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