Lecture #9: Characters — Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy

Brandon Sanderson

17 Apr 202072:13

EducationalLearning

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TLDRIn the script, author Brandon Sanderson teaches an engaging masterclass on crafting compelling characters. He provides key advice on establishing empathy, rooting interest, and progress to make readers care deeply. Sanderson stresses that strong character motivations intertwine tightly with captivating plots. He advocates hitting characters in their flaws and limitations to drive conflict and change. Sanderson shares his process for handling multiple viewpoints, distinguishing voices through background and diction, and handling deceitful characters. Overall, it's a masterful discourse on building dimensional, evolving characters that come alive on the page.

Takeaways

😀 Characters fulfill different roles - main characters shape the story and plot
👥 Establish empathy to make readers care about characters
🚀 Give characters motivation so readers are interested in what they want
🚧 Show character flaws and progress to portray their change
🎯 Character motivations continue, while goals can be accomplished and the story ends
😖 Limitations, flaws and handicaps usually create conflict and drive the plot
🎭 Establish character motivation early on for consistency
⚖️ Balance multiple character motivations and avoid one-note characters
🗣 Let character background and personality shape their voice and diction
👿 Craft complex villain motivations by making them relatable yet at cross purposes with the hero

Q & A

How can establishing empathy for characters help make readers care about a story?
-Establishing empathy makes characters relatable and helps readers see themselves in the characters. This emotional connection makes readers more invested in what happens to the characters, driving interest in the story.
What is the difference between a character's goal and motivation?
-A goal is a specific accomplishment a character is working toward, while motivation refers to the deeper reasons why they have that goal. Motivation stems from a character's passions and desires.
How can flaws, limitations, and handicaps help create better characters?
-They make characters more realistic and human. These attributes also create obstacles for characters to overcome, driving conflict and progress in the story.
What should you do if a character develops in an interesting direction that diverges from your planned story?
-Consider if the story would work better following where that character wants to go, or if it would distract too much. Either rewrite the story to match the character, replace them with a different character, or remove the diverging parts.
What are some techniques for distinguishing different characters' voices?
-Let their backgrounds, motivations, and personalities influence their vocabulary, metaphors, arguments, perspectives on life, and more. Show this through the diction in their dialogue and descriptions rather than relying on tags like 'he said angrily'.
How can you create an effective villain with understandable motivations?
-Give them realistic motivations that make sense based on their goals, even if those goals conflict with the protagonist's. This can make the villain empathetic even as they oppose the hero.
What's the difference between a villain and an antagonist?
-An antagonist works against the protagonist's goals, while a villain does evil things. They often overlap, but don't have to - a character can have understandable motivations yet still hinder the protagonist.
How can you write a character who doesn't understand their own motivations?
-Show through their actions early on what motivates them before they realize it themselves. Also, have other characters point out the truth about their motivations that they are ignorant or lying to themselves about.
Why is establishing motivation important for characters based on Sanderson's First Law?
-It sets up reader expectations about how characters will behave later on. If you don't establish motivation properly early, characters may seem to act contrarily or arbitrarily as the plot unfolds, confusing readers.
What role can quirks play in making compelling characters?
-Quirks shouldn't just be random personality traits, but instead should connect to revealing key elements about a character like their motivations, desires, handicaps, etc. This helps enhance character depth.

Outlines

00:00

🎥 Introducing the topic of characters

Brandon introduces the topic of characters, explaining their purpose and roles. He talks about making readers care about characters by establishing empathy, rooting interest, and progress/sense of change.

05:01

🤝 Establishing empathy for characters

Brandon explains how to establish empathy for characters by making them relatable, nice, and liked by others. This makes readers care about them.

10:09

👣 Establishing rooting interest

Brandon discusses establishing rooting interest by giving characters clear motivations that readers find interesting. This connects characters personally to the plot.

15:15

📈 Showing progress for characters

Brandon talks about showing a sense of progress for characters by revealing a flaw or journey of change. This makes readers invested in what happens to the character.

