Lame jokes.

Sometimes I love them. They can make me howl with laughter these days - but I find it's important to be careful with them.

Where was the first place I heard and ENJOYED bad jokes? David Brent of the original “The Office” is the first guy that comes ...

So you've got your maniacs, masked or otherwise. Scary! Or how about savage animals from, whether realistic or altered in some way? Or maybe monsters like vampires, zombies, were-folk and…er…mummies are your jam? Or what about ghosts, spirits and alien beasties?

When it comes to horror fiction ...

One of the greatest comic book stories ever written, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are known as the main architects of the Marvel Universe. But there was a third originator of that landmark creation:

Steve Ditko was an artist who originally worked as a ...

One of the great things about the original Star Wars movies was the strong sense of a grand, adventurous, and terrible history before the movie started. So much is hinted at through Obi Wan Kenobi about the Jedi Knights, Anakin Skywalker, great friendships, laser swords, and terrible war and loss ...

I was a big fan of all the Indiana Jones movies back in the day. When the fourth one, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, finally came out, it was exciting times! Harrison Ford only seemed to get cooler with age, and what a treat it would be to see ...

Last Thursday I talked a little about writing a scene, in terms of the change that happens, what the character wants, and what obstacle is in the way of achieving that want.

But what about dialogue? Eh?

One way to help define what's going on in a scene is ...

WRITING A SCENE


Here are some thoughts on writing that smallest unit of a story: the scene.


First off, what is a scene? What defines that little mug?

It's Change.

Something changes between the beginning and end of a scene.

Here's a way to write one if you ...

Thursdays with Banes - The Murky Middle

A good way to put together a story is to figure out some essentials, first - Elements of Character, Plot and Theme, and Building some World and all that. We've talked about these things around here a lot, and we'll prolly continue to ...

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 ...

CATHARSIS
from the Best of Banes Collection


A writing instructor once gave me brief advice on how to write a story, structurally speaking. It was 1/4 Act One setup, 1/2 Act Two complications and rising stakes (I think), and about 1/4 An Act Three “cathartic ending”.

I ...