The idea of genre is somewhat obvious, and somewhat murky. It can be rigid for some fans, and irrelevant to others.

I was reading some thoughts from readers of various niches that were very particular about what belongs in them and what doesn't. There were some complaints there about ...

We've talked before about theme in these Newsposts.

Many people know what a theme is, but just to set it up right, theme is what a story is about, on a deeper level. It's about the journey the character is taking. It's the larger “point” of the ...

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The process of adaptation is quite interesting. Stories go through all sorts of changes when they're transferred from one medium to another. A lot of the ...

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 ...

In my research for a larger article about comics and typography, I stumbled upon an article that talked about how and why the font “Comic Sans” came into existence. Published via The Guardian, Vincent Connare, Comic Sans’ typographer commented,

”One program was called Microsoft Bob, which was designed to make ...

City Mouse and Country Mouse


In an Aesop's Fable, the Country Mouse offers a big-city Mouse a simple meal, which the City Mouse scoffs at. The two go to the big city for a much more fancy repast, and then are chased by a cat, whereupon the Country Mouse ...

Do the things you draw come true?

At the end of Annie Hall, Woody Allen's character writes a play that recreates his breakup with Annie. But in the fictional version, they stay together and the romance continues. Narrating the movie, Woody apologizes to the movie's audience and says ...

When someone says they “ship” two characters they are referring to their desire to see two characters achieve a romantic relationship. The origin of the term is difficult to determine given the every fluctuating nature of Internet memes and colloquialisms, though TV Tropes has some interesting theories on where the ...

An alternate universe (AU) is, in case anyone isn't aware, a story taking place in a fantastical, alternate historical timeline that usually kicks off from a specific event in actual history that takes a different turn from the one that it did in reality.

Alternate universes are fascinating. From ...

Nel and Soul are two star crossed lovers, members of rival wolf packs who're at war with one another… they sneak out to meet in secrecy but how long can that last before they're found out and their lives are torn apart by terrible war? Soul's pack ...