One of the main drivers of story is the principle of CONTRAST.

A character in a traditional story arc begins one way and ends up in a very different state of being - the underdog to the victorious hero, or the innocent, unaware victim to the final survivor, or the selfish ...

LISTEN on our player!
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/

We're talking about how technology and design changes so much over the years and how that can change things with plot in story and it can also help pinpoint the date of something sometimes better than ...

There's nothing more frustrating when a character dies from a situation that had no reason occuring except perhaps that the writers wanted to be edgy and make the story have more gravitas with a random death that's forced into the plot.

I've talked often over the years ...

The quaint village of Qebl is reached by sea. It seems a normal enough place, if a bit sleepy. It's a stop on the journey to The Big Top, a place where clowns go to train and get jobs, like an adventurer's guild if you will. Clowns in ...

It’s time for another Character Deep Dive, this within the amazing political war thriller The Second Crimean War by the awesome and proliferate The Doodler!

The Second Crimean War is an alternate history webcomic, of a different 1995 where, after the collapse of the USSR, the emerging, independent Ukraine ...

The Winter Solstice is approaching as the elderly, recently retired Yulefather sits by a fire pit roasting fish on a stick. The woodland creatures, mainly Squabbit, are in turmoil searching for a replacement Yulefather after the former one decided to retire following a dangerous mountain giant attack the previous year ...

There's a difference between a Christmas Special and a Christmas Movie. While the Movie is written around Christmas (or Hannukah or any other Yule-season holiday), the Christmas Special forces the show to be written around Christmas whether it likes it or not.

The hilarity ensues when it falls in ...

Why do we fall down, Master Bruce?

So we can get up again.

That was a line from Batman Begins, back in the day, that the movie made sure to put out there multiple times. It was an important theme they wanted to hit in that story. It's an ...

I'm Out of Order? You're Out of Order! - Nonlinear storytelling

I finally watched Strange Darling the other night. I think I saw part of a review at some point and dipped out before it could be spoiled.

And boy howdy, THAT'S the way to see Strange Darling ...

How do you make a clever character stupid?

You give them an infatuation. A fixation. Something that completely overrides their critical thinking and better judgment. Something that drives them nuts like a switch is thrown.

And when that happens, they're dumber than a bag of rocks. (And they're ...