I check the DD forums pretty often even when I feel more in the mood to be a lurker than say anything. I might even check the forums at the same rate that I check hs my email.

A long time ago, I thought the forums were reserved for people ...

I'm a bit obsessed with “before” versions of characters. Where they start. The damaged dude or dudette who shows up at the beginning of a story REALLY needing a change in their lives, and usually not knowing it.

Even when the plot kicks off, these folks often don't ...

LISTEN!

Dialogue is one of the most important elements for storytelling in most webcomics (there are exceptions). But dialogue is often hard for beginners, writing out imaginary conversations to push stories forward, show characterisation, or expositions are skills that don't come naturally! Banes has given us a helpful newspost ...

Having decided that shock value is needed in your comic and you must scare, disgust or generally traumatize your audience in some way in order to get the emotional reaction to serve your theme and your subject matter, how do you decide when and where to draw the line? (note ...

I'm indulging in what could be a problematic experiment. Bear with me…
In the history of this amazing webcomics hosting community there was a dark and interesting place in time and space, we called it “the Top Drawer”. Think about New York in the 1970s: dangerous, sexy, sleazy, unsafe ...

WRITING A SCENE


Here are some thoughts on writing that smallest unit of a story: the scene.


First off, what is a scene? What defines that little mug?

It's Change.

Something changes between the beginning and end of a scene.

Here's a way to write one if you ...

What goes up must fall down; Where there is a beginning must also have an end; Every opening must have a closing. KimLuster's 437 page masterful comic, The Godstrain, has been a Drunk Duck staple since 2012 when it first started and eventually earning a Feature recognition at the ...

Thursdays with Banes - The Murky Middle

A good way to put together a story is to figure out some essentials, first - Elements of Character, Plot and Theme, and Building some World and all that. We've talked about these things around here a lot, and we'll prolly continue to ...

Every building needs a skeleton in place before building begins, so that the end product will be sound. It’s no different with fantasy world building: before you begin gathering and using your story’s bricks and mortar (= the research) you need to have the world’s skeleton, or rigging ...

One dock, three people. Una garza negra, the black dock.

It is sunset at a small pier as two men sit silently side-by-side when one of them breaks the silence. The two have an exchange of small talk when the quietest man begins a philosophical discussion about society and how ...