While binge watching Schitt’s Creek, I started to see the emerging love story between Alexis Rose, Mutt the bad-boy, and Ted the veterinarian. That was when I wanted to discuss one of my favorite comic tropes of the alpha male versus the beta male.
In Spiderman, Harry Osbourne is ...

Guilty Pleasure: The Love Triangle Between the Alpha and the Beta
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, Nov. 4, 2019Star Wars' Rey May Be a Problematic Character
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Oct. 26, 2019
I know you are probably rolling your eyes right now, thinking I'm about to rant about the Star Wars sequels again. I'm not.
Ok, I might a little, but not in the typical manner. And I'm inviting you to hear me out because this isn't a ...
“I Dig the New MJ”
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, July 8, 2019
While talking about the latest Spiderman: Far from Home movie, one of my friend’s first reactions to the film have been mostly positive with, “I dig the new MJ” being one of the comments.
When I first learned Zendaya was going to play Michelle aka “MJ”, Peter Parker’s ...
Worldbuilding with Playsets
Banes at 12:00AM, July 4, 2019
While rambling through youtube I saw some reviews of these playsets that caught my eye. They were for the old classic The Muppet Show.
I'm not sure how well known this show is these days; it's been a LONG time since it was popular (of course, I know ...
Handling Controversial Historical Characters
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 13, 2019
image by Ben Burgraff
When writing a historical fiction, it's very likely that you will need to include some actual historical personalities along with your historically-adept yet fictional cast.
Depicting a historical character is hard enough when there's a general consensus among historians and popular belief about who ...
On Reviving an Era
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 6, 2019
I had a meeting the other day with a director, who asked me “how do you approach a historical era to keep true to it?” and “how do you keep from being biased?”
I fear that I eclipsed the poor guy with my soap box lectures, but that aside, I ...
Don't Sweat The Details
Amelius at 9:27AM, Feb. 3, 2019
What is a character? A miserable little pile of traits! Except no, there is more to a character than a collection of likes and dislikes. There are varying opinions on the importance of character versus plot, with some authors viewing all characters as a mere tool to drive plot forward ...
The Dread Hiatus
Amelius at 9:57AM, Jan. 27, 2019
Have you ever noticed that among the dead webcomics, a preponderance of them have “Hiatus” on their tombstone? That tombstone being, of course, the final page posted years and years ago with a promise they will be “right back” after a “short break”. There are of course a number of ...
QUACKCAST 404 - Strong characters
ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Dec. 11, 2018
LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=224306&refid=stpr
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
We mined Tantz's Saturday newspost for our discussion topic: Strong characters and how to write GOOD ones!
What is a strong character? Well it has nothing to do with physical ability, power ...
The Double Edged Sword of Stereotyping
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 24, 2018
Stereotypes permeate our every day lives. Whether we like it or not, our brains are wired for making quick estimations and judgments based on patterns and pattern recognition.
This very pattern we're looking for to identify at a glance is what a stereotype is. And it's very useful ...