Etymology is not the first thing that comes to mind when one sits down at their desk to begin penning a jaunt through lands replete with wizards and dragons. It’s simply not as entertaining as building out the world or navigating the twists and turns of a suspenseful plot. But with its focus on the […]
Continue ReadingThe Substrate of the Purely Villainous
Any true aficionado of the villainous–of antagonists in film, literature, interactive media–knows that the truly diabolical are not those with mundane or even sympathetic aims. They are those whose reprehensibility is alien to us, unnerving in their capacity for estrangement from the normal motivations which occupy our species. We, as consummate consumers, eventually tire of […]
Continue ReadingWhat Happens When They Give Up?
It is important to note the chief similarity between main and side characters. That is, at any point, a main character might become a side character and vice versa. Their lives could stop. This is what helps them achieve personhood, this imagining them as people with control over their lives and not bound to some […]
Continue ReadingInteruptions of Inference
It’s important not to interrupt yourself, but it’s even more important not to interrupt the other person. In writing or in speaking, interruptions can be disastrous. Reading isn’t any different, and the dialogue writers hold with their readers is (or should be) as sacrosanct as that which we might have with a friend or close […]
Continue ReadingScene Geography
Where things are is almost as important as the things that are being said. Oftentimes it is enough to address objects or terrain or the layout of a structure as these are met by the character who is moving through them; sometimes, it is even necessary. Detailing the scene in sum before the characters have […]
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