When he created the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was motivated by the desire to tell more meaningful stories. In his writing career up to then, his work had been heavily censored.

Serling realized that by setting his stories in fantastical situations, in alternate or futuristic versions of Earth, that he ...

Hello ducklings! I’m back with another interview, and this time we’ve got our wonderful sea captain Miranda! So, Captain Miranda, please introduce yourself!!

Miranda: Hello ducklings! I'm Miranda! I'm a full time computer engineer and in my spare time I enjoy baking, doing puzzles, playing video ...

Sometimes the arch villain of the story is the one pulling all the strings in the background, and the protagonists don't know about them until the endgame.

And other times, the arch villain gets to clash with a protagonist (or an opposing character) that is also a mastermind pulling ...

Reverse-Engineering Conflict in a Story
part one

Conflict is the basic material of a scene, and of a story. I've talked a lot over the years about structure and genre, and how all that stuff can work.

Another way to create a new story, and new characters, is to ...

Photo: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes TV Series (1990)

A click of the remote would tune into mutant turtles riding a pizza shooter while commercials for Nickelodeon Gak and Floam consumed the screen. It was a real zany time to grow up in the early nineties thanks to the creative ...

So this is a trope that unfortunately is very true in life as well. TV tropes calls it “We ARE Struggling Together” and I call it ‘the divided front’.

When the Big Bad is so bad that everyone agrees to set aside their differences to fight it off, then usually ...

There are many steps involved in creating comics. From planning to plotting, writing, scripting, sketching, pencils, inks or colour, not to mention everything in between! With so many balls in the air, it’s important to take a step back and make time to review. At each stage, where possible ...

LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher ​​- https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/drunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/

Schemers can be part of some great stories when they're done well! When they're done badly though they're very annoying! Schemers, plotters and planers ...

A few new generation consoles were released at the end of last year, yet the need to replace or update any gaming systems currently plugged into the television never came up. Chalk it up to old fashioned, old school preferences. However, a dusty box stacked with several original Playstation and ...

If you are in a fairy tale and encounter an Old Woman… never take that meeting lightly. It's usually a test of character: the manner in which you respond to her will be a measure of how kind, decisive, clever, obliging, evil, rude, crass, abusive, or idiotic you are ...