There's few moments more dramatic than when the hero gets hurt. The more serious the injury (or illness or poisoning or other type of affliction) the higher the drama.

And from that drama (the hurt) comes the period of treatment, convalescence, and recovery (the comfort). This is a plot ...

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I remembered that a promised Quackcast was AI: slavery for artists and creators.
This is an important subject to cover especially from this angle.

It's slavery because it uses our creative products as fuel for it ...

Villains are tremendously important for a story. They set the framework and standard for a lot of things in an unsaid but definite manner: how far your villain is willing to go sets up audience expectations for how big and how dire the stakes will be in the story.

If ...

Picard Season Three hit the fan service HARD. I absolutely loved it.


The final season of Star Trek Picard is winning very good reviews from fans and critics.

Of course, in some corners there is criticism of fan service, nostalgia and ‘member berries’ being the driving force behind the season ...

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The risks of online creative success
We live in a wonderful time where you're able to turn your creative passion into a job that can support ...

I wandered into one of those gaming shops that specialized in acrylic hobby paint, paintbrushes, and miniature figurine kits while locally window shopping for the holiday. The interaction went like this:

Me: “Hello, do you know of any fantasy table-top role playing games happening in the area?”

Clerk: I am ...

So often, the story doesn't simply have one plot, but many.

There's the A plot, the one that's the main conflict or problem that needs solving. Then there's the B plot, where secondary but still-important issues and problems are being addressed. And often there can even ...

So maybe the verb ‘hate’ is excessive, but there are some tropes that can really throw me off a story. Or perhaps, what throws me is the way they are used. I firmly believe that any trope can be part of a solid, enjoyable story, even the ones I hate ...

When building tension, it's imperative to have high stakes within your story. It doesn't matter what kind of story it is. It could be a story about huge risks, like the end of the world or even the universe, or it could be a story about a girl ...

I just started the Netflix series called “The Hanting of Bly Manor”.

It's hard to say how it's going to turn out in the end, since I'm just at the beginning. But overall so far, I'm enjoying the thing. There are many unanswered questions already, and ...