Sci-Fi Writer Dylan Johnson

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another continuing conversations, infinite stories and infinite

accommodations. That's what we do around here. I'm Michael this meek and go to Michael

this meek.com to see my work. Of course, my favorite work is working for Star Trek adventures

as a freelance writer, lead writer on captain's log RPG, plus a smattering of other RPGs

and stuff. Go to my website. You'll see it. This show is never a show without Jim Johnson.

Hey, everybody, Jim Johnson. I'm the current project manager and line editor for the Star Trek

Adventures RPG. The follow out 2D 20 RPG. A bunch of other stuff with midifits entertainment.

I'm also a fiction writer over at scribeinettie.com. Indie publisher writer of various

century things, including things that we can't talk about yet, although they might have

been announced by the time this comes out. Who knows? I hope so. I hope so. Yeah, it's

so we'll tag it. I'll be tagging it everywhere if it does a lot of stuff in the hopper that

we'll talk about when we can. Excited to be here doing this podcast with you for five years

now. We meet so many amazing people and I am at Michael. I don't think I told you this

often enough, but I am I am so proud of you and your trajectory as a writer and especially

your ability to go to conventions on a regular basis. And you meet so many amazing people.

Then invite to come on to the show, which gives me a chance to meet them.

Well, I think it's, you know, I always remind people that we started this podcast celebrating

fans, right? And so it's funny when we go to conventions and you mentioned Star Trek,

you find out so many people are fans in some way, either their writing has been inspired

by it. They dream of writing for Star Trek one day, you know, and it starts these amazing

conversations. And so Dylan Johnson, who we have on as our guest today, I met at writer

con at writer con 2025 in Oklahoma City, which was amazing, by the way, you actually Jim were

the one and also a Dayton Ward, who really encouraged me to get out to writer conventions, take

the classes just to improve my craft and to write something outside of Star Trek. And I met

so many people there, including Dylan Johnson. So so I wanted to introduce you to him, which is

why we're going to transport over to the interview and talk to him. Yeah, let's do it.

Dylan, it's so nice to see you again. I haven't seen you since, hmm, August, early September

at writer con in Oklahoma. Yeah, it's been about almost three months. You know, it's been quite a

while. So I'm excited, I'm excited to catch up. It's been, we had just an awesome time there.

It was a pleasure. I mean, for me, the highlight was I really loved how the convention

goes and a lot of the authors, including yourself, were willing to meet with me, who's new to

the convention. And we all had a nice, what was that lunch? Or would you say snack together?

I don't know what it was called. Yeah, some coffee, you know, a nice little afternoon coffee.

It was so fun. Fantastic. So welcome. I hope, you know, this will not be the last time. Of course,

we have you on the show. I had to have you on because you were talking about your body of work.

But before we get started into that, Jim, you know, what we got to do. Yeah, it's a tradition

on our show Dylan too. I ask any new guest, if a, if you're a Star Trek fan, what your favorite

Star Trek series is, and who your favorite Star Trek character is. And I guess, you know,

as we move into this new world and more guests, if you aren't a big fan of Star Trek, that's totally

okay. Maybe just tell us what your favorite sci-fi property is, or you know, sci-fi, you know,

IP. And I guess your favorite sci-fi fantasy, you know, character, I suppose. So go for Star Trek

or not Star Trek. Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm a fan of Star Trek. I can definitely go with that.

I really enjoy strange new worlds. You know, it's been going for almost five years now. Actually,

it's, it's been on for quite a, quite a minute. But I really like changing worlds just because like,

it was a cool foray for Star Trek, you know, of a cool, and I think fresh spin on classic stories

of like into this, you know, one hour drama space, you know, one hour sci-fi space. But with

characters that we know and love, you know, and just like, you know, like Pike, like Spock, you

know, and just seeing them all kind of interact in this kind of prequel, ask, you know,

think with a lot of new adventures, though, you know, you're still kind of like, okay,

what are their relationships going to be like? What are they going to find next? I really enjoy

that. And the kind of that does it in my net, my answer X question. This goes even beyond

a strange new world. I have some of my favorite character is Spock. You know, it's funny because

there are so many Star Trek characters that I love, they're clever, you know, they're witty,

they're funny, you know. But Spock, I just, I feel like his struggle as a half-bulken half-human is

so universal to our human experience, you know, one thing about my stories, you know, I have

asked for his high-function autism, and I think like a long time I didn't understand how

my own emotions and thoughts function, sometimes I still don't. And so, you know, I relate to Spock

of like, he doesn't feel things, but he also does. And he doesn't know how to compute that.

But the same time he tries, and when he tries, he sees real growth. And so I love that different

portrayals of that and all the different, you know, the Star Trek era, whether it was the original

series and the original films or, you know, the DJ Abrams movies, even in the more recent series,

Light Stranger World, you know, like, I think it always gives such a fascinating conflict that

just doesn't get all the external stakes really highlight. I love that perspective. I'll have to

look at it from that perspective and rewatch everything Spock again. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I think

Spock has been a consistent favor for last bunch of our guests, I think. And I guess the

natural follow-on question, then Dylan would be, do you happen to have a preference between Spock,

you know, Nimoy, Quinto, or Peck, or is it just like the, the Err Spock character overall that you

enjoy? Well, you know, that's a great question, you know, and I mean, you can't go wrong with Nimoy,

just because like that's classic. You hear his voice, you're like, oh, there's Mr. Spock.