20:16

📊 Character dimensions: Likability, proactivity, competence

Brandon introduces three key character dimensions: likability, proactivity, and competence. He explains how characters can change on these dimensions over a story to create progress.

25:16

🦸 Iconic heroes vs changing heroes

Brandon contrasts iconic heroes who remain mostly fixed on the three dimensions with changing heroes who transform markedly on likability, proactivity, and/or competence over the course of the story.

30:19

🎬 Star Wars character examples

Brandon analyzes Star Wars characters like Luke, Leia, and Han Solo on the three dimensions of likability, proactivity, and competence.

35:22

📐 Flaws, limitations, handicaps

Brandon relates flaws, limitations, and handicaps to character motivation and story, emphasizing their important role in driving conflict.

40:25

🎭 Managing multiple viewpoints

Brandon discusses strategies for handling multiple viewpoints, like deciding on viewpoint time and avoiding writing characters simply to roles.

45:25

🗣️ Distinct character voices

Brandon talks about making each character's voice distinct by letting their background and personality influence vocabulary, arguments, descriptions, and more.

50:25

🔀 Revising characters who don't fit

Brandon shares examples of significantly revising characters who weren't working, like changing motivations or splitting one character into two.

55:30

😈 Crafting villain motivations

Brandon discusses approaches to crafting villain motivations depending on factors like likability and whether they are a changing character or more iconic, static villain.

00:33

👎🏻 Making an unlikeable competent antagonist

Brandon suggests making unlikeable but competent, proactive antagonists by showing them as uncompromising and lacking in mercy, using Javert from Les Misérables as a key example.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡characters

The people in a story who drive the plot and action. Brandon talks about how to make characters that engage readers by establishing empathy, rooting interest, and progress.

💡empathy

When readers feel an emotional connection or can relate to a character. Ways to establish this include making the character similar to readers, having other characters like them, or giving them admirable traits.

💡motivation

A character's underlying drive or reason for action. Strong motivations that readers can understand make characters more compelling. They continue even after goals are achieved.

💡proactivity

How much a character pushes action forward. Brandon associates this with motivation - passive characters tend to have weaker motivations. Increased proactivity signals character growth.

💡competence

How capable a character is. This could refer to skills relevant to the plot or an internal quality they build over time. Progress in competence is a form of character development.

💡progress

Character change or transformation, often represented as movement along the axes of likeability, proactivity, and competence. Tracking progress gives readers a sense of character evolution.

💡limitations

Constraints that hold a character back and create obstacles to overcome. These provide opportunities to showcase character motivations when pressed against their limitations.

💡voice

Distinctive elements of a character's dialogue and narration that convey their perspective and background. Using metaphors and descriptions filtered through the lens of what shaped them differentiates character voices.

💡motivation

A character's underlying drive or reason for action. Strong motivations that readers can understand make characters more compelling. They continue even after goals are achieved.

💡antagonist

A character whose goals conflict with the protagonist. They create obstacles without necessarily being villainous. Understanding their motivation adds complexity.

Highlights

Characters fulfill different roles, and how you use your main characters forms the shape of your story and plot.

Establish empathy by showing characters are relatable, nice, or liked by others.

Establish rooting interest by giving characters motivations so they want something interesting.

Establish a sense of progress by showing a flaw the character should fix or a journey they will go on.

Characters tend to fall on sliding scales of likeability, proactivity, and competence.

Connect character quirks to empathy, motivations, or progress to make them feel real rather than random.

Characters should have flaws, limitations or handicaps that spur motivation and conflict.

Give less prominent characters one quirk unrelated to their role so they feel real.

Let each main character move on the likeability, proactivity and competence scales.

Hit characters in their flaws if you want the story to encourage them to change.

Let character backgrounds influence metaphors, arguments, perspectives on achieving dreams.

Practice writing scenes with no tags where dialog alone conveys who is speaking.

Villain roles differ - some have complex motivations (Gollum) while some just threaten harm (Sauron).

Show what a deceived character can achieve in a small sphere, but don't believe they can achieve more.

Have a trustworthy character tell the deceived character the truth so we know change is coming.

Transcripts

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