, and then cause droughts elsewhere because they now don't have water!

[@JcBravo8]

The water comes from the caster! Resulting in mass death from dehydration :)

[@taylorhaws6402]

@@4winkyness462 the Law of conservation says that matter cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed. maybe this magic system involves transforming the air molecules into water molecules.

[@infernalsquid]

Aha! But global cooling would occur from all the shiny ice!

[@stefan1924]

@@infernalsquid That's just what he said. He said it sounds pretty "cool".

[@abib.3355]

There's an automatic emotional rebuke to sentiments like the ones in his segment on Writing The Other. Especially if it's not something you've had to think about much before in your life. Emotions are powerful; they can exaggerate our interpretations of what a teacher is saying, and make our reactions more extreme. He never says that it's bad to write about white people, or men, or even that it's bad to make your cast comprised solely of those demographics. Only that it's often unrealistic, and if your casts tend to be that homogenous, it's worth thinking about why. And that should you attempt to write The Other, your lack of knowledge/respect can easily lead you into old, recognizable pitfalls. As a white person, I just plain don't know what it's like to exist as someone who isn't white. Probably the same in a lot of ways, but also probably different ways I wouldn't even think of if I didn't ask someone. If you just write people as people (not objects or pure stereotypes) and do your homework, and have humility in your ignorance, you'll make better stories. Sometimes it's worth setting your feelings aside for a moment, even if they're painful or upsetting, and openly considering "maybe I'm wrong, and I can learn from this". That's sort of been my journey for the past five years, which is why I do understand that automatic rebuke. But the message here isn't violent! It's a call for open-mindedness. Also, lovin' this video series, props to Camera Panda.

[@claireworrell4944]

Not really. All you have to do is know people from the different ethnic groups. For me its simple because I grew up and went to school in one the very few multicultural cities in the world. So I met people from practically everywhere (grew up in London and hung out with pretty much everyone). You just have to be open and learn from them what their life is like and your all good. But since most people in the world aren't from such places, I can understand how it can be difficult.

[@peacemaster8117]

"It's a call for open-mindedness" It's a call for being judgmental and accusatory, there's nothing "open minded" about it. An open minded approach wouldn't include calling people racist for not having the correct proportion of non-white characters in their stories. Have you considered that your accusation of an "automatic rebuke" is in itself an automatic rebuke, and if you considered the topic more carefully you'd realise that people disagree with this rhetoric because it's harmful and ridiculous? You're not the only person who thinks these things out, and Brandon already explained the harm in assuming that everyone who disagrees with you is a moron.

[@Blizzic]

"You could put that under the laws of war"

[@teisonedwards7111]

Love that guy!

[@jabthejewboy]

"You're a wizard..." Me "FINISH THE LINE!!!! FOR THE SAKE OF MY CHILDHOOD FINISH THE LINE."

[@infernalsquid]

Harry

[@WSUGLUE]

jason boyett 😂😂😂

[@raharu000]

"One of the things to understand is that it's OK to realize you've been racist or sexist and say 'oh, I'm gonna make sure I'm not doing that anymore.'" Oh 2016 how I miss you.

[@scarlet8078]

I lol'ed at this XD. Welcome to 2019

[@ducky36F]

So true... 2019: "I'm right no matter what"

[@bluehope42]

​@@ducky36F That's not at all what 2019 is about. More like "if you have ever said anything racist, you are literally Hitler forever and ever."

[@coolboyrrr]

Are you guys purposefully dumb?

[@bobbyellis5006]

Sort of miss the whole point of what he was saying. The problem is that, as Brandon said, a lot of people who get called on doing something racist and sexist rage that they didn't and then double down on it.

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

The part of the black guy, almost sounds like Gears of War 2 when Coletrain comes barreling in to rescue the rest of the squad.

[@kalez238]

Exactly what I was thinking.

[@michaelkoech3365]

LambentTyto Time stamp?

[@Tarotoratea]

Time stamp is 1:00:40 , for anyone still interested.

[@42grath]

Different male characters that are identical except different chins gave that away too.

[@WreckItRolfe]

Isn't that in Gears 1?

