Melanie Ifield's Blog: Writing with Illness - Posts Tagged "sanderson"

Having trouble plotting?
Not sure if your characters are personable?
Ever tried simply to craft your work so it continues to engage your readers?
Watched a writing lecture recently?

I have - and I was astounded at the enjoyment I got out of it!

I remember my mother once saying, when I was younger and much smaller than I am now, that you never know everything. You continue learning until the day you die.
I think she was talking about the art of horsemanship at the time, however the theory is sound no matter what the subject.
With that in mind, I settled myself in front of You Tube and began to watch a series of lectures on the art of writing.
The mystery is - they have far less 'view' counts than I would have expected.
Ok, so they are presented by an epic fantasy author and fantasy isn't everyone's cup of tea. And predominately the examples used were a mixture of fantasy and science fiction.
But writing lectures aren't about their examples, I would have thought - they are about the content. Which is fantastic!
There are many master class writing lectures out there and I would love to hear from you if you've found any of them particularly helpful. But for my time, note taking and effort, I couldn't go past lectures where potentially time travelling pirates and a dog with journalistic tendencies (I kid you not) are used as examples!
I love the idea of learning while laughing and I have to say - Brandon Sanderson's lectures, while a bit dated (I'm watching 2014) in our fast tracked world, are informative, fun and fast paced - for a learning experience!
Let me know: Are you for or against honing your skills from lectures - or do you prefer to just keep writing and to allow practice to make perfect?