Writing a character with mental illness can be a very tricky thing. Writers usually go for the extremely rare, exotic and spectacular: multiple personality disorders, extreme manifestations of psychopathy or sociopathy, high functioning autism with that ever alluring ‘savant’ magic going for the character, bombastically spectacular schizophrenia… in many ways ...
Writing Mental Illness (Part 1)
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 12, 201915 Years, I Keep On Duckin'
Amelius at 12:13PM, Jan. 6, 2019
Oh what a coincidence, that my newspost day should fall upon the date of my 15th year on this very site! So naturally, on this anniversary, I'd like to open up and reflect on how the Duck has left a major impact on my life and work.
Every year ...
Writing Your Own OC Spinoffs
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 5, 2019
I'm not sure how many creators do it, but I often place my original characters in different settings, writing out stories about them very much like I'd write fanfiction about some established franchise.
It's even more fun when I do it mixing them up with characters from ...
Following through on your NY goals
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Jan. 4, 2019
If you are like 92.4% of people at the beginning of the New Year (not a factual number mind you), you have sat down with a shine in your eye to set about making a list of goals to achieve in 2019. I know I have. So far there ...
Imitation Flavor
Amelius at 10:14AM, Dec. 30, 2018
The first thing you need to know before we get into this discussion is the following: You can't copyright a style. It's true! Copyright protects an artist's expression of an idea, but not the ideas themselves, the technique, or procedure in making that style. Keep that in ...
My Life as an American Hero 2 Reaches 100th Page Milestone!
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, Dec. 17, 2018Convergent Creation Part 2
Amelius at 12:21PM, Dec. 16, 2018
Last weekend we discussed that strange phenomenon of independent creation, where there's more than a passing resemblance to another work but it's not a case of plagiarism. Interestingly, not long after I posted that I saw not one but two instances of independent creation being brought up (though ...
Convergent Creation
Amelius at 1:15PM, Dec. 9, 2018
Inspiration strikes! A new idea forms, and you're really excited about it. You want to take your time, however– you want this to be great, and no great thing just springs fully formed from one's brow. For years you toil, tweak, refine, moving ever closer to the point ...
Amanda Palmer and the Fraud Police
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2018
In my quest to improve myself by reading more than one book this year, I made a point to try and finish one that was given to me last Christmas, (I think anyway). Namely, Amanda Palmer’s, The Art of Asking. There was a passage in there that really jumped ...