How I Met Your Mother is a sitcom that feels like it aims for both. Though it is episodic to an extent, it tells the audience right away that there is an ending to this. Even in the title alone, the series calls its shot about a major plot point for the finale.
Read MoreI recently started playing Persona 5 (a few years late, sure, but better than never). It’s a dungeon crawler JRPG. Even with the shallowest understanding of what is going in this game, it is hard to ignore how often psychological terms are thrown about. I quickly learned that it wasn’t just psychology in general being referenced, but more specifically the works of Carl Jung. I was curious how deep it all goes and needed to find at least a baseline understanding of what the game was referencing.
Read MoreThe Sexy Brutale is a top-down style puzzle game with an interesting premise: the whole game essentially boils down to replaying the same ten-minute period over and over again in order to save nine guests from being murdered.
Read MoreFear is a part of every life. I can’t speak for how anyone but myself has lived, but for me fear has been a very invasive and ever present force around me. It has taken many forms, some of which I have discovered are probably social anxiety. On it’s own, fear isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, but there have been times which it has paralyzed me. When fear reaches a point that it stops me from doing things I should be doing, then it becomes a real problem.
Read MoreAs mentioned in my first Feature Writing Journal, I decided to take a look at Definitely, Maybe (2008), written and directed by Adam Brooks.
Read MoreHere comes another Structuring the Pilot, this time taking a look at The Office (US).
I wanted to breakdown a sitcom, because of how different they are from an hour-long drama. They have half the amount of time to tell a story and focus more on finding the humor in situations (shocking, giving the genre name) than being story driven.
Read MoreThis blog is really becoming a weird hybrid of looking into nerdy storytelling and personal posts. Not sure how well it is working out, but it’s how I’m letting it roll for now. Warning in advance, this is going to be more of the type that is all about me.
Read MoreWith Supernatural starting up its final season, it felt like a fun idea to look back at its pilot and see how it worked. So, without further ado, a breakdown of how it’s pilot was structured.
Read MoreEver want a way to kill off some, or all, the main characters of your show, only to have them be totally fine by the end of the episode? Maybe you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck reusing a gag without its repetition being without purpose? Or how about wanting a character to grow and have an entire arc with little to no in-universe time passing at all? We’ll I’ve got the trope for you!
Read MoreA fairy tale-esque short story about the perils of feeling you are owed too much.
Read MoreI hear it far too often. Lately it tends to be preceded by the topic of the Disney live action remakes coming up, but it’s been a common phrase for longer than they’ve been happening. “They’re ruining my childhood!”
Read MoreI wasn’t going to write anything for New Years. I probably wasn’t even going to write anything for a few weeks while I try to catch up on all the things I let slide over the holidays, but then I read a post on Neil Gaiman’s Journal.
Read MoreEveryone has a different writing process, and today I want to talk about part of mine. This part of the process is the first rewrite. To lift the veil a little bit, the reason this part is on my mind right now is because it is what I’m currently working through on another project.
Read MoreProcrastination is a huge problem of mine. Even today, I had a different idea of what to write, but I put it off, and put it off, and finally this felt like the more apt topic to work through. I had found myself unmotivated to write a post and needed to give myself a reminder of how to get it back.
Read More“Lucky Penny” is one of the purest distillations of How I Met Your Mother. From theme, to structure, this episode is one that demonstrates exactly what the series aims to be as a whole.
Read MoreGone Home is of a much slower sort, built not on complicated mechanics but on tone and story. This is a game where if you let yourself be immersed in it, you will be rewarded, especially by how much emotional weight it brings to a short two-hour play time.
Read MoreWhen Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 came out a couple weeks ago, I rushed to buy it. I love the Black Ops series, mainly because of Zombies Mode. This time around, rather then vending machines that the player can purchase perks from (which still exist in the Aether story levels), the Chaos story levels have players get their perks from gods.
Read MoreAs promised on the most recent episode of the podcast, here is the short story I mentioned writing. I hope you enjoy!
Read MoreThe past year has been a big one for me. It started back in October 2017, then when January came around I decided to title the year ahead. 2018 became the Year of Building. Corny, I know, but that's who I am.
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