The Three Central Questions A Good Story Should Answer
It’s long been understood that all good stories have a central question which binds them together, and depending on the story, this can be many things,...
The Four Archetypes Characters Go Through in Most Stories
I came across this video today, and I have to say I find the idea of the character shifting between archetypal roles as they go through their...
Man vs. Duty – The Eastern Conflict
In 335 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book Poetics wrote that drama was based around four central conflicts: Man vs. Man Man vs. Self Man...
January 21, 2023
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The Troubled Soul Plot – The Manga Gold Standard?
There is no one shonen plot to rule them all, but there is a plot that has basically become a “gold standard” for shonen manga targeted at...
November 22, 2022
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KiShoTenKetsu in Manga Revisited
Recently I read The Shonen Jump Guide to Making Manga, and while the book itself was underwhelming for what it claimed to be, I did find a...
October 25, 2022
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The Importance of Dead Simple Goals in Manga
One of the things that the top selling manga have in common is that their lead characters are almost all working towards some overall arching goal. Accomplishing...
Paul Chato’s Rules for Writing Manga?
I recently posted Paul Chato’s rules for writing sitcoms, which is an excellent discussion of the topic by someone who spent years in the trenches producing sitcoms....
September 2, 2022
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Paul Chato’s Rules for Writing a Sitcom
Canadian writer, comedian, and “Former Network Executive” Paul Chato recently released a video about how to write his favorite form of television – the Classic Sitcom. It’s...
The Modern Audio Drama virtual convention playlist is now up on YouTube!
From July 24th-25th, a the Modern Audio Drama convention (MADcon) was held virtually this year, and the playlist of the sessions is now available on YouTube for...
Five Ways for Pantsers to Plan Their Stories
For some writers, the idea of plotting out a story is a nightmare. To them, it just takes all the fun out of the writing. For these...