Recently I’ve been feeling a warm, fuzzy gratitude towards Brandon Sanderson, although it has nothing to do with his books. As well as being a best-selling fantasy author, he also runs a creative writing course at BYU. 

The entirety of this course is available on his YouTube channel, along with multiple Q+A live streams, and interactions with his fans.

I’m a pretty recent YouTube convert, but this is one of the reasons I love the platform, you can find all sorts of fascinating learning resources. 

Brandon’s course is the best of these I’ve come across so far. It’s like doing a semester at Uni except I’m not brutally hungover, I’m actually excited to learn, and if I fall asleep I can rewind the video. What more could a student want?

It’s particularly lovely to have the experience of being in a lecture when you want to be there, along with the benefit of an older, wiser head. (I’m not saying I’m smarter than Brandon’s class, but I’m sure as heck smarter than my 20-year-old self.)

It’s a bittersweet feeling to realise the beauty, value and privilege of being able to study full time. I took it for granted hard when I was at University. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Of course, you can still learn, and dedicate your life to learning. To expanding your horizons and growing as a person. It feels good to rediscover my enthusiasm for knowledge, and acceptance that I have so much to learn. It makes life feel much more full.

Was that a tangent? I’m not sure. Basically, this is how Brandon has made me feel over the past few weeks of watching his lectures with my morning coffee. 

I’ve learnt so much, and feel indebted to his generosity in putting this online, for free. (Although I did read that his fantasy series Mistborn and The Way of Kings are given away for free online in the US too, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised)

Reading through the comments on every video, I can see I’m not the only one who feels that way.

If you’re interested in following his lectures on Writing for Science Fiction and Fantasy then you can find the playlist below.

Even if you aren’t interested in writing in that genre, his first lecture in the series has incredible advice for anyone who wants to write (and arguably create full stop) for a living.