Sanderson Lectures

[Garren Jacobsen]

Hey there all I was browsing through Brandon Sanderson's facebook page and noticed that he had posted some videos there from a class he teaches at BYU. Here is the first lecture. As I have time I will be posting more of these as they come. Hope you enjoy.

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

I've watched most of these on youtube. They're pretty awesome.

 

[Steerpike]

Good video. He addresses the question from the other thread about starting with short stories.

I'll have to look for more of these.

 

[Twook00]

He also has a series of lectures from Jordoncon 2010-11 on youtube. I watched them some time ago and really enjoyed them. He covers a lot on character and magic development. I also listen to his Writing Excuses podcast every week and highly recommend them.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

He has a site www.writeaboutdragons.com which lists a ton of the lectures in order.

I found this easier to navigate. Good stuff.

 

[Chamomile]

Good resources, thanks to everyone for posting them.

 

[Wulvaine]

My last 'writing group' was based around these lectures, but it fell apart. A lot of fantastic information to be found in these. They've definitely helped me get more of a handle on the process.

 

[pskelding]

Thank you very much Brian, this is great stuff!

 

[Cosmolien]

Brandon Sanderson is one of the best authors of all time in my opinion.

Thanks so much for posting this

 

[Leif Notae]

Sorry, but I don't see the appeal in Sanderson. Even in his teaching, it is lacking. Anyone care to break it down for me on why they are so attached to him?

 

[Abaddon]

These are great! I really enjoyed them. Thanks for posting these.

 

[amadhava]

Oh wow! I love Sanderson!!! I've always been in awe!! Thanks a ton for sharing!

 

[Philip Overby]

I've been meaning to watch these for some time. I think I'm going to finally break down and watch them, and actually treat it like a class by taking notes and such.

 

[B_B_Baker]

In reply to Leif, I think Brandon is a great writer, but I think for some people it's that Robert Jordan trusted him enough to hand over his books when he was too sick to finish them.

For some people, The Wheel of Time was their first foray into reading fantasy, other than Tolkien, it was mine. That someone like RJ trusted Brandon's writing enough to let him finish it impressed a lot of people, including publishers.

Personally, I like Brandon's story telling better than RJ. I like the way he tells the story without getting too into the details of the world.

Just my thoughts on your question. Anyone else care to add anything?

 

[Leif Notae]

Thank you B_B

I still think his writing is horrible in certain areas and aspects, but it is more for the padding than it is for the actual merit. I couldn't make it through 25 pages of TwoK before tossing it because there wasn't any focus to it. Same with his other projects.

Since I wrote that thread, I will restate that I am broken when it comes to his fantasy for sure. The lecture was... not really that great. I listened to it with as much objectivity that I could, but when you break down the mechanics and structure of a story and realize he can't follow it, the lecture loses some punch (at least for me).

 

[B_B_Baker]

I struggled with TWoK as well, until I got to page 150, it was then the book opened up and I couldn't put it down. A few books have been that way for me though. The Eye of the World took me a while as well as Garden's of the Moon by Steven Erikson.

Once I finally got into them the books were good, but it was getting the few hundred pages deep before I liked them that was the problem.

 

[Leif Notae]

I struggled with TWoK as well, until I got to page 150, it was then the book opened up and I couldn't put it down. A few books have been that way for me though. The Eye of the World took me a while as well as Garden's of the Moon by Steven Erikson.

Once I finally got into them the books were good, but it was getting the few hundred pages deep before I liked them that was the problem.

He never knows when to start a story. I think most modern big boys don't know or care to do it the right way. My window for tolerance is the first sentence, maybe even the first word if I'm cranky enough.

 

[Konstanz]

Maybe it would be a fun idea to set up a writing group like Sanderson explained in the lectures. We could use live-journal as well and give feedback on each other's writing and keep each other motivated. We could use the lectures to learn more about writing technique and to learn about the "various tools" we can use. It definitely sounds like a fun experiment to me. I know there probably are a lot of those writing groups (not necessarily based on his lectures) out there, but I have never found one.

So if anyone's interested, please let me know. Also, the word count quotas don't need to be as high as the ones in Sanderson's lecture. Or maybe they could be a little higher. I'm open to discussion.

 

[Inglorious_Hero]

This is great! I had not come across anything by Sanderson. Thanks a bunch!