5 Lessons on Story Telling from Brandon Sandersons Lecture Series

 This past semester I have been sneaking onto a certain campus that shalt not be named to attend lectures from my favorite author Brandon Sanderson. I took comprehensive notes during it and now looking back over them these are my 5 biggest takeaways on storytelling.

1. Iconic Characters: The idea that certain characters, especially in serialized content, don't need to undergo significant internal change. Their external conflicts are enough to drive the story. This concept shifts the focus of character development, especially for characters like Spock or Captain Kirk, who are iconic not because they change dramatically but because their consistent traits define them.

2. Character Development through Quirks and Motivation: Sanderson emphasizes that a character's quirks (like how quickly they act or their choice of language) reveal much about their internal world. This can be things like their economic class, their cultural background, how educated they are how highly they think of themselves. Motivations are not only about desires but also about the sacrifices the character is willing to make. This deeper exploration of character psychology goes beyond simple backstories and can create more compelling, multi-dimensional characters.

3.The Rule of Coolness (Sanderson’s 0th Law): Sanderson is all about restraint when it comes to magic in your story telling. It is bound by rules in his books but every once in a while it's good to just say fuck it and go all out. What's cool will always be better than what makes sense so go cool first then make it make sense. 

4.Understand your Character's Fundamentals: A key takeaway was the importance of deeply understanding your characters fundamentals. Where did they come from, What do they want, How did they fail and how will they not repeat that. Asking and understanding these questions about your characters is vital to writing a character that lives and feels real 

5. Creation and Understanding are Honorable Goals:  The ability to create is tremendously difficult task and requires a lot of understanding to be done well. but the very pursuit of that action is itself an honorable and worthwhile thing to take part in. We are all better off living in a world with your creations.