You know, but at the same time, I think the newer portrayals have been very fresh, you know,

especially in Strange New World, you know, with Peck and I think just like, it's so cool to see

a fresh spin on the character that pays homage to that classic, like Nimoy performance that,

you know, we all love for 50 years, but then also give guys some new elements of, okay, what is it

like the load of a younger fresh spot, you know, how can you play that, you know, how can you put

his own little idiosyncrasies in? And so I really have come to like that. And it's funny, because like,

I'm a huge, so I'm a huge Star Wars fan as well. And like, I can say in Star Wars,

some recasts I really enjoyed, some I'd never want to see recast it, you know, but in Star

Trek, it's interesting because Spock's one of those, I would think I would never want to see him

be recasted, but I've liked the recasts. It's really unique, I can't say a lot of characters

of his legendary status can be portrayed, so I'm multiple people, but it's not punk.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really great. Cool. All right. Well, I think we'll shift gears

then and instead of talking about Spock and Star Trek characters, let's talk about you and

you're writing, you know, all the things that you've done, I mean, that's what led you and

Michael to meet each other at RyderCon. And so my understanding is that you're, like me,

your bachelor's degree is in English, creative, you had a focus in creative writing, correct?

Yes, I did. It was nonfiction writing and fantasy. Sorry, nonfiction writing and editing.

But so with your background in your degree, and then you published your first novel,

which was Survival Dark Times, right? Right, yeah, published that. So if you could think about

your academic career and then your first novel, how did that time in classes influence your first

novel? A lot. You know, I mean, I really, I praised Jesus because I was blessed to really good

education. My degree program was, it was a University of Central Oklahoma, a new CEO, and I,

it's interesting because Survival Dark Times, I always had that story in my head since the time I was

12, you know, I mean, I even wrote little snippets of it, you know, online or in a word document,

you know, all these things. But my degree helped me know how to really, I actually transmit that

story in a like tellable fashion, you know, I know it's like, oh, yeah, we're storytellers,

you know, duh, but like it helped, it helped me know, okay, how can I clearly convey this to a reader?

You know, my degree, I got to study all facets of writing. I got to study, you know,

novel prose writing, you know, short story writing. I got to study, you know, comic book writing,

when I was like to write a script for comic books, graphic novels, I got to study screen writing,

that was for features, TV, even for the stage, you know, I got all these different aspects of it

that I think been in writing the novel survival dark times. I, one class in particular I took that

was very impactful was writing for sci-fi and fantasy, you know, and obviously as, you know,

me nerdy now just shows, like I've been a fan of it all my life, but writing it always, it seems

like a big task, like sci-fi or fantasy, like they're not necessarily easy genres to write for,

you know, but why I loved about my class that I took that was that it made it easier. It made

me realize, oh man, man, I'm just overthinking this, you know, I, because we think, oh, we have to

get in the world building, we have to get into, you know, all this, and yes, that's true. We want

to establish what a one detail world, but the same time, the sci-fi fantasy class, I remember

specifically a lesson I had of just give snippets of info, you know, you don't have to write in the

first chapter of your novel, this is this universe and everything has occurred exactly like this,

and here's how the flowers grow, you know, like, you know, and like people are born, you just like

give little little snippets because your reader is smart, you know, you are having intelligent reader,

your audience is intelligent, never underestimate that, and my degree helped me understand that,

that then I think informed my writing, that was why, that was at least probably the reason why

I published or later took travel dark time though. Hmm, interesting. Yeah, I think, I don't know if

you appreciated or not, but you should be, you should feel very fortunate that you were encouraged

to write genre fiction, you know, science fiction and fantasy in your in your classes, because

when I went to school, I had a handful of literature instructors and writing instructors,

and all of them were published literary fiction writers, right? And they were like, oh no, you don't

want to write science fiction and fantasy, you want to be writing, you know, serious literary

fiction, and I was like, well, come on, I mean, because I love to write science fiction and fantasy

in mystery, and they're like, no, no, no, you don't want to write that crap, you want to be writing

the more introspective thought, and it really frustrated me going through school, I was like,

where are my people? Where are my fellow science fiction and fantasy writers? So I think it's great

that you were actually encouraged to do that as you were getting your degree. Yeah, I'm very

grateful that I professors who, you know, similar to you, they loved that, you know, and they really

wanted to pass that on to their students. And I mean, no, I definitely had some professors who

were more on that literary novel, like, no, you need to write, you know, just like reality grounded,

you know, real world. And like anything my professors are listening, and I still love you,

like, you know, but like it was just, you know, it was just not what I want. I mean, I wanted to

tell real stories about real people, real feelings, real emotions, but my thought has always been

these big fantasy worlds, these big sci-fi elements, they just make the humanity that much stronger.

Again, Star Trek and Spock shows that, you know, and so I was very grateful that in my degree,

I had professors who agreed with that and really taught me how to believe into that, because yeah,

like, that's not always the case. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, so, you know, as we're talking about,

you know, your career informing your writing, did you, was there anything you found that surprised you,

moving from what you learned in the classroom to actually putting down on paper and getting published?

Oh, yeah, a ton. It's interesting because, you know, you move, you graduate with your degree,

and you know, I was kind of like, oh, man, okay, now I'm going to go work as a writer, hopefully, maybe,

you know, but then there's all these different paths. I didn't even know about, you know,

paths of publishing, paths of writing, and to be honest, I mean, even mine was very unconventional.