[@mononoke721]

I love how Brandon calls Him 'Grandpa Tolkien' - so true. Great lecture overall. The points about doling out world-building information in a steady and relevant way is something a lot of fantasy writers could do with learning. I also agree that it's not realistic to expect writers to spend their entire lives building an entire world, but if you love that world-building process just as much as you do telling the stories that take place in it, I don't think its a bad thing to aspire to be as dedicated to one's detailed vision as Grandpa Tolkien was. That's how I approach it anyway. Oh, and I also think a whole lecture on 'research' (assuming there isn't one already) would be interesting because at least for me its probably about 40% of the process of any world-building or indeed storytelling that I do. You need to be drawing, consciously or subconsciously, from as many different sources as possible to make any world or story all the more richer and believable for it and researching all sorts of different topics relevant to that world and story is a key way to do this.

[@davidbean6053]

Im afraid that if I were in that class I wouldn't be able to help myself from asking him about his books "0.7 gravity, and years are 10% longer???"

[@scarlet8078]

haha yea cringe

[@danepatton2252]

why were both the watson examples played by martin freeman

[@themegagamesgamer]

I'm halfway through Elantris and am loving it. Sanderson's lectures are really helping me as a writer also. Thanks for uploading these!

[@Anklesneeze]

Will somebody buy a camera from that guy at the end please! But seriously thanks again these are a real asset to any writers skillset.

[@camerapanda]

For sure! :)

[@node4242]

Funny, I just finished the Mistborn trilogy 20 minutes ago, and I thought "Brandon Sanderson is a god at worldbuilding". I looked up those terms on google, and it led me here.

[@camerapanda]

Welcome! Hope you enjoyed Mistborn. I thought it pretty great :)

[@NightAngel783]

Brandon you are my favorite author when it comes to setting and characters u kill it and u have never disappointed me once honestly i have to apologize for 1 not reading the steel heart series yet and 2 for not reading mistborne when my parents bought it for me white sands btw way great and i wish the other volume was out but lets be honest without taking the time you create the great works you have produced i hope u continue as long as u can doing what u love and hopefully one day this skewed world finally realizes how great the works you have produced truly are. in my opinion YOU ARE THE BEST AUTHOR TO PRODUCE A NOVEL IN THE PAST 50 YEARS and if i had dedicated more time when i was in high school to reading i would have a better comparison to go by but your amazing thanks once again for making reading and writing my passion i couldn't thank you enough

[@duhg599]

This is also very helpful for making worlds to be used in D&D games. Thanks, Brandon!

[@JADA-27]

thank you so much, free uni lectures by the one and only Brandon Sanderson is great. thank you from Australia!

[@realmsenchanted]

The most useful, interesting and inspiring hour I've spent so far this week. Thank you for this great content!

[@tyetnic]

I love his bridge 4 water bottle.

[@surveydave21]

Right!?!

[@CalaCrisp88]

I know! I want it!

[@mohamadcaptainmods7190]

I always have this big problem where I would read a book, then when planning the plot, I would then start changing stuff based on the book I just read. Like just today I was starting out a fun mini-novel. I read this Apocalypse novel where the MC was a college student and then webt and changed my MCs age from a teenager to a college student. Then the next day, I would come back and just change my character yet again or even the plot.

[@Brother_Geoffrey]

Same dude, I did for a while but you learn how to cancel out outside influence if you don't want it. But when I read stuff i still think about how I can use it to change my own story

[@pilucapiluca9735]

WOW!!! That's a lot of interesting things!! that's true!! Sometimes the world is presented in a very fast and artificial way, and a lot of proper names are put there in the beggining, making more difficult to connect with the characters and the story.. I noticed how Sanderson introduce those elements along the action, and that way we connect really well with the characters... awesome!!! That's more mature that the "telling a tale" style..

[@nicholibaldron8171]

at 24:08 you've got about 10 seconds of black screen.

[@camerapanda]

Well, darn, not sure how that snuck through, probably some last minute edits :( Thanks for pointing it out

[@nicholibaldron8171]

You're welcome. :) Even with that, it was a great episode! Did you do the filming? Or are you just doing the editing? I can only imagine how many hours you're putting into this. It's on par with any PBS show I've watched. Thank you for being awesome!

[@camerapanda]

I filmed each week (except one) and had at least another person helping me every week (except one). Yip, it's a ton of time. Pretty quick here tonight, I will dive into editing and probably spend the next several hours trying to get ready for next week. And then before next Tuesday (release day), I will likely have to spend another night doing the same thing. And yes, I am still at my day job, which is rather hectic as well :) So glad that folks seem to be enjoying the videos so much. I enjoyed filming and have enjoyed rehearing the content of the class myself. Should I hold my breath on getting an acknowledgement or two when you guys are all cranking out best sellers? :) I figure at least a Hugo nomination is in order ;)

[@FLmanity]

the editing is amazing man, great job. Adds so much when lectures like these go beyond one fixed cam at a spot

[@BillyxRansom]

more specifically about HIS worldbuilding method begins at 29:26

[@FLmanity]

but why ARE pinguins knees so weird

[@SinHurr]

Ah, Wizard's First Rule. Thinking about it makes me really unhappy to remember how goddamned preachy Goodkind gets in later novels.

