Brandon Sanderson's Blog, page 19

FAQ Friday – Alternatives to flashback scenes

A few weeks ago, a Redditor reached out to me in a direct message to ask a question. I hope my response will be useful to my fellow writers. You can read my last FAQ Friday post here.

Question: My commute to work has given me the opportunity to make my way through your youtube lessons and I’m now listening to the writing excuses podcast, so I consider you my favorite professor. I apologies if you have covered this in some form, I may not have listened to that yet.

My question is about flashback scenes. When thinking about where I’m going in my story, I imagine needing to use flashbacks, although I haven’t yet. My question is – what method do you use instead of a flashback? How do you give a sense of what happened and previous info without using a flashback?

Hey! Good luck with your writing.

That’s a great question, because often you don’t want to use a flashback. You have to be very careful with them, for while they can do some interesting things with narrative, they can also kill story momentum dead.

My favorite way to indicate things that have previously happened without using flashbacks is to make certain your characters act like they have established history together. They will have inside jokes, will make references to the past, and otherwise indicate that they’ve known each other for years. (Where appropriate.)

Likewise, things that happened in the past that you don’t intend to show in a flashback can have a huge effect on society. Think about the 9/11 disaster in America, which many are talking about this month. Could you convey in your story that similar disaster happened, but without going into too much exposition or a flashback? Practice trying it with real-world events, making your characters talk about it naturally. (Without straying into them telling each other information that they’d both obviously know. Like I didn’t need to say to you, “Well, almost twenty years ago there was this terrorist attack on the United States…”)

Practice subtlety like that, and often you won’t need flashbacks. (And it will perhaps teach you when a flashback is more powerful or useful for you to use.)

Brandon

FAQ Friday – How do I narrow the gap between storytelling and story writing?

It’s been a few weeks since my last FAQ Friday post about the need to start books with a prologue, as my travel schedule has been quite extensive as of late. As before, this post will take the same format as the previous one, where my answer is written in direct response to the original questioner. But as always, I hope it can help my fellow writers who have the same question.

Question: As a beginner, I would like to ask your advice on how to narrow that gap between my storytelling and story writing. (I have watched your online lectures on fantasy and sci-fi writing). Question from P. Lavy

You phrase this in a great way, as the writing and the storytelling are two distinct skills that often intertwine.

Reading into your question, I think that what you’re asking is how to make the things in your head (the storytelling) work on the page (the story writing). I have to warn you, however, that a lot of times there’s a little more going on than I might have mentioned in my lectures.

The metaphor I often use in the lecture is how, as an early trumpet player, I could hear some music I wanted to play in my head (specifically when doing improvised jazz) but didn’t yet have the skill to make those sounds come out the front of the horn. This is a good metaphor, but it leaves something unsaid.

A lot of writers can imagine a perfect story, but then have trouble writing it down. My experience tells me, however, that much of the time, that story isn’t actually perfect in our heads. We pretend it is because we can’t see the problems with it when we’re imagining it—we gloss over the difficulties, the issues that are quite real but invisible until we actually try to put the thing together on the page.

So you have two potential problems. One is that the story in your head isn’t, and never was, as flawless as you imagined. The second is that your skill in writing isn’t up to telling the things that ARE working in your head. Both are eventually resolved through practice.

To finally get around to some practical advice like you wanted, however, there are a couple of ways to bridge this gap. One is to practice outlining. Now, I’ve often been clear that there is no one right way to write a story, and non-outlining methods are valid. However, if you really want to start looking at the structure of your story critically, forcing yourself to outline it first can really help. Plus, one big advantage of a solid outline is that you’re able to keep less in your head while working for the day. You can look at the outline, know what story beats need to be accomplished, and focus your mental energy on things like showing instead of telling and really nailing character voice/motivations instead of worrying if this plot point will end up working or not.

These fundamentals are another really great way to bridge that gap. Few new writers fail because they lack vision, originality, or ambition. They fail because it is difficult to write a character that is compelling. Or they fail because it’s tough to evoke a sense of wonder in exploring a new world while at the same time not bog the story down with unnecessary details. Practicing things like voice, showing instead of telling, and evoking setting through character can let you make the page-by-page writing interesting and compelling, which then serves to make your story work long enough for you to get to the grand ideas.

