Why I Dislike TV Series with Episodic Episodes

Lately I've been watching several TV series, and when I tweet about them or review them I often comment that the episodes feel or don't feel episodic. Here I'll attempt to explain what I mean by this. A series by definition is made up of episodes, but the episodes can cover a series story arc, or they can be stand alone episodes.

The World of Twin Peaks: By Design or by Chance?

As an aspiring author, I often think about how a story should be planned. Some authors write a very detailed outline and follow it; others begin with a basic idea then start writing to see where it leads; while others use a combination of both. Usually it's very difficult to research these approaches to see what results they yield, but when I was writing my review of the Twin Peaks series I was surprised by the amount of information I found relating to each storyline and character.

The creators planned the storyline and feel of the show thoroughly, but most of the iconic characters and scenes were unscripted. If you're familiar with the series, after reading this article you should be able to see how the original design blended with the improvised to create a cultural phenomenon.

Can you teach Creative Writing?

Lately I noticed lots of people on Twitter talking about creative writing courses, so I decided to investigate. I tried to discover when creative writing courses started being taught, so I could rule out authors who lived before such courses were given. The answer was that creative writing courses were developed starting from the 1880's to the 1940's. Most of my favourite authors could potentially have attended such courses.

Next I tried to find out if the authors I admire ever attended such courses and what they thought of them. Several authors wrote tips for good writing for their fans, but I could only find two that definitely did attend a course themselves.

Thrillers: Mystery and Suspense

Thriller is a genre of literature that creates intense emotions, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, in short "thrills". There are many subgenres, such as the crime thriller, horror thriller, political thriller, paranoid thriller, spy thriller, and so on, but today I want to talk about the difference in how the story is revealed to the reader, the difference between Mystery Thrillers and Suspense Thrillers.

Die of Curiosity, meet the Devil in the Details

All books and movies are based on simple concepts, and thus can be summarized in one or two sentences. In fact all books and movies have such a summary on their back cover. Once summarized they can usually be put in one or two categories. Take for example the category of 'revenge movies', the summary will probably be "Main character is wronged, he gets revenge on the perpetrators'. Adding a twist at the end will make