[@YeOldeBlacksmithe]

The secret is to read the first book and then stop.

[@BarstoolBlues33]

You actually read those terrible novels?

[@jacobhamilton2473]

I liked the first 3 novels. After that it got too preachy for me. Especially with conservative "talking points." And I am a conservative.

[@scarlet8078]

The first book was good, but yea they go downhill. & I'm not some crazy liberal either. I'm prob his target audience, but even I don't want to be preached at lol

[@Asmallpanda1]

How does he get preachy?

[@c15page]

I use to refer to the maid and the butler conversations as Rialto scenes, after the two characters in Merchant of Venice who are there specifically to discuss off stage stuff like you suggested

[@MWB-stories-bookreviews]

Learnt so much from this dude and these videos. What a generous legend

[@Unknownsoldier740]

I wish I could speak to this man. He seems like an awesome professor.

[@ligerzero_4971]

"If you're Steven Erikson your learning curve looks like that" - true lol

[@what42pizza]

These are amazing vids that help me so much! Thank you for sharing this to the world

[@emeraldElijah]

Ready Player One did this phenomenally. H, friend to the main character, was this great friend, absolute badass in the game, and it wasn't until wasn't revealed until almost the very end, "oh yeah, he's a she, she's black, and she still your best friend." It looks like it should feel shoe-horned in, but it wasn't, and that may be one of my favorite parts of the book.

[@BillyxRansom]

he got REAL close to predicting Gazorpazorp, did anyone else catch that?

[@SIQOalavi]

this is so awesome, i need more :) hopefully there is more :)

[@deana7310]

A whole semester's worth. Released one week at time.

[@SIQOalavi]

can you tell me why the channels are changing all the time ? First it was wirte about dragons than BYU Channel, now this one :S ......

[@camerapanda]

Gotta play the hot hand I guess :)

[@Skelldr]

SIQOalavi Check the channel WriteAboutDragons for a ton of brian sanderson lectures. Fantastic stuff :)

[@keegster7167]

He already did. He mentioned it in the comment.

[@poisonousdurian3689]

Bilbo? Watson? Looks like we have a Martian Freeman fan.

[@melchiorvulpius8170]

The ancient Roman playwright Plautus had a cool way of averting the Butler-and-Maid problem. At the start of his play the Glorious Soldier, the Soldier's servant steps up to the front of the stage and directly addresses the audience, explaining who he is, who is master is, and what the central conflict of the story will be. Yes, Breaking the Fourth Wall is indeed Older than Feudalism!

[@AnaHammett]

To me that sounds even less sophisticated than maiden and butler, even if it's meta =).

[@EmilyOrange]

That works way better in a play than in a book. It's jarring to read second person narrative for most people.

[@gamongames]

the first forms of theather had no fourth wall

[@theupperechelon7634]

Sanderson's little laugh mentioning Erikson's learning curve is great. Most of the audience didn't get it though.

[@overlorde7526]

I love how he’s wearing a fairly nice jacket over a nerdy shirt

[@RoyAnderson]

The writers of Dark Matter should watch the last part of this video. Almost every character fits the mold Brandon describes.

[@H0ldenCaulfield0]

Great lecture. In regards to the iceberg theory: rather than circling what's under the water as what the writer knows, wouldn't it be the entire iceberg?

[@phychomaniac26]

Will Holden it's what the writer know's that the reader does not. The iceberg itself represents everything that there is to know.

[@maxbachvaroff1967]

Also note that, while the entire iceberg is what there is to know, Sanderson's whole point is that we need to find creative ways to avoid having to create the whole iceberg. His thesis about worldbuilding is that unless we want to spend our entire lives working on an iceberg we should focus really hard on a few specific things and then try really hard to show them off to the reader in an interesting and engaging way in order to disguise the fact that we didn't do enough work to create a fully realized and developed world.

