Sanderson 2012.3 - Point of View

Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 3

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 / Introduction to prose
- Professional prose is about viewpoint, description, and learning curve

1:10 / Basics
- Basic viewpoints are first person, third limited, third omniscient
- Basic tenses are present and past (they are very interchangeable)
- - Default in market fiction is probably past
- Omniscient is falling out of favor; don’t use it unless you have a good reason to

14:26 / First person viewpoint
- First person is very common in children’s / MG / YA
- - Easier to get to know the character
- - Gives you the ability to use an “unworthy narrator”
- - Let’s you cheat on info-dumps
- It can be easier to start out writing, particularly if you have a good voice
- Brandon references this time-travel short by Desmond Warzel: http://www.tor.com/2011/08/31/wikihistory/
- Hard to do more than 1 or 2 POV characters without getting very confusing

32:31 / Third person viewpoint
- You can do a large cast better
- You can paint scenes a little better because it is not centered on character
- Best viewpoint to hide things from the reader
- Gives you the ability to use a “throw-away viewpoint” from a 1-off random character
- Sometimes it is easier to relate to a character in 3rd because 1st feels like someone (not you) is talking to you

40:02 / Descriptions given in voice
- Editors want the character to jump off the page through the descriptions
- Every line of description should be filtered through the character’s eyes

41:30 / Basics of description
- It is easy to overdo descriptions, try not to
- Use more than just sight

45:13 / Learning curve
- Every story takes some effort by the reader to get into / learn the book
- New names and places create a barrier to entry in a book
- Shorter and more concrete descriptions reduce learning curve
- Dole out information only when it becomes strictly relevant

53:27 / Pyramid of abstraction
- Concrete language is the base of the pyramid and should be most common
- Abstract language is the top of the pyramid and should be less frequent
- To be concrete, you want to choose a precise word that also serves character, or setting, or tone
- - Example: instead of “wooden bed” ; “oak bed” ; “log bed”
- Make your sentences accomplish multiple things
- Adding senses other than sight makes things more concrete

Видео Sanderson 2012.3 - Point of View канала zmunk