Characters want something - this is a basic building block of storytelling. Identifying what a main character wants is a big step in defining that character. Figure out how they go about trying to get it - that's the beginning of a story. Figure out what's stopping them from getting ...

One story structure, that ozoneocean and I talked about many years ago on the Quackcast, was the Lone Protagonist as drifter.

In Pulp Fiction, Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) says talks about leaving the life of crime to walk the Earth. “Like Kane in Kung Fu. Help people, get in adventures ...

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How and why does your creativity change over time? It “evolves”.
Evolution is often wrongly thought of as a process that leads to a goal, like the idea that humans are the pinnacle of evolution, or that ...

Out of college Elizabeth and her girlfriend Tasha are just starting out and making their way in the world together. The time for all day videogame marathons and bongs are over for Elizabeth, she gets a cool job at a place called AllTrades but Tasha isn't quite so keen ...

There's few moments more dramatic than when the hero gets hurt. The more serious the injury (or illness or poisoning or other type of affliction) the higher the drama.

And from that drama (the hurt) comes the period of treatment, convalescence, and recovery (the comfort). This is a plot ...

It's just, like, my opinion, man



I've been rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation lately, and so much of what I loved about it on first viewing holds up beautifully.

Watching a series which is almost all standalone episodes is interesting, too. There's a basic premise of ...

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Today we're talking about the depiction of “intelligence” in fiction! There are a lot of ways this shows up: the genius detective who can understand any clue and uncover any lie, the amazing doctor who can ...

Photo: “Rogue and Magneto”. X-Men ‘97 by Marvel Studios. (March 2024)

Dispersed through my recommended videos Saturday morning were clips of an X-Men Universe pairing that has left me both confused about this new development and curious about exploring the Uncanny X-Men comic archives, specifically, the Savage Land saga. The ...

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The phrase “Correlation doesn't equal causation” is something associated with science and statistics but it really applies to EVERYTHING and that's important to understand. But was does it mean? If a bunch of things happened ...

Hey there Quackateers! Have you ever been compelled to continue a comic because of a character you just can't help but despise? These characters have the delightful role of drawing the audience’s ire. They’re often times a thorn in the side of the protagonist, acting as a ...