Brandon

Brandon in Atlanta for Dragon Con 2019

Adam here. If you’ve been paying attention to Brandon’s activities on his Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, his being at Dragon Con won’t come as a surprise. For those of you who haven’t, and are potentially going to attend the convention, you can see the remainder of Brandon’s event schedule at the bottom of this post.

First things first: if you’re wanting to get your books signed, you will need a ticket. Tickets are required for all signings regardless of whether or not they are held at Brandon’s booth (1513), or if they are being put on by the Dragon Con team. To get tickets for a booth signing, please speak to one of Brandon’s team members at his booth, and if available, they will provide you with a ticket like this.

If you’re hoping to get a ticket to a signing not held at Brandon’s booth, check out Dragon Con’s website for how to acquire tickets.

And as always, if you want to get notified when Brandon will be in an area near you, you can subscribe to Brandon’s newsletter here.

If you missed his posts from his social media channels, here are some highlights to get you caught up!

Journey before destination in Tolkien Elvish.

Glyph of family name – Bismark.

Dragon Con schedule for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
Saturday, August 31st

Writers Of The Future: Story prompts, short fiction…

Time: 1:00–2:00 p.m.

Location: Hyatt International South

With: Brandon Sanderson, Tim Powers, Larry Niven, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Robert J. Sawyer, Jody Lynn Nye

How do you become one of the 12 winners to be published in the annual anthology? Writers of the Future judges discuss the Contest, tips on story prompts, and short fiction. Then in the 2nd half, enjoy Q&A with the judges. Come to this panel and learn how it can help you.

An Hour With Literary Guest of Honor Brandon Sanderson

Time: 4:00–5:00 p.m.

Location: Marriott Imperial Ballroom

Booth Signing

Time: 5:30–7:00 p.m.

Location: Amerimart Booth 1513

This is a ticketed signing. You can pick up your free ticket at booth 1513.

Sunday, September 1st

Warbreaker 10th Anniversary

Time: 2:30–3:00 p.m.

Location: Hyatt Centennial I

With: Brandon Sanderson, Dan dos Santos

Would you like to destroy some evil? Or perhaps you’d rather talk about Literary Guest of Honor Brandon Sanderson’s stand-alone novel & preview some of the gorgeous artwork commissioned for the 10th anniversary edition?

Signing

Time: 3:15–5:00 p.m.

Location: Hyatt Art Show w/ Dan dos Santos

This is a ticketed event.

Crossing the Age Boundaries: Line between YA and Adult

Time: 7:0–8:00 p.m.

Location: Hyatt International South

With: Brandon Sanderson, Jody Lynne Nye, Tamsin L. Silver, David Weber,

Christopher Morgan (M)

Monday, September 2nd

Booth Signing

Time: 1:00–3:30 p.m.

Location: Amerimart Booth 1513

This is a ticketed signing. You can pick up your free ticket at booth 1513.

FAQ Friday – Do I need to start my book with a prologue?

You may have seen my first post of this nature a few weeks ago addressing the elephant in the writer’s room about the nagging feeling of dissatisfaction about the previous day’s efforts. This post will take the same format as the last, where my answer is written in direct response to the original questioner, but, as always, I hope it can help one of my fellow writers who may have the same question at heart.

Question: You talked about the prologue and the promise. I am a discovery writer by the way, but sometimes I like to walk outside while listening to epic music to get inspired. The thing is that I don´t really feel comfortable doing a prologue because that could spoil a little bit the story. However, I am concerned about the readers. If I don´t make a prologue and I start with chapter one… well, of course, it will not be that interesting as the magical battle or evil growing on the prologue.

So what should I do? Spoil a little bit? Or just start showing my character from 0. I’ve had this dilemma for a while. I can assure you, Mr. Sanderson, that my story is going to be epic and different from the conventional. Just mindblowing. Transcendental. It will have a lot of scaling so I have to start from 0. But how can I lure my readers on the first pages without spoilers? (Question from A. Martinez)

Well, I’m proud to have been able to chat with you before you make it big! I like how you talk and how you think. Stay confident, but also to be willing to listen to feedback and criticism. If you want to become the great writer you dream of being, you do so (in my experience) by listening.

