December 9, 2024 • 59 mins
Welcome to Episode 275 of the Spun Today Podcast! I’m your host, Tony Ortiz, and today, we're diving back into the archives for a throwback to Episode 175, packed with creative tips and insights to fuel your writing journey. This episode is designed to motivate and inspire writers dealing with challenges like writer's block. We'll explore responses to the creative questionnaire from fellow writers and creatives, featuring contributors like Amy Marcello, Joshua Robertson, Elaine Almonte and more.
We'll uncover the origins of their writing passion, sources of inspiration, and strategies for staying motivated. From childhood stories to navigating rejection, this episode offers a wealth of advice and encouragement. Plus, I'll share personal anecdotes and highlight tools and resources that can support your writing endeavors, such as ProWritingAid.
Whether you're a seasoned writer or just starting, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you pursue your creative passions. Stay tuned, and let's get inspired together!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:19):
What's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the
only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm
your host Tony Ortiz and I appreciate you listening. This is
episode 275 of the podcast and it is a
throwback episode I'm re releasing. An oldie but a
goodie. The original episode was episode 175 and
(00:41):
it's a compilation of tips from creatives for
creatives. So if you're a listener of the pod, just to give you a
quick background, I have a free questionnaire on my
website. If you navigate to spuntoday.com questionnaire
you can check it out. It's five open ended question all related
to writing and creativity, the details of
(01:03):
which I actually break down in the original intro of the
episode, which I'm going to play for you in its entirety. So I'm not going
to get into it here. Just wanted to drop in and give you
guys a quick background of what the episode is about. Appreciate, as
always, each and every one of you taking the time to listen. Shout out to
the sponsored writing community out there. If you've been bogged down
(01:23):
with writer's block or just life getting in the way of your writing
plans, I definitely feel your pain. Hopefully this episode
does something in the way of motivation my fellow writers out there. And
for myself, without further ado, Here is
episode 275 of the Sponsor
Day Podcast which is a throwback of episode 175 of the Sponsor Day
(01:45):
podcast. Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen. I'll
check you guys out next time with a brand new episode.
For my fellow writers and creatives out. There, a really cool way you can help
support this show is by going. To spuntoday.com
support and clicking on the Pro Writing Aid banner. If you're
(02:05):
a listener of the show, you know that I use prowritingaid to pre edit all
of my writing before. I put it out or before I. Ship it off to
my editor so that it is in as
pristine condition as I can probably get it.
ProWritingAid offers a great toolkit that helps you polish
your work with easy to use grammar checks and the writing assistant that
(02:26):
also looks into things like pacing improvements, typos,
punctuations, and much more. Go to spuntoday.com
support click on the banner for prowritingaid and check out their
free option as well as their different tiers of paid
options. Spuntoday.com support.
(02:47):
What'S up folks? What's going on. Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast.
I'm your host Tony Ortiz. Thank you in advance for listening.
I'm recording this episode on May 8,
2017 and it is to vault it
for future use at a future date that is
still yet to be known to myself. And eventually when you guys are listening
(03:09):
to this, then this is the date that I decided to drop it pretty much.
I save certain types of episodes that are quote unquote
timeless in the sense that I'm not referencing any like
current events or anything like that for future
use in case I'm ever unable to record
an episode in time for my bi weekly
(03:31):
releases. And that could be for literally any reason. You know,
sickness, family related stuff, or
just I feel lazy as fuck and don't feel like recording anything. But as they
say, the show must go on. There was a previous episode
of the podcast that,
if everything goes as planned, should have been released prior to this one, which
(03:54):
was also a vaulted episode that
encompassed four past
Sponsored a questionnaires that have been filled out and
this is a continuation of that and exhibiting four more.
So in this episode I share a throwback montage of four
Spun Today questionnaires that have been filled out in the past. Why
(04:17):
not have a single episode that centralizes all the tips,
motivation, tools and tricks adopted by fellow writers
and creatives? If you'd like to partake in filling out your own
questionnaire, check it out@spuntoday.com
questionnaire thanks again to Amy Marcello,
a person that chose to remain anonymous, Joshua Robertson and
(04:41):
Elena Monte, which are the features of this re
release episode. Amy Marcelo is a writer.