I found the, the publisher that published my first two novels in the Swab of Art time series,

was it just a boutique publisher. The way I found them was they were looking for authors

through indeed, they had a posting on indeed. And, you know, I was just like, I mean, heck,

also in something. And, you know, and so I sent like, you know, a sample, and they liked it,

and now led to the contract, and they read the novels, things like that. And, but that's,

you never hear a story like that, you know, like, my thought was, oh, well, first I'll get a short

story published. Maybe one of these, you know, sci-fi lit magazines, you know, then maybe I'll

move, you know, maybe I'll move up to a novel, you know, then I'll do this. And that was not,

I mean, praise the Lord, you need a better plan, but like, it just, it was not that way. Like,

I was just like, oh, well, there's all these paths out there that like, I didn't even know,

you know, and again, I still had like, it was a small publisher. It was a more traditional,

like publishing route. I didn't necessarily self publish. But then, you know, you get into that,

you find a, oh, man, I feel lots of, what's all this stuff going on with Amazon? If your books

on there and Kindle exclusives, and I'm, you know, and people are so into ebooks, you know,

like all these different things. I'm like, oh, wow, I did not think about this at all in school.

Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. Can you educate us a little bit out there? You mentioned

boutique publisher. And what is that route? We really like people to, like, you know,

this kind of jargon. I want people who maybe are watching and thinking about, should I be on Amazon

or should I only be dreaming about being with Simon and Schuster or Penguin? What is a boutique

and why did it work for you? For sure. So that's a great question. I mean, I'd say, you know,

there are, again, a few different paths. You know, there's the big five, you know, like Simon

and Schuster random house, you know, hard for all of them that are awesome. And that, you know,

is the most traditional way to still be published. And it's not really about us, you know, like,

and that's like, get an agent, you're queer in agent. I mean, you might have a conference,

you know, like writer-con or remet, you know, they can take you before those big editors. I mean,

you mean editor-of-a-conference, you know, a boutique publisher. They're a traditional publisher.

This is a, you don't pay anything, you know, if you're paying something that's not a good sign for

anyone who's listening. You don't pay anything. They're a smaller house. You don't necessarily need a

representative to approach them. A lot of times you can just query them directly, you know, and they'll

sub-instruction the website how to do that. But there are boutique houses that, like, they specialize

in different genres, not slightly. You know, and there are pros and cons that come with it.

A pro is, you get a little more like, I think, of a relationship. You know, not that the big houses,

they have amazing editors. I know some editors there. You have relationships that are offered.

I think, like, this boutique publisher has more, has more space to give you time, you know, and also,

you can kind of convey more of your opinion because of that, you know, like, they have editors,

but it's may to be you still get the final say on a lot of things, you know, at least in my experience,

you know, like, I had my editors and they edited and they gave, they would even give feedback if I

wanted them to. But at the same time, you know, they weren't like, other than you need to change

this, you know, like, they let me decide what was in the story. And so you still have a lot of

narrative control, but they still help with like cover design, paying a publisher, getting an end

of different distribution houses, whether that is like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, you know, and again,

because their boutique, their reach may be more limited. And, you know, there's a little, they

may have a little more limitation with marketing. They may not market you as much, but they will still

mark you like, my market, me and I, I'm greatly benefited, but that was a blessing. Um, you know,

but you may not have as much reach the big publishers do, but at the same time, they're still like,

you're not getting content on this rentate, you know, I like that. So people can google boutique

publishers, do some research in that for new writers who are looking for those kind of options.

Thank you. That's super informative. Now, you mentioned something on your website too as your time

is co-head writer at Hollywood casting and film The Slate, where you worked roughly on three dozen

short film projects. So, so now we had already, you know, asked you about what's like to transition

from classroom to published author. How did writing for short film differ from writing novels?

And how do you think that approaches, how did that influence your approach to world building

in sci-fi? That's a great question. Honestly, like I could talk about this for hours because that

experience with that company was a huge blessing. I worked for them, you know, often on

for two and a half years, as much as they needed me. And it was amazing experience. It was crazy,

a crazy experience. You know, I would say that like, it's interesting because the core elements

of screenwriter telling a story are the same as what we see in a novel. In fact, even the same

elements of telling a story in a short film, all the main elements are there. You know, at least

they shouldn't be of like, you know, these plot devices. I mean, I can cite an incident, you know,

it's just in a short film or even in a feature film, a feature length film. You have to do it

in a certain amount of time with a novel you're not as constrained. I mean, like, I know there's

ideal word counts, you know, very ungenre, but that's very flexible. Whereas, you know, in a script,

you have to figure out, number one, how am I going to convey this in such a short amount of time,

like on those projects I worked on. Earlier on, we were able to have maybe about 20 pages. Like,

I had a short film that was made, it was about 20 minutes, you know, but other projects,

especially as we went on, just due to budgetary reasons, production, you know, logistics,

like we had to tell us a full story within three to four minutes, you know, a three to four

minutes short film. That's what a lot of myself and the writers I was working with were working on,

you know, but I think in that one, the most important thing is flexibility, you know, because,

I mean, I started at HC&F, as we call it, I started there as an intern, you know, I wasn't as

hired on as the co-head writer, like I was an intern who gave them some short scripts they had

liked and the producers liked me. I had a writing mentor with there. I got through that

internship who believed in me, advocated for me and she worked, you know, a more in film and TV.

