What is the best atmosphere to create in? This applies to art, of course, but also to just about anything you might be working on independently.

Some of my friends seem to be able to work with limitless distractions around. Fairly regularly I go over to my friend’s house ...

Emotional Charges and Diminishing Returns

Many writing methodologies suggest mapping out the emotional change of each scene. The scene either starts positive, and goes to either negative or “extra positive”, or starts negative and goes to positive or “extra negative” by the end of the scene.

So if a lovelorn ...

Everyone has their own set of concerns, worries, fears about themselves and their environment, past, present and future. Creators are no different.

So it is only natural that at least some elements of those fears and concerns and worries we have are explored one way or another in the works ...

We had a big snowfall two weeks ago, and I was out driving the city in it (I have a part time delivery job).

My car and I held up pretty well in it, and that was satisfying. As the news warned people to stay off the roads, I was ...

I was not anticipating the long lines and large crowds for Black Friday this year, but my shopping haul from this past weekend was delightfully fruitful. I decided it was time for a “Treat. Yo. Self.” spending spree (Tom Haverford-style from Parks and Recreation).

I played a lot of video ...

In my newspost last week about the “No Hugging, No Learning” mantra, I mentioned that I was basing a throwaway character – a loveable misanthrope – on a real-life friend of mine. It’s something I’m tempted to do fairly frequently; I spend most of my time in an academic environment ...

I found myself at a crossroads two weeks ago where I felt that my mind and my heart were in two separate places. I would carry on the same routine for months, following the motions of getting to work, performing a mundane task, and then driving home with heavy eyelids ...

Recently I wrote a throwaway character for my comic based on a real-life friend of mine. In short, he’s a loveable misanthrope. And because he’s based on a real human being, I felt like I owed the character something: he won’t grow, or change, or become a ...

During the October season, I wanted to write a horror article about the things that really scare me, but I was sidetracked with deadlines, longer work hours, and lack of sleep. Halloween is now one week behind us and the Winter cold has drawn us closer into his tight embrace ...

The old frenetic push to any creator to be ‘original’- especially, though not limited, in literature, in comics and the arts in general is nothing new. It pretty much is the first question anyone has when trying to assess a work of art: is it original?

Often, for the answer ...