As for prologues, I should say that you certainly do not need them. In fact, many authors use them as a crutch. It is perfectly acceptable (even recommended by some editors I know) to skip the prologue and go right into your story. (Though it’s not something I often do myself, so perhaps this is a “do as I say, not as I do” sort of situation.)

The important part is not what you call your opening, but in making certain your opening is making the right kinds of promises. You say you want to start at zero and ramp up–that’s great, and you can totally do that. But try to devise an opening to your story that is engaging, and gives foreshadowing of the type of story you want to tell. Figure out how to start small, but make big promises. Some stories do this with a prologue. But other stories start with the protagonist trying something bold and beyond their skill, to show that they are challenging themselves–and this can be something as simple as running a foot race, or boldly speaking when others remain silent. It doesn’t have to actually include something epic to imply epic turns are coming.

Best of luck to you! I suggest just starting where it makes the most sense, then writing your story. Once you are done, you can look back at that opening and see if there are revisions you could make to better align it with the story you ended up wanting to tell.

Best,

Brandon

FAQ Friday – Unsatisfied with Your Writing?

As I’m sure you can imagine, I get queried quite frequently about writing advice. Occasionally, when responding to these emailed requests, I see an opportunity to respond to the writing community at large. So, while my answer is written in direct response to the sender, I hope it can help other writers who may be struggling with the same question.

Question: Whenever I write, I have all the inspiration and stuff to do so and I know what I want to write. But when I come back to what I have written the next day or so, that feeling of inspiration and satisfaction that I had when I was writing goes away and I feel unsatisfied with what I have written. I have great ideas that I think are great, but sometimes I don’t think they are great anymore. Often times I re-write it, but the situation is a continuous loop. Any advice? (Question from A. Worland)

This is a common sort of attitude, and you are not alone. Writers tend to fall into two camps, I’ve found. The people who think their writing is terrible while writing it, but then discover it’s not so bad afterward—and the people who think it’s great while writing it, but then look back and find it disappoints them. I don’t think either attitude is 100% correct, but I can understand both.

What I see happening here (as an off-the-cuff diagnosis not knowing you enough to do a detailed and specific one) is that your ability to see a perfect and wonderful book in your head is not yet matched by your actual writing skill. You’ve likely read a lot of books, and have developed a very discerning eye for what works and what doesn’t in fiction. You feel like you should be able to produce that great fiction, therefore.

But you’re like a person who has become an expert in tasting cheese—that doesn’t mean you can make your own. You have an advantage over someone else, but you still have to put in the work to learn the process of cheese making. Here, you’re comparing the perfect version of the book in your head (or, perhaps, the published books you’re reading) to the first draft, unpracticed work you’ve written.

The challenge here is to recognize your first draft doesn’t have to match a published finished draft. Beyond that, you’re going to grow a lot as a new writer as you finish your first few books—to the point that you will often be much better as a writer by the end of a sequence than you were at the start.

In all these cases, however, the solution is the same: keep your eye on the goal. Finish that story. You can’t learn to do endings until you practice them. Learn to let yourself be bad at something long enough to be good at it. This is an essential step many artists have to take. You can and will make that story better, but you need to finish it first.

Brandon

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More interviews from Germany + Updates

Adam here. A few weeks ago I posted about one of Brandon’s (and Isaac’s) interviews in Germany to his social media pages. You read the interview in German here, or download a PDF of the English version a few paragraphs down. Brandon was also interviewed by the German site FantasyBlogger, which Google Translate makes easy reading in English.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Governments Large and Small, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab talk about talk about governmental systems. What kinds do you live within? What kinds do you implement? Answering these questions can help you with the worldbuilding of political power structures.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, Kaladin tells Azure who he really is and discovers that the way they’re getting food is a Soulcaster secreted away in an aluminum-lined bunker. Meanwhile, Shallan has an emotional breakdown and is visited by Hoid, who gives her some much needed advice and—of course—a story. This week, in chapter eighty-three, Elhokar and his group (including Adolin, Kaladin, Shallan, and Azure) leave the tailor’s shop as the walls come under attack, leaving a spanreed with an ardent with orders to use it to alert Dalinar of the impending opening of the Oathgate. They make their way to the palace, where Kaladin, Shallan, Skar, and Drehy break off to loop around and take the Sunwalk. After assaulting the main doors of the palace and making it inside, Adolin discovers a small group of palace guards who didn’t fall under the sway of the Unmade. Kaladin and his men (and Shallan) rejoin them, and they regroup for a moment before Elhokar leads Kaladin off to try to find his wife and son. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continues along the Sunwalk towards the Oathgate platform… and the two Unmade waiting there for them.

