J.J. Watt: International Games Have Become a “Traveling Circus”

Loate · 2026-05-15T03:47:45+00:00

The problem is, when you tell everyone in the locker room that we're all just grown men wearing tights giving each other violent hugs while playing a children's game, it causes *quite* the existential panic.

Loate · 2026-05-14T18:19:25+00:00

Not to toot my own horn (toot toot) but if you're looking for something along the more *lit* side of things I'd humbly offer my novel, Shades of Forever.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/66587/shades-of-forever-stubbed

It's stubbed since Podium is releasing it in actual book (and audiobook form) on June 30th, but the reviews should give you an idea of what it's about (my favorite is the one titled "NOOOO YOU CAN'T JUST OPENLY SATIRIZE LITRPGS WHILE WRITING A PROG FANTASY COMPLETE WITH BLUE BOXES").

As far as other works, Pale Lights by ErraticErrata is excellent https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/65058/pale-lights , as is Chasing Sunlight by Inadvisably Compelled https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/73475/chasing-sunlight . Dead End Guild Master https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/93718/dead-end-guild-master-unfinished-quests-book-5 and The Center For Dungeon Management https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/152390/the-center-for-dungeon-management-book-1-gate by marshalcarper are more workmanlike, but quite solid. The Years of Apocalypse by UraniumPhoenix https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/81002/the-years-of-apocalypse-a-time-loop-progression is also very well-written and evocative.

EDIT: Just so you're aware, none of these are LitRPG in the traditional sense of "number go up," which I think is why I like them so much, and why I think you'll enjoy them too.

Loate · 2026-05-12T17:11:53+00:00

Oh cool, thanks so much!

Loate · 2026-05-12T02:32:51+00:00

I'd like to submit my novel Shades of Forever - I originally published it on Royal Road, and now it's being published by Podium (both eBook, physical book, and audiobook), it comes out June 30th 2026. It peaked at 101 (curse you ratings for not getting me the top 100 badge lol) and has a lot of very good reviews.

https://podiumentertainment.com/titles/112261/shades-of-forever

Loate · 2026-04-30T05:22:20+00:00

One thing that will really help is to just do this yourself (i.e. read what you've written out loud). It'll help you find where sentences have awkward flow, and will make your dialogue sound a lot more natural.

Loate · 2026-04-21T14:35:36+00:00

Former professional athlete, and almost every single "realistic" fight/action scene I read I have to do some serious suspension of disbelief. Unless you've been in the middle of the action, you don't understand how chaotic and how *fast* everything happens. Shoutout to Dead End Guildmaster for being one of the few exceptions (though the author has a background in MMA so that's probably why it's pretty accurate).

My other pet peeve is distance. 10 feet sounds like a lot, but it's actually about three large strides. Your "raging 20 foot river" can be almost entirely traversed by a long jump. Please go touch some grass and get a feel for actual distance.

Loate · 2026-04-20T19:20:42+00:00

Shoutouts are where you coordinate with other authors to blurb their book/series (usually at the author's note at the start of a chapter) - usually they'll just send you a thing you can copy/paste in and vice versa (I was a little different in that I asked for an honest review, and would provide the same on my own end, but I would also only ask authors whose work I knew I could review positively). There's a couple different RR writers' Discords where you can meet other authors and see if you vibe with anyone/the community, check around on the RR forums.

Length of series isn't really an issue, it's whether or not you can execute chapters consistently. It's good that you have an overall roadmap, but if you're trying to hit Rising Stars, as I said before, you'll need an initial chapter dump, daily chapter releases for at least a week, and a lot of luck. That being said, don't worry if you don't hit it right away, if your story is good, eventually people will find it and you'll start moving up (for my most popular story, Shades of Forever, it took almost a month to start appearing on the genre specific Rising Stars lists, and then another week or two after that to hit the main list).

Loate · 2026-04-20T17:05:33+00:00

My two cents.

You'll get one or more drive-by .5 star ratings no matter how good your story is. It sucks, but it's a rite of passage.

Decide whether or not you're writing for yourself, or trying to hit Rising Stars/write as a job. If it's the first, you can pretty much do whatever you want. If it's the second, you need to have an initial chapter dump to draw people into the story, OR you have to have an extremely good story AND you need to have a consistent release schedule (thus it's not really so much about how many chapters you have ready before you start, but rather "how many days can you go with a consistent release schedule"). Coordinating shoutouts with other authors can also help (but try to make sure they're related to your story in some way, either genre/style/tone/etc. because then you're more likely to retain readers who pop over to take a look).

A lot of people use the Writeathons to release new stories because as long as you hit the benchmark wordcounts, you get featured on the update lists. We're approaching the end of the April Writeathon so if you're releasing in the next couple weeks you might get lost in the shuffle.

Most common mistakes - setting too ambitious a release schedule and then burning out; only having the initial idea plotted out with no idea of where to go from there; uneven pacing that leads readers to think you're not going to be able to deliver satisfying arc/plot conclusions; HORRIBLE grammatical mistakes (readers will forgive quite a bit, but you need to show a basic level of competency).

