Sanderson 2012.10 - Dialogue & Prose скачать в хорошем качестве

Sanderson 2012.10 - Dialogue & Prose

Brandon Sanderson’s 2012 Semester at BYU: Creative Writing, Lecture 10 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 / Questions from the class 4:45 / Dialogue Always tell the reader who is talking early in dialogue, unless it is really clear A “beat” shows what someone does along side their dialogue, and then attribution is not required. Put these things on the same paragraph - Don’t use too many beats Readers can read dialogue really fast, and will skip a lot of the beats and attributions 13:40 / Said Bookisms You should use “asked” and “said” in almost all your attributions; other terms will slow the story A lot of the other bookisms are “tells” and it is better to “show” 18:46 / Replacing adjectives and passive voice A lot of editors say “throw away your thesaurus” - The point is don’t use a word you don’t know just to expand your vocabulary; use it to find the right word you already know Using the right verb is the secret to good prose (adverbs and adjectives are weaker) - Find the right verb or noun so you don’t need the adverb and adjective - - “he walked quietly” is not as good as “he crept” It is okay to use a word your reader might not know if your context is strong and you don’t do it too much Cut passive/“to be” when possible - This can be done almost every time 30:19 / Styles of prose Brandon uses “Orwellian”: write so the prose is a pane of glass that lets you see right through to the story on the other side - The words are as translucent as possible Alternative is stained glass prose - Here the word choice adjusts the story behind and the writing itself is part of the story Purple prose is when it is done wrong. Using the wrong words 35:50 / Self publishing Ebooks sell faster than print Self publishing is much cheaper and easier than a few years ago (as of lecture date in 2012) Royalties are 70% (if priced between 2.99 and 9.99 on Amazon) The fundamentals have not changed in last 20 years, it is just much easier to do it - Your main hurtle is still: you have to do everything yourself - Getting shelf space is much harder without a publisher - Having a platform is very helpful if you want to self publish - All the marketing comes down to you - - Most people do this with a blog 52:17 / The mechanics of self publishing A good cover is still important; min will be $250 Pay for a professional copy editor; couple hundred dollars 1:00:00 / Titles Shorter titles sell better 1:04:10 / Business models for self publishing For slow writers, self publishing can be bad for you; common model is to release as much as you can and price as low as you can, to get a reader base 1:06:32 / The benefits of traditional publishing The publisher does a lot of things for you Legal department 5K-20K paid for covers easily Assign an editor to you who can be your coach They get you co-op space in stores and on Amazon, which is very hard to do yourself 1:18:50 / Final questions on self publishing If you do a good job self publishing it gives you leverage with traditional publishers Short thriller and romance books (~8K words) sell best on ebook Middle grade is bad market for ebooks. YA/teens is fine.