It's common knowledge that a solid origin story will make a character. It'll often also make the story being told. Origin stories can be and often are the foundation for characters and plotlines, since motivations, plot points, and even stakes are set in them.
But what makes a ...
The Origin Story
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 2, 2022MindTricks 1 - Memory
Banes at 12:00AM, May 26, 2022
I don't wanna be remembered; I wanna be forgotten
MEMORY and MEMORY LOSS in FICTION
Playing with memory and memory loss is a handy device for fiction writers, from soap opera-type melodrama to exciting-but-thought-provoking stories like The Matrix, and in all kinds of stories betwixt and beyond.
Like any ...
The Secret Sociopath
Banes at 7:47AM, May 19, 2022
Kim is not a sociopath - but her many nuances make her most intriguing…and she has a scary side
The secret sociopath.
A story trope in fiction that can make for a shocking ending when done well, or probably an eye-rolling one
when not, is the secret sociopath.
A character ...
QUACKCAST 576 - Retro Adventure heroes
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, March 29, 2022 LISTEN on our new player!
Listen on Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/drunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/
Retro adventure heroes are an interesting and unique sort of hero. The trope was revived and crystallised by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with Indiana Jones, but ...
Tropes I love: The Bargain
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 19, 2022
So it's fun to rant about tropes I hate but I actually prefer to gush about tropes I love.
And one of them is what I call “the bargain”: it's really a game of wits between a (usually lawful) villain and a hero (or protagonist/antagonist, take your ...
On Censorship
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 12, 2022
So I'm exhausted today, at the end of a very eventful week and a lot of work piled on work.
Which means I can't discipline my brain to write something more artsy or tropey. Though censorship is a trope, right?
When do we have censorship appear in stories ...
When You Have to Tone it Down
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 5, 2022
I've talked at times about how, as I make Without Moonlight, I have to constantly make choices on what to include and what not to from …reality.
By that I mean that true, documented (and even photographed) events from the nazi occupation of Athens during WWII are so grotesquely ...
Tropes I Hate: Slap n' Kiss
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 26, 2022
I revert to talking about tropes I hate, because I don't want to talk about things happening around us but I still want to talk about something I despise.
Tropes I hate it is!
The horrible slap n' kiss or “slap slap kiss” trope.
Especially prevalent in lakorns (Thai ...