Today I share some thoughts inspired by a conversation I had with Dan Mishkin about writing characters and keeping their emotional arcs “honest”. Believe it or not, I manage to tie my points into a common argument amongst cartoonists over “how much is too much backstory?”
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Thunder Punch Daily 114 – Emotional Honesty Read More »
Today I share some of the thought process I’ve been using in re-imagining characters from the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe franchise. It turns out that re-designing other people’s characters can be a great way to develop and hone your skills for creating your own characters.
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Thunder Punch Daily 103 – Warming Up With Characters Read More »
Today I follow up on the last episode with some more ways I look for surprises in my characters, this time focusing on their personalities or inner lives, including the following:
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Thunder Punch Daily 82 – Character Design, Pt 2 Read More »
Today I share some of the means I use to look for surprises in my characters when designing them. This first part concerns itself with the visual aspect of character design, including the following:
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Thunder Punch Daily 81 – Character Design, Pt 1 Read More »
Today I share some good news about a freelance job I started chronicling in TPD #71 and some thoughts as to why I think it turned out so well. My guess is that it’s at least partly because I didn’t lose my temper.
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Thunder Punch Daily 73 – Client Notes, Pt 2 Read More »
Today I share some thoughts about a character commonly known as “The Lovable Loser”, and deconstruct it a bit using the heroes from the Transformers: Animated series as my guide. Don’t forget to check out Rob Stenzinger’s awesome tutorial on how to sync these microcasts with podcatchers like iTunes!
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Thunder Punch Daily 51 – The Lovable Loser Read More »
Following up on thoughts I began sharing in Thunder Punch Daily 43, I expand a bit on what I’m discovering about writing good redemption characters. I do wind up talking a bit about Dinobot, but this time I focus mainly on Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender as my basis of meditation. In a flash of inspiration, I constructed a chart to describe my thoughts on this kind of character, but as usual, Sara Turner sums it up even better.
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Thunder Punch Daily 46 – Redemption Characters II Read More »
Today I leap off of topics broached in Mark of the Beast 12 and High Adventure Daily 13 to share a few thoughts on writing longer stories without letting any extraneous (or fat) make it into the narrative. One mustn’t mistake our focus on creating lean stories as an indictment on long-form comics.
I refer to Thunder Punch Daily 06 – Argue For Your Theme in this episode as well.
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Thunder Punch Daily 22 – More Content, Half The Fat Read More »
Today I answer a question asked in the forums by Rene van Belzen:
How do I know what a character thinks or feels if it hasn’t been developed yet, nor feel any compassion for it?
The big secret of writing is that it’s what we did on the playground as children. The problem with teaching is it becomes too easy to bewilder the audience with terminology, charts, and definitions.
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Thunder Punch Daily 20 – It’s Only Pretending, After All Read More »
Today I discuss what could be considered a character archetype: The Small Soulful One. Many of us think of characters like Yoda as a good representation of that type, but I explain why I think characters like Paddington Bear and Pippi Longstocking are even better at exploring what makes that kind of character special.
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Thunder Punch Daily 16 – The Small Soulful One Read More »