There were a few romances in the Uncanny X-Men series from the vanilla romance of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, to the mysterious love story between Havok and Polaris, and the drawn out love triangle between Wolverine and Jean. But the one romance that constantly tortured me with comic covers ...

The Mysterious Stranger


This is about ‘the mysterious stranger’ in fiction. Well, one of the variations of that, at least. I'm not talking about the mysterious stranger who becomes the MC's lover in a romance novel, or the mysterious stranger who knocks on the door or gets into ...

In a grim, gritty neon-lit Hong Kong, the world is about to explode… Teetering on the very brink of WW3 and nuclear catastrophe, the future is in the hands of one crazed amnesiac super-sexy android and a determined police detective who's trying to hunt her down. If only Lisa ...

Writing Timeclocks


Timeclocks are one of those elements of fiction that usually shows up in the middle or just before the final act, to give things a little boost in the adrenaline department, and make the drama more urgent. Not only are your characters facing big problems, but suddenly their ...

Stuck in the Middle - Midpoints

I've often found the Midpoint of a story difficult to find and difficult to write.
It's one of the big three pillars in story structure, and it's the
most subtle.

The Midpoint doesn't have the “dragged into a new world” of ...

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There are many kinds love. Love is a great thing to include in your story for all sorts of reasons: it's an easy way to develop ...

Building a platonic friendship has its challenges, not only because as an author or creator of your webcomic you will need to handle the audience's propensity to assume your male and female lead will be romantically involved, but because of the demands you'll need to meet to make ...

Writing good romance is hard- it has so many pitfalls to avoid, so many tropes to grapple with and principles to keep in mind, that experience is necessary.

Writing actual platonic friendships between a male and female character is even harder.

The basic reason why it is harder is because ...

After the string of romance novels such as Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey, there was a focus on unhealthy romantic relationships. This was further amplified after the release of Suicide Squad where throngs of girls and women began lusting after a relationship much like The Joker’s and Harley ...

CHARACTER SHAPES

I remember hearing about this notion some time ago, on the dvd special features for an animated movie or show. I don't remember which one.

Characters derived from basic shapes can give a very strong impression of their basic personality type. This can help the audience feel ...