Most of the gang from the Wheel of Time showed up to Planet Comicon for this week’s featured cosplay.

Giuramento (Oathbringer) is out!

Adam here. Everyone here at Team Dragonsteel is completely blown away by how great this book looks. Without a doubt, this is one of the highest-quality foreign editions we’ve seen of one of Brandon’s books.

For a few years now we’ve been hearing the pleas of our readers in Italy, and today we know they are getting a phenomenal product hundreds of hours in the making. The team at Oscar Fantastica (Mondadori) should feel very proud.

This edition includes all the same features as the US edition: cover art by Michael Whelan, full-color illustrations by Howard Lyon and Dan Dos Santos, an embossed cover, and many full-page illustrations by Ben McSweeney, Miranda Meeks, Kelley Harris, Dan dos Santos, and Isaac Stewart.

If you’re an Italian reader you can find this book on Amazon.it.

Now, without further ado, here is Giuramento in all its glory.

Brandon at FanX 2019 + Update

Adam here. If you live in the Salt Lake City vicinity, or you don’t mind traveling, Brandon will be at FanX 2019 this weekend. You can see his schedule for FanX below, as well as on his Upcoming Events page which also shows all his future events.

Friday, April 19th

Strange New Worlds: Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction

Time: 3:00-4:00 p.m.

Location: Room 250A

With: Eric Flint, Jonathan Maberry, James Owen, Brandon Sanderson, Larry Correia, Erin Summerill, Dan Wells (moderator), Tyler Whitesides

World Building 101: Creating the History of Your World

Time: 5:00-5:30 p.m.

Location: Convention Stage – Exhibit Hall 1831

With: Brandon Sanderson, Michael Haspil, M. K. Hutchins, Brian McClellan

Signing

Time: 8:00-9:00 p.m.

Location: 151A

Saturday, April 20th

Writers of the Future: Story Prompts, Short Fiction & Winning the Contest

Time: 3:00-4:00 p.m.

Location: Room 151D

With: Eric Flint, Brandon Sanderson, Robert J. Defendi, David Farland, John Goodwin, Scott Parkin, Darci Stone, Eric James Stone

The Brandon & Brandon Show: Spotlight on Brandon Sanderson and Brandon Mull

Time: 6:00-7:00 p.m.

Location: Grand Ballroom

With: Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Dan Wells

Signing

Time: 8:00-9:00 p.m.

Location: 151A

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Technology, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab talk about talk about science and technology in that same way as they have worldbuilding. This has been a staple (perhaps the defining staple) of science fiction since before “science fiction” was a word.

At risk of opening the “where do you get your ideas” can of worms, this episode covers a little bit of where they get their ideas, and where you might get—and subsequently develop—some more of yours.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, Kaladin, having joined the Wall Guard, walks the patrol beat inside the wall with Lieutenant Noro’s squad. He mostly enjoys the banter, obtaining new perspectives on how other people view the social stratification of their society, then helps guard a supply wagon until they turn it over to Velelant’s soldiers. They return to the barracks, then are sent up to the top of the Wall for duty after a short break. As Kaladin arrives, a group of Fused attack the Wall, but in a different location, apparently continuing to test the defenses. Kaladin is reminded in multiple ways that he has neither responsibility nor authority in this setting. This week, in chapter seventy-four, Shallan, as Veil, checks in with her regular poor-folk contacts, but is frustrated that she can’t do more. Encountering a parade of cultists, she creates a new Illusion and “becomes” a very convincing spren, but nearly loses herself to whatever is influencing the cult. Shocked, she tells the cultists to quit playing at being spren and go home to their families; she herself returns to the tailor’s shop for the night. Elhokar is in the kitchen, writing up lists of possible troops and contemplating heroism; Shallan does an idealized drawing of him before going to her room. Ishnah awaits her there, with a note inviting her to join the revel.

