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