One of the main drivers of story is the principle of CONTRAST.

A character in a traditional story arc begins one way and ends up in a very different state of being - the underdog to the victorious hero, or the innocent, unaware victim to the final survivor, or the selfish ...

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A standard thing in stories is to have multiple plot lines. In short stories or when you're just starting out as a writer you tend to have a single line, the A plot, but as soon ...

As the new dawn goes we sprinkle the seeds of unbound rascality
The calamity of the bygone drive-by solitude
For the youth that sows we sink our deeds in offshore synchronicity
The simplest treaty of the offbeat blastoff attitude
As the new dawn goes. As our yesters close. As first ...

In our Quackcast about Non-Linear storytelling this week, I had a tangent of a thought about the value of difficult or challenging fiction as opposed to stories that are easier to understand.

An unusual structure to a story can be challenging to understand, but if it's done well, the ...

Teenage rabbit girl, Catherine Barkley, is left alone to watch movies on the couch one evening in her suburban Minnesotan home during the late sixties. Catherine picks up the phone to an unknown caller who begins making inappropriate comments about her personal life. Minutes pass and the deafening sound of ...

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Non-linear stories are a different way of telling a tale. There are many famous examples (Pulp fiction, Mulholland Drive etc), where the sequence of events isn't in strict chronological order. This style has gained a false ...

I'm Out of Order? You're Out of Order! - Nonlinear storytelling

I finally watched Strange Darling the other night. I think I saw part of a review at some point and dipped out before it could be spoiled.

And boy howdy, THAT'S the way to see Strange Darling ...

How do you make a clever character stupid?

You give them an infatuation. A fixation. Something that completely overrides their critical thinking and better judgment. Something that drives them nuts like a switch is thrown.

And when that happens, they're dumber than a bag of rocks. (And they're ...

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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 ...

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 ...