And so, like, I kind of worked my way up and I think some of that is not just because, oh man,

I'm some amazing writer, that's not necessarily it, even though, yeah, they liked my stuff.

It was like, no, I was going to be flexible and work with them. The writers who I worked with,

who had good experiences that they were willing to be flexible, but they were willing to learn,

what does it mean to tell a story from the page for the screen? You know, what does it mean to tell

this story in a very short amount of time? That may mean you have to cut characters, that may mean

you have to change settings, you know, like, you know, some things that may be hard and like,

if it's not the avenue for your story, it's not the avenue for your story. But at the same time,

there are stories in this media, in this format that can work. And, you know, I think that through

that process, it was very collaborative and all this, all that I'm saying shows that, like,

all those three dozen projects, it was like they were being pitched whether it was to me or someone

else in the writer's room, you know, then we were talking to production it out, we were talking

and casting about it because it was a company for actors, it existed to help them build their

reels, you know, it was like, okay, with this help actors, you know, with this be good for them to

sink their teeth in, you know, what are the producers and producers like this? Can the department,

can the production department actually do this? You know, like, because I mean, for me, like,

we definitely had sci-fi works, but like, my books, they're very space opera, like, you know,

Star Trek S, you know, I'd say, how was it riding those short films from this company? They would

have not built a bit in their budget, but there are other sci-fi elements we're able to blend in,

like, okay, maybe there's some sort of, you know, speculative element of like a creature going on,

you know, like, and so that you have to find creative ways, again, to accomplish your vision,

what if you're willing, you think it can work for the screen, it's definitely doable, and I think

as we all gave each other feedback, you know, not only it may get it, but you're also receiving feedback

from casting, from other writers, from production, like, that all helped, you know,

and helped to transition from novels to scripts. Oh, you make that sound so exciting to work there.

It was, it was. Yeah, it was, it was a good time, and I mean, I think that's the thing is like,

when you're open to those new experiences, even as a writer, like, you know, me and that same

writer I'm into, I mentioned, we would talk to this guy, really ideally a writer, so we

able to write anything, you know, I mean, then we could all have our preference for what we write,

but like, whether it's, you know, books, you know, scripts, you know, comics, games, like, we,

there are, as long as you're willing to learn the ins and outs, the, the workings of each medium,

you can do it, you know, it's so fun. That one more time for the audience, say that one more time.

Yes, as long as you're willing to learn the inner machinations of each, you know, air each medium,

you can do it as a writer, you can do it.

Be willing to learn, right? That's the, that's a really key, be a lifelong learner, right?

Never stop learning. There's always something new to learn. And that moment when you think you're

done learning, you've, you've lost the game because there's always something new to learn, right?

Exactly. That's what I tell anyone, not just who I've advised it around encouraging or giving

advice to be a writer, but, or continuing a writer, but even the people who I talked about doing

jobs for, people who are trying to hire me, like, I'm like, I don't know everything. You know,

I'm sitting here, I'm like, shoot, I don't even feel like I know half the stuff I've done. I'm like,

I look back, I'm like, well, what's about that happen? You know, um, what, at the same time,

being willing to learn, being coachable, that's important. That goes farther than most qualities,

I would say, you know, and, and like you said, Jim, like a lifelong learner, I'm going to be learning

more about writing and all these media's about storytelling until the day I die. Doesn't matter how

many books I get published or how many short film or series I get to work on, like, it is well,

we will always be learning. That's what we grow as storytellers. Got it. And how do you feel about

reading too? Do you feel like reading is important for a writer? I do. You know, I think it's a balance

because I think that some people, you know, can read, read, read, and never write. You know, and then

some people can write, write, write, never read. You know, and like, I give, I, I will admit,

I bury more toward that. Like, I do read, I have read, but like, it can be harder for me at times,

just because of like, oh, I get so crazy. But I do think reading is important. Um, you know,

any expert like in the writing, the lady's successful writer would say that, and I agree, because like,

I look back at like, like my novels, I got inspired and learned to write those by reading so many

books growing up. Like, I read a lot of like, um, Star Wars books growing up, you know, like,

they expanded the universe back then, you know, like, that is what inspired me to write books,

was I was seeing all these things about these characters I loved, but didn't book form. And I was

like, I mean, I can picture this in my mind, you know, and I took little things in even as a kid

that like helped me much later writing these novels, you know, and even now like reading anything,

like whether it's a short story or a script, like even for screenwriters, any screenwriters

might be listening, like reading scripts is so important. That has taught me so much about

writing scripts. I love to use scripts for reference. Um, you know, I was okay, what works

stylistically, what communicates this clearly to your reader, even if your reader's director,

you know, um, I think that reading is very important, you know, because again,

that's what I learned to see. What is happening in your genre? What is happening right now in

publishing or in, you know, screenwriting that people are enjoying? Not even from a, not from a

plot perspective, but it's from a like stylistic perspective of, okay, you know, how is this being

told? And how can I kind of still have my unique voice, but work in a similar way?

