Lecture #6: Worldbuilding Part Two — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson

6 Mar 202073:32

EducationalLearning

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TLDRBrandon Sanderson leads a university creative writing class lecture on effectively building fantasy/sci-fi worlds. He discusses physical vs cultural worldbuilding elements, emphasizing picking a narrow focus to enhance the story. Sanderson has students suggest how adjusting one element (e.g. climate) uniquely benefits different genres. He advises interconnecting elements, using concrete details to ground readers before expanding on abstractions. Sanderson stresses focusing creative efforts on robust characters and plots over extensive worldbuilding.

Takeaways

😀 Worldbuilding enhances stories by establishing rules, tensions, themes
👓 Focus worldbuilding on what serves the story, not everything imaginable
📚 Convey world details through characters pursuing goals, not infodumps
🎯 Pick a few worldbuilding elements to deeply explore based on the story
🔀 Interconnect worldbuilding elements rather than treating separately
😱 Establish a sense of danger and unpredictability
💡 Use worldbuilding to approach ideas from a fresh perspective
🔎 Mystery stories: hide killer in a sea of lookalikes
❤️ Romance stories: lovers separated by societal traditions
😈 Horror stories: economic pressures lead to terrible choices

Q & A

What are the two general categories Brandon Sanderson divides worldbuilding into?
-Brandon Sanderson divides worldbuilding into two categories - physical setting and cultural setting. Physical setting refers to aspects like weather patterns, geography, flora/fauna that would exist regardless of sentient beings. Cultural setting refers to aspects like religion, military traditions, gender roles that relate to how cultures and societies function.
Why does Brandon recommend picking a narrow focus when worldbuilding rather than trying to build everything?
-Brandon recommends picking a narrow focus because most writers need to produce books quickly to have a career. Trying to build every aspect of a complex fantasy world takes too much time. It's better to pick one or two things to focus on deeply that will enhance your specific story.
How can linking one aspect of worldbuilding to others make a setting feel more expansive?
-Linking one aspect, like unusual weather patterns, to other areas like flora/fauna adaptation, magic systems, cultural traditions makes that aspect feel like the lynchpin holding everything together. When you show a small manifestation, readers will imagine wider implications, making the world feel large.
What is the purpose of the genre examples for using climate to enhance different stories?
-The genre examples illustrate how even something like climate could be tailored to specifically support different genre stories - e.g. unpredictable weather raising stakes for action/adventure tales or fog obscuring things to heighten mystery.
Why have human cultures developed seemingly strange taboos?
-Brandon is fascinated by cultural taboos that seem strange from an outsider perspective. These often start for random, obscure reasons, but get reinforced over time by cultural traditions and assumptions until they feel completely normal.
How can fashion be used to enhance mystery stories?
-Fashion could be used in creative ways to obscure identity or make it harder to pinpoint a specific suspect - e.g. masks, clothing that changes regularly, a case happening at a cosplay event with many similar costumes.
What is the advantage of using familiar elements like the four Aristotelian elements in a magic system?
-Using familiar elements lets readers quickly understand the basics so less explanation is needed upfront. But you still need to distinguish your interpretation to avoid mismatched expectations.
How does the hierarchy of a military structure lend itself to star-crossed romance stories?
-Military hierarchies provide automatic social boundaries between ranks that lovers may have trouble crossing. Breaking fraternization rules heightens the conflict and tension between otherwise sympathetic characters.
Why caution against overusing "show don't tell" as writing advice?
-Showing often requires more words so focusing only on showing can lose audience interest. Some abstraction layered on top of concrete details is ideal. Show vs tell is not an absolute rule, more of a guideline.
Why can implying wider worldbuilding from one small manifestation work better than extensive explanation?
-A reader's imagination will take an evocative, specific manifestation and spin wider worldbuilding implications from it. This engages them more than exhaustive explanation that removes the chance to wonder.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Introducing the lecture on worldbuilding

Brandon introduces the lecture on worldbuilding, asking students to share some of their favorite stories with good worldbuilding. He mentions they'll be talking more about worldbuilding this week and have guest lectures in the coming weeks. Brandon says he may do a Q&A on worldbuilding later as well.

05:05

💡 The paradox: Worldbuilding defines yet undermines stories

Brandon explains that while worldbuilding defines sci-fi/fantasy, it is often the least important part. Good characters and plot matter more. Worldbuilding should enhance the story, not just provide irrelevant details. Info dumps are boring.

10:08

🥦 Conveying worldbuilding without being boring

Brandon explains techniques to convey worldbuilding without boring readers, like grounding stories in concrete details before abstract concepts. He introduces the "pyramid of abstraction" concept and gives examples of using more concrete vs. abstract language.

