Like any typical night that I get exhausted from staying cooped up inside the house, I grabbed my car keys, started up the engine, and went out on a drive by myself. Tonight was a bit special because I had a mixed CD soundtrack of the arcade driving game, Wangan ...

It's time to determine this year's winners, but there are still plenty of categories that need more judges!

Do you enjoy webcomics? Do you have opinions? You will be an ideal judge! It's really easy. All you have to do is:

1. Volunteer and then make an ...

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 ...

Cogs and Claws is a surreal odyssey for your imagination.

In the opening sequence, a giant flounder emerges from an underwater pod and boards a space shuttle submerged in water. Soon thereafter, the shuttle is blasted into space where it joins several other spacecrafts driven by various anthropomorphic creatures.

This ...

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 ...

Here are some thoughts on writing that smallest unit of a story: the scene.


First off, what is a scene? What defines it?

It's Change.

Something changes between the beginning and end of a scene.

Here's a way to write one if you're stuck. These are the ...

It seems that I get into a very opinionated argument whenever the topic of discussion veers toward Neon Genesis Evangelion. Usually it is about how the Evangelion movies are awesome and how the main character is not so awesome. That being said, it has been twenty years since the mid-1990s ...

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 ...

Why, hello there, old chap. I say, I was just about to put the kettle on. Would you care for a spot of tea? How about a beautifully crafted Talbert Pipe?

In a world set up like the murder mystery board game, Clue, a pair of fine gentlemen dressed to ...

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 ...