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Writing 204: Lego BlocksRemember back in the day when you got that kick-ass Lego pirate ship with thousands of little pieces in a snowy X-Mas? And how much fun it was to build it just like the picture on the cover? Building the whole thing up from scratch always comparing your work with the one on box.

Awesome, so based on the current poll I'll discuss index cards, character development and why not a little bit more about structure.

Your outline, which hopefully you broke into smaller chunks, say fifteen or sixteen of them, is the picture on the Lego box. And your index cards are the actual Legos.

So now it's time to build your story just like you planned... befo

Writing 203: Nice to Meet YouToday's article is extremely important as it is key for successful character development.

KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS INSIDE AND OUT

That's today's lesson. You have to develop all your characters well enough they become real people. Except those with one line only, like Officer #1 or Hot-Dog Dude. Those are walking puppets to populate your world.

But your primary and secondary characters must be well developed, there's no way around it. Their actions must be driven by their personality and back story. Even though most of this information will never see the light of day, it is imperative they exist through your characters' actions.

If you need a

Writing 102: The OutlineTime to take the next step. By now you should have three big chunks of plot, a beginning, the middle and hopefully an end.

Now we are going to break these chunks in smaller pieces in what is known as the "Three Arc Structure". Any form of entertainment follows this classic structure in some way, even the smallest joke, which has the set-up, the middle and finally the punch line.

There are very creative pieces of work that throw that Three Arc Structure out the window but I guarantee that the author behind such work knew this theory backwards and upside down and thus was comfortable enough not to follow it. Know you craft before innovating.

Writing 101: Find your EndingWriting may seem easy but if you intend to write entertainment in any form there are ancient rules to follow, the Greeks knew it thousands of years ago, about time you learn them too.

A linear story must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Pretty obvious, heh? Not really, smart ass... you see, in reality most people start writing without having an end, not even an idea where to take the story, no prior planning. You can't build a house without a blueprint, same goes for story telling.

Writers tend to get so carried away having so much fun, they lose themselves in the story in a way that what began as a twenty four page One-Shot becomes a

Writing 202: What's your Job?Couple of days ago I covered how big should your cast be and today I'll cover their functions within the story. This should be extremely helpful to see which characters should be gone and those that are key to your plot.

One of the best books I read on Character Development was "The Writer's Journey - Mythic Structure for Writers" by Christopher Vogler. He covers classic structuring as well but for me, the highlight in his book is how he maps his plot through his characters.

Basically he divides every single character in seven (7) Archetypes, the most common ones. Sometimes a character can "be" more than one thing but this helps figure out

Writing 201: Crowd or Cast?You should know your overall plot by now and I'm sure you have your cast of characters in mind, now it's time to cut your cast in half, yep, seriously, cut it in half as you have too many characters. Yep, that's right, we'll focus today's article on something most people tend to ignore: how big should your cast be?

Here's the thing, the more characters you have, the more pages you will need to develop them in a satisfying manner. So, unless you're writing the next 1000+ novel I suggest you keep your cast with the minimum number of characters as possible your plot requires.

Why have two bad guys when one suffices? What's the point in having

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Submitted: February 17, 2010
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What is he drawing?by =FelipeCagno

Cartoons & Comics / Traditional Media / Cartoons / Drawings

©2010-2013 =FelipeCagno

The Lost Kids huddle around Tommy as he draws on his Notebook.

Characters and Story created by me.

I can write, but can't draw a straight line. Thank God there are amazing talent out there like these two:

Lines by

Colors by

Amazing piece of work from these very talented artists, please stop by their pages, it's worth it!

===============================

***FIND US ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER***

Official Lost Kids Facebook Page

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Your support there is as important as it is here, thank you!

!Ken-shiro Jun 24, 2010

Lovely work. Unique style.

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=FelipeCagno Jun 24, 2010 Professional Filmographer

Happy you liked it, thanks so much for checking it out and leaving a comment

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!Ken-shiro Jun 25, 2010

No problem.

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!BlackStar-okuz Jun 11, 2010 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Nice!

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=FelipeCagno Jun 11, 2010 Professional Filmographer

Thanks so much!

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!BlackStar-okuz Jun 12, 2010 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

you're welcome

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~hypandom Feb 17, 2010

Love it! But did you draw or color it..?

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=FelipeCagno Feb 17, 2010 Professional Filmographer

Neither, hehe, I created the characters for a graphic novel I'm currently working on with Ben & Joey Vazquez.

Glad you loved it! Check out the rest of our work here in my gallery and on Ben and Joey's.

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