The person that chose to remain anonymous is also a writer. Joshua
Robertson is also a writer, a fantasy writer to be specific.
And Elaine Almonte is also a writer and a friend
and a designer
(05:03):
event planner. Now the actual questionnaire that I've referenced
plenty of times in the past is a five question questionnaire
that as I state on the landing page,
quote, if your responses could potentially spark inspiration in someone
else, why not share that end quote and I designed
the questions in a way that I myself or the and the
(05:25):
listeners rather of these Bunsen podcasts can gain
something from it. You kind of sort of get a glimpse into the creative
process of someone else that that's into the same
sort of things that you're into as well as
the humanizing of them in terms of finding out what
else they're into. Like you know, TV shows that they watch or movies and
(05:48):
other hobbies that they have. You're also able to pick up on
practical motivational tips and tools that they may use for
themselves to get themselves to do what they want to be doing and pursue what
they want to be pursuing in the way that they do and
in a digestible way that you can then take for
yourself and see if you can apply it to
(06:09):
your own life and see what the results are there
thereafter. Now, the five questions are, and again, you
can find these@spontaneity.com forward slash questionnaire.
The five questions are, number one, relating to your craft.
Do you remember the first thing that you wrote or created? If so, what
was it? Question two, what inspired you to
(06:32):
write or create? Question three,
what is a hobby that you have that is unrelated to your craft? This could
be anything from what you're currently reading, a
show you're watching, to something you're
experimenting with, etc. Question four, if you get
yourself to sit down. I'm sorry, how do you get
(06:54):
yourself to sit down and do your work
when you're not motivated to? That's a key question
to me, in my opinion. I'd love to see people's take on that because something
that all creatives and specifically all writers deal
with. And lastly, question five, do you have any advice
for other writers or creators, whether they're new, seasoned or
(07:16):
otherwise? Then of course you have the option to remain anonymous if you choose
to. And if not, then I definitely give you a shout out. You know, I'll
plug your blog or your Twitter account, etc.
And you know, all this shit is free of charge. Obviously
it's a win win, you know, you get to promote your stuff for free to
these Spun Today podcast listeners and the Spun Today podcast listeners and
(07:39):
myself gain from your insight.
And that's pretty much it, folks. I'm not sure when again, I'll be needing to
use this episode, but when I do, I hope you guys enjoy
it. And once again, thanks to Amy
Marcelo, the person that chose to remain anonymous, Joshua
Robertson and Elena Monte. Without further ado,
(08:02):
here are their questionnaires. Now, the first
person that submitted a questionnaire this week chose to
remain anonymous. So I'm not gonna say the
person's name or anything like that or where you can contact them if you would
like to, but I,
like all others, am going to read their answers to the
(08:23):
questionnaire, obviously to help, you know,
share their insights and their tips with other
people that could, you know, hopefully have a
ripple effect of motivation for others,
including myself. Okay, question number
one is relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing
(08:45):
that you ever wrote or created. And this
anonymous person stated, the very first thing that I
remember creating was a mini book in first grade.
I drew pictures and had to write a story to go with
them. I think I still have it somewhere. It
was plain awful. I
(09:06):
cannot draw, but I remember feeling very proud that I
created something. And that's, that's, you
know, the dopest part of that is that you still
have it somewhere. And I would say definitely find where that
somewhere is before you lose it and
keep it in a safe place that you can look back on and cherish and
(09:29):
you know, who knows, give it to your kids one day and
just look back on it. It's really cool to have a piece
of your childhood like that, especially if it's tied to a
specific passion that you have for something. Like in
this example, like writing. I remember
when I was in like 8th or 9th, 8 or 9 years
(09:52):
old, when I mentioned this in the past. So for those of you that have
heard this already and bear with me, I'm sorry, but it's pretty fitting
to this, this response in the questionnaire. The
first story, short story that I ever wrote, I was like 8 or 9 years
old. And I remember it was, it was
a cross between like
(10:14):
an army movie and Encino man. And it was called the Thousand Year
Old Soldier. And I wrote it in a black and white marble notebook.
And the premise was a soldier
got trapped under an avalanche and turned into a block of ice.
And then when he thawed out he realized that a thousand years
(10:34):
had passed and he was in the future.
