Time travel is a narrative trap. It's quicksand.
It's very alluring to use, being able to put a person from one historical era into another and watch as shenanigans ensue, but very quickly, a writer (and often the audience too) discovers that it quickly unravels, and the story ...

On Time Travel Yarns
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Aug. 3, 2019Writing alignment
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, July 26, 2019
Some time ago I found this writer alignment chart on Twitter, (or maybe it was Facebook?). As a casual player of DnD I found this very amusing and began to spread the meme around and was pleasantly surprised by the results.
Myself? I am a True Plantser. Most of my ...
Heavy Metal
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, July 7, 2019
Metal Hurlant: The Craziest Comic Book Series You Probably Never Heard About.
Comic books and graphic novels are considered by many an inherently American form of publication. They became popular in the English-speaking parts of the world (the US and the UK) in the 1930s and conquered the world in ...
Bailing
Banes at 12:00AM, June 6, 2019
When do you bail on a series, movie or story?
We had a pretty fine conversation on the Quackcast last week that wandered into the category of “endings” and when they're set up well vs badly and such. I had a similar convo today with someone about various series ...
Passive Characters
Banes at 12:00AM, May 30, 2019
Didn't Do Nothin'
During the making of the movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks and the screenwriter were developing the story, and
it was going well - other than the ending. In the end, the character was rescued.
Robert Zemeckis, the eventual director of the movie told them that the character ...
Subverting expectations ≠ good storytelling
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, May 17, 2019
When creating a story you begin leading the reader down a path. You know where you’re going, or at least can pretend to know, but the reader does not. But, with some well laid out clues and foreshadowing, they can begin to piece the map together. Now here comes ...
The Creative Divide
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, April 27, 2019
Any creative person knows that the hardest thing can be to find an audience for your work. On one side of the great divide we have the creatives (the writers, artists, fashion designers, architects, musicians, dancers etc), and on the other we have the consumers. Those consumers have a voracious ...
80 Years of Batman
Banes at 12:00AM, April 25, 2019
May 2019 is right around the corner, and it marks a massive milestone in superhero comics - the 80th birthday of Batman.
His looooong running comic, Detective Comics, releases issue #1000! This is the second superhero comic to reach this impressive place - last year was Superman's 80th, and Action Comics ...
The More Things Change
Banes at 12:00AM, April 18, 2019
Lately I've been watching the original Twilight Zone series. I'm still early in the series. I watched it as a kid, but there are a LOT of episodes I've never seen. Of course, the Twilight Zone is in my bones just because it's so much a ...
QUACKCAST 422 - Positive promotion and controversial characters
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, April 16, 2019 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/
The entire gang comes together today for two topics that were taken from recent newsposts: Emma Clare's Positive self promotion, and Tantz Aerine's Handling Controversial ...