'Lighted by the Candle Within': E. E. Nesbit's 'The Railway Children'
We know from How Stories Really Work that fiction follows certain templates in order to be successful. Rather than detracting from the...
The Darkening of Comics
’Initially, Watchmen gained a lot of its readership because it was taking an unusual look at superheroes, but actually it was more about...
The Importance of Endings
Endings in stories are incredibly important, but many would-be writers get lost in a labyrinth soon after starting and never make it to...
Master Authors and the Four Key Questions
Successful stories ask readers four key questions: ‘What will happen next?’ This question forms the basis of even the most primitive tale...
'V for Vendetta': Epic or Irony?
It’s peculiar that V’s mask from Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel V for Vendetta has become an iconic representation of the ‘Anonymous’...
The History of Comics 1
We are all born into an already existing culture, much of which we take completely for granted. Take ‘comics’, for example. They have...
The Context of 'Doctor Who' 4
Having overtly replaced its lead actor (Hartnell to Troughton) in 1966 using an invented plot mechanism which opened the door to a...
Tolkien and Frodo's Motivations
Earlier in this blog, I examined the development of the character at the heart of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins. I...
'An Inspector Calls' -An Irony
The play An Inspector Calls, written by J. B. Priestley during the closing moments of the Second World War, premiered on 1 October 1946....
The Power of Tropes
As we have seen in How Stories Really Work, there are four basic genres, each growing out of the kind of effect a writer wants to produce...