PLOT
- Three promises: tone, arc, and plot
- Strange Attractor. Mistborn was a mashup of a fantasy heist and my fair lady
- PAYOFF: One, promise and deliver straight up. Two, promise and deliver more. (Star Wars, go to space but destroy Death Star as well). Three, promise X but deliver Y (must sell Y like crazy on progress).
- You WILL need multiple subplots for a novel. Character arcs and plot archetypes.
- Subplots are like nested code. Close each one as needed.
- Use Plot Archetypes, not structure. Watch a bunch of films in that genre and note down their plot beats. Look for similarities and differences. Ask yourself what made it satisfying.
- Use Arc Archetypes for Characters. Lovers. Master-Apprentice. Parent-Child. Siblings. Rivals. Revenge. Ruler-Subject.
- OUTLINING: Start with the satisfying outcome of the plot/arc archetype … then work backwards. What needs to happen in order to reach the outcome? What are the steps? How can they be dramatized into scenes that show them?
- Typical novel will have one plot, one arc, and a subplot (arc or plot)
- every author has a certain amount of crap readers put up with
CHARACTER
- how do you make readers care about your characters? Establish empathy.
- a setting is only as interesting as there problems it creates for characters
- three sliding scales:
- likability- like us, relatable, nice. If they’re villainous, show them taking care of someone weak, sick, old, young, handicapped. Show others liking them.
- rooting interest. They want something. Motivation. People who want things are interesting. Why can’t they have It? Flaws, limits, handicaps.
- progress. Will they overcome their flaw? Will they get where they need to go?
- Likability, proactivity, competence. Three sliding scales. Likability creates empathy, proactivity defines motivation, competence is progress. These sliding scales should move up or down in order to create dynamic characters. The exception are iconic characters, where we’re watching hyper-competent characters do cool things and that’s the entertainment. (Bond, Holmes, Ocean’s Eleven)
- a lot of story problems come down to you not establishing character motivation well.
- You can have multiple proactivity and competence scales. We have conflicting motivations and different levels of skills after all. If you have single motivation… It’s dangerous. No internal conflict. One note character are boring with they don’t make progress. We want to see progress and trying.
- Flaws, limitations, and handicaps. Give characters quirks… but make sure those quirks tie in to a FLH.
- Flaw - something they could eventually change or become their downfall.
- Handicap - not something you can change but you can overcome. Physical disability, skin color prejudice, sexual orientation discrimination.
- Limitation - something you can change but reader wouldn’t want to. Social obligation, familial loyalties, love for someone.
- a sense of progress is better than none. Static viewpoints are dull.
- the grand skill of writing SFF fiction is to be able to world build through the eyes of your view point character
- You’ll do four things as a writer : dialogue, description, action beats and introspection.
- DIALOGUE:
- you can make them more likable or unlikable. Use humor for like, whiny and argumentative for unlike. Insult or cut down a character for no good reason. Unlike.
- You can make them proactive by offering to help and doing things
- You can show motivation by them talking about it, raise an issue, ask about doing something that’s tangential to the group but important to them.
- You can show flaw by the way they talk, stutter and it fading away. Say dumb things and grow. Asking insightful questions as apprentice and by end , teaching it.
- You can show competence thru dialogue … talk about things they know about and another character shows admiration or agreement. Low competence, talk about things like they knew it but are proven wrong. They could be asking too many questions.
- Lying . Have them think one thing in introspection but say another thing. Or have them change what they say to to whom over different convos.
- Said and ask or none at all is still king. You want to avoid too many attributions. Maybe whisper, shouted, and screamed. But if you force yourself to write better dialogue, it’s implied. You can also match them with action beats.
- If you have too many action bests between dialogue lines, you slow down the scene and make it more introspect. Now the subtext is more important than what is being said. You take away from the dialogue.
- Thoughts. Italicized, they thought. Or they thought xxx, non-italicized. Or thought, period, in tight third. Sanderson used sandwiches. First line is italicized, middle is introspection in tight third, capped with italicized.
- When you have too much instrospectopn, it doesn’t just flow down the pacing, some readers can’t relate to how the VPC introspects or is suspicious of how they got to their conclusions.
- remember with non-VPC, you only have dialogue, action, and half of description. The other half is who’s describing and what it says about them.
- You can use description to slide your characters likability, motivation, flaws, proactivity and competency too.
- likability: humorous in how they describe their world. Their description of the world is unique or interesting. Weird metaphors. Dislike: they’re negative, disdainful or sexist/racist.
- Motivation. Imagine one person’s whose goal is to get As in a classroom versus someone whose trying to find their soulmate. Both would describe the room differently.
- Proactivity: how do they rank what they see in the room based on their goals and how do they plan?
- Flaws: they’re always looking for their hit, their drug.
- White room syndrome: the longer your characters talk without interacting with their setting, the more your readers get lost on where they are.
- REMEMBER!!! There are nine human senses. Use all nine. Film/tv is restricted to two. This is where fiction can shine.
- During action beats, you can use it to reveal five things about the character: flaw, motivation, likability, competence, proactivity. More the merrier
- use promise, progress and payoff in your action sequences. What’s progress in a fight? Ten guys to kill and you countdown. Need to get to end of hallway and you show how they get past obstacles. Timebomb of something of counting down before consequence.
