The Brandon Sanderson Workshop Challenge

[gtempel]

Ok here is a workshoplike challenge I have been thinking about for a while. The goal is as always to get us into good habits.
And here is how it will work:

Beginning on the 6th of January 2020 I will post a link (or an embed the video directly) to one of the Brandon Sanderson lectures on creative writing.
Every following Monday I will post another link to a lecture.
In the time between we can use the thread to discuss what was said in the lecture.

And just like the students in Mr. Sandersons class everyone who participates will write 1000 words per week and share them with a group (depending on number of participants I will just assign groups of 4-5 people). Everyone is supposed to then give feedback to the works they got. These 1000 word works are supposed to be part of a bigger novel that everyone starts writing with the start of this challenge.
The challenge will end with the last lecture or after 12 weeks (whichever is longer - if I remember correctly it should be 12 weeks to get all lectures) and then everyone can share the complete novel (at least 50000 words) with all participants for even more feedback.

The main objective is to get into good writing and critiquing habits.
I hope you enjoy the idea as a good start into a new decade.


PS: If posting this was to presumptuous of me or nobody wants to participate- just let this thread die slowly.

 

[Mad Alice]

This sounds extraordinarily complicated. I bow to your organizational skills.

 

[Edoc'sil]

I'm guessing this never took off because I am definitely up for, we could start a discord group to help with the organisation?

 

[The Scribbling Man]

It's a good idea. If something like this was to happen I might be interested.

 

[Edoc'sil]

Well I just went and had a gander at gtempel's profile, looks like that guy was last seen feb of last year, I hope he found something more fulfilling and didn't just give up, or worse. I am a pretty poor organiser but I'll make the group.

If five people join we could get a thing going (or just me and you scribbler ), anyway here's the discord: Join the Brandon's Disciples Discord Server!

 

[Wayne Mack]

Instead of his lectures, you might try using his Writing Excuses pod casts. These are only 15-20 minutes long and are self-contained. Many of his lectures run multiple videos and take an hour or longer to consume. Just start at season 1, episode 1 and work through the list.

 

[Edoc'sil]

Ah thanks Wayne! I'll put those on the discord too, always good to have more resources, this seems more manageable. I'll let the group decide what they'd rather do, or both if we're feeling super motivated. (I say we, it's still just me in there as of yet.)

 

[The Scribbling Man]

^^ I did hop in last night. Maybe I was too quiet for you to notice

 

[Edoc'sil]

ah my bad, I haven't gone back to take a look since last night, I went to bed fairly early.

 

[Provincial]

Is this thing going to happen? I’d be prepared to give it a serious go, though I’ve never heard of this Sanderson guy and am naturally suspicious of anyone trying to tell me how to do anything without any corroborating evidence that they are an exemplar of how ‘it’ should be done...

FAO:
@Edoc'sil
@The Scribbling Man
@Wayne Mack

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

though I’ve never heard of this Sanderson guy and am naturally suspicious of anyone trying to tell me how to do anything without any corroborating evidence that they are an exemplar of how ‘it’ should be done...

He's pretty well known! I haven't followed him, but I understand he's produced a series of lectures/workshops on writing which are very good. Many people swear by him.

Brandon Sanderson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Provincial]

He's pretty well known! I haven't followed him, but I understand he's produced a series of lectures/workshops on writing which are very good. Many people swear by him.

Brandon Sanderson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Many successful writers?

 

[Edoc'sil]

@Provincial
We're at about week 10 of it so far, there's three of us who are fairly novice writers. Every week before we meet up for a call on discord we watch the lecture, give a sample of 1000 words of our current WIP (Sanderson recommended we start a new one for the course) to each other to read over and critique. So as of now we're all sitting around 10-15k.

It's going well and I think we're learning a lot. It's @therapist and @The Scribbling Man who're involved if they wanna chime in.

If you want to join that's fine by me, our meetup times tend to be fairly fluid as we all have busy lives, ATM it's 2pm (GMT+2) Fri.

 

[therapist]

Yea this group has been great and more members would only improve it.

Sanderson may not be the finest writer of our time, but he has a deep understanding about the craft of storytelling, and a slew of successful books to boot. Not sure how many successful writers agree, but he was selected to complete Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and fans of that series unanimously agree he did a great job. That seems like a decent accolade.

 

[Wayne Mack]

@Provincial, I listened to the first year of Mr. Sanderson's lectures and I felt it was worth the time investment and would recommend doing the same to other newer writers.

From what I can tell, Mr. Sanderson studied creative writing in college and what he presents in his lectures appears to be common accepted practice. Though he does have some biases, he presents alternatives in a balanced manner and certainly does not try to present 'the one true way.' Additionally, Mr. Sanderson has an engaging speaking style so that his lectures are enjoyable to listen to.

I would say these lectures are the best free or low cost options available. Gaining additional knowledge and insight from others is always a good thig; it is still the responsibility of the individual writer to decide how to apply the information. I recommend this lecture series. In exchange for a couple dozen hours of your time, you will at least be entertained and will also likely gain some new insights into the writing craft.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

I've almost finished reading Way of Kings and I've decided I really don't like Sanderson as an author - however, I think he gives a lot of good, universal writing advice in his lectures and I've benefited from them. The group has also been great.

 

[Provincial]

Many thanks for the input, it’s greatly appreciated. I’ll have a look at his videos, but I won’t join in - by now you will have established a well-knit support group and I would seriously disrupt the group dynamics. Of course, I would be several weeks behind you all as well!