December 14th, Year XXXX

Brandon Sanderson's second Lecture is the first of his two plot lectures. In this lecture he uses quite a lot of examples and references, both to his own works and others, like Star Wars. He starts with talking about where plot comes from, that being ideas. He calls them cheap. He focuses on the idea that ideas aren't what make a story a good one, it's the author's mastery, skill, and nuances that make a good story. A bad idea with a good author can turn out to be great, while the vice versa is not true. A good author he says, doesn't need a grandiose, or a perfect idea to get a great novel. He uses specifically a story about Jim Butcher, and how a someone online gave him the idea of mashing the Lost Roman Legion, and Pokemon. It gave birth to Codex Alera. He also gives a small structure to what a story is. It's a plot, setting, and characters glued together by conflict. He gives a strong emphasis on character and plot over setting. My idea is probably what Sanderson describes as a mash of different ideas, as compared to changing or nuancing just one idea. I know my book and ideas are heavily inspired and I want to pull from as many things as possible and make it into something, specifically a story.

After this he delves into what he calls promises, the first of 3 parts of a story. The others being progress and payoff. Promises are things set in the beginning of the book that subtly tell the reader what to expect in this book, whether it be tone, plot, or characters. He starts off with tone promises. He talks about how at the beginning of the book a writer should set the tone of the book with something appropriate, if it's comedy don't start with something dark filled with sadness. Since the lecture is technically a class on sci-fi and fantasy writing he focuses on that. He explains the famous prologue so often seen in sci-fi and fantasy media. A writer doesn't want to start with the farm boy living his boring life, because that's not what the reader should expect from the book. So they use a separate chapter, called the prologue, usually an action scene with some important information about the world or the plot. That sets the promise of action and adventure, of conquering an evil empire or whatever the plot may be about. Then after that promise is set, you can then move onto the farm boy and start his adventure. The other promise he goes over, such as character arcs, and setting up a flaw, obstacle or goal of a character right in the beginning of the story. An author should obviously stick to their promises unless a twist is intentional, but still, it should still not stray far from what the reader is expecting. Be predictable, but not too predictable. Because he describes the most important part of progress. My tone is hard to get, it's cosmic horror, so I know what it is, but I've a feeling it will be hard to implement. I especially like a slow burn, and with cosmic horror, you can go either way really, in fact I think a slow burn is better for the tone. But I know that Lovecraft was great at promising things and setting tone right at the beginning of his stories. So for the beginning I think he would be a good reference to help set my tone, as that is something I may struggle with. And I know this originally was about Lovecraft, but again, I definitely am pulling other ideas from other pieces of art and entertainment.

Progress is just as it sounds, it's the actual meat and middle of the story. Most actual stories have probably already been told before and will most likely be familiar to someone who has read it before. But it's the way the characters develop, the nuances of the story, that make it a good one. He brings up the example of the "Gandalf" character of the Eye of the Storm, being a woman, and untrustworthy one too, instead of being an old white dude. The character is familiar to the reader, but in just the slightest way, they were changed and it made the story that much more memorable. What I got out of it was don't expect to create an original brand new grand idea, instead focus on making your unique and focus on making the reader care about your characters through your own way of developing them. Along with making the story and progression seem nuances and slightly different, the travel log has been done before, but you can do it in a slightly more unique way. Progress is what I will find the hardest to achieve. I have never written a novel, I have read plenty though. I think what I can do is focus on progression of sanity as a main focus and use subtle changes in characters to show that change. Perhaps someway I can make a comparison from how a character has changed, whether it be through another character or event.

Lastly he talks about subplot briefly. He uses Star Wars as an example again. Some things he mentions are of course how subplots are branches of the main plot that happen within the middle of the story and often are a result of the main plot. He talks about twists and how the ending of Star Wars is a twist, something I personally never considered. He describes the main plot of Star Wars as "getting the plans to the people", as that's what's set up in the very beginning. But along the way he rescues the princess and learns to trust the force. The twist though, is he blows up the Death Star, something that goes beyond the original plot. Sanderson uses the analogy of toys, he describes a kid getting a fake toy car, and wishing for the real thing, but then the final present he opens is the real thing. You wanted Luke to overthrow the evil empire, but that's not what was promised or what originally happens, but just then, you get it. I think I would like to use something like this, but perhaps more of the evil conventional twist. I had a twist planned, some small, but also a big one for the grand story, that's where the original plot of my book came from actually. I could set an expectation, whether good or bad, and then go beyond that expectation to make a situation worse or better than it was. Or the ending I suppose.

If Lovecraft were to come back to life and I had to sold my idea in just a few sentences this would probably be what I say. Pohmiblis, a city recently discovered by Dr. Sol, which was previously described by the now martyred cult leader, Xanadis shifted the entire timeline of archaeologists. It was dated to be even older than Jericho and Uruk, yet had technology dating to the medieval periods, despite it being located in Iceland. With eldritch skeletons, an underground temple unknown to the public eye, and secret organizations, Jack Murat sets out to hopefully be as great as his idol, Dr. Sol and be one of the pioneers exploring this now ancient, yet new world.