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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Why “Gap Moe” is the Japanese Term All Manga Creators Need to Know
The term “gap moe” is a hybrid English-Japanese term which uses the English word “gap” (the space between two objects) and the Japanese word “moe” (萌え, pronounced...
Writing Romantic Comedy Light Novels (For Men)
If you want to understand writing Romantic Comedy Light Novels (RCLN) you just need to picture a dance party in your head – a high school gym...
April 21, 2022
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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...
Five Old Writer’s Tricks that Never Fail to keep Readers Reading
The greatest criticism you can say about a story is that it’s boring. But have you ever wondering why that’s such a criticism? Why is it that...
March 29, 2021
General Writing / Light Novels / Novel Writing / Stories Made Simple / Writing Audio Drama / Writing Formulas
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How to Write a Romantic Comedy Light Novel (from Novenaro)
Since actual Japanese sources on writing light novels aren’t easy to find in English, I am sharing translations of some of the more interesting articles I have...
Do All Light Novels Share the Same Plot?
Last week, I did a series of posts trying to come up with a new definition of what a light novel is. And among the definitions translated...
Designing the Second CTC Cover
When it was time to design the cover for the second book of my Crazy Tricks Club series, I already knew a few things. First, I was...
The Onion Method: Building Better Stories by Talking to Yourself
Reimena Yee’s Onion Method For Outlining Graphic Novels is one of the more interesting approaches I’ve seen to planning a story in a while. At first I...
September 7, 2020
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How M.I.C.E. can help writers.
A while ago on the Writing Excuses podcast I heard science fiction author Mary Robinette-Kowal discuss one of her personal favorite ways to structure stories, which is...