My muse is a bit of a bitch. Oftentimes when I’m away from my computer I’ll be struck by a thought–a simple line of dialogue or a facial expression or a freeze frame as though from a movie–and find myself fumbling over my phone trying to capture it. And many times I capture it exactly as […]
My first time playing Pathfinder I created a typical human fighter, you know the kind: the battle-worn, slow but tough warrior with a greatsword. He was as cliche and uninteresting as a monk without a name. But as I grew more comfortable with the game’s mechanics and my fighter died because I picked out terrible equipment for him (not […]
I recall as a young writer the greatest and, at times, only flaw in my protagonists was in their lack of flaws. Just as readers and viewers tire of 2-dimensional villains, so do they bore of porcelain-faced protagonists, especially those seemingly unaware of their perfections. Why Do We Make Our Characters Flawed? As writers, we dwell in the fantastical […]
As comic book movies dominate the film industry and television networks continue regurgitating the same maniacal CSI franchises and Gossip Bitch dramas, it’s hard to see such a vast array of villains who are so much alike. Why are we so afraid of making villains likeable–isn’t that how most villainous tycoons get to be successful in all […]
More than 40 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. It’s a horrifying statistic, but what’s more terrible is that we’re not really sure why cancer has such a high prevalence. There’s genetic disposition, of course, and chance, but that can’t account for every instance. Sandra Steingraber, an ecologist […]
I had a screenwriting class with Randall Wallace late into my undergraduate career, and even though I didn’t always agree with his method of teaching, he taught me a very important thing about writers: we are at a greater risk for mental illness. A 2012 study by researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden looked at 1.2 […]
It’s funny, I put this blog under the category ‘In the News,’ but Bahrain is everywhere but. Bahrain is a small country in the Middle East nestled on the Persian Gulf. I had first learned about the human rights violations occurring in that country after speaking with Amber Lyon at a group dinner at MountainFilm. […]
There’s this story that’s gone viral about a mother, Anna MacLean, who took her autistic daughter, Arianna, out for lunch to Chili’s. I’d like to discuss this story as a way of breaking down good storytelling. So, Anna takes her daughter out for lunch, and Arianna orders her favorite dish, a hamburger and fries. But […]
My boyfriend and I go to Tom Shadyac’s class lectures at Pepperdine with a few friends every week. Although the class has about a 20-student limit, Tom’s lectures fill up so much the school has to give him an auditorium to fit the 200 or so people who visit each week. He has guest speakers […]
Earlier this year IDW Publishing released the first issue in Stephen King and Joe Hill’s Road Rage, a four-issue comic book series based on their short story, Throttle, and Richard Matheson’s Duel. For me, the publication was incredibly exciting, not only because I am a big fan of Joe Hill’s Locke & Key, but because it […]
I have an 85-song playlist I write to, though I often pick one song and put it on repeat. I have been adding and deleting songs from this playlist for over 9 years, though the one song I’ve kept in it is Moonlight Sonata. I first began listening to Moonlight my freshman year in high […]
I had the opportunity to attend Comic Con for my second year thanks to IDW Publishing, a comic book publisher I interned and later worked with in San Diego. I was also lucky to have a friend who was willing to let me crash on his couch for the weekend so I didn’t have to […]
Becoming a better writer is such an abstract process, even when under the guidance of higher education. Unlike with Humanities or Business majors, grades issued in Creative Writing courses have no merit as to the quality of the writing produced. Sure, a professor can grade you on your spelling and grammar. Maybe even originality of […]
Gaming for a Change
When 17-year-old Zach Wigal first began organizing a Halo 2 tournament for his classmates at Saline High School, he never dreamt he’d start doing it for a living. After three months of planning, his Halo tournament was serendipitously cancelled by a superintendent after a local police officer raised concerns that video games were “corrupting the […]