image by Walt Simonson

I read a lot of Marvel Comics back in the day. The Hulk, Spider Man, The X-Men…it was actually the ORIGINAL X-Men I really loved (which I read in reprints). Right around the time I was discovering those old Stan Lee/Jack Kirby X-Men stories ...

Tanya is a daydreamer. She loves sitting outdoors and drawing in her sketchbook. Tanya and her best friend Licorice are both technically natives growing up in a space colony even though she thinks of herself as a Spaceling. However, the two have very dissimilar interests. Tanya likes to talk about ...

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What's best? One big climax, multiple small ones, early, or delayed? How much should you work UP to a climax? What about anticlmactic events, how important are they?
Climaxes are really important in stories. Often you work up to them over the course of a whole series, but ...

The demand for electric outlets in my room is high because there is always a tablet, mp3 player, or any random lithium-powered gadget lying around that needs charging. My desktop workstation drains the most energy and there is a tangled sea of snake-like cords lurking under my desk around my ...

Summer here is hot and dry, but it's so short that sometimes it feels more like a coffee break in an endless winter than a real season. People who live in the prairies know that each summer day has to be savoured - tucked away as a little memory for ...

I'm not sure who the first fictional character was that I became attached to. The Cat in the Hat? Superman? Jason Voorhees, maybe?

In any case, Jughead Jones was somewhere in that early group of beloved characters. I liked Archie, and envied his dating life with Betty and Veronica ...

Celest Von Mew is a very bubbly and excitable University student. Typical of college students, she is concerned with her grades in school, making new friends, and her wardrobe reflects a pretty unique sense of style.

One day, a mysterious booth appears distributing FREE “Nommie Candy-Chews” which are creamy milk ...

Recently I had the pleasure of spending a few day's in my country's capital city, Ottawa. Among museum trips, walks along the canal, and an awesome sound and light show at our parliament building, I managed to coerce my best friend into visiting a couple of comic book ...

Image by Banes

Conflict
If you're anything like me (you poor soul), you may have learned about conflict in English or Creative Writing classes, and they told you that stories could either be

Man vs. Himself,
Man vs. Man, or
Man vs. Nature.

So a character would be either ...

Five years ago I was sitting at a dinner table with an older, conservative crowd of family friends when the topic of same-sex marriage was brought up. I added my thoughts to the discussion with the best example of recent history I could muster up at that time. I said ...