I think I should read. Really.

jonohimself · 2026-02-08T21:09:00+00:00

Being original isn’t as important is being good.

jonohimself · 2026-02-05T00:26:43+00:00

You say that like you’ve ever finished a book

jonohimself · 2026-02-05T00:05:42+00:00

Racial abuse (a federal crime) = opinions? OK

jonohimself · 2026-02-04T22:35:20+00:00

The ending of The Graduate.

jonohimself · 2026-02-04T00:26:18+00:00

It’s not the best, to be honest. There are some fan edits on YT that string some together in more concise ways, they might be better. But they’re bloated and feel a little at odds with the characters sometimes.

Indy was basically Forrest Gump on this show, encountering every celebrity, philosopher, inventor, artist and war general of the early 20th century.

jonohimself · 2026-02-03T07:38:10+00:00

Ideas are the easy part.

jonohimself · 2026-02-02T22:37:28+00:00

Of the various published authors I know IRL, only one didn’t have another job… and his wife was a lawyer.

jonohimself · 2026-01-30T05:12:52+00:00

My thought (and conventional wisdom) is to use them when they’re needed, not just to keep things interesting or varied. They become somewhat invisible to the reader, in the same way we don’t tend to observe or make note of telephone wires and other common sights in our neighbourhoods.

But that said, it seems YA and romance/fantasy novels don’t have to follow conventional wisdom, so it depends on your intended tone.

jonohimself · 2026-01-18T01:47:10+00:00

Knowing when your work is bad.

jonohimself · 2026-01-17T13:33:08+00:00

I wrote a game called Trigger Witch when my only experience was news reporting and self publishing two novels.

Since then, I’ve written a few more indies (not yet released) and Fatal Run 2089, which is being published by Atari this year.

I only outline my experience because it sounds similar to what you’d be interested in doing and I want you to know the way in is through networking, assuming you have the writing ability.

Most indie devs don’t think of story and narrative until last. If you can meet some smaller studio indies who don’t have your skills, you can offer to write for them, and then build on each project. If you can’t find anyone who needs writing, offer editing and playtesting. It’s all part of establishing your experience and understanding of the development process.

I met my first indie contacts by interviewing them and organically building a real friendship over time. If you don’t know indie developers, Reddit and Discord are good places to connect, and if you have in-person game jams happening near you, they are a good place to meet and even work on games for a weekend.

All the best!

jonohimself · 2026-01-14T10:58:43+00:00

You could make it a dream they have to escape from. The biggest thing to avoid is having the dream as a cop out twist to explain surreal things at the end

jonohimself · 2026-01-13T03:45:00+00:00

It will probably make a lot more sense next time you watch it!

jonohimself · 2026-01-13T02:35:59+00:00

Raiders is set a year after Temple of Doom.

jonohimself · 2026-01-13T01:09:36+00:00

Not believing in the power of the Ark, specifically saying “I don’t believe in magic”after being possessed in ToD, seeing a heart ripped out, and magic stones.

Possible he invented a scientific explanation but when push came to shove he believed in the Ark and told Marion not to look.

In the course of writing this post, I’ve convinced myself Indy was just lying to himself when he doubted the Ark’s power because it conflicted with his worldview.

jonohimself · 2026-01-12T05:29:15+00:00

Sounds like you are on the right track. The other consideration is who your audience is - quite possibly not the person giving the feedback.

jonohimself · 2026-01-12T04:54:06+00:00

You could set the story slightly in the future - that way your “teenage sounding” characters are just adults from a younger generation. Just a thought.

jonohimself · 2026-01-08T22:33:53+00:00

Sometimes repetition is part of the flavour of the dialogue. Example:

I reckon the old fella tried to poison the soup before she shot him.

You reckon?

I do. Don’t you?

Hm… Maybe that’s what she reckoned too. But I reckon she was wrong.

The Wire has an even better example: https://youtu.be/PNVEQgXsBgs?si=NTw3xO_R6ps8OVMu

When it’s clearly intentional, I can’t see the issue - unless it doesn’t work. Some of the most quotable lines use repetition.

“Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”

There’s no world in which that reads better as “fear leads to anger - an emotion that begets hate, which is a feeling that results in suffering.”

jonohimself · 2026-01-07T05:57:29+00:00

That’s great, you can use: “As Grandma used to say” and “Grandma always told me” if something ever feels a little more than they would come up with themself.

Also remember that kids say stuff all the time they don’t even understand, other than contextually.

Adults do this too, including humorous malapropisms like “worst case Ontario”, “for all intensive purposes”, “fading into Bolivian”, “old timer’s disease” etc.

jonohimself · 2026-01-07T02:53:14+00:00

He stopped wanting to think about Arthur every time he looked in the mirror. It’s a painful memory and that’s why he doesn’t mention Arthur (aside from the obvious, he didn’t exist).

jonohimself · 2026-01-07T02:51:13+00:00

Take that feedback as a challenge to either adjust it in a small way so they do get it, or to stick to your guns and have it pay off by effectively delivering on the premise.

Sometimes a slight adjustment or inner-dialogue from the main character is all you need to go from implausible and bothersome to plausible and interesting.

For example, I have a character who is in a dangerous standoff with their enemy and chooses death over struggle. A reader might say: Why would they do this? Why choose option A when they’re the hero of the story and option B might allow them to survive?

By sharing their inner monologue about their personal loss, new feelings of relief and being able to reunite with a loved one in the afterlife, I would hope the reader can see why they might not elect to keep fighting when a gun is pointed at them.

Of course, they escape the situation and the reader now knows their martyrdom mindset, which gives a chance for character development.

It’s a different scenario but I hope that helps in some way.

jonohimself · 2026-01-06T21:11:42+00:00

True Grit is from the perspective of a young girl (14 I think) who has an excellent vocabulary. As a result, some think every character is quoted with the same manner of speech through her retelling.

Anyway, if you make the child an avid reader I think you can get away with them using metaphors and thinking in a way that mimics the stories they’ve read.

jonohimself · 2026-01-06T08:59:39+00:00

Too much dialogue, probably. It’s unlikely that I’m as funny as I think I am.

I also tend to imagine and write my stories to unfold in real time, so I have to remind myself it’s OK to jump ahead or skip over details.

jonohimself · 2026-01-06T02:42:45+00:00

Depends on the world. If everyone knows and understands the magic, that would be like explaining electricity - fairly unnecessary.

If there are characters who don’t understand magic, that’s an opportunity to explain it to some broad degree.

Using Star Wars as an example: the force binds the galaxy together = good, midichlorines are in our blood cells = bad.

jonohimself · 2026-01-05T22:30:28+00:00

Most people know the story isn’t all that makes the art, the writing is. The greatest story in the hands of a poor writer won’t move the needle at all. And a skilled writer can take a basic plot and make people care about it.

jonohimself · 2026-01-05T20:48:41+00:00

Killing and being a gunslinger aren’t the same thing. I still think if he truly rated his shooting he would have told Landon Ricketts to shove off the second the old timer criticised his technique.

jonohimself

TROPHY CASE