Yeah, yeah, I think a screenwriting is really interesting. I haven't done a lot of it myself,

but I've read a lot of screenplays. And what I really appreciate about screenplays is they're

usually, you know, 120, 130 pages and the word economy is extremely important. You have to be

able to tell a really good story in a very few words, just to set the scene, get the dialogue in

there, boom, boom, boom, keep moving. And, you know, in a very small space, you are telling a complete

epic story, you know, so I think that that's something I really appreciate. Even though I don't

write a lot of screenplays, I appreciate having spent this time to study it because it gave me some

ideas about how to, how to be more lean and efficient in my, in my fiction. Yes, absolutely.

No, I love you saying that because that spot on it really, I, I see it the same way and it really

reminds me of how like screenplays, they remind me of an equation. I'm honestly like you would see in

my math or something because it's like, I don't notice the way all it can fit together perfectly

when you use your word economy well, when you, you know, insert this here and here and here, you know,

not just to get the job that you're still telling the story, but then when you do it that way,

all works, you know, there's a reason why there's a formula. Got it, got it, nice. So I want to go back

to something you were saying a little bit earlier about how when you were in school, you were learning

about writing, you know, science fiction and fantasy and about how your, your, your fiction is really

about people, right? People being people, whether it's science fiction, its fantasy is something else.

So I mean, what is it about science fiction that you love to explore knowing that, you know,

people are people are people, whether they're now in this current time or in the far flowing future?

Man, you know, that's a great question. I think that what I really love to see is just how are you,

are human nature does not change? Like regardless, we could, it doesn't matter what universe we live in,

what planet we live in, whether we're living, you know, in a very peaceful suburban neighborhood

or rather, in the middle of an intergalactic war, our wants and eat just the same. We want to be seen,

you know, we want to be loved, we want to love, we want to see. Not only that, we, you know, we need

people, we need friends, we need, you know, companions and even more so, we all have gifts and abilities,

we can use and some of those that may mean, okay, your different ability is to be the best warrior,

you know, in the galaxy, others that may mean, okay, you're going to be the best cook, you know,

in the down, you know, but like, we still all have goals, we stuff dreams. And I love just like,

how sci-fi can really take that to a next level of like, okay, man, it's not as much about your

circumstances. Your circumstances play a role, or they just play a role in enriching you,

in enriching the main character. And that's I love about sci-fi or fantasy because you can

be so creative in just the environment of like, you're not limited, there's no limitations, you know,

you can have anything going on, any sort of abilities, but even the day, at the end of the story,

you still get to tell how does it affect this person? What does this character do with that?

Did they learn? Did they grow from it? I don't know about learning and growing. Did they not? How

let affect the people around them? You know, and so we can all relate to it because a lot of,

I think even I hear a lot from readers of like, let's say, oh, I'm not a sci-fi fan, I understand,

we all have different genre preferences, but at the same time, I'm like, well, it's actually not

as much different as what you think from just a contemporary, you know, like project, you know,

a contemporary novel, like because again, yeah, there may be a lot more world-building,

there may be a lot more, you know, inner work, and for the same time, it's still going to be about

a person. Interesting, yeah. And then for the listeners and the viewers, since we have this on

the YouTube as well, is there any particular character from your from your body of work that you

think best exemplifies all those all those concepts? Oh, that's a good question, you know, because I mean,

my my books are definitely like, you know, an ensemble, you know, of like there is a protagonist,

but like I think that my books are, it's kind of it's about this freighter crew and they're coming,

you know, like all kind of trying to work together and learn how to do life together. And I think that

honestly though, I would say that the main antagonist actually in the books shows this,

because the main antagonist, it's the queen of this galaxy and she's very, she's very like

cold and is an isolated for a reason. She thinks it's the best way to be a ruler. And that's

actually like that was what was ingrained into her brain by her dad. And so a lot of the events that

she causes in the books that really harm the protagonists or at least raise the stakes for our

protagonist, you know, it's from this viewpoint she has, but you can also see how it's destroyed her

and any meaningful connections that she's had. And you can see how it brings her lower and lower

and lower and threatens to bring the protagonists down with with her because of that. You know, again,

even though there's this war there on the run, it all, it all flows back to her view of the world.

And will the protagonists choose to believe that or not? You know, and you can't just develop

throughout the series, you know, that's not evident from the start, but I'd say that's just

a big example. Yeah, let's take that too, because I know science fiction is definitely my favorite

genre. And one of the challenges when writing it is, you know, you want to do this wow factor.

You mentioned Star Wars as being something you grew up reading. And we all love Star Wars.

Well, I'm going to say we all miss so many of us love Star Wars because not only was it, you know,

YouTube, you in amazing explosions and technology we'd never seen, but we were in love with the

characters walking away. After you see it, you could even love the droid as a character, right?

So, so how do you, what advice would you give about battling these, you know, high tech

thrills or super fancy fantasy ideas, but still having human stakes so that people are walking

away in love with the character? Yeah, that's good. That's good. I think that what I would say there

is like, and there's something that sometimes I think I'm even still learning, you know, as I write

for different mediums like, you know, what is this character accomplishing? You know, like, why are

they there? What do they want each character? They could be the smallest, most benign supporting

character, but like, you know, you talk about how we love the droids. Well, think about, what do we

love about? See if there aren't your D2, you know, if they're funny, you know, they, they get in all

these wacky high jinks, you know, there's some comic relief, they're the narrators, they're helping

the viewer understand this world, you know, and so it was also the bravest one out of everyone's.