[@AmbiCahira]

What I would do regarding creating a religion is to read a little about what different gods represents to get ideas. Example, fertility gods, sun gods, love gods, probably war gods, and other themes. From there one can think of what things in the written world would be prayed about, what concerns and superstitions would fuel the worship of such gods, then if one only wants one god one can look through the list made and see which traits can be put together into one. I am reading a book series where really only indication of a religion is in expression of for example relief, like our thank God expression, or when we say for the love of God or I swear to God. I feel like it can take you far without having theme mentioned, as an option. This video was so interesting that I will watch the others!

[@rodrigo3732]

The room be becomes silent hill for a second 26:44

[@juanmarodriguez6010]

"Your book FAILS"

[@MichaelNorth]

You guys should consider making an audio podcast. I'd love to listen to this on my way to work.

[@LawrenceCaldwellAuthor]

Just download it and convert it to audio. I use 4k video downloader. You can extract the audio using this program.

[@camerapanda]

If all goes well this will happen, but not likely till we get done with all the videos.

[@yeshevishman]

Have you listened to writing excuses? It's not the same, but has a lot of the same stuff.

[@michellerate3633]

Loved this. In terms of genre evolution you left out the rise and impact of urban fantasy authors like Hamilton.

[@Dragons_Novel]

Prologues: Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I don't read them. If I do, it's after I've finished the book and I want more of the story. I used to start with the prologue back in the 80s, but they were boring because of too many details. I wanted to get into the story, so I skip them. Because of this, I don't write prologues for my novels; I jump right in. I instead write an epilogue, since this adds a bit to the story, usually what I'm looking for when I finish a book.

[@Divinemakyr]

In my opinion, the line between Cultural and Physical Worldbuilding isn't big enough to properly use when writing a chronology of -- well -- worldbuilding.

[@aaronrobbins1458]

Super surprised to find out that Brandon Sanderson is/was Mormon

[@patricksinger1029]

He still is.

[@joshmanikowski2950]

Aaron Robbins The end of Mistborn Original Trilogy definitely draws from Mormon theology if you are familiar with it.

[@theechothief5594]

I never liked the sarcastic "Yay class" thing because god dammit it's a PRIVILEGE to be in his class. Seriously, that is an honor. I would be very enthused to be there. Legitimately.

[@ankokuraven]

His joking "distinctive in plot" basically described Jojo's xD

[@raphasp7152]

i was thinking the same thing, Jojo's is unique indeed

[@whenthedustfallsaway]

The problem with things like the "smurfette principle" is that they are products of the way we, as people, think. Guys tend to keep the companion of men, and girls tend to keep the companion of women. When an opposite sex member is invited into a group they become an outlier. Its not actually sexism.

[@MrParkerman6]

I Am a guy and I don't like hanging out with guys. Sounds gay to me.

[@ihazmethodz7806]

MrParkerman6 I think your insecure bro

[@thinkingmachine354]

@@MrParkerman6 Trying to claim Brotherhood and friendship as "gay" is on the same level as "BBQ all the black babies" it's that sickening.

[@thinkingmachine354]

I just looked it up and I don't really get what the problem is. To add more women in most of these films/series would only clutter them... or make them women only in aesthetics (So women who act like men in every way). The smurfette principle only adds an interesting dynamic to the social situations and story, it's not sexist at all.

[@MrKlarc19]

Not many steven erikson fans in the crowd. I laughed out loud for that joke.

[@Amanda-dn4ld]

Just to counter other comments, THANK YOU BRANDON SANDERSON FOR ENCOURAGING SFF WRITERS TO DITCH LAZY WRITING IN REGARDS TO WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR!!! We need this so much!!!

[@flyingroses126]

@@robertford8476 100% agree

[@jacobhamilton2473]

Of course. All people are a conglomeration of terrible traits and good traits. Write(and treat)each person like they have a relatively good backstory.

[@jacobhamilton2473]

@@robertford8476 statistics have no application when applying them to individual people. If you are a writer, maybe you should ask yourself "why this character does a terrible thing" and have that reason why they do something. Don't just try jumping to statistics. It's a lazy Google search at best. Maybe I am taking you a little out of context( I hope so) and if so i apologize.

[@josephelijah4073]

@@robertford8476 dumb comment. I'm black, but hate identity politics. White privilege is bullshit and facts have weight, but we're talking about fantasy here. Why would you feel the need mirror the statistics of the real world in regards to race. If the only black person in your book is a rapist then you might as well say all blacks are rapists. That's how young impressionable people will read it. Better to leave out black people all together, no? This is a world where u can create whatever you want. Don't throw a black person in there just to make a statement. If I wrote a book with black people, and the only white person (or group of white people) was someone who came to the protagonist's land, took advantage of the warm welcome and gifts by slaughting everyone while their guard was down, and continued to rape and pillage... that would be pretty racist of me. And if that was a child's only exposure to white people they'd have some pretty warped views about what they are actually like. Also, technically, since poverty drives crime, it is the white man's fault that most rapists in america are black. The effects of slavery won't end for a long long time. Of course this doesn't mean white men are still actively holding black people in poverty, but it isn't really anyone else's fault lol.

