How to Pick, Research and Implement Mental Disorder in a Character

So last time I talked in general about some basic concepts and principles about what constitutes mental illness, or, more accurately, mental disorder. The important thing to remember and keep from all of that is this set of truths ...

Writing a character with mental illness can be a very tricky thing. Writers usually go for the extremely rare, exotic and spectacular: multiple personality disorders, extreme manifestations of psychopathy or sociopathy, high functioning autism with that ever alluring ‘savant’ magic going for the character, bombastically spectacular schizophrenia… in many ways ...

In a nutshell, exposition is a big ole mound of information that the author wants the reader to know before they move on in the plot. It often gets a bad rap but that is usually due to it being used incorrectly. There is definitely a place for exposition so ...

Seriously Funny

I didn't have a chance last week to talk about the passing of Bob Einstein, aka Super Dave Osborne, aka Marty Funkhauser.

Hilarious as Larry David's sometimes-nemesis and sometimes-friend, Marty Funkhauser, I remember him from many years ago on an old show called “Bizarre”.

The host ...

Oh what a coincidence, that my newspost day should fall upon the date of my 15th year on this very site! So naturally, on this anniversary, I'd like to open up and reflect on how the Duck has left a major impact on my life and work.

Every year ...

This year, I am spending New Year’s Eve Weekend in Las Vegas to watch Lady Gaga perform in concert. (In fact, as soon as this post goes live, I might still be walking up and down the strip.) I always thought the way the first day of the new ...

As the year comes to a close we look to the future of the new year ahead, but we can also sometimes get fixated on the past… Regrets can creep in. “What if?”, “If I'd only…”, “I only JUST missed out…”, “It could have all been so different…”
Regret ...

As we are well into holiday season and only 9 days before 2019 (the final countdown!), I think it's good to have a look at all the awesome stuff that happened at the DD site, all absolutely done, funded, supported and cultivated by webcomic artists for webcomic artists AND ...

MILESTONE



Three years after the Cocoa City Attacks, the Valentine sisters try to move on with their lives, but a new threat interferes their path as they commit attacks that'll lead to a bigger conspiracy they plan for the future. During their quest, they learn more about their family ...

Last weekend we discussed that strange phenomenon of independent creation, where there's more than a passing resemblance to another work but it's not a case of plagiarism. Interestingly, not long after I posted that I saw not one but two instances of independent creation being brought up (though ...