Thread by @50storieslater

.@BrandSanderson giving the first #WXR18 talk! "Developing Characters with Brandon Sanderson". Talking about difficulty in finding ways to present the material to people who've mostly seen his recorded lectures before.

@BrandSanderson .@BrandSanderson views his writing and writing instruction: Cook vs chef. Goal is to help people become metaphorical chefs. He can be a cook: he can follow instructions but doesn't understand WHY and can't fix if wrong. #WXR18

@BrandSanderson .@BrandSanderson #WXR18 biggest challenge in translating from consumer to producer of media. We know what a story should look like but some things won't turn out in your story and you won't know why. Very frustrating.

@BrandSanderson @BrandSanderson #WXR18 The more we write the more we do by instinct. The podcasters can step back from their process and identify what's going wrong, strategies for that, but early writers won't have that ability yet. Hard thing to learn.

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18 Developing characters - APE (acronym in progress). All "sliding scales" and they all depend on how you present them in writing.

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18 A - aptitude: what are they good/bad at, when they shine/or not,
- approachability: how readers want to emulate or already connect with / off-putting,
- activity: how pro-active, what goals, how far are they willing to go, how well do they understand

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18
e.g. Mal from Firefly aptitudes: charismatic, gritty. Aptitude: generally low/average. Approachable: high. Active: pretty high. Picking apart a character from the outside to learn how to do this (become a chef)

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18 Hard to start at the bottom with approachability, can put aptitude way up (House), can use a promise instead, e.g. show they were once more approachable, story is clawing their way back up. Can use flashbacks, beware of ending up with 3 prologues.

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18 P - promise: establish disconnect between who, who they are now and who and where they want to be, why are we following?
- progress: Show efforts towards payoffs appropriately for type of story.
- payoff: fulfil emotional promise to reader from beginning

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18 Promise motion on one of the A scales. Establish a trait and show how it’s wrong/hurting. Series of little successes and failures leading to the end. Progress is the hardest thing, benefits most from practice. Payoff more about making it satisfying

.@BrandSanderson #WXR18 Successful writing is writing that achieves your goal as a writer, not commercial success. Are you able to create the story you want to create to connect with the audience you want to write for. If you create the art you want to create, that’s success.

@BrandSanderson .@BrandSanderson #WXR18 E - Emotion: how we emotionally invest in character, consistency
Energy: how much a character is changing has a large effect on pacing and reader fatigue
Effect: effect on the rest of the story, how do others react? Everyone snap into line with change?

Q: how do you deal with very damaged characters? not high on any scale
@BrandSanderson : 'damaged' is fraught term, difficult to write & hard to make a story, often will make a person not want to do anything, increase external pressure so move to proactive happens early
#WXR18

@BrandSanderson Q: When working on a series, how does it affect the character arc?
@BrandSanderson: Try to make sure first book is satisfying on its own, next books can take more liberties. Triage character flaws and deal with one conclusively. Break up character arc show progress
#WXR18

@BrandSanderson Q: How do you keep track of your character arcs?
@BrandSanderson: Floating outline different than main outline. Finish the book, re-read it, early readers, build revision document his revision is fixing the character arcs to match the book better.
#wxr18

@BrandSanderson Q: character who’s different in different situation, without seeming inconsistent?
@BrandSanderson: well-rounded characters are hard. Hang a lampshade on it. Have people treat them differently in different situations, make hard contrasts. “Why can’t I X when I’m Ying?”
#WXR18

Q: internally conflicted characters?
@BrandSanderson: Hard because this tends to decrease proactivity. Characters internally conflicted, make sure they have a direction, comes back to promise, put them in situation where conflict will come to head, put in front of people. #WXR18

Q: Progress? Character sacrificing what they think they want/or character trait?
@BrandSanderson: Part of progress for certain types of stories, not all. steps along the way reinforce that the character won’t let go but foreshadow thing that WILL make them change

#WXR18

@BrandSanderson Q: when taking over Wheel of Time how did you handle character arcs/plots?
@BrandSanderson: Robert Jordan was not a strict outliner. Had broad arcs, had written the epilogue. some major characters with unfinished arcs barely mentioned in notes. Did an outline.
#WXR18

Q: How do you create an outline?
@BrandSanderson: backwards. What do I want to happen? Already thought about it a lot. What is the moment things snap together. Plot archetype & Character moments that fit ending. what works, excited about, clicks, "this is so cool" #WXR18 1/2

@BrandSanderson .@BrandSanderson: Character. Do ‘APE’ (see above), Plot. Look for archetypes from @WritingExcuses. Bullet points that match characters, type of story, beats. Do for all, then pick several points and write scenes around them. 10 000 words long per 100 000 words of book. #WXR18 2/2

Q: how to develop characters for the purpose of the plot without them seeming wooden?
@BrandSanderson: Make a character where is the point of most conflict, make a character to whom that is extremely personal.

#WXR18

@BrandSanderson AND THAT'S IT for DAY 1ish. Well I'm exhausted. #WXR18