When it comes to dangerous artifacts in a fictional setting, every writer faces at least two dilemmas: Why does everyone want this thing? Why is… Read More »Dangerous Artifacts and the Characters Who Love Them
We’ve all been there. One minute you’re minding your own business, and the next, a dangerous and coveted plot device tumbles into your hands. And… Read More »Plot Devices and Other Narrative Thickeners
What’s this? An anticlimactic plot twist? Guilty as charged! The Author-Audience Contract An unwritten contract exists between every author and their audience. The author promises… Read More »Finding the Anticlimactic Way Out
Once upon a time, a fictional dog didn’t stand a snowball’s chance of surviving to the end of the story. Old Yeller, Bristle Face, and Where the Red… Read More »Like a Dog in a Doomsday Flick
Virtue, unfortunately, is too often disposable in a doomsday plot. We’ve all seen it: two people of casual acquaintance thrown into a story line that… Read More »The Principle of Expendable Virtue
Doomsday catalysts come in many flavors: asteroids, volcanoes, earthquakes, alien invasions, global warming, global thermonuclear war, and so forth. These cataclysmic events project such an… Read More »Doomsday Determines the Truly Worthy
Politics is a touchy subject, I know. I think we can all agree, however, that our endless election cycle habitually draws the Worst Possible candidates… Read More »Exploring the Election Trope
The social narrative for redheads is a double-edged sword, with the lovable, quirky, positive image juxtaposed against a much darker perception. In ages past, red… Read More »The Social Consequence of Seeing Red
Blog articles abound on redhead statistics: anywhere from 1-4% of the world’s population has this hair coloration, it’s more prevalent in Northern European countries (from… Read More »Secrets of a Rare Breed
The plight of the redhead is close to my heart. I was nine years old when Disney first released The Little Mermaid. It had a tremendous… Read More »A Redhead, You Say? Cue the Lovable, Quirky Hijinks!