I read that a great ending should be “surprising but inevitable”. That's a tall order! To have the whole story leading to that inevitable conclusion, but not be predictable. Wow!

However, I've seen (and read…ah, let's be honest; mostly it's “seen”) several great endings that ...

Accents, patterns of speech and the like can be a useful tool in introducing characters. In a film or tv show, a character's accent can immediately reveal the character's nationality or social background. And of course, we've all been conditioned by Hollywood movies to identify the bad ...

LISTEN!

Doing stories that start with the climax, then flash back, tell what happened to get there: the old narrative style of switching the first few chapters around to make a more interesting story.
Sometimes it works GREAT because it throws you right into the middle of things and you ...

If you want to decent job of it, creating and using weapons in fiction can be quite tricky. There are a lot of pitfalls that newbies and even long time veterans of creating fiction fall into.

1. Number one is simply copying what others have done without understanding it yourself ...

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art – write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And ...

Happy 2016, everyone!

I'm not big into New Year's resolutions generally, but I do have a few this year. I read 24 books in 2015 (not including partial books read for school) and would like to do the same in 2016. I'd like to improve my reading ...

I love Christmas Eve. Possibly more than Christmas Day. Both are great fun, and reuniting with friends and relatives I rarely see is delightful of course.

But the quiet anticipation of Christmas Eve is where it's at. For me it's usually a day off work, wrapping (occasionally running ...

LISTEN!

-Art by Pitface!

There's not really a difference between digital and traditional art - art is art, your tools and media don't really matter, what's important is how its meant to be seen and what it's meant to be used for. But, people do like to ...

LISTEN!

All too often we try to give out GOOD drawing advice and USEFUL tips on how to do art. Well that all changes here: this time professors Ozoneocean, Tantz Aerine, Banes, and Pitface (our throbbing Head of department), come together to tell you the very worst ways to produce ...

(Left to Right: irrevenant's Chaos drawn by fallopiancrusader, UltimateZ's Dead Leon drawn by usedbooks, and KimLuster's Kimber Lee drawn by ashtree house.)

This is a reminder for all the participants to submit their gift art for the 2015 Drunk Duck Secret Santa art exchange in the forum ...