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 ...

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 ...

One could say that it is a very trendy thing in writing, be it for movies or for graphic novels, to subvert expectations. Often, unfairly, a plot that subverts expectations is equated with ‘good, quality writing’. Tons of essays and articles have been written to refute this association, including here ...

Last week, I went into the basics of building your fictional worlds. We’re continuing on with our second instalment where we’ll dive a bit deeper into the nitty gritty of world building. Without further ado…

What’s your world’s system of government?
Politics plays a large role ...

Last time we talked about motivation in people, and its relationship to behavior. And I must say you all had great comments I feel deserve to be addressed, so instead of a four-part tour to the world of what makes people tick, I will add a fifth part where I ...

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Storytelling styles change over time for various reasons: fashion, audience expectations, competition for audience attention due to increased choice and availability of media, technological limitations and abilities ...

As it has been seen very painfully lately in TV, the best story, with the most excellent buildup and most powerful cast of characters will just collapse if the ending isn't good enough.

A technically happy ending that isn't good enough is not going to cut it- again ...

A few days ago, I stumbled across a fellow creator who was asking how should you work on a webcomic? They weren’t referring to how long should one spend on an individual episode or chapter or even page, rather, how long should a comic project take you and how ...

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What are the different expectations for female and male audiences? This almost entirely a culture based thing, it changes depending on where and WHEN you are from ...

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Betrayal is an interesting thing to use in fiction. You can have betrayal of your nation, your organisation, friends, lovers, religion, beliefs, self. In stories it can ...