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This week we talk about maintaining suspension of disbelief: the way you have to convince people of the world your story is set in and keep them there. Everything you do is done for that, to convince them your characters make sense and the world works. There's a ...

A couple of days ago Banes gave us a wonderful article on the issue of who to please- yourself or the audience, and how that can go very right or very wrong.

So that got me thinking that we should also talk about the dreaded silence. You update a page ...

A narrative theme is, in essence, the meaning behind your story. It also serves to tell your audience what your story is about. Establishing it’s core early on enables you to keep it grounded and focused as you begin to unfold your characters and plots.

Despite a longer piece ...

May the Forcefulness Be With You


I've been fascinated to watch the unfolding of the “battle” between Disney's Lucasfilm and the fandom playing out over the past few months.

If you haven't been looking at the fallout, there's too much for me to cover here; I ...

Enter into this stunning realm of galactic dragons that live on Jupiter and its moons. There are characters that embody different elements, four spirits that are the Storm Lords, and they help bring balance to the chaos that is unfolding. The characters fluidly and seamlessly blend with the cosmic backgrounds ...

Did you know as an comic creator you are more than allowed to take a shortcut here and there? It’s true! You want to know something else? Everyone does it! So this week I want to share some shortcuts I have found immensely helpful when trying to speed up ...

When you look at a developed artist you can recognise their work straight away. Maybe it is in the way that they do their lineart, or it could be the facial expressions that characters have, (think the Dreamworks Smirk), or maybe it is the tropes that they use in their ...

Anyone that knows me even a little is aware that I have strong involvement in common affairs, activism and maintain strong political views. My comic also has a lot of social and political commentary woven into the story and I strive to make my case through my art, be it ...

So last time we had talked about the Javert trope, a category of character that is very compelling and makes for excellent drama, immense suspense and often gets their own following in fandom. (Just check out Saito Hajime's hero's journey as a prime example.)

The Javert character is ...

A story can be strengthened by coordinating the first and final images in some way.

It's not a hard and fast rule; it's not a rule at all. But it can be worth trying out in your writing!

The movie Halloween (there it is! I had to start ...