A narrative theme can be described as the core meaning or message behind your story. It serves to tell your audience what your story is about as well laying groundwork for its context. Establishing the core theme early can help you keep your comic grounded and focused as you begin ...
Grounding your comic with theme
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, July 3, 2020Retconing and redoing
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, June 26, 2020
A few weeks ago, my comic partner and I finished up the second season of one of our webcomic after which we took our usual season hiatus. During this time we work out what to do in the next season, what to include and what to cut from our outline ...
A Character's Free Will
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 20, 2020
Whether we have free will or not is a philosophical, existential and psychological conundrum that will forever tease and challenge us. While I can't speak for philosophers, I can for psychologists:
Behaviorists will tell you it doesn't exist (look up Skinner); Cognitive behaviorists will tell you it's ...
Writing More Than You Know
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 13, 2020
We're all aware of the classic tennet for writers and creators of all stories- write what you know in order for the story to be good.
We've explored before what it means to write what you know, and where this rule should be adhered to: at the core ...
Second Guessing Yourself
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 6, 2020
Constructing a story is a work of high creativity and love. Enthusiasm and personal interest in it are required if the story is to have quality and engagement, be unique and full of personality. While writing we look forward to certain scenes or sequences that we expect to have special ...
The Art of the Conversation
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, June 1, 2020
Understanding the importance of the dialogue between two characters (or an internal monologue) is crucial for writing conversations in comics. It is true that comics are written differently than real world conversations because it removes a lot of the idiosyncrasies that happen in real-time conversations. However, learning to apply techniques ...
More Thoughts on Discovery Writing
Banes at 12:00AM, May 21, 2020
We've had some interesting discussions on various Newsposts, in the Forum and elsewhere on theduckwebcomics about knowing your ending, knowing your genre, planning ahead and outlining vs. ‘pantsing’ or ‘Discovery writing’, which is writing without knowing where you're going.
Though up to now I've mostly been a ...
Knowing What You Write
Banes at 12:00AM, May 14, 2020
Last week we talked about “writing what you know” … but how about ‘knowing what you write’? I knew I wanted to do this one as soon as I posted the previous article…just for the title.
In a TV show, series of books, movie, printed comic series, or newspaper strip ...
QUACKCAST 477 - Darkest before dawn
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, May 5, 2020 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/
Today on this glorious date we chat about that part in stories where everything turns to crap for the protagonists, just before the run up to the ...
After Marriage
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 25, 2020
Usually in adventures, thrillers and other stories, when the main characters are romantically involved, the B plot (or even the A plot) is the ‘will they/won’t they' question: will they get together in the end, usually with a happy end scene of marriage, or some such thing. Romance ...