There is a poem by one of the most interationally famous Greek poets, Konstantinos Kavafis, called Waiting for the Barbarians. I invite you to give it a read (I've linked its translation) but here's the gist in a nutshell: It's about the Romans waiting for the Barbarians ...

Picture credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire

Today (Thursday 6th February) is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, although due to the nature of time zones you will probably be reading this after the day if over for us.

Waitangi is a place in NZ, the name meaning ...

If there is one thing my comic partner and I have realised these past few years is this. The first half of the year is manic for us. Every year we get together to inscribe our goals into stone and within two months life has bulldozed its way through them ...

Banes is taking a short break for the Thursday post, so I'll be filling in for a some unspecified number of posts. How many exactly? Well, how long is a piece of string? How long is the coastline of Britain? That was an academic paper ('How Long Is the ...

So I slacked a lot in getting interviews prepared for our awesome webcomic artists here on the Duck, but that is going to be remedied!

I'm trying to find a way to establish regularity for all the features for showcasing DDers and their webcomics that I've been handling ...

One of the main drivers of story is the principle of CONTRAST.

A character in a traditional story arc begins one way and ends up in a very different state of being - the underdog to the victorious hero, or the innocent, unaware victim to the final survivor, or the selfish ...

There's nothing more frustrating when a character dies from a situation that had no reason occuring except perhaps that the writers wanted to be edgy and make the story have more gravitas with a random death that's forced into the plot.

I've talked often over the years ...

Last Week we looked at the “Break Into 2”, the transition between the beginning of a story: The “Before” picture of the Protagonist and their world, and the “Upside Down World” of Act 2.

So, a little later in your average story will come the “Break Into 3”. This leaves ...

So this is just a purely rant article on my part.

I'm generally not a huge fan of romance… BUT, if it's done well, I am not a (complete) snow queen. I can melt accordingly and love it in a story. I even have some romance in my ...

always someone breakinnn' into twooooo…

AN important part of a story is the good old “Break into Act 2”.

It's not the easiest story structure moment to recognize, but it's one of the early ones I thought about and tried to notice in movies I watched.

Many people ...