You’ve got your amazing idea down for a story but how do you begin? You want to make your first chapter amazing! En medias res means opening in the midst of the plot. This way, exposition is bypassed, allowing you to fill it in more gradually, either through dialogue ...

Masked, Unknown Characters

Fiction, certainly in the movie/TV/comics visual mediums, are full of characters whose identities are hidden by masks.

On The Mandalorian, the title character follows a strict creed that says he is not supposed to let another living being see his face, so he always wears ...

So we've talked often about how letting a character die in a story is something that should be used very frugally, because once death occurs, it should be permanent. In most settings, death shouldn't be something that is reversible. If not, it will lose its impact, and the ...

It’s 2021 everyone. Somehow we made it to the end of a strange and often heart wrenching year but we did it. We hit many milestones, particularly on Drunkduck. We now have the lowest amount of spam ever on the site, the anthology is coming along, the Quackchat is ...

Spoilers for recent Star Wars, eg the Mandalorian.
It went unspoken in my year of Newsposts, but 2020 is the 40th Anniversary the release of The Empire Strikes Back.

that's not true! That's impossible!
No, man! Search your feelings! you know it's true! Forty damn years!


Though ...

So it's Christmas Day when I'm writing this- yesterday for you reader reading these lines.

Anyone who knows me, knows I've been running full speed for quite a bit of time, doing my best to meet every deadline, every obligation and responsibility I got, business, family, and ...

It’s Christmas.

As we wind down from this exhausting year, take the time to relax and count all the rays of sunshine amongst the gloom. In spite of the upheaval in work structures, I have found more time for my hobbies and art. In spite of the lockdowns I ...

The long-running series Supernatural just came to an end and I enjoyed the last couple episodes. Even though I haven't seen the last few seasons and don't plan to, I knew the series fairly well from its first 6 or 7 years. I could say more about this ...

When a character the story's cast and audience identify and are familiar with dies, the effect is, or should be, monumental.

Not only because that effectively ends that character's journey (and arc), but also because as an event it has immediate ramifications for all the surviving characters.

First ...

I’ve been getting back into reading epic fantasy novels. Grand worlds, exotic locations and, of course, an ever increasing cast of characters. As I am one to never stop taking notes, even when I’m trying to chill, here are some things I noticed about introducing new characters that ...