Malcolm Gladwell was in an interview, and expressed a theory, or mini-theory. He talked about the show Law and Order and how it works, with almost every episode a comforting victory of the system.
From there, he theorized four types of fictional approaches, calling them the Western, the Eastern, the ...

Crime, Law and Fiction based on the Four Directions
Banes at 12:00AM, Sept. 23, 2021Consequences & Familiarity
damehelsing at 12:00AM, Sept. 19, 2021
How many of you write serious/drama filled stories? Or even characters that truly suffer consequences?
I think it’s often that we, as creators and almost like parents, don’t want our kids/creations to suffer terrible consequences, but I think that’s one of the reasons that makes ...
Children's Stories
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Sept. 18, 2021
When I was growing up in the 80s, stories that were marketed as ‘children’s' were occasionally brutal.
Characters got maimed or killed, tortured or traumatized, met with horrid ends in worlds that were anything but rosy. And this was a pattern that wasn't limited to, say, English literature ...
When & How to Say Goodbye
damehelsing at 12:00AM, Sept. 12, 2021
Last week I talked about how you know you should take a break and some simple steps that will hopefully aid you when taking this break.
But, how do you know when it’s time to say goodbye?
That’s a little tougher. Some times you may think it’s ...
Rooting for the bad guy
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Sept. 11, 2021
Normally in stories there is the hero vs the villain or the protagonist vs the antagonist. As the audience, we generally expect to root for the hero or the protagonist and hope for the villain's or antagonist's comeuppance.
But there come those times when we find ourselves rooting ...
Things You Wish They Taught in School
Banes at 12:00AM, Sept. 9, 2021
I've had the conversation multiple times - maybe based on something I read in the past - that the
business of taking care of your money, your credit, taxes and expenses is something that was never touched on when I went to school.
Well, these have been proclamations rather than conversations ...
When your readers guess correctly
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Aug. 28, 2021
So you have uploaded your latest page, and it's one of your best.
The story is at a point where the suspense is cranking up to eleven. The plot thickens. Everyone wonders what is going to happen next…
…and then that one fan GETS IT RIGHT. Right there in ...
Making mistakes in your writing
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Aug. 27, 2021
Last week I wrote about what you can do when you make mistakes in the artwork of your webcomic. A mistake in the writing is oftentimes harder to fix than the artwork. Foreshadowing and building of the world’s foundations is baked into what you write, so when you finally ...
Mundane Activities
Banes at 12:00AM, Aug. 26, 2021
A conceit or gimmick on the series ‘24’ was that it took place in real time. One hour on the show was one hour of activities, and the 24-episode season covered the events of a single day.
As entertainment, I loved that show, and appreciated the gimmick of it with ...
CtW: Normalize the Strange
damehelsing at 12:00AM, Aug. 22, 2021
pst… CtW stands for Changing the World and has to do with my article here - also I really liked everyone's comments in that article, great stuff!
Before the last Sunday I discussed about how tough it is (for me personally) to combine the regular human world as we know ...