Sep 29 2026
Ah, Falkor the Luck Dragon. Entire generations grew up absolutely loving the movie, “The NeverEnding Story” which I find fascinating because, objectively speaking? It is a terribly written movie. Yes, yes I know it was based off a book, but we are specifically referring to the movie today. Though structurally awful, we love it anyway. …
Jun 20 2011
Happy Monday! Last week, we picked on the poor Star Wars prequels. What went wrong? Better yet, what lessons can we, as writers, take away from some serious storytelling blunders? If you missed this discussion, go here, and check out the comments. Some people way smarter than me stopped by, that’s for certain. So, this …
May 23 2011
From the WONDERFUL movie Finding Nemo Last week we took a break away from talking about the antagonist because I needed you guys to be able to see how fiction looks when broken down to its fundamental parts. All fiction can be boiled down to cause, effect, cause, effect, cause, effect. But, beyond that, …
Oct 18 2010
Yesterday, in order to “relax” I decided to watch a movie. I had the house pretty much to myself, so I decided to watch something I normally wouldn’t choose….a chick flick. I watch crime shows and military documentaries and most of the movies I like involve some kind of autopsy or explosion. But, I wanted …
Mar 25 2010
Most of the time when I hear a new writer announce that his piece is “literary fiction,” that is a short-hand cue for me to expect no structure, lots of similes, metaphors, self-indulgent flashbacks and no overall conflict other than a main character’s really pretentious angst. Most of the time, it smacks of self-therapy thinly guised as a story
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