Welcome to part two of a twenty-seven part series about outlining simple comedy plots!

Who is the Hero
What Does the Hero Want?
The Door Opens
The Hero Takes Control


So last week we went over the first two items. A particular character who wants something on a surface level ...

It was early morning on a Thursday, and I had just prepped the classroom for the day before I headed outside to wait for the children to line up after the bell. I was knitting a scarf when a little girl named Angeline walked up to me and started up ...

I came across a little blurb the other day about Mary Sues, and fanfiction, and how the writer of a fanfiction is basically writing a fantasy, inserting themselves as the character at the center of attention, immaculate, glittering and perfect. Basically everything you want to smack into a different galaxy ...

Stuck in the Middle - Midpoints

I've often found the Midpoint of a story difficult to find and difficult to write.
It's one of the big three pillars in story structure, and it's the
most subtle.

The Midpoint doesn't have the “dragged into a new world” of ...

I’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch lately in terms of my mental health. I don’t talk about it that often, but I don’t keep it a secret that I’ve always struggled with anxiety. Recently I started on medication for it for the ...

LISTEN!
Art by Ozoneocean

Comedy anti-heroes are a great deal of fun. My faves are characters like Tankgirl and Flashman; they can be selfish, greedy, violent, lustful, out for their own needs first but they still manage to do the “right” thing and vanquish the bad guy along the way ...

In many parts of the world, this Sunday is Mother's Day. So I thought we'd take a look at some of my favourite Mothers in fiction.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii25/Banes500/moms.png

How many of these Moms and their shows/movies/comics can you identify ...

I've recently been watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on Netflix. Phryne Fisher is undoubtedly a wish-fulfillment character – almost unapologetically so. She is sexy, bold, and intelligent. Whenever a new challenge is put before her, she reveals a previously-unmentioned skill that saves the day (see the above image where ...

Accents, patterns of speech and the like can be a useful tool in introducing characters. In a film or tv show, a character's accent can immediately reveal the character's nationality or social background. And of course, we've all been conditioned by Hollywood movies to identify the bad ...

image by Banes, influenced by lots of things

When I came up with the characters and stories that became my webcomic here on The Duck, I knew it didn't come from a vacuum. But for the most part, it was only after writing and posting stories for several years ...