Last week we talked about “writing what you know” … but how about ‘knowing what you write’? I knew I wanted to do this one as soon as I posted the previous article…just for the title.

In a TV show, series of books, movie, printed comic series, or newspaper strip ...

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Fools are an iconic character trope and I wanted to explore them. They're a lot more varied and interesting than is readily apparent. There's a ...

On any given day, I usually unwind from a long day at work by logging into Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online. I use my avatar and beautiful sports cars to drive around the imaginary Los Santos, a city based almost entirely on Los Angeles and the outlying communities. It is ...

We grin and support John Wick as he ploughs through dozens of people per minute in his revenge quest over his murdered dog and ruined car, but we gasp with shock when the Wicked Witch of the East pursues a single person to take revenge for killing her sister with ...

Writing what you know is one of those old canards that show up in writing advice, though it's not up there with things like “show, don't tell” and “this is supposed to be a literary essay - do not doodle in the margins”.

Or is that last one just ...

Melvin is visiting his best friend, Steve, in an unannounced and rather loud fashion one morning. The good thing about Melvin and Steve is that they can joke around constantly and throw in little jests while not getting upset with each other. The two are about to board a horse-drawn ...

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Today on this glorious date we chat about that part in stories where everything turns to crap for the protagonists, just before the run up to the ...

As we embark on the start of week eight in quarantine, I wonder how many people out here in Drunk Duck Land have begun learning new facts about our planet (Interesting aside: Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard were the first two explorers to reach the deepest part of the Ocean ...

A key aspect to creating a strong story is having believable characters. They are, after all, a key backbone to your narrative. So here are three tips that can help you put together a well rounded character.

1. Create a backstory
If you’re naming a character then you got ...

I've talked many times about story structure. Even with a structural approach, there are a lot of questions to be answered, struggles to be had, and hard thinking to be done to make a story work.

One big moment that I like thinking about early in the writing is ...