Lecture #5: Worldbuilding Part One — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Can you world build us another storm light book please?

Well, Tolkien was just adapting King Arthur. Gandalf = Merlin for example.

It's so sad to see the mess the SFWA has become

The funny thing is, what makes death note so good is that the rules are clearly laid out, but the sense of wonder still exists until the end. This is why the train scene with Ray is so cool. You know the limits going into it, but the sense of wonder still exists because the rules are pushed to its limits.

The Elden scroll analogy was AMAZING

Sanderson for President 2024 and his wife can be the Vice President.

Brandon, thank you so much for posting these lectures. You are so encouraging and so inspiring to listen to. Your advice to just keep writing and to fake some of the world building are helping give me the confidence to finally actually finish a draft of my epic fantasy story . Also, The Stormlight Archive is so awesome!!!

I didn't think the patch on Vin was unsatisfying. I knew from second one this girl was special. Not just her abilities, but the way she portrayed, touched and viewed the world. So I thought: There must be something special. There must be something hidden in the mist. There must be a reason the emperor can live that long and can be that monstrous strong. What you gave me, was what I longed for. It was just a bread crumb, but the one I longed for. "I knew it. There IS somethin in the mist. Vin HAS the same abilities like the emperor. There WILL be a solution at the end." Not ending conflict without explanation or hints is just stretching things that accumulate tension into nothingness, I think. I NEED those bread crumbs. No explanation at the start, but I NEED hints and little dots of "AHA! I felt it!" :) Mr. Sanderson, you don't need to criticise yourself for satisfying needs of your readers.

Mistborn 1 ended great, I think. ;) Vin using the mist was pretty cool. You smoothed it out a lot by having her agonize over it so it worked really well. I read all the books and liked them so much I read them all to my kids (who loved them all just as much as the Percy Jackson, New Heroes of Olympus, Trials of Apollo & Eragon series'. This was the one step up from children's fiction to adult fiction they needed.

I'm actually glad to hear that someone else liked the Lois and Clark show with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. It worked week after week because the problem was very rarely about something that Superman couldn't do, but something that Superman couldn't do WHILE KEEPING HIS COMMITMENTS to, say, being on-time for an important dinner date or keeping his identity secret. The stakes aren't that everyone is going to die, which are pretty boring stakes because they're so overused, but that he's going to lose the girl or the job or his principles.

Our favorite "extremely mormon" author. Man, that hit piece article was a real trip wasn't it...

Wow, I'm not a writer but that is one great lecture. It kept me interested throughout. In a lot of ways the same way his books do. I remember being so scared when he took over the ending of WoT, a series I had invested so much time into reading, but then being delighted of the final result. I think Jordan made a great choice picking a skilled, fairly new but most of all hungry writer to take on the task of finishing the series for him.

I ❤ the suriel

Ian Brandon Sanderson

I love the hollow ice burg bit.

This is why Dr. Manhattan is one of my favourite comic book characters - he takes superman's weaknesses and amps them up to 10000.

He’s real life Peter Griffin.

I really appreciated these being posted.

He can change the color of his clothes hahahhah

Is that a Fifth Element shirt he is wearing?! Where do I get one.
Also I love listening to Brandon. What a beautiful Mind.

i was literally watching x-men last night and thought that magneto was like mistborn

I have been trying to tell my family they are wrong about fantasy for this exact reason. any author can make up stuff on the fly

Brandon, I'm now convinced you will be the next GOAT of cinema 🎥 in addition to your 🐐ed writing.

Brandon Sanderson: "Inventing new magic abilities to save your characters will often feel unsatisfying."

Shonen authors: *sweats profusely.

Tarantino and Silent Bob merged and became Sanderson.

for a writer his writing really sucks xD ahhaha

took me an hour to realize it was a 5th Element shirt.

I want to see the news clip.

sitting here amongst piles of 4 paper its been ten years and the piles get bigger , my novel will appear out of it at some point I guess .

Brandon: giving an incredible lecture

Me: "no food or drink in the auditorium? Preposterous!"

Wonder if anyone noticed his t-shirt 😊 one of my favourite films.

introducing a quirky-just-for-fun power only to have it be the only way for the protagonist to prevail seems like it might be satisfying