Skip to main content

Writing Videos

I have been watching a series of Youtube videos by Brandon Sanderson.  The videos are the lectures recorded from his sci/fi fantasy class.  I am currently watching the sixth one which deals with world building.  I am a bit worried about this topic with my story because it seems like it will require a lot of world building.  The second lecture on world building is about making it seem like you did a lot of world building when you only did just enough to make the story work.

There is also a lot of good information on plot and character development in the earlier lectures.  He discussed the importance of character arcs and relationships.  Plot points like conflict and promise/payoff were talked about a lot.  I was aware of conflict being important to keep people interested, but I hadn't heard the promise/payoff structure broken down and described like this.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meditation Post

  I just added something on Patreon that I wrote today. It is a story about meditation. It was just something quick I came up with based on some of my own experience. I'll post a portion of it here. I have meditated many times before, but the last one was very different. I sat down on the floor in front of the couch and crossed my legs, as I often do. I closed my eyes and searched with my mind. I could feel the window and the grass and trees beyond. I could feel the life outside watching me. I tried to reach out further, there was life everywhere. I left my body, as I have done occasionally. My body sat motionless on the floor below me as I floated upwards. I floated up further through the ceiling, glimpsing my attic, then I saw the roof. Slowly I spun around and the night sky came into view. It was a clear dark night, with no moon visible. The stars were all visible, like pinholes in a black sheet. I continued upwards. I could feel life all around me. Below me on the ground, in t

Suspense Story Start

  This is a story I started a while ago and never got back to.  It probably won't end up as a long story, but I would like to finish it. It was part of some practicing I was doing with suspense and adding conflict or setbacks to a story. John heard his mother calling from downstairs. "John, they're here! Come down!" Who was she talking about?  His mother sounded concerned.  Probably dinner guests he had failed to remember.  John was lying on the bottom bunk on his wooden bed.  The yellow undecorated walls of his room surrounding him.  He sat up and slid out of his bed.  He hit his head on something.  There was a loose screw that he had been meaning to tell his dad about. "I think my forehead is bleeding." he said out loud. John walked out into the hall and started towards the bathroom.  Suddenly, his older brother ran out of his room past him towards the stairs. "They are here John.  We need to get downstairs." said his brother. "Who is here?&

Recent Thoughts on My project

What age group am I targeting?  Who is my audience in general? As I have described in previous posts, I am in the beginning stages of creating a story.  I will probably be publishing it here on this blog.  My goal is for it to be comparable in length to a novel, but I will publish here in chapters. Obviously if I write this whole "book" or whatever it turns out to be, I would like everyone to read it.  It is looking like the main characters may be high school aged kids.  This got me thinking that maybe I should write this as a young adult fiction.  I'm still not sure which way to go with it.  I would like it to be interesting to adult readers.  Maybe if I just don't go too far in that direction I can keep it interesting to both groups.  I know I can't appeal to all readers, so I will have to make a choice at some point.