Today I share some thoughts about another go-to premise that offers lots of story building ideas: The Trap. Taking a character out of their comfortable element and thrusting them into a situation they didn’t ask for and can’t escape from. Such a situation becomes an exploration of how their character must evolve in order to become worthy of their new vocation.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thunder Punch Daily 23 – The Trap Read More »
Today I leap off of topics broached in Mark of the Beast 12 and High Adventure Daily 13 to share a few thoughts on writing longer stories without letting any extraneous (or fat) make it into the narrative. One mustn’t mistake our focus on creating lean stories as an indictment on long-form comics.
I refer to Thunder Punch Daily 06 – Argue For Your Theme in this episode as well.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thunder Punch Daily 22 – More Content, Half The Fat Read More »
Today I answer a question asked in the forums by Rene van Belzen:
How do I know what a character thinks or feels if it hasn’t been developed yet, nor feel any compassion for it?
The big secret of writing is that it’s what we did on the playground as children. The problem with teaching is it becomes too easy to bewilder the audience with terminology, charts, and definitions.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thunder Punch Daily 20 – It’s Only Pretending, After All Read More »
Today I model a word association exercise I use in classrooms to demonstrate how one can build a simple point of interest into a serviceable (or at the very least, fun) story idea.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thunder Punch Daily 18 – Associate for Ideas Victory! Read More »
Some more talk about characters and why we might consider using compassion when writing them. It’s my belief that if you treat your characters as human beings, others will respond to them as such. Even if they’re not human. A high ideal in writing is to name your characters’ faults with love, so as not to be a snob, or worse, create characters meant merely to be hissed at by the audience (though that can be fun as well).
Also threw a shout-out to Brandon Dayton’s blog. Some terrific reading on writing there!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Thunder Punch Daily 14 – Compassion For Your Characters Read More »