Episode 466 - And then What?
Feb 16, 2020
What happens to characters after the big action scene or climactic moment? This could be anywhere in the story but it's usually close to the end. Do they process any of the things that have happened to them to lead them up to that point or do they just forget about everything and simply act as if nothing except the last 4 seconds matter? The later seems to be the trend in a lot of badly written fiction, and it's a notable trope in 80s style action films. Death of family members or lovers are irrelevant when you have a hot action star standing next to you!
Topics and Show Notes
“So, what are you going to do now?” Someone always asks…
“Well I thought I'd settle down somewhere and open a bar.” replies the characterless hero, displaying complete disregard for the entire list of things that happened to them throughout the course of the story and instead recites a meaningless and tired line that was written before their writer was even born.
And THAT my friends is what we call bad writing ;)
Unless you're deliberately writing something spoofy, it's usually worthwhile to reward the audience: They've just sat through your story, hopefully they'll be invested in your characters. The audience really, really appreciates when those character acknowledge the effects and existence of events that you saw happen to them earlier on in the story. It makes the characters more believable and rounded, and it really helps with the suspension of disbelief.
Like anything though you can overdo it. You don't want the characters traumatised over every on-screen death (unless specifically called for), and you don't want them going on and on about something that happened to them in the story, just acknowledging it and showing some effect on the character is enough usually.
It's a good idea to remember what it was too! Don't forget about it and mix things up like in The Witcher wherethe writers forget Yennifer gave up her uterus for magical plastic surgery to look beautiful so she could grab the prized easy posting of court magician in her home country and lord it over the people there, and instead the story centers around how they “forced” her to give up her baby-making parts in order to be allowed to practice magic… Your job as a writer is to keep your story straight or your character growth will be a nonsense and you will look like a fool.
This week Gunwallace has given us the Music to GeMiTo 2073 - A slow, quiet intro, thoughtful pacing, introspective wailing electric guitar riff. This one creeps in gently and takes care of you. This rock ballad wants to make sure you’re ok,
Topics and shownotes
Links
Tantz's The Day After newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/feb/14/the-day-after/
Tantz's anime - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9288892/
Featured comic:
Coquin - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/feb/11/featured-comic-coquin/
Featured music:
GeMiTo 2073 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/GeMiTo_2073/, by Marcorossi, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Episode 462 - Jessica Schab, Studio animation, Guru, sceptic, leader
Jan 20, 2020
Today we have a special guest! Jessica Schab. Jessica works for Mainframe entertainment in Canada, one of THE premier digital animation companies! Before things like Pixar they were THE CGI animation people! Behind the Video for Dire Straights' Money for Nothing video back in the 80s, Transformers Beastwars, Octonaughts, Babrie, and my personal fave: Reboot!
Episode 459 - 2019 Year in review!
Dec 30, 2019
It's been a great year! DD has continued to grow bit by bit, we've been stable and a great host for many many webcomics. DD is one of the only truly independent community focused webcomic hosting sites left. Most of the rest are commercial hubs that are not community centered. Part of our commitment to the community on DD is showcasing our best webcomics every week, which we've been doing for 17 years now, and I've personally been doing that for about 13.
Episode 434 - Where do your characters exist?
Jul 8, 2019
This time we're chatting about settings and where your characters exist in space… where does all the action happen in your comics and WHY does it happen there? Bane's had the really novel idea of thinking of story settings as action playsets, which are toy settings made based on a TV show or movie where you can play with action figures and act out key moments FROM the TV show or movie: Unlike a dollhouse they only have the key sets where the important things happen.
Episode 431 - Political messages in your work
Jun 17, 2019
This Quackcast is about having political agendas in your work and expressing them well! We're talking about deliberately putting in ideas that you want to get across to people, NOT the idea that all work has agendas and ideas no matter what. That's not relevant to this discussion. When you want to want to get your ideas across there are good ways to do it and poor ways. When you do it poorly your work either has the opposite effect (people will laugh at your agenda or despise it), or it becomes propaganda. Propaganda is for preaching to the converted, it's terrible for changing minds. The only thing it's good for is motivating people who are already on-board with you.
Episode 419 - The Rating Game
Mar 25, 2019
It's the rating game! Yeah! This Quackcast was inspired by Emma Clare's newspost on Friday about rating levels. On Drunk Duck we have 4 rating levels so they're nice and simple: “E” for everyone, “T+” for teens, “M” for mature, and “A” for Adult! We talk about why ratings exist and how to use them.
Episode 417 - Can we be better?
Mar 11, 2019
What is Social Marketing? Basically its word-of-mouth and viral marketing smashed together and weaponised: Marketing companies hijack hot-button social issues and hitch their client's brand to them in clever campaigns (“We can be better”, etc). The purpose isn't really to make a brand seem progressive, modern or new, rather it's another way of getting it trending on social media that's guaranteed to work, unlike the legion of hit or miss but mostly failed “Viral” campaigns. Whether people say negative or positive things about this issue is irrelevant to the marketer, as long as people are talking about the brand is all that matters. Free advertising is the goal, but it has a social cost.
Episode 416 - Making cuts
Mar 4, 2019
The entire team is here this time, no one was cut… So we're chatting about CUTTING, as in cutting out scenes to make a story cleaner, leaner and less flabby, but also NOT cutting because in a webcomic you don't have to, and when you cut badly you end up with a “D movie” effect where story scenes don't follow, don't make sense and plots seem to go nowhere or happen for no reason.
