<aside> 💡 These notes on Brandon Sanderson’s Writing Masterclass were formatted from lengthy posts on a Discord server by a kind fella named Juicetin.

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• A book needs to be the mashing of a lot of ideas. You can’t write a book from one idea
• Good setting but bad character = bad book
• Trash or cliche setting but good characters = still ok book
• Try to have a strange attractor aka a spin on a familiar idea, or a mash of two ideas that don’t seem like they might go together. (Heist plus my fair lady = Mistbourne)

Promise

• **Tone: ****Indicates the tone and style of story you’re telling. The beginning chapters usually do this. If you want your story to be funny- the start of the story needs to be funny. Thats why the cold open is popular. Indiana Jones. Don’t start with a kid on the farm if you want action adventure tone promise, Star Wars —> that’s why a prologue is popular. Try to avoid the prologue cliche.
• Character Arc: This is how the character is going to change throughout the story. Either how THEY change or their SITUATION changes. Show your character’s desires and what’s preventing them. Could also be showing reader what they know he should want, but the character doesn’t want Bilbo doesn’t want to go on an adventure.
• General Plot: Umbrella plot (visible plot), core plot (what your actual progress and payoff is going to be). Core plot could be a romance, but the umbrella plot is “we need to do x, and while we do x we fall in love”. General plot should be the umbrella plot usually. You can be more predictable in your plot than you think as long as your setting is bomb and your characters are really likeable.

Progress

This is the hardest but most important.

• The readers want a “map”, they want to know the direction they are going and the progress they are making through the story. They want to FEEL the progress. They want to see the story building toward something, and they want to find out what that “something” is. Create an illusion for the reader that a steady progress toward an inevitable and exciting goal is happening in the story. Do this by identifying what questions the reader wants answered, that will be the reason they are turning the page.
• If you make a “promise” in the book, but start taking the story in another direction then readers get bored because they feel like they are on a “diversion” from the actual plot. Thats when they get bored. Thats why the progress needs to be cohesive with the promises you make as a writer.
• Star Wars Example: Umbrella plot is destroy empire but the reader thinks is actually —> get the plans to the princess. Character arc is Luke trusts the force (secondary character arc of Han becomes less of a jerk). All the scenes should be working toward those goals. Thats good progress.
• When you write a plot make little increments in the plot where you can show you are making headway in the goals. If you are writing a romance, you need to indicate progress is happening, so plot out little points to indicate that is blooming.
• Sometimes you need to nest plots like Umbrella plot —> Character plot —> Sub plot which all gets closed at some point [i.e. Alderon is destroyed, we can’t take the plans there. New mini sub plot becomes turn off the death star tractor beam and rescue the princess.
• Progress should involve problems arising.