Exactly. Exactly. That's, that's a great point of like, they have these qualities that we relate to

and that we admire, you know, even with some characters who are, say, more villainous, they're,

they still have qualities we understand, you know, like Darth Vader, you know, like, we don't agree,

but we also see, well, he's trying to, you know, do what he thinks brings order to the galaxy,

so this is what he's doing, you know, and there's that connection that we feel, and you can bring

that into each one of your characters, equality at the same time, again, bring us back to that,

that human relation, even if it's something we disagree with, I think that's how you create,

you know, characters that we have attachments to. I mean, I like that you say that too, because

what was interesting to me about the first run of Star Trek, 1977 through 1985, is we like

Darth Vader because we're like, oh, he's redeemable, and there's that, but then when they did the new

movies, which, which went back in time, reviewing Anakin's life, you fall in love with him for

a different reason, because he's so hurt. Yeah. It's such a vengeful character. So it seems like

each, you know, there's like one big word that attaches to these characters, even the villains

that make them relatable. So I'm glad you pointed that out. It'll help me or others who are listening

when we're designing these characters, don't just, you know, like Stanley says, the super heroics

and the costumes were just the butter icing on top of the cake, but these characters were Peter

Parker was just a awkward teenage boy, and the super powers just made him cooler, you know.

So it's good for us if we're designing, maybe to re-look at our characters and be like,

okay, do I like them if they had none of their powers or if they weren't even sci-fi?

Yeah. Exactly. Yes. That's a great way to put it. That's a great way to build a character too.

Yeah. Cool. Okay. I mean, I noticed another thing. By the way, you have a great website,

and then I'm going to tell people to make sure to put the links for them to go to it,

because I thought it told your story pretty well. You emphasize community a lot,

championing, championing other writers. That's one of the reasons Jim and I keep this show going

and have adapted the format is because we're about uplifting others. We've noticed that the more we

uplift others, we all rise together in the community, supporting their causes. Talk to us about

that, about that drive. Where did that come from and what have you benefited from having that deep

value system? Good question. I love that you bring that up because it's sampler. That's why I love

what you all do. Just it shows your all's hard. I think for me, it's multiple things. I think it's,

you know, a lot of that comes from just my faith. I've just I want to love people well. You know,

you know, the Lord did so so you know, and that, honestly, yes, even though I may not necessarily

write faith based like, you know, I just want to love people as people no matter who they are.

And I really enjoy that. But then also with writing, writing can be so isolating.

You know, like if we're not careful, like we can just, a lot of the I think people want to write

because I know a lot of writers are introverts. I'm not. I use to struggle with relationships a lot

because of just my neurodivergence. You know, I'm really interested in how I worked.

So I definitely don't understand how other people worked. But I was missing out because of that,

you know, and then I was blessed by, but I really believe is a miracle of Jesus that people came

around me and like helped me understand myself. And though if we're someone from my riches life

experiences came from for people who maybe they were, maybe they were somebody, maybe they weren't,

maybe they thought different, you know, look different, believe different, who knows. But still,

they were willing to get to know me and help me take the timers and my brain works. So I understood

that better. And that just flows right in the right. Yeah. I'm glad you said that too, because I

always remind people, you know, sometimes you have to remind people who are talking out of sorts,

about the good Samaritan. And the entire point of that was this person was not a Jew. And they

were not in the same religion. And they were, you don't even know anything else about them,

except that they were, they saw someone in need and said, I'm going to reach out and help them.

And so in life, to your point, we never learned, you know, and Jesus was saying that to a group of Jews,

right? And so he's like, he's like, you could learn from knowing other people, right? And I love

that you say that because there's so much we can look out of our own perspectives to ask people,

okay, but why do you feel that way? Oh, epiphany moment. And that, that feeds my writing.

That helps me, right? Does that work for you, too? It does. Absolutely. That's a great point,

because yeah, that, that parable about, you know, love him or to go with hard heart,

soul, mind, strength, love your neighbors or stuff. Like, yeah, you know, it's like your neighbor

may not be the person you want to love. You know, it may not be the person you think of,

but still love him and help him. And that's why I love me and other writers. It doesn't matter

what, where they come from, what their perspective is. It's so close because they're an individual.

They're special. I believe that. And so like, to be able to help them and uplift them,

it's also, you know, and this goes back to my story, but just in general, and you both,

I'm sure, can relate to this. Like, I wouldn't be where I was at in my career if people didn't

give me a shot. That's right. If people didn't help me, you know, whether it was my writing

mentor that I mentioned, you know, when I work for a short film studio, whether it was my publisher,

the editor of my publisher, you know, being willing to take on this big sci-fi novel or, you know,

these producers, being willing to hire on this writer, you know, like as an intern, like, there's

people uplifted me. And, you know, so I want to do that to others because I know what it's like

to be in this space where like, man, you worry, I might have been good at this. Can I, well,

I ever do anything with this. It's like, well, if I was managed to do it, again, going back to

another one, GZT, he's like, do the others he'd ever been doing to you, you know? And so like,

I just want to help people tell their stories. They all have a special tour at the story.

To tell, you know, no matter what it is. And so that's why I love me, another writing,

another perspective, and just turn them on because if I can do anyone, can do it.

