Creative Writing

Author Robbie

Writer of TALES FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION
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I just listened to a bunch of lectures on youtube from Scifi and fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson. They are very interesting and his advice on dialogue, plot, characters, and world-building certainly opened my eyes as a writer and how to improve. Check them out.
If you watch them let me know what you think
 
Watched last years lecture series and regularly listen to Writing Excuses podcast. Find them most informative an entertaining, well at least the podcast. University lectures have, by definition, an entertainment ceiling that is just high enough to avoid stooping.
 
Watched last years lecture series and regularly listen to Writing Excuses podcast. Find them most informative an entertaining, well at least the podcast. University lectures have, by definition, an entertainment ceiling that is just high enough to avoid stooping.
I am a self-taught writer so it's insightful picking up these writing gems. It also makes writing even more fun.
 
I think many of us are self taught. I certainly am. My highest qualification in English was compulsory O-level, and that was more than 40 years ago. I was truly awful when I started writing fiction in 2014, but I’m a bit better now. It just takes a willingness to learn from your own mistakes and some serious stubbornness not to give up when you get rejection after rejection.
It’s not easy but absolutely worth the effort.
 
I think many of us are self taught. I certainly am. My highest qualification in English was compulsory O-level, and that was more than 40 years ago. I was truly awful when I started writing fiction in 2014, but I’m a bit better now. It just takes a willingness to learn from your own mistakes and some serious stubbornness not to give up when you get rejection after rejection.
It’s not easy but absolutely worth the effort.
That sounds like me, except that I failed my O-level English exam (& all the others except Technical Drawing) and had zero interest in writing until I was about 30, when I spontaneously wrote a science fiction short story, which, to my shock, I sold.

I'm fascinated by methods used by other writers, but I bristle when I hear writing advice and my self-learning was driven by attempts to prove all advice wrong. Which directly led to my unproven theory that the best writers are the ones who have made the most mistakes. I still hope to prove that right personally.

But I digress. The Sanderson lectures sound interesting, so I'll have a look!
 
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I think I prefer to be taught by writers rather than academics. I don't know much about Sanderson though he is quoted all the time on here.

I have found that university trained writers tend to have two traits.
1. Their teaching is all cliche "So what do we mean by show don't tell ?" "Character arcs," Inciting incidents," etc
2. They don't actually write much themselves

When I left Art School my course director said "Define yourself or others will define you."
It was the best advice, not just for art but life and I apply it to my writing.
 
These are the books in Sanderson's ongoing Stormlight Archive:

The Way of Kings (383,389 words)
Words of Radiance (399,431 words)
Oathbringer (451,912 words)
Rhythm of War (451,912 words)

He's also written the Mistborn series (8 books), Elantris, the Emperor's Soul, the Reckoners series, the Skyward series, and finished writing the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan's passing. And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head.

His first novel to be published was (I believe) over his tenth to be written. He started the ongoing Writing Excuses series with two other people in 2008, and having listened to several seasons myself (my sister has listened to all fourteen) I can second the recommendation--they touch on many different useful techniques, especially regarding worldbuilding, and offer a lot of very good advice about them, much of which I had been forced to figure out on my own before finding that podcast. The hosts acknowledge many times throughout their podcast that pretty much every writing rule imaginable can be broken under the right circumstances. It's very much more a picture of how they write than how anybody else has to write.

Sanderson's definitely written a lot. I believe he knows what he's talking about. Sure, there are several things I disagree with him about, and he's admitted himself that he still finds it difficult sometimes to write humor, but he's absolutely a skilled writer and his professional output is incredible. I would consider him one of this era's writing masters.

His best strengths are in solid climaxes, cool, consistent magic systems, detailed world-building, and disciplined writing habits. For me, characterization is where he sometimes falls short, but I'd say there's very little else.
 
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I listened to the first year of Brandon Sanderson's lectures and found a lot of useful things (I stopped listening in the second year, because of repeats. It is a college course, after all). Relative to one book I purchased and another free writing website, Mr. Sanderson's information was far superior. I found the lectures well worth about a 20 hour time investment, plus Brandon is an interesting speaker.

The link to the lectures is listed in the Writing Resources forum, Writing lectures by Brandon Sanderson
 
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I think many of us are self taught. I certainly am. My highest qualification in English was compulsory O-level, and that was more than 40 years ago. I was truly awful when I started writing fiction in 2014, but I’m a bit better now. It just takes a willingness to learn from your own mistakes and some serious stubbornness not to give up when you get rejection after rejection.
It’s not easy but absolutely worth the effort.
I was rejected over 20 times before I had an essay published, it felt amazing. It was just enough to get me through another bunch of rejections before being accepted again. It's the life of a writer. After 100 plus rejections, I ended up with around five acceptances. Then I decided I would publish my own book. I'll show them all!!!! lol
 
I write pretty much full time these days, but it's no hardship because I still love writing and couldn't stop if I tried! I love SFF, which is why I still haunt this wonderful place, but most of my current writing is my crimes series, set in Northern Ireland. I have a lovely, supportive publisher who gave me a three book contract last year (that I fulfilled), and are letting me go on writing more in the series. Currently about 85% finished Book 4, Long Game.
 
I started writing for fun last year and certainly found a few videos from Brandon insightful. I watched a few other people on youtube for tips and advice but quickly realised that the best thing to do was just keep reading and writing instead of watching videos. Brandon's probably an exception due to his success, and I would watch other successful authors on youtube if they had similar channels.
 
I write pretty much full time these days, but it's no hardship because I still love writing and couldn't stop if I tried! I love SFF, which is why I still haunt this wonderful place, but most of my current writing is my crimes series, set in Northern Ireland. I have a lovely, supportive publisher who gave me a three book contract last year (that I fulfilled), and are letting me go on writing more in the series. Currently about 85% finished Book 4, Long Game.
Fantastic!!! Well done
 
I think I prefer to be taught by writers rather than academics. I don't know much about Sanderson though he is quoted all the time on here.
...
In another art form: as a musician, I only started getting the hang of Classical harmony when I found little book about it by some guy called, oh, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was it? I believe that dude knew a thing or two about writing music....
 
Brandon Sanderson has a reported net worth of $6 million and 18 million copies sold. Not sure if that axiom really applies here.
 
I think that might have been true in the past but not now. Good teaching is a skill in itself. I couldn't teach the things I can do.

Anyhow, here is a link to various writing advice on this site: Writing Resources Index Thread
 

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