Villains are tremendously important for a story. They set the framework and standard for a lot of things in an unsaid but definite manner: how far your villain is willing to go sets up audience expectations for how big and how dire the stakes will be in the story.

If ...

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Have you ever watched a series devotedly then lost touch with it for some reason for a while and then gone back to it a couple of ...

I'm a big fan of story structure. It can be a big help to figuring out how to put a story together in a way that works. Not that structure needs to be followed in a slavish way, or that one structure applies to every story.
But it can ...

Another site redesign update
Alexey continues working and coding this stuff up towards a full working front page. Thanks for all your support (especially on Patreon and with ads, it helps a lot), and comments and feedback, we really try to incorporate them and keep them in mind when we ...

Poem Nr. 11: Nine Lives


Nine. I see the light burning to darkness.
All so swiftly. All so blindly.
Eight. I hear the alarm screaming to deafness.
All so widely. All so loudly.
Seven. I taste the medicine spoiling to sickness.
All so queasily. All so badly.
Six. I sense ...

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We are talking about the trope of the Cad, AKA the Player. F***boys are their little scrappydoo kid-brothers, we call them “fun” boys for obvious reasons ...

Blank is having a tough time. New to the school year and already they've forgotten everything… why they hate themself, their gender, and even their own name! Luckily the school loses their identity so they can give them-self a new one, which is Blank Lastname. A fine start! It ...

Character design needs careful planning on all levels: from the character's psyche and personality to their body type, mannerisms, hair, and of course, outfits.

Like in real life, what a character wears is a reflection of their personality and their general situation.

There's a reason why Jessica Rabbit ...

The establishing shot sets up the setting of a scene, of course. It could be a wide shot of a city or a house, or a crowded bar, or two characters at a dinner table.

It'll need more detail than other panels; even in a simpler art style, establishing ...

Critics, professional or not, identified a trend in many of the…lesser regarded manga and anime series.
It's the “everyman hero”.

This school of thought is that to make a lead character who is identifiable to everyone in the readership or audience. So the lead will be unremarkable, and ...