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Art by Ozoneocean

In Quackcast 299 we expand on an idea from Tantz's Saturday newspost about inserting your personality into your characters when you write them. But not only that, we chat about how a work of fiction by a writer can be like a darkly faceted diamond ...

In a story, a Protagonist wants something, and some kind of obstacle is in the way. When the Protagonist makes a choice, good or bad, to take them to that goal, we're off and running!

But what happens if they don't get what they want? What happens if ...

It was a blisteringly hot Thursday morning when my nine-year-old pupil pulled out a cell phone and opened an app saying, “There is a Ponyta in the area!” Having grown up in a Pokemon World, and knowing a good chunk of the original 151 pokemon, I said, “Wait, don't ...

In the past year or so, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon taking place: The interests I had at a much younger age are coming back to me, sometimes after many years not being part of me.

I don't know if it's an effect of not having had ...

Step into a forgotten realm of quandary and whimsy where two twin girls, Cochlea and Eustachia, find themselves as test subjects in a lab experiment put on by a mole in Victorian clothing and a wheelchair. Every corner of this magnificent building maze contains hybrid creatures that come from the ...

A lovely illustration from The Pirate Balthasar.

Initially, I had planned this week’s newspost to feature a selection of my favourite women characters on DD. But I realized as I was composing my list for this newspost that I was essentially just making a list of protagonists from my ...

Two-thousand fifteen started off with Kroatz wishing everyone in the Drunk Duck forums “growth, satisfaction, and purpose, even if it comes with an almost equal amount of suffering and loss.” I do not believe any statement made in this last year comes as close to this to sum up the ...

(Colouring Sheets Included @ Bottom of Post)

Did you ever watch Mister Rogers when you were a little kid? My all-time favourite episode was the one where he takes the viewer to the crayon factory and showed us how crayons were made. I thought it was the most mesmerizing thing imaginable ...

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 ...

It is midsummer, somewhere in the British Midlands and sometime in the mid seventies. It is almost midnight. In a suburban semi-detached house, a teenage girl and her young brother are awaiting the return of their parents. A young man of impressionable age waits with them as they bathe in ...