image by Banes

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 ...

The demand for electric outlets in my room is high because there is always a tablet, mp3 player, or any random lithium-powered gadget lying around that needs charging. My desktop workstation drains the most energy and there is a tangled sea of snake-like cords lurking under my desk around my ...

Summary:
Come and join the carnival of spirits, darkness, twilight, magic and weirdness… Rizmo is a devilish, demonic, clownish creature with a surreal world living inside his head. Young Abbey is new in town and doesn't know anyone, but then she meets the crazy carnie who gives her a ...

LISTEN!

You always do a bit of world building in fiction, in some types of stories like alternative histories, fantasy and Sci-Fi you have to do a bit more, in things set in the real world you don't have to do nearly as much - maybe only limited to a ...

I'm not sure who the first fictional character was that I became attached to. The Cat in the Hat? Superman? Jason Voorhees, maybe?

In any case, Jughead Jones was somewhere in that early group of beloved characters. I liked Archie, and envied his dating life with Betty and Veronica ...

LISTEN!

We've talked about formulas before, but mostly in the context of escaping formulas and reinventing them.
NOW however we're talking about using existing formulas to create a story, or creating new formulas and sticking to them to come up with your stories.
Formulas can be a good ...

I remember the first time the idea of deadlines made any kind of impression on me. I was maybe fifteen and a substitute teacher told me a bit about higher education and that a professor had told her to take all the time she needed to finish some project or ...

I began creating webcomics because it was an affordable hobby. All I needed to create a page was some bristol paper, some black ink pens, a scanner and a computer. Having a digitally-formatted final product cut out the additional printing costs of traditional comics.

Eventually, I started learning new drawing ...

Let's get this year's Drunk Duck Awards off the ground!

First of all, you can contribute in a really easy but totally necessary way: VOTE!
The awards can't happen if we don't have nominees! You don't have to fill out every category, so even if ...

Years ago, when I did my first animation and posted it online, looking for attention like always, there was one comment that made me defensive, annoyed, and eventually, thoughtful.

I had no idea about animation timing or any of the little rules at the time; I just wanted to do ...