Episode 234 - Climactic Climaxes!
Aug 31, 2015
What's best? One big climax, multiple small ones, early, or delayed? How much should you work UP to a climax? What about anticlmactic events, how important are they? Climaxes are really important in stories. Often you work up to them over the course of a whole series, but each episode or chapter can have them, maybe even every single page. I find writing “up” to climaxes a bit stressful because you have a lot of preasure and expectation there. And when it's over and you've actually achieved it, it can be a bit depressing: where do you go to from there? You can feel a little lost, at least I do. TALKING ABOUT WRITING HERE. My preference is for multiple climaxes. Do you always need climaxes in stories? I don't think you do personally… there are times when things work fine without one, but it does help better with endings. Sometimes climaxes can be TOO big. Way too much of a story can be invested in a climax, it subsumes everything, everything has to tie in with that specific story flow and that can be REALLY had to pull off. If it's not done right it can be massively disappointing. Anticlimactic. Pitface Joins Banes and Ozone to chat about climaxes in stories and read out the contributions from our climactic contributors. Gunwallace gave us a gorgeous theme for Just Another Day!
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Re set - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Re_Set/
Contributors forum thread:
Climactic Climaxes! - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177284/
Contributors:
Bravo1102 - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bravo1102/
Special thanks to:
Gooey Gunwallace, sexy music man - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
Just Another Day - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/JustAnotherDay/ by AshenSkye rated T.
Episode 233 - Formulas Forever!
Aug 24, 2015
Here we go again, back to formulas! This time we got some external input. Fellow DDers had a say about their idea about the utility of formulas and how they use them in their writing and comics. It's important to understand formulas in writing so you know what works and why it works, it can help you in your own work. And when you need to and you've got the ability you can create your OWN writing formula. But remember: the formula is just the bare skeleton, you have to add all the meat and flesh to it with the rest of your writing, don't let the bones show through! Listen to Gunwallace's beautiful theme for Brave New World! Oh, and one last thing… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANTZ AERINE!!!!
Quackcast 229 - Enter the Dragon's den: comic book shops
Jul 26, 2015
Tantz and Pitface join Banes and Ozone to talk about comic book stores and the experience of going into them... Yes, that's right: webcomicers actually going into REAL bricks and mortar places that sell comics printed on PAPER! o_O It turns out that none of us really do that anymore for various reasons and we all have different recollections of going to cimicbook shops in the past. We also recount the experiences of other DDers who've described their comic buying adventures. Check out Gunwallace's haunting and desolate theme for the comic No Future, Vanish In Time.
Episode 228 - Conflicting conflicts conflict
Jul 19, 2015
This time we're talking about conflict in webcomic writing, and any writing in general really. Conflict is one of the main drivers of a story, so you pretty much have to have it in there somewhere! But how do you approach it? Do you set it up really carefully or just put a bunch of volatile characters together and see what happens? I think for a lot of us we don't think too much about the science of our conflicts, rather we approach it artistically and develop things by feel and instinct because conflict is such an intrinsic trait. But understanding how you use it can be very useful when you're writing satisfying resolutions and climaxes. A good understanding of the types of conflict in your story is also pretty essential when you're writing a good comedy (it's a great source of humour!), and also when you're explaining or selling your work to the public: It's all very well to chat about your clever setting and your funky characters, but conflict is the reason they're IN a story to begin with and that's really what will get people wanting to read out it. I hope you enjoy Gunwallace's great porn style music type theme for Tales of Two Tiny Titty bars!
Episode 227 - Biggest webcomicing mistakes
Jul 13, 2015
Webcomicing is a learning process, you build on your knowledge and skills as you go, comics can take years to complete and your audience is usually pretty forgiving… Well learning is all about making mistakes and if you're like the people who contributed to this Quackcast, you make a hell of a lot of them! But hopefully you learn from them, or even better; learn from the mistakes of others. That's what this Quackcast was all about; sharing your biggest webcomicing mistakes. None of us are immune to them. They can be borne of hard to break bad habits, lack of experience or skill, or just plain stubbornness. If you make any that you'd like to tell us about, just share them in the comments bellow. I hope you'll enjoy the lovely Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy/Harry Potter-esque style musical theme for Wizarding Along The Way by Gunwallace!
Episode 209 - lurv triangles
Mar 9, 2015
Around about Valentine's day, HippieVan's mind turned to thoughts of love... and she conceived of a great newspost idea that was very popular with people! Love triangles are very good for generating drama in your writing without having to worry too much about forcing that through external events. And because they're primarily driven by you characters as well as affecting them it's a great way to build on your characterisation through the drama. In HippieVan's words we outline a few notable love triangles in fiction, both classic, and contemporary, then we include the contributions the DDers who were good enough to add their two cents to the subject.
Episode 207 - A question of bodyshape part 2
Feb 22, 2015
In Quackcast 207 we talk about bodyshapes in comics again; as a follow up from the chat we had about it in Quackcast 205 we thought we'd let the community weigh in with their thoughts... so Banes and I could get the chance to practice our voices. We wanted to know what others thought about the subject of about bodyshape in comics; Ones that they draw, read, or have just seen and think that it needs commenting upon. These Quackcasts were inspired of course by the images of athletes from the 2002 book "Athlete" by Howard Schatz. The photos show various athletes who're at the top level of their respective sports, it also shows that they have wildly different physical attributes: there IS no one ideal, and there IS no “normal”. This got us to thinking how body shape can define a character as much as facial features, hairstyle, clothing etc. Anyway, people had their say and it was enlightening! Also, Gunwallace's music this week was for FUNK! And funky it was, give it a listen.
Episode 206 - Turning An Idea Into A Comic
Feb 16, 2015
Back in January our own HippieVan was in a quandary as to how to turn a creative idea she had into a webcomic, so she decided to put it o the DD community and croudsource their wisdom via a newspost. Banes and I thought the topic would make a good Quackcast, especially since we could read out all the interesting and informative posts people made on the subject! Banes has also approached the idea previously for Quackcast 68 where he outlines a screen-writing method called "save the cat", also known as "The Banes' Method". That Quackcast was since deleted but as a special treat I will re-upload it!
