Brandon Sanderson Lecture 11 - Things movie fight scenes can't do - 4/7

So, number one, stake character, you've got everything clear now. You probably still got a lot of blow-by-blow but that's okay. The next step is to ask yourself "What are we doing?" What does fiction do that these other forms of art can't do? And try to play to the strengths of what's going on in your fiction. In other words, you can't compete with Jackie Chan for an engaging blow-by-blow action sequence, so why try? Why instead not do what fiction does really well? What can we do that they can't do on the screen? (voices overlap) Student: See what the character's thinking. Brandon: Character's thoughts and emotions. [writing noises] Particularly if you can make us feel like we're exactly feeling what the character is doing. Now this is why I prefer to use direct thoughts of the character with battles for a third person narrative Because I think this allows me to do a lot of interesting things. And I try to make the thoughts show rather than tell, and you CAN do this. You can have a character stop and say, "I wonder why those mortars stopped firing," or You can imply this is a really chaotic action sequence by having them roll to the ground things exploding around them, and have them think, "the mortars! They've stopped!" That is more of a show. And I prefer to do this personally, this is a stylistic choice, but it is one I suggest that you try out. A lot of the thoughts I'm saying used by you are very expository. Which again is a stylistic choice. I'm not going to say don't do it, but consider trying to make the thoughts more shows. To give us like you get a feeling of "this is the immediate thought they're having at this moment" and then the narrative really does the tells that need to be told and let the thoughts be indications of emotions as well as thoughts. And you can show emotion with thoughts really easily. It's a powerful way to do so without having to say, "He felt this, he felt this, he felt this," granted you're going to use some of that. But, thoughts and emotions of characters are something we can do that is very difficult to convey in film in the same way. Student: Are you saying treat thoughts like quotations rather than saying, "He thought this" you would just have it in parentheses or whatever and just . . . Brandon: I would put it in italics. Underline italics. (Talking over student) Yeah. I wouldn't even in that one . . . Student: Wouldn't it get a little tiresome? Brandon: If you do it too much it really does. But it depends on your narrative flow and how often you break it and how often you put these thoughts in. You'll see I do it, I probably do it once per page. And once per page is a ticker as a reminder of the character's emotional and mental state. Student: Do you need "so-and-so thought" at the end of those, or just . . . Brandon: You don't really need to? We frequently do. The thought is invisible. In "The mortars! They've stopped!" I wouldn't put a "thought" there. To help give a little extra conveyance of the emotional state of the character. They don't have time for complete thoughts. We don't have time to write down "he thought". He's just noticing it. That's replacing, "He noticed the mortars had stopped shelling." And it's saving a few words which is good, but it's also using it to convey character a little bit more. So, we can do thoughts and emotions. What else can we do? Student: We have a little more flexibility with pacing Brandon: Yes we do. Yes, pacing. Good example, because with our pacing, what we can do, is we can zoom through an hour and focus in on a moment in ways that in a film, they kinda have to use slow-mo and stuff, and it's natural in the rhythm of a book. And so we can manipulate pacing. It allows us to do this thing where we give a quick explanation of where he's going, and where she's going and then we can pace it through the main character, and things like that. What else are we going to do? We have a hand back here. Student: I was just going to say, the five senses like you talked about. Brandon: Yeah. Student: You mentioned emotions but not necessarily . . . Brandon: Senses. Good, this is part of what you should be doing for your concreteness. But it is a great things to remember, we are much better with some of the senses. Yeah. Student: Our special effects budget is unlimited. Brandon: Oh yeah! Yeah, special effects unlimited. Great! And don't overload your fight sequences with descriptions, but BOY if this is the place to bring out the big guns when it comes to writing compact, concrete descriptive sentences. I told you to bring the metaphoric language down, but that doesn't mean you get rid of it entirely. But I would try to bring the metaphoric language into character voice a little bit more. Robert Jordan did this. The metaphors of a given character, a person who is a blacksmith would use forging metaphors, a farmer would use farming metaphors, a soldier would use soldiering metaphors. A metaphor like "The battleground smelled like a forge after a long day's work with smoldering bit of metal" and things Something like that can convey character and still be a great metaphor for something like this Just don't get too flowery, but some of these really strong concrete sentences for descriptions can really shine in a fight sequence. Student: Backstory. Brandon: Backstory! Sure. Student: Like in Princess Bride, how the characters, Vizzini's troops are assembled and you get to know Inigo spent twenty years studying fencing or whatever Things that they have to tell you when you scene break. Brandon: Yeah. That's a good one as well. Really what a lot of these are getting into is your ability to use thoughts and emotions. Considering all of this stuff, if you look at it, your fight sequences should start to shape up a little bit They should stop being a blow-by-blow and more be an experience of the character's emotional and mental state while they're in serious danger. A trained soldier is probably not going to have as many thoughts and emotions as he's going to have reflexes. But that's okay--