[@robertford8476]

Joey M'Poko you hate identity politics and then go on a rant about identity politics. I love it.

[@MrLally70782]

I can't but think of mistborn first era when he talks about Level 4, with Vin being the only female character we get to know and she's surrounded by white man,. I only realise this when me and my friend wanted to cosplay mistborn but there was only one female character to cosplay... luckily he did learn fron his mistakes and now we'v got Stormlight who's full of both great female and male characters. Well done Brandon (: The next level by the way is to write a not good looking character. Male of female. Did you ever notice a *good* ugly looking character in Brandon's books? Because I might of missed that.

[@evelic]

Notes to self 2:08 Get better automating certain learnings and focusing on higher level ones by practice.

[@1993Nautilus]

I'm guessing the game was Gears of War, can't remember if it's one or two. Best scene ever!

[@VictorLima-rs3hs]

It's crazy that One Piece does pretty much every item in the world building list

[@unfilthy]

I find it weird that there's basically been no Sci-Fi addressed in any way so far, and even weirder that urban fantasy isn't a sub-genre of fantasy in this lecture. I get that Sanderson writes a certain type of fantasy, but still. Urban Fantasy has its own specific world building issues, because there's the lore of all the fantasy elements like in classic fantasy, but on top of that there's also the question of how all this interacts with and affects the development of the non-fantasy world, which makes it incredibly hard to write well. Unless, of course, you assume it's just current day normal world but with vampires or something, which is sad and reductive.

[@zacestrada6568]

Props on the quality videos Camera Panda!

[@camerapanda]

Thanks a lot Zac! Worked pretty hard to make them as great as possible :)

[@BillyxRansom]

actual worldbuilding discussion begins at 11:59

[@heatherpedersen8209]

I've watched all these about 16 times, and I still learn something new. Anyone got a link to the doctor mentioned around 33:25? Does she have any education available outside the university?

[@matthewpettipas8233]

I love the Shannara series, but I think if I had of started with the Sword of Shannara, instead of with the prequel Running with the Demon, I probably wouldn't be as hooked. Sword of Shannara is a great book, but Terry Brooks has gotten much better over the decades.

[@josephelijah4073]

I started with the first king of Shannara. Was fantastic.

[@lockelamora8099]

Also Mr. Sanderson, Please, please, please write a story about people who live on the side of cliffs and have to steal eggs for a living from the monsters who live at the tops of the cliffs.

[@_thebreesknees]

Locke Lamora could I do that?

[@kychung36]

Not exactly the same but... Skyward anyone?

[@tachiiderp]

Brandon read Guy's books? Awesome!

[@Klariti]

Great teacher!

[@nicklang6798]

Never heard of Flown and Flawna? - I think it was about animals. Interesting.

[@eidolon9625]

Flora and Fauna, man. Flora is all kinds of plant-life while Fauna is all kinds of animal life.

[@goddessm2752]

Great job!

[@tomhockneyunplugged7856]

1:01:24 My new text tone.

[@RaeAnnMcCardell]

If Anne McCaffrey didn't call her books fantasy, what did she think they were? Also if you do enough world building you can publish a book about the world history (a la George RR Martin).

[@cpnCarnage666]

adventure perhaps

[@MasterNochi]

This is so educational

[@rynor7132]

Really great lectures. you ought to read the Thraxas Series by Martin Scott

[@jonpedigo3138]

lol cut to the nerd 24:38

[@andrewscott2664]

Jon Pedigo I laughed so hard

[@doxazo5512]

Bradon, "caste" is spelled with an e

[@Newfiecat]

I don't know why, but I'm so happy that I was correct in picturing Alethi as Asian!

[@wxoxozy]

Are there any lectures by this Doctor Thursby that are online, or anyway I can see her work?

[@Danem2186]

I think it says something about our American culture that NO ONE put BASIC MORALITY under Cultural Setting. Where did we go wrong?

[@techspider7486]

Pretty sure that falls under like at least 3 of the things that were listed. Not really a reason to name that specifically.