Brandon Sanderson Lecture 1: Ideas are cheap (2/5)

Brandon lays the smack down on the artist's natural propensity to coddle his or her ideas. Ideas in writing are cheap. Live with it. Next up: Class Format and Goals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if8OXEX6zW8. Browse all the lectures in one convenient place at http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/home/brandon_w2012/

Ideas.

One thing to get through your head is that ideas are usually cheap.

Boy, those don't erase real well.

I'll try using these guys.

I mean, they do say: Dry erase." They don't say: Permanent, don't put it on anything!

I should be okay, but...

One thing to get over is the idea that great ideas make a great book.

Well, a certain quality of idea is important.

However, a great writer can take the most basic ideas and make a brilliant novel out of it.

And a terrible writer will take the best ideas in the world and will turn them into something terrible. Okay?

Once in a while there is an idea like– you know, I usually refer to Jurassic Park as one of the ideas that I wish I had.

You know, bring back dinosaurs and make a theme park out of them.

That is a really great story scene and some are better than others.

But the thing to teach you is ideas should be cheap.

You shouldn't have to worry about your ideas.

You shouldn't coddle your ideas and treat them as sacrosanct.

You shouldn't thing I have this one novel I have been working on for so long and it's the perfect book

and I need to just get it done and then everything will be great.

Instead, you should be thinking, "Boy, that book that I've been working on for ten years that I started, that is my baby, is such a big millstone hung around me.

I should cast that aside, start fresh with something new,

write it for a few months, and teach myself to write.

And then, once I know how to write,

maybe I can to do justice to that magnificent idea that I have been working on for ten years that now is turning out to be

you know, I've been churning and working on it for so long that I have even forgotten how many drafts I have done.

And, you know, this was in one draft

and this other thing is in another draft, and I forget that I've taken this out, and oh,

it gets to be a big mess."

So, for this class, you will have to cast aside anything that you have been working on before,

unless you come and get specific permission from me.

Someone who has a book contract has permission to work on, you know, what they have a book contract for.

Or, I guess you have an agent, but not a contract yet.

*Yeah, not a contract yet.

But, for the most part, you should be taking everything–

anything have written on before–you can take something you have ideas for, something you have planned–

but anything you have written on before, you should cast aside

and start fresh from the beginning for this class. Yes.

*If you have written like an introductory chapter, or like–?

Yeah, you're fine. You're fine on that.

Uh, you know, you go with the spirit of the law.

What are we doing? You are putting this in front. Oh, sure, put the microphone in front of me.

Make it easy for people to listen. You're going to get a lapel mic for me, right?

I'm eventually gonna...

*Yeah. Yeah.

Then I feel all cool and techy and stuff like that. And so... um.

Yeah, sorry poeple listening online who might actually be doing it. Hi!

We are trying something new this year.

Apparently, we can actually release this online, if we want to.

So, we're going to. And he's doing a master's degree.

Bachelor's degree something? Or honors something?

* Well, I have't even applied for the um. It will be, um, constructional technology.

Okay, okay. By the way!

As an aside, I think we have like 5 PhD students in my class.

Who are the PhD students? I'd love to know.

There are people...

Maybe, it just lists PhD if you've like too many credits or something.

No one is actually in a PhD? Ahh. It said on my class role–

Okay, you got... You are one.

*Well, I'm a JD, not a PhD.

Oh, JD. Oooooh. Hey, an attorney. It's always good to know more attorneys.

Laughter

Anyone else, like...

I assume a few of you are in like that Marriott School, or something like that?

Yeah, Marriott school? Okay. Because these people can sneak in– You're in the Marriott school too?

Can sneak in and register very early for the class. And they can get all the spots.

And it said on my thing that I have like four PhD students, but they must just list that if you have a certain credit threshold.

Some of you must just be eternal students who are continuing education, who have like, you know, three hundred credits or something.

And like, they must be at a PhD because otherwise why would they want so many classes.

But anyway, ideas.

Ideas should be cheap. You should not treat them as sacrosanct.

Um, one of my favorite stories, um, you can ask, um,

You can ask Jim Butcher about this. He shared it before, when he was making this argument on this forum once, before he was published.

And, um, a certain other person was kind of of the opposite school of thought.

There's a school of thought that says–and don't write this down because it is wrong–

"Writing is mystical."

Right? Writing is about, you know, sitting and the, you know, the muse strikes.

I assume not the band. Laughter.

And the muse strikes you and something like pops out of your head like Athena.

And it's just like BOOM!

And then BOOK!

And then, somehow, in between this, it's like you win a Pulitzer!

I don't know. That's probably not what they give anyway. You know, not a Pulitzer. Laughter.

A national book award! There you go!

And you dropped it in basketball team. Laughter.

And it's wonderful.

There's this feeling that that's what it is.

And, um, I don't subscribe to this at all. Okay?

I really, really don't.

And that's not to say that sometimes cool inspirations don't hit you, because we all kind of go through that.

You'll have times when we're like, "I'm just on fire today and I don't know why." And you're riding it and it's great and it's awesome.

But, the thing to to remember is that for every writer who's a real pro that I talk to,

they have moments like that, and they have moments where it is pure drudgery.

Where they sit and... and it's like chopping wood,

that's how _ puts it. You just hit and you chop the wood and you do what you know you need to do.

And at the end of the day in the book, I have found that the reader can't tell the difference between these two.

*Some quiet laughter.* Okay?

They can't tell the difference. And that's because,

through the drafting process, you make this one better and you take out all the pretentiousness of this one.

Because this one had a lot of pretentiousness in it.

And this one, it will probably be a little dry, but you will have some moments of inspiration where you get connections.

And this prose will get a little more engaging and this one will get a little less annoying.

And then they will meet in the center and have your level of writing that is pretty cool.

Okay? So, anyway, Jim Butcher's arguing with this guy.

And the guys like, "No, you have to have world class ideas to be a world class writer."

And Jim's like, "Okay, fine. Give me the...

Give me the two worst ideas you can come up with, and I will write a book about them and it will be awesome.

And so the person told him, "Okay, so you're ideas are pokemon and the Lost Roman Legion. *Some quiet laughter.*

Write about about that." So, he wrote this book called Codex Alera,

which he eventually sold and became a big, best-selling, epic fantasy series.

You can go find that story on line. It's a great story and it's true.

Codex Alera is a cross between pokemon and the Lost Roman Region.

And Jim, if you are watching this and I am wrong, then why didn't you tell me when I asked you?

I think he dodged the question when I asked him at first. I can't remember.

Anyway, ideas are cheap. Okay?