I know, Jim's feeling that. I mean, I take that, you know, I have to mention Jim,

making blush for a while. And some of the other people he's introduced me to because they gave me

such good criticism to my work. And one of the things I always promise to do is keep open to the

criticism. Even if I don't necessarily believe it, I still have to ask, okay, well, what's the

perspective that contributed to that? And how can I now alter that perspective, you know? And

it's taught me to work with a wider variety of people and also look, search out that kind of

criticism because I believe everybody represents a portion of your audience.

So if one person, if you if you tick them off, you say something and tick them off,

you pretty much have probably as 10 to 15 other people who are going to feel the same way.

So, so, you know, we have to really as writers, I think, be flexible and amiable, you know,

to that. So I really love that part of your message. Yeah.

I think it's important, too, Michael, to not just focus on the the constructive criticism

that you that you've received or that others have received. I think it's also important to remember

the people that have given us opportunities, right? Like, like, you know, I've been given a lot of

opportunities in my life and I'm very grateful for those. And I made it a point to pay it forward,

right? To reach down and pull out of people up, you know, pull up with me. So I think, I mean,

ultimately the publishing world, the writing world is very small. All things considered, right?

And you never know who you're going to be working with next. You never know who's going to suddenly

become an editor at some house. You never know when one editor is going to move from one publishing

house to another publishing house or create their own publishing house or one of your writer friends

might decide to start an anthology and say, Hey, I remember working with you and you were really

kind to me. You want an opportunity. So there's always a lot of cross pollination. And I think so

it's not just getting criticism from people and learning that way. It's also just being aware of

the opportunities that you're being offered. But also if you are in a position where you have an

opportunity to give to somebody else, are you taking advantage of that? And are you are you pulling

the next generation of people along with you or or not? You know, absolutely. Love it.

Well, good energy. I mean, that's actually where I think we're heading into gratitude now

with all of this, which is like, yeah, we're just perfect. So Dylan, before we do that, though,

where can people find out about you and what are some of your latest stuff? I know you're working

on stuff. You can't talk about yet, which is exciting. I love that. But talk to us about that.

Yeah. So yeah, you can find me. I mean, yeah, you have shared the link to my website. So you

can definitely find me there and find my email there. I am on social media. DR Johnson author is my

Instagram. That's what I'm the most, you know, active on in terms of just, you know, things like that.

And I, you know, I'm also on LinkedIn, other things like that, you know, most social media. So you

can find me there. Yeah, I recently, I have been blessed this year to be doing a few new things.

I had a short story called, oh, puppy in a mystic mind magazine. It's an indie sci-fi magazine by

Karen Comics. I connect with them about a year ago. And that is awesome there. He's a writer for

multiple things, IPs, as well as zone work, comics, stories, you made it.

Can you repeat the title of it? You kind of faded when you said it. I don't, I want people to

get that. Oh, oh, thank you. And it's, you know, it's just this little short story. It's kind of

set in the universe, my other novels. So like, if, you know, you're a fan of my novels, you'll see

some times. But if you aren't, it's easy enough to read. I mean, exciting. No, I love it.

Really, I'm in battle. Yeah. Yeah, Michael is so kind, so encouraging. They can find that.

And yeah, you know, I'm still doing, I still have more books to write. I'm still doing a lot of

screenwriting. You know, my books, my current published books are on Amazon and screenwriting. I'm,

you know, doubting some new medium as well, exploring new opportunities. And I've been again,

really blessed people want to take, you know, a chance on me. And so I'm hoping to have more

news to share about that in the near future. But yeah, just stay tuned.

I have no doubt. You give off such amazing energy. That's why we connected the con and had so

much fun together. It was always, it was very nerve-racking for me to be at a con somewhere I'd

never been before and knowing that I could sit down at a table with you at any point and feel like,

okay, I feel normal. We can get a good conversation going. So I appreciated that for four days with

you. Oh, well, you made it easy. You made it so easy because you were so bright. So you was the

honor. The honor was mine. Oh, thanks. Yeah. When I get nervous, I go into performance mentality.

That's just what happens. And I get, I follow my face later. I think you just have a kind heart.

All right. Thank you. All right. Well, that's my gratitude. My gratitude actually goes to

RyderCon again. And for for people meeting people like you, Dylan, you being so encouraging and

us being of the workshop, shop some stuff together. It really is my advice out to everybody. You

become a Ryder by hanging out with Ryders. And I'm so happy to have you as a colleague now. And

you introduced me to Dan Martin who came on our show. So that was nice for the resurgence of

again, what a small world. So I really appreciate you for that, Dylan. Why don't you do your gratitude

and then we'll let Jim close us out. Yeah. I mean, I'd say my gratitude. There's so much. I'm

very grateful just for this. Honestly, I mean, you know, I've been so, I love, you and Michael,

I just hit off through so well. And I've gotten to read your work. You're in crowbariter. You've read

minds of kind things. I've been so excited to meet Jim. You know, I really respect him. And

I'm super interested in what Mo Dithiest does. And so I just have been looking forward to this for

so long. And it's kind of like grateful to get to do this and have just friendships with both

you guys now. And you know, this has just been so fun. So I'm just really grateful.