- Ways of showing progress in an action scene
- travelogue - make it across the room or hallway
- defeat ten foes - count down of minions killed
- time bomb - defend place until help arrives
- getting closer - Antag and Prot are getting closer to each other, or Antag is getting closer to Prot’s position
- Wearing down - combatants are losing stamina
- Resources dwindle - electricity, food, energy, drink, meal,
- Info show off - who can shock the other with reveals, who pulls out old fights
- Playful deny and invite of seduction
- Solving a puzzle by trial and error
- Diffusing a bomb or disarming a trap
- Actually, all four writers tools should try to do one or more of those five character reveals
- The Arc should have three acts s as well.
- Every action should cause the character to reassess their motivations or flaws or goals. At one point, usually, they realize their wants/external goals are bad, and their needs/internal goals are more l important.
RULES EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT BUT DON’T REALLY TEACH
- don’t fridge characters
- stories need to earn their emotions
- satisfaction needs to be earned by character decisions, not Deus ex Machina.
- we want to root for characters, give us stand up and cheer moments (novels)
- Characters need to interact with the environment, otherwise you cause white room syndrome
- Luke’s arc
- one: trust the force
- Two: trust your emotions
- Three: forgive your dad
- sad endings need to be foreshadowed as things they don’t deserve, or things they don’t actually want (with a clear need), or with the potential they’ll make the wrong decision.
WORLD BUILDING
- Sanderson’s Law 1: Your ability to solve problems with magic (or tech) in a satisfying way is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.
- This prevents Deus ex Machina where the author just makes up some magic or thing in the third act to solve the problem. Everything needs to be explained by act 2A.
- The magic and tech in this case isn’t wondrous. It’s meant to be seen as a tool. You explain what the tool does and how it works. And in act 3, your characters use their innate wit and ingenuity in using the tool to solve the problem. They don’t get new tools coming out of nowhere.
- There are also magic tools that might give you an idea of what they will do or the problem it will solve but you don’t know how it does it. Aka monkey’s paw.
- The One Ring has clear rules. But Gandalf’s magic is wondrous and unexplained.
- if you use wondrous magic, make sure the non-magic characters are set up in a situation where they can’t rely on it unless they do x first. In two towers they have to fight until the morning of the fifth day.
- Make characters stretch with the rules of the magic not solve problems
- Sanderson’s Second Law of Magic: Flaws or limitations and costs are generally more interesting and creates more story potential than powers themselves.
- There are three ways to tell Superman stories: 1 someone who can punch harder 2 someone with kryptonite and takes away his powers 3 problems that his powers can’t solve like human relationships. That last one is where great stories are told.
- Sanderson’s Third Law of Magic: Before adding something new to your magic (or setting in general), see if you can instead expand what you have.
- Ocean that’s an inch deep. Readers will latch on to one idea done well versus ten ideas done badly.
- Zeroth Law: err on what is awesome. Start the Story there.
- Setting and world building is the least important. Readers would rather have engaging characters and story over a well built world. Character trumps everything
- World building is to serve the theme and story
- Conveying world building without boring readers is the Most Important Skill for SFF writers
- Don’t do encyclopedia entries. Don’t do maid and Butler dialogue. Give them less than you think they need
- The pyramid of abstraction. Concrete, tangible is at the bottom. Abstract is at the top. Dog and love are abstract. Specific sensory details pull out down.
- Explain a concrete thing really we’ll and how your world affects your character is way better than talking about it abstractly
- break world building down to physical and cultural. Physical is flora, fauna, climate, terrain, maps, cosmology, species. Cultural is food , religion , politics, rites, language, sex, borders, taboos, economic, etc.
- Ideally make your settings a character
- Cliche setting/systems done well quickly become not cliche. But be wary of all the baggage the tropes bring
- Of you want a career in SFF, you need to produce at least one book every two years, so you have To get really effective at world building. That means focusing on one aspect as the main thing… and not all the things.
- mix one world thing with one plot thread and you can probably start building the premise of your story
- readers will forgive non-existent external logic if the internal logical consistency is solid. But depending on genre, some readers would like some semblance of an external logic to our own world.
SOURCES
- “Lecture #1: Introduction — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, January 22, 2020, https://youtu.be/-6HOdHEeosc
- “Lecture #2: Plot Part 1 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, January 29, 2020, https://youtu.be/jrIogch5DBU
- “Lecture #3: Plot Part 2 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, February 12, 2020, https://youtu.be/Qgbsz7Gnrd8
- “Lecture #4: Viewpoint and Q&A — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, February 21, 2020, https://youtu.be/zVXFNw-xz3Y
- “Lecture #5: Worldbuilding Part One — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, March 05, 2020, https://youtu.be/ATNvOk5rIJA
- “Lecture #6: Worldbuilding Part Two — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, March 06, 2020, https://youtu.be/V2KpWOLTXx8
- “Lecture #8: Worldbuilding Q&A — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, April 02, 2020, https://youtu.be/W1afbpM80b0
- “Lecture #9: Characters — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, April 17, 2020, https://youtu.be/1NCiuI6F5O0
- “Lecture #10: Characters Part 2 — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, May 12, 2020, https://youtu.be/fJfE-HMfSkk
- “Lecture #11: Character Q&A — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy” YouTube, uploaded by Brandon Sanderson, May 23, 2020, https://youtu.be/VeXqndZdzwE