Usually when building a character, we go for their general personality in terms of traits, the routine/general behavior they would display, the routine/general things that would interest them and so on.
If you are writing a slice of life story, or a sitcom style series, or anything that ...
When Nothing Is Normal
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 9, 2021The Importance of a Cordial Response
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2020
A few months back, I was playing my favorite Open-World simulation video game and I noticed I was missing one of the most expensive vehicles in my garage. To my amusement, I received a confession that my car had been replaced by a much more affordable and lackluster vehicle earlier ...
The Struggle for Reality
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 21, 2020
What is real, really?
Can we trust our senses that what information they are giving us is objective? There are many thinkers and philosophers that posit we cannot. That as long as the messages get to our brains, it feels real even if it isn't.
If we can't ...
The Highway to Hell
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 14, 2020
Unless they are an old-timey Disney villain or similarly classic cartoon villain, nobody wants to be evil or bad starting off. Nobody's ambition is to be the villain in their own story. (note I say ‘villain’ and not ‘antagonist’)
Everyone is out to be the hero.
So why aren ...
The Work of the Mentor
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Oct. 17, 2020
Might as well get it out of the way: if you're a mentor in a story, chances are you're going on a boatride over the river Styx at some point.
When a mentor dies it's often the signal that the main character, the one being mentored, is ...
QUACKCAST 492 - Impermanence of the new digital age
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Aug. 18, 2020 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/adarunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
This Quackcast is about the impermanence of online services and the lie that services are provided for fee and providers have no responsibility to the creators and ...
Wounded Characters
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 25, 2020
There is a reason why in fanfiction archives there's a whole category of stories called “hurt/comfort”, where one of the main characters of a specific IP is injured, and others (usually an unlikely person or whoever the author is shipping with the injured one) have to take care ...
A Binary Approach to Motivation
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 11, 2020
I've talked a lot about motivations in my articles. And how could I not? My scientific field aside, what makes us behave in certain manners or way is a question that has occupied entire schools of thought in psychology, philosophy, political science, even AI and (bio)chemistry.
There are ...
A Character's Free Will
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 20, 2020
Whether we have free will or not is a philosophical, existential and psychological conundrum that will forever tease and challenge us. While I can't speak for philosophers, I can for psychologists:
Behaviorists will tell you it doesn't exist (look up Skinner); Cognitive behaviorists will tell you it's ...
Writing More Than You Know
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 13, 2020
We're all aware of the classic tennet for writers and creators of all stories- write what you know in order for the story to be good.
We've explored before what it means to write what you know, and where this rule should be adhered to: at the core ...