Sanderson 2012.4 - Sympathetic Characters

Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 4 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 / Sympathetic characters In the fantasy genre, characters are the most important thing All of your characters should be sympathetic in some way (even the bad guys) Sympathetic characters…. - Have some “everyman” attributes and some “superman” attributes - Underdog - Are proactive - Nice (or has friends who like them) - Quirks 10:53 / Proactivity Make your character proactive, don’t have them wait around for the villain Easiest one to slip on, and will weaken the character 16:43 / Show vs tell Give the character a unique view on life Show don’t tell - Dialogue is generally more show than tell 23:10 / Character depth Make your characters care about things other than the plot If you think of your character only by their role in the story, you will lose depth The character’s life did not begin when the story began; they had wants and hobbies and values before the plot started 33:50 / Love Interest alternatives Mentor & student Best friends who start as not best friends Teens are interested in romantic relationships, and it is one of the main things that draws them to books 36:01 / Character building exercise (with examples) Build into the character things that are unanticipated - Unanticipated doesn’t necessarily mean “weird” Build a scene that shows the attributes of these characters without even mentioning their actual attributes