Sanderson 2012.13 - Revisions and Other Misc Topics

Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 13 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 / Misc questions Tips on foreshadowing - Usually you need to be more heavy handed than you think Good working relationships with editors and agent - Let your agent be the bad guy Pen names - Very few good reasons to use a pen name Making magic feel rare 9:22 / Brandon’s revision process Very individual process - Brandon became a good writer when he learned how to revise He writes the book straight through, changing things mid stride without going back (adding themes, removing characters, etc) - For Brandon, momentum is everything so he doesn’t stop Version 1: Straight through Version 2: Continuity - Fixes everything he noted as he went through version 1 Version 3 (after small gap): First polish draft - Cut 15% line by line, clean up prose After v3, he sends it to alpha readers (agent, editor, writing group, wife) - 6 month gap; distance from project is wonderful - For new writers, write a new book during this break Version 4: Incorporate alpha feedback and big-picture stuff - In the Way of Kings book, he created a new POV for Adolin at this stage - This is the hardest revision for him; fundamental changes might mean major rewrites Version 5: Polish; less on cutting, more on dialogue, voice, etc Sends it to betas and gets feedback; shorter break Version 6: Incorporate editor and beta comments and other final thoughts Version 7: Copyedit (with publisher) Version 8: Proofread (with publisher) 23:46 / Questions about revisions Alpha readers are better if they are writers themselves; beta readers are better as non-writers. Writing groups are bad with pacing For Brandon, Versions 2 through 6 take about half as long (combined) as the time it took him to write Version 1 through 36:07 / Revising for discovery writers 39:32 / Writer psychology Being a writer is about observing people and extrapolating Find a motivation factor to get yourself to work 48:07 / Misc questions 52:27 / Thriller plotting Start and end every chapter on a hook Brandon doesn’t do this as much; epic fantasy is different than thriller, his chapters are 3-4K words 1:00:19 / Linguistic variations