We've all seen the cringy dialogue. The weirdly stereotypical and awkward situations. The sheer effort of the script writer, the novelist, or the comic book writer to write someone they don't know: a woman, or a man.


Too often the problem is very stark when comparing character designs ...

Reverse-Engineering Conflict in a Story
part one

Conflict is the basic material of a scene, and of a story. I've talked a lot over the years about structure and genre, and how all that stuff can work.

Another way to create a new story, and new characters, is to ...

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Mary Sues are always a fun topic!
There are some misconceptions about them though… Mary Sues aren't all female, they can be any gender. Being super ...

See what I did there? It’s an image of a Beholder… which normally has one giant eye right in the center of their face/body and the article is titled HORROR (the Beholder is scary looking) is in the EYE of the BEHOLDER? Yeah? No? Ok…

Seriously tho,

CONTENT ...

World building is a cornerstone of any story. From your neighbourhood slice-of-life to an out-of-this world space opera the world in which the characters inhabit draws the reader and keeps them invested in the character’s struggles. Here are some questions to consider when constructing your new universe.

What is ...

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What is the worth of human life in your stories?
This isn't something people often consider, we just tend to have a fairly accurate guess based ...

They talk about ‘writing what you know’ and we've talked about it around here, too.

Does that mean the characters you write and draw have to match all the surface details of your identity, sharing your gender, race, and hobbies?

Of course not.

The characters and stories you create ...

First off, Happy 4th of July to all USA Duckers!

Recently I listened to Lindsey Ellis' excellently made video essay on so-called ‘woke Disney’: the company's attempt to remake or edit or outright hide past works because they are now judged to be problematic in some way or other ...

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 ...

Therapists are the type of character whose occupation can easily seep into their ‘off the clock’ life. It's not something that can often be helped. Psychologists don't ‘turn off’ their perception of behavioral patterns and personality analyses, the same way you can't ‘unsee’ the rabbits after you ...