LISTEN on our player!
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People in stories, especially bad guys in stories usually want to take over the world, but why? What's really to gain? Even in reality it's a complex question. That's what we're ...

Quackcast 737 - Why take over the world?
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, April 29, 2025Back from the Dead
Tantz_Aerine at 2:02AM, April 19, 2025
It's Resurrection Saturday today! What better occasion then than this to talk about the resurrection trope?
Usually, cancelling out a character's death is not a good thing to do in a story. It undermines the weight of the stakes involved and/or the sacrifice or seriousness of the ...
Lack of Research
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 12, 2025
As creators of stories, be they novels or graphic novels or comics, we all have heard the adage “write what you know”. It's been drummed into our minds to the point that its cold fingers have our impostor syndrome in a deathgrip every time we venture our to write ...
Resentment
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 15, 2025
In designing a good villain character there's a wide range of paths one can follow. From the grandiose villains that want to take over the world and live in volcano islands, waiting for the hero to fall into their elaborate death trap to humanized villains with complex backstories that ...
Nature As Antagonist
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 22, 2025
There is nothing more humbling against human hubris than Nature herself.
Even at humanity's peak expansion, technology, sophistication, education, or intelligence, all it takes for its eradication is for the earth to sneeze in just the right way.
Nature cannot be beaten or tamed. It can only be appeased ...
I got nothing.
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 14, 2024
It's been a very tough week (as per usual these past few weeks) and I've been sitting here staring at the blank screen of my computer trying to think of a topic to write about for the newspost.
And I got nothing. I keep drawing blanks. I have ...
Exhaustion is a character beat
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2024
So I'm exhausted.
A ton of things I'm juggling in real life plus emotional baggage plus stuff I'm doing online plus art = exhausted Tantz.
And because my brain refuses to focus on anything else, I thought I'd talk about how using exhaustion can be a cool ...
Quackcast 714 - Future Weapons
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Nov. 19, 2024 LISTEN on our player!
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
Last week we had an overview of weapons throughout history and how it's a constant game of balance and oneupmanship. Now we're looking at future weapons and Scifi stuff! There's a lot of potential ...
Character Deep Dive: Robin Sinclair
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 2, 2024
Today’s character deep dive is on Robin Sinclair, the main catalyst of everything taking place in the supernatural comedy drama that is Blessed Days by Inky Moondrop!
Blessed Days is the story of a young woman that unexpectedly becomes a mom and must handle raising a child- that’s ...
The Psychology of Monsters
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Oct. 26, 2024
Halloween is just around the corner, so what better thing to do than talk about monsters?
Specifically, what has motivated humanity to create them, talk about them, fear them and love them across time and across culture.
Monsters are generally linked with our sense of fear. Fear is an adaptive ...