pop culture

There’s a famous storytelling rule: if you show a gun on the wall in the first act, it better go off in the third. That’s Chekhov’s Gun.

Whether you're writing a novel, screenplay, video game, or short story, one of the most powerful storytelling tools is the character arc

In the world of mystery and crime thrillers, one of the most effective narrative tools is the MacGuffin—an object, person, or event

In action films, directors grab the audience’s attention in the first moments by using a technique called ‘In Medias Res’

In the world of storytelling, few techniques are as powerful—or as risky—as the cliffhanger. Done well, it keeps your audience....

Cold opens—a bold, unannounced jump into the middle of the action. Often structured using the classic literary technique In Medias Res.

Time loop stories love their paradoxes. They're built like Möbius strips: one twisted path, no clear beginning or end, just a continuous loop

The mind-bending TV show, ‘1899’, takes viewers on a voyage through a puzzle box of reality and illusion. But beneath the trippy visuals and cryptic mysteries lies a foundation built on a philosophical cornerstone: Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

Morse code, with its stark simplicity of dots and dashes, becomes more than just a method of transmission. It becomes a metaphor

In an age of instant publishing and curated feeds, zines still holds a raw, unfiltered power. But where did this DIY staple come from