Hello!

You may know that Brandon Sanderson is one of the most prolific and successful fiction authors of all time. Did you also know that he regularly lectures on the craft of speculative fiction writing and the business of publishing, and then kindly makes that content available online for free?

I listened to his previous Brigham Young University (BYU) lecture series from 2016 on YouTube and have recently been working through an updated 2025 version of the same lecture series in podcast form. There's so much advice I love reviewing, especially as someone who hasn't formally studied creative writing through an MFA or other program.

So far, one piece of advice stood out to me especially as it pertains to this Fics & Dip newsletter. In the Customizing Your Character episode of his 2025 lecture series, Sanderson mentions how lucky modern-day writers are to have access to so much knowledge that we can use to inform our character-building. He specifically suggests reading primary sources from experts on what other creators have gotten wrong or right about certain kinds of characters.

In my case, I try to do this in the context of international affairs by talking about what is and isn't realistic for a diplomat, for cross-cultural communication, and for global politics. But this process really applies to everything! For example, my current work in progress is a science fiction dystopia that relies on some heavy medical content. As a result, not only am I making sure I have medical professionals among my beta readers but I'm also reading a lot of commentary from experts about where they get frustrated or impressed with medical or scientific depictions in popular culture. I couldn't agree with Sanderson more that we are lucky to have so much more access to this information than previous generations of authors did.

Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole to find out what experts thought about the way something was depicted? What historians think of The Crown or whether the physics make sense in Star Trek? Let me know if there's anything I should explore on this in a future post.

Happy learning to us all!

Nicole

Disclaimer: The views expressed in my newsletter or on my website are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of State or the United States.