15:12

🌪️ Using setting details to reveal character

Brandon advises revealing worldbuilding details from a character's perspective to give insight into them rather than just explain the world. He uses the example of his wife hiding spinach in smoothies to get his kids to eat vegetables.

20:13

❌ Avoiding common worldbuilding pitfalls

Brandon warns against common worldbuilding writing pitfalls like "tell then show," using meaningless descriptors, and overusing certain problematic words like "suddenly." He advises writing concisely and pulling readers deeper into the world with carefully-chosen details.

25:17

📝 Balancing worldbuilding across a writing career

Brandon explains the need to worldbuild fairly quickly if you want a sustainable writing career, recommending about a book every 1-2 years. He contrasts his own approach of writing mostly standalone works when starting out to others who wrote several books in the same series first.

30:18

🎯 Picking worldbuilding elements to serve your story

Brandon categorizes worldbuilding into physical and cultural elements. He advises choosing just a few elements to focus on that support your specific story, rather than trying to detail everything. The genre and story needs should guide what worldbuilding depth is required.

35:19

🔀 Interconnecting worldbuilding for immersive stories

Brandon recommends picking one worldbuilding focus and showing how it interconnects with other elements. This allows readers to extrapolate a richer world than spelling everything out. He uses his magic high storms on Roshar that connect to ecology, politics, economics, etc. as an example.

40:20

🤝 Collaborative worldbuilding for different genres

Brandon goes through an exercise with students to pick a worldbuilding element and tailor it to different genres like action, mystery, romance and horror stories. This shows how small worldbuilding changes can enhance different stories.

45:20

✍️ Start worldbuilding by focusing elements

Brandon concludes by advising to pick a narrow worldbuilding focus for most stories rather than trying to detail everything. Interconnecting it with other elements then allows readers' imagination to flesh out an expansive world beyond what is written.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Worldbuilding

The process of constructing an imaginary world, including elements like geography, culture, politics, etc. This is a key skill for sci-fi/fantasy writers. Sanderson emphasizes worldbuilding that enhances the story rather than just creating an info dump.

💡Characterization

The way an author builds and develops a character's personality. Sanderson notes effective characterization is even more important than worldbuilding for creating a compelling story.

💡Setting

The time, place and context in which a story occurs. Setting is one component of storytelling, along with plot and character. Sanderson categorizes setting into physical (geography) and cultural elements.

💡Story Arc

The narrative trajectory of a story, including the beginning, rising action, climax and resolution. Good worldbuilding supports the story arc rather than overwhelming or distracting from it.

💡Suspension of Disbelief

The willingness of readers/viewers to accept imaginative premises in a fictional work despite their implausibility. Effective worldbuilding enables suspension of disbelief.

💡Infodump

Overloading a story with excessive worldbuilding details at once. Sanderson warns this causes reader boredom. He advises conveying details naturally from a character's perspective.

💡Hard Magic System

A magic system with clear, defined rules that limit what magic can achieve. Sanderson is known for intricate hard magic systems, but warns not to let worldbuilding details overwhelm story and character.

💡Soft Magic System

A magic system that is more vague, mystical and unpredictable in what magic can achieve. Sanderson notes hard systems generally enable more creativity.

💡Watsonian vs Doylist

The perspective difference between explanations that exist internally within the worldbuilding (Watsonian) vs externally from the author's point of view (Doylist). Sanderson emphasizes maintaining internal logic.

💡Subcreation

Tolkien's idea of fantasy worldbuilding as an act of creative making that imitates God's act of creation. Connects to Sanderson's idea of worldbuilding elements supporting each other.

Highlights

Worldbuilding needs to serve the story, not just info dumping or unnecessary details

Pull readers into concrete details before abstract ideas to keep them grounded

Convey worldbuilding through characters' perspectives and motivations

Physical worldbuilding includes weather, geography, wildlife, magic systems

Cultural worldbuilding includes history, religions, politics, economics, fashion

Pick a narrow worldbuilding focus instead of trying to build everything

Interconnect one worldbuilding idea to climate, magic systems, cultures

Explain just enough to make the world feel real, not every detail

Sudden change in status quo kicks off action adventures

Masks in society enhance mystery of not knowing 'who done it'

Lovers separated by faction barriers feeds romance plots

Monster attacks drive economic decisions in horror

Subgenres dictate available worldbuilding complexity

One well-done idea better than 5% of many ideas

Taboos and customs make societies feel real

Transcripts

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