Percival the pigeon has a plan! It's a crazy plan and it's probably not going to work… in fact it certainly won't but he's going to try it anyway. In the far future humanity have left the earth a horrible wasteland haunted by giant mutated swamp-beasts ...

While talking about the Golden Globes last night, my best friend tells me to stop spoiling the end results. ‘Okay, I will stay in the crisper’, I responded. I should have known! A majority of people do not like endings of books or winners of award shows revealed before it ...

But and Therefore

I'm a fan of user-friendly, practical advice on things, especially writing. It's why I dig the Banes Method (it's not my method; it's just named after me).

Anyway, I came upon some dandy advice from Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park ...

Val needs to get some meat for dinner, his mum says so. The market is about to close so he has to go and hunt bubbits… But he's cowardly and easily frightened, and bubbits have sharp teeth and a bad temper and he worries they'll eat him! His ...

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 ...

Last week, we looked at ways to prevent the middle of your story from sagging. One of those suggestions was using a subplot or two to help flesh out both the world and characters of your story.

For those of you who are a bit confused as to what a ...

Isaac and Ben fight it out in the arena, watched by thousands of spectators, waiting on their every move. The two orb users battle with their unusual powers, ice versus lightning, attacking and defending at high speed! But is there more to these competitors than simply gladiators who fight for ...

Inspiration strikes! A new idea forms, and you're really excited about it. You want to take your time, however– you want this to be great, and no great thing just springs fully formed from one's brow. For years you toil, tweak, refine, moving ever closer to the point ...

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Listen on Stitcher ​​- https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=224306 if you betray that by subverting their expectations with characters in ways that are very “OUT of character” just because you feel like it then you can start to lose their respect and attention. Killing ...

Stereotypes permeate our every day lives. Whether we like it or not, our brains are wired for making quick estimations and judgments based on patterns and pattern recognition.

This very pattern we're looking for to identify at a glance is what a stereotype is. And it's very useful ...