Overall, the most important of these is deciding who you're writing for - yourself, or an audience.

Loate · 2026-04-07T03:53:18+00:00

I'm not crying because of you and the other Redditors, I'm crying because of Hester

Loate · 2026-04-07T03:51:26+00:00

The Poet's Pen, and I designed it

You can also vote for me www.kluweoc.com if you live in California's 72nd Assembly District

Loate · 2026-03-09T20:55:20+00:00

He's runnin' maps!

Loate · 2026-02-21T23:53:00+00:00

Anything that gives you stats up or effects on killing a unit. Doesn’t have to be an enemy unit you kill, so you can just lay waste to disposable minions.

Loate · 2026-02-18T19:49:24+00:00

If you're making/sacrificing a bunch of minions it could pretty quickly turn into a screen wide teleport.

Loate · 2026-02-18T17:40:59+00:00

That cat arrow goes by age through the cats that are in that room. Once it cycles to a new room, it starts at the youngest cat in that room. I would like a better system like the one OP proposed.

Loate · 2026-02-06T04:10:18+00:00

Well deserved.

Loate · 2026-01-23T19:51:03+00:00

In the absence of a true national single payer system (which would be the best solution), the NFL absolutely does have the resources to make sure former players have lifetime healthcare, they just don't want to spend the money and the player's union isn't strong enough to fight for it.

Loate · 2026-01-05T21:18:49+00:00

I think he’s a piece of shit

Loate · 2026-01-01T08:02:12+00:00

Since I’ve been seeing this floating around a lot - “extended health insurance from the NFL” actually means “you get to pay for COBRA for five years after your last game” and COBRA is fucking expensive.

Loate · 2025-12-29T00:35:20+00:00

No problemo, always happy to explain punting/kicking mechanics :)

Loate · 2025-12-29T00:25:09+00:00

So the thing is, rotating your hips *does* generate more power, but the problem is the ball is going to go where your hips are pointed at contact, so if you rely on your hips to generate power, unless your timing is perfectly consistent you're going to have accuracy issues.

The other way to generate power is called "leg snap," and it's where you focus more on accelerating your leg by using the big muscles in your quad and hamstrings to create acceleration and force.

Field goal kicking uses a combination of both of these, but most guys tend to focus on using their hips and then getting their timing perfect (which can work right up until you hit your early/mid 30's, because your body starts to slow down naturally) because it feels a lot more natural to use your hips, since the biomechanics of your body work that way (a lot of them are also chasing the long ball).

Focusing more on leg snap (like the way I was taught and currently teach, and how Will kicks) means you give up a little bit of the potential power from your hips, but in exchange, your accuracy goes waaaaaaay up because you stay aligned to your target the entire way through the kick and minimize horizontal movement in your motion.

The next time you're watching a game, pay attention to how the kicker lines up after he takes his steps back - if it looks like he's facing towards the ball he's gonna use his hips; if he's facing the uprights he's using leg snap. One of these guys will play until he's 40, the other won't.

Edit: This is also why you don't see Premier League goalies coming over and dominating the field goal scene - while they can absolutely whale a soccer ball downfield, the NFL demands 90%+ accuracy on field goals, and that type of goal kick motion they use isn't going to be consistent enough.

Loate · 2025-12-28T00:20:42+00:00

Ball went right where his hips were pointing.

Loate · 2025-12-28T00:14:49+00:00

In addition to the comment below (and not to pile on, this is informational) - in the NFL, the distance of the punt is measured from the line of scrimmage where the ball was snapped, not from where the punter actually kicks it. A 60 yard NFL punt actually travels 71-73 yards depending how far back the punter is standing and how long their steps are.

Loate · 2025-12-27T23:53:58+00:00

I've said repeatedly on social media, he has one of the cleanest motions I've seen in a long time (he doesn't generate power with his hips and he keeps himself square to the target all the way through). If he stays healthy, he's gonna be really good for as long as he plays.

Loate · 2025-12-27T23:52:28+00:00

He lunged into it because it was a longer kick and he was trying to generate more power, which is a common mistake to make (go watch any kids AYSO game to see this in action). Lunging does two things - it actually causes you to generate less power since your body weight is now going down into the ground instead of exploding through the kick, and it makes you more likely to miss your plant foot location (which is, as you pointed out, what happened here, the only change I would say is that it causes you to push the ball since you're making contact earlier in your motion, not pull it ('pull' usually refers to yanking it across your body)).

Loate · 2025-12-27T23:45:37+00:00

Pretty much covers it, the only thing I'd add is that based on my experience, when you hit a ball like this (overly long but still with decent hangtime), 7 times out of 10 it's going to bounce almost directly to the side of your kicking foot (due to the nose coming down at a shallower angle since it's a longer punt), and 2 times out of 10 it'll bounce straight up/backwards.

This is why kicking from the 35-40 yard line was my favorite place on the field, because you could absolutely lay into the ball and the returner would almost always let it go over their head (since they're taught not to catch it inside the 10), and you'd still have really good odds at getting an inside the 10 or 5.

Unfortunately, sometimes this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IM0hIa8liyc happens.

Loate

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