That's awesome. And yeah, thank you so much for that really, really kind. I'm grateful to

to both of you for having gone to writer con because I'm kind of getting to to soak up the

the bits of it because Michael talks all about and how excited he is. And he's got a bunch of

folks, he's we were able to get a bunch of guests on including you from writer con. He's talking

about it. And it's like, oh, it's so great because right about the time Michael went to writer con,

I went to a small convention in Minnesota. And that was my first convention in years, even before

the pandemic. And I was like, Oh, there's actually other writers out there that I get to talk to

and interact with. And I'm based to face with. And boy, that's a whole different dynamic than

talking about a screen and being the little people who live in my computer. So I'm grateful for

writers who are, you know, braving the conventions out there and getting together and interacting.

Because it's, it was definitely a bomb for my soul to be able to reach out and just connect with

people face to face and talk about the writing life and the joys and challenges that we have. So

I am grateful that, you know, Michael met you and that you came on to the show and are spending

some time with us. So thank you for being here. Dylan really appreciate it. Yeah, it's a privilege.

All right. Well, I know how the feeling we're going to have you back as you keep working on

stuff and and keep offering that helpful advice to our listeners. Thank you so much. Yeah, for sure.

Wow, Michael, man, I don't know how you find these people. I mean, at conventions, this is awesome.

I mean, I think one of the things I miss about not going to enough conventions is getting that

that individual FaceTime with other writers and just talking about the writing life and the

the experiences that we collectively have, you know, doing our thing. Because like, you know,

writing for the most part is very solitary, right? And you're in your room or in whatever zone

you're in writing your thing. And it's it can be challenging to get out to a writer's group or

to a writer's circle or even to go to conventions or really, right? So I am, I'm just I think it's

really exciting that you are able to meet. Well, well, like I said, you encouraged. Yeah, you

encouraged me to go because I think we talk about it. You can be a writer and then you can be a

writer who wants to do it professionally, which means you're going to view it as a business. And

when you go there, even if you don't have anything written people, listen in, even if you don't

have it being written, there's classes about how to do a pitch, how to outline your book.

What's the three-act structure? How to market your book? I am the kind of person that once I know

the path, that encourages me to write because now I know how to move my product. So, so,

and then again, just meeting people who maybe can become your beta test readers or like Dylan

I met him at a coffee shop just because they'll talk about little events you can go to meet

different writers. And I end up sitting with a group of people and not only did I meet him,

but we're going to have other guests on the show who are now closing Netflix movie deals because

they went to these conventions and built up their networks. So Jim, great advice you gave me,

definitely life-changing. What's your advice to newbies out there too when it comes to conventions?

Oh gosh, what is my advice for writers to go to conventions?

Be go to conventions when you can, right? Like if you can afford to go to a convention, go to a convention,

this certainly take advantage of them if they're in your local region and then branch out to

ones. I think there's a there's a subset of writers that I've noticed that like do the convention

circuit all the time they're going conventions after conventions. And like how do you

afford to do that? All the conventions all around the world, all around the country or whatever.

And I think just be careful that you don't get so caught up in the convention scene that you're

not putting button, chair, hands to keyboard, getting the stuff done, right? I mean, you got to be a

writer. Do the socializing thing too, obviously, but find that balance that works for you.

But I mean, really, you don't have to go to a convention necessarily. I mean, there's probably

writers groups in your area, your local university or your local library, your local community center

probably has has writers that I think meetup.com is still a thing. I think it may be a little

dated at this point. But if you can't find a writers group, start one. Yes. Maybe you're not a leader

type. Maybe you're not the type of person personality to want to start something. But I mean,

make just try, you know, try something different. Get out of your comfort zone once in a while.

And trust me, it's hard for me because I'm an introvert. My comfort zone.

But you've encouraged me, you know, like the pandemic was great. That was one of my favorite,

I mean, I should say because I was home so much, I enjoyed it. That's my personality. But at the

same time, I do see the value of mixing it up. But even in this forum, Jim, we didn't meet for

four years before, you know, but we still were able to benefit from the writer's encouragement.

So we have our little group that was digital for a long time around video. But it was a pleasure to

meet you last year, you know, yeah. That's funny. You bring that up, Michael. I think the pandemic

was great for me because I'm an introvert. But because I got to do a couple of conventions,

virtual conventions and the virtual conventions were so much more fulfilling for me than the physical

conventions because I didn't have to pack my stuff up and run halfway across the convention space

to get from one panel to another panel or do a panel I wanted to see. It was hot. It was sweaty.

I was trying to find the water. You know, all this stuff, like, you don't have to do that when

you have a virtual convention because you're like, right here, like, you go for meeting the meeting.

And it's sure aside, it might be like going from a work meeting to a work meeting. But you get to

meet so many people and you're in your own environment, you're relaxed, you can just have a good time.

I wish there were, I mean, I know it's important for people to do the face-to-face conventions and

get out and go to the vendor room and all that stuff. But I wish more conventions were virtual,

or that more people were doing virtual conventions. Is it so much easier to get people together

when you don't have to worry about airfare or hotels selling out or all these other things that

are just practical, logistical things that people don't want to deal with, right?

Yeah, it does encourage the diversity of riders you get to who may have economic barriers.

So that's true, yeah. Or other health health. Yeah, if there's people who have different

ability levels who just can't, yeah, you're right. Yeah, about that. So,

reasons, yeah. Yeah, well, we know us, you know, again, Jim,

wonderful, glad that I could introduce you to Dylan, hopefully another friend for life,

kind of person. And everybody else out there, keep riding. We love it. Infinite stories and

infinite combinations, IDIC. The vlog and press for everybody. We'll see you next time.