In today's fast-paced world, you need to immediately catch an audience's attention with your story, your movie, your webcomic or your graphic novel. You get two lines in a text, a page or two in a comic, 20-30 seconds to a minute for a movie or a series ...

The Mini-Story Intro
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 3, 2018Mundane Tasks
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 27, 2018
Have you noticed that it’s very rarely that in a webcomic (or any narrative work) there’s a category of tasks or activities that people do very often in real life, but extremely rarely in stories?
Watching TV, being on the computer (when NOT being a hacker or doing ...
The Chosen One’s Origin
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 2, 2017
One of the most prevalent motifs in fantasy, science fiction/ space operas and similar folklore style genres is that of the Chosen One- the one character (99% the main character/protagonist) that is destined to save the world from the big bad- the evil sorcerer, the overlord, the empire, the ...
Rain Has its Uses
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 18, 2017
These past few days in Greece we’ve had torrential rains that feel like the prelude to a second Flood- terrible casualties included. And that got me thinking that it rarely rains in webcomics.
Usually the weather is dry in sequential art- perhaps because it’s troublesome to draw characters ...
That Damn Amnesia
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Sept. 30, 2017
Amnesia is a very frequently used plot device in narrative works, especially in genres like romance or mystery or melodrama. It’s a perfect way to achieve either of the following (or all):
(a) Draw out a story that should have wrapped up already
(b) Reuse a character’s ‘naïve ...
Characters’ Pets (and Why They’re Occasionally Annoying)
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Sept. 16, 2017
A pet is wonderful to have in your life- they will usually love you unconditionally and give you moments of solace with their antics. They become a member of the family, they have personalities that make them unique across all other pets you will ever have and across species. You ...
Romance As a Side Dish
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Aug. 19, 2017
The other day I read a very interesting post by our very own Vickie of Used Books where she was talking about Romance. And what caught my eye the most was her description of the driving force behind romance stories as “relationship-driven conflict”- a very succinct way to put it ...
The Character Archetypes (Jungian Archetypes Part 5)
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 17, 2017
So we come to the end of this long litany of presentations on Jung’s assorted archetypes that craftsmen of the narrative arts have used since time immemorial to weave their yarns.
And what better way to end with the crowning jewel in every story, from books to movies to ...
Chekhov's Gun
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 7, 2017
To me this is one of the most fascinating elements of storytelling. The idea behind Chekhov’s Gun is to employ parsimony in the information comprising a plot and content: If something isn’t essential to the story, just don’t include it. Little by little, it became more “if ...
Quackcast 301 - Let it snow!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Dec. 13, 2016 LISTEN!
Art by Ozoneocean
Banes and Pitface live in a parallel world to me where this time of year involves water falling from the sky in the form of fluffy white crystals. When it hits the ground it piles up on top of itself into huge white piles! Freaky, I ...