In honor of the recent trailer drop of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, today’s featured cosplay of Szeth (which also features on of my favorite characters from all of science fiction) is from Brandon’s recent trip to Planet Comicon in Kansas City.

Announcing Davriel’s Magic: The Gathering Cards

Hey, all! If you’ll indulge my nerd hobby for a moment, I’ve got something cool to share with you. As you may know, I wrote a little story called Children of the Nameless last year—something of a gift to the community and a way of being involved in Magic the Gathering, which has been a big part of my life over the last 25 years.

Well, Wizards decided to offer me a couple of preview cards for their upcoming set, and I thought I’d show them off here. (I’ll also post them to reddit, so if you want to talk about them, head over to r/magicTCG.)

First, the cards themselves.

When I got these a month or so ago I was quite interested, because the planeswalker is very unlike any I’d ever seen before. However, it turns out all of the planeswalkers in this set (and there are a lot of them) are doing interesting things, so I encourage you to have a look at the other spoilers and the story implications they imply. (The trailer for the new set is, hands down, the best Wizards has ever done.) Once you’re already up to date on what’s going on, we can have a little chat about my man Davriel.

Back? All right, the question that arises here is pretty obvious: How in the multiverse did Davriel let himself get caught up in the mess happening on Ravnica. Well, the events of the story I wrote kind of blew his cover—and, just as feared—soon after, he got several visits from extra-planar entities looking for planeswalkers to recruit for their cause. He also got a very cryptic message that I’ll, perhaps, get into some time in the future.

Suffice it to say that in the end, he decided to show up and do his best to encourage everyone that he was useless. He figured that way, next time everyone decided to go murder one another, they’d neglect to invite him. Unfortunately, he arrived, and everything has basically gone to hell. (And, having been there before, he’s not a fan.)

We can therefore summarize Davriel’s opinion on events with the following list:

OH BOTHER.
Zombies. Why is it always zombies? Aren’t there any evil, power-hungry overlords out there with good taste in minions?
He wonders what the Ravnican insurance policies look like. It would be curious to have a look at the fine print, and see how likely the local actuaries rated “Extra-planar invasion by megalomaniacal dragons.”
Said megalomaniacal dragon really needs to be more careful with his rampaging, as he quite nearly destroyed Davriel’s favorite local noodle shop with his latest destructive tirade.
Did anyone get the name of that Demon in the loin cloth? You know, the fellow with the glowing face and a mouth that looks like it can toast its own bread while consuming it? Because Davriel currently has a hole in his staff and is offering very competitive rates on his soul.

Now, if you’ll excuse him, he’s going to go see if Cruel Celebrant’s party has any snacks not infused with the blood of the innocent. (It really tastes far worse than everyone claims, and he’s convinced they just like to look trendy by consuming it.)

Hugo nominations closing tonight + Updates

Adam here. Nominations for the 2019 Hugo Awards close tonight at 11:59 Pacific Daylight Time. A few months ago Brandon wrote short blog about his works that were up for various award eligibility which you can read in full here, but I will give brief bullet points below.

Skyward is eligible for various awards, including the Andre Norton Award and the award for Best Young Adult book that is given out alongside the Hugos.
Children of the Nameless would be eligible in various novella categories. As it was released for free, you can download it here.
Legion: the Many Lives of Stephen Leeds was released as a novel, and is eligible as such.
The graphic novel White Sand Vo. 2 is also eligible for nomination this year.
And as usual, you can nominate Writing Excuses in the Best Related Work category.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Magic Systems, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab design magic systems! They talk about how they do it, and how the principles of magic system design apply to the science fiction systems they create, and vice-versa.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, featured Hoid, our favorite world-hopper who’s never straight forward about anything, and he’s certainly in rare form dropped hints about everything from his age to his role in the Cosmere. And along the way, he imparted a bit of wholesome advice to Shallan, nestled in amongst the jokes and snark. This week, in chapter sixty-nine, Kaladin experiments with Stormlight to determine what will draw the Voidbringers, and determines that Lashing a rock is out of the question. The team returns to the tailor’s shop to change their clothing, and Shallan sets their disguises to match. The men are off to a party, which makes Kaladin no end of grumpy; he ducks out of the party gig and ends up meeting the Wall Guard.

Today’s featured cosplay of Vin is brought to you by 17thsharder Stormwatcher.