A few Newsposts from our contributors have mentioned plotting or planning vs the pantsing or ‘discovery’ approach to writing.
Plotting, which is obviously building some kind of plan or outline, is an approach many writers swear by, at least to some degree. It might be a vague plan, with a ...
Planning Ahead vs The Thrill of Discovery
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 30, 2020On Writing Therapists 3
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 25, 2020
And so we have arrived to the juicy stuff- Evil Psychologists!
You'd be surprised, but there have been a LOT of those in real life. It's the reason that the ethics code and penalization if that code is broken is so severe for professionals in the mental health ...
Superpowers Magic and Technology
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 23, 2020
Greetings, citizens!
Superpowers coming from magical abilities or fantastic technology are essential to many stories in the fantasy and science fiction genres. They can show up in other genres, too, like horror and of course, superhero stories (are they science fiction stories? Science-Fantasy? Heroic Fantasy? Whatever - most of those folks ...
On Writing Therapists 2
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 18, 2020
Therapists are the type of character whose occupation can easily seep into their ‘off the clock’ life. It's not something that can often be helped. Psychologists don't ‘turn off’ their perception of behavioral patterns and personality analyses, the same way you can't ‘unsee’ the rabbits after you ...
Overall tips for getting over a slump
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Jan. 17, 2020
It's very easy for us creators to get wrapped up in our own art and stories that sometimes we begin to feel stagnant. It’s important to take a step back and look at what others are doing as it might go on to serve as inspiration for your ...
MacGuffins
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 16, 2020
MacGuffin comin' through!
MacGuffins
I'm not sure if everyone knows this already, but a MacGuffin is a term that was made popular by Alfred Hitchcock, and is now widely used in writing and storytelling circles.
It is an item or event (or possibly even a character) that exists only ...
QUACKCAST 461 - Top Comic making 5 tips!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Jan. 14, 2020 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/drunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
You can also listen to it on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/DrunkDuckcomics/posts/2921504494550602
Today Banes and I chat about our top tips for doing ...
On Writing Therapists 1
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 11, 2020
I've already written a bunch of articles on writing mental illness, so I figured I should write about writing therapists as well!
Oh, the woes for therapist representation in narrative works! All the stereotypes are there: from the shrink that is actually a little (or a lot) loopy and ...
Mentors
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 9, 2020
I like mentor characters.
This is not just me of course; the mentor and protagonist relationship is powerful. Some of the best moments in many stories are the first encounter with the mentor, the training and sense of discovery for the protagonist, and the eventual loss of the mentor character ...
Reflection Characters
Banes at 12:00AM, Jan. 2, 2020
Reflection Characters
When I was doing a little reading on the “Mentor” character type, I learned about something called “Reflection Characters”. It was an eye opener; I'd never heard of this before, though I could instantly see how it made sense in storytelling, and dozens of examples came to ...