edward norton in “primal fear”

One of the things I like in fiction is characters who are not what they seem.

Like all things, this sort of thing can be done well, or badly, or somewhere in between. It can be fascinating and surprising, or cliche and predictable. It can ...

Who's it for?

In writing instructional books, there used to be this bit about deciding who your story/screenplay/series is FOR. This is a notion used in the industry (so I've read) to figure out who the audience is going to be for a given project. In ...

Metaphors in Horror



Horror is perfect for metaphor and allegory. In fact, a horror story is often allegorical by default, what with its bizarre landscapes and freaky beasties.

Here are some categories of horror and some thoughts on what they symbolize:

Reality Bites


psycho killer! Qu'est-ce que c'est ...

There are things that appeal to the head - intriguing “what ifs” in terms of world building, and insights into technology, culture, politics, and history that capture the imagination in an intellectual way.

Then there's the heart - stories without emotional connection are the ones that critics and audiences call “sterile ...

Last week I talked about structure in webcomics, and asked you about how you make your longer-form comics digestible by new readers as well as ongoing readers.

But what about other alternate ways to present a webcomic?

Most of the ones I've read are roughly the dimensions of a ...

https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Angels_of_the_Fallen/

Angels of the Fallen by Busty Laroo is celebrating its one year of updates today, October 1st.

BustyLaroo writes: “I'm super excited about this because it's the first time in my life that I've worked this consistently for this long.”

Congratulations, BustyLaroo ...

We've talked many times about story structure and different elements of it. But what about structure that's specific to web comics?

If someone does a “gag” or standalone series of strips, it's one thing - but there are still questions to answer. Like, do you have a character ...

The Death of the Method?


In the past, I've been a proponent of the Banes Method - really, the Save the Cat Method - of story construction and story improvement.

The method became all the rage in film production in Hollywood apparently - and has received some criticism as well, for being ...

Game of (Sticks and) Stones

I heard about the new Dave Chappelle special, Sticks and Stones, and couldn't wait to finish the long work day to get home and watch it.

A lot of it was hysterical and I was laughing loudly, sounding like some kind of sick donkey ...

Unreliable

Last week we talked a little pov basics.

This time, how about we talk the fascinating device called the Unreliable Narrator. For anyone who doesn't know, this type of narration (usually first person in prose, but not necessarily) tells the story in question…but is not necessarily giving ...