And I don't remember much else aside from that,
but I do remember, I remember writing it and I
remember obviously the premise of it and even the notebook that
I wrote it in and I remember putting it. I had this
metal metallic box that had this fugazi little
(10:58):
key lock on it. And I remember keeping it there
and I used to use that box and store my
private stuff in there and top secret stuff, you know, I'm fucking eight or nine
years old. And long story short,
I stopped using the box. It was like in the basement somewhere
(11:19):
or wound up like in a. I don't
even know where it wound up. But fast forward, years
later we moved and everything. I found that, that
box in the garage. And
I remember like when I saw it, when I found it, like I
remembered right away of like the book and the short
(11:41):
story and just like stuff that I had in there. I was like, oh shit,
I can't believe this box still like exists. I Had completely forgotten about it. And
I went to it, I opened it, and it was full of, like, my father's
tools and shit like that. And I never got to,
like, see the book again, but it would have been pretty dope if I had.
So imagine that story, your version
(12:02):
of. And you actually finding and still having
that picture book now.
And that's a much happier ending than finding a
bunch of screwdrivers and stuff in this place. But,
yeah, find that. The next
question is, what inspired you to write or create? And the
(12:23):
response was, I find that I always have a
museum. Sometimes that muse is a person, sometimes
it's emotion itself. I use them all to fuel my
writing. And I couldn't agree more. You know, inspiration
strikes very randomly, very sporadically,
sometimes very intentionally.
(12:44):
And, yeah, I'm the exact same way. I could hear a
song that inspires me to write. I could hear a quote in a movie. And
that concept of the muse is just like,
you know, you need to physically get yourself to a pen and paper
or, you know, a keyboard and
let it flow through you and onto the screen or
(13:08):
onto the page. And I'm completely with you on that. The next
question is, what is a hobby that you have that is unrelated to
your craft? And the response is,
I'm an avid reader. I read hardcover books and
listen to Audible. I am constantly reading all different
types of books, and that is something I'm trying
(13:31):
to do more and more of, especially as I've gotten into. Into
writing. Obviously, they kind of go hand in hand. And believe
it or not, reading is something that I used to hate very much, so
never used to read at all. And now I really enjoy
it. I'm just not the best reader there is out there. But
definitely enjoy, enjoy the process. And audiobooks are
(13:53):
dope, too, for that. Helping out with a fit with a few books that
were kind of, like, dense and, like, tough to, like, read
and that I really enjoyed the audiobooks
of, like, what was it? Republic Lost by Lawrence
Lessig. And also one of my favorite books, Mastery
by Robert Greene. And those
(14:15):
were pretty dope. And you guys should check. Definitely check
out audio. Audio books if you haven't. Or, like, if you're in that kind of,
like, gray area that you like, you want to, you know, get exposed to certain
things that you want to read, but you really don't, like, make the time, like,
for it and stuff like that. Definitely check out
audiobooks. I have to download more of
(14:36):
them, actually. Let's see. The next question is,
how do you get yourself to Sit down and do your work when you're not
motivated to. And the response is, that's
tough. When I do feel what. Blah. I'm
sorry, that stuff. When I do not feel
inspired, I draw on other people's energy. I send out
(14:58):
questions on social media that will strike chords of emotion and
people. This works well for me. And that's
a. That's a really good idea. That's kind of. I guess that's kind of like
what this questionnaire is like for me. That's like my version of. Is sending out
this questionnaire, and it helps spark,
you know, the, you know, the recording of this podcast, for
(15:20):
example, which has always
been kind of like a closed loop. Right. The podcast makes me want to
write or motivates me to write, you know, keeps me honest, keeps me
writing, and vice versa. Writing gives me content for
the podcast, and it's kind of like a circle
that purposely is set up to
(15:42):
motivate me, to push me in the direction of where I want to be
with both writing and podcasting.
And that's a. That's a really good idea with the asking questions, like,
on social media and just getting, like, different feedback from different people.
This person actually, as well as the other person, that
the other person didn't choose to remain anonymous, but this one did. So that's why
(16:05):
I'm just saying this person I met through or quote, unquote,
met through Cyber Dust, which is
Mark Cuban's, like, social texting service thing
that, that he started or that he's a part of.
And it's pretty interesting. I'm getting used to the.
The. I don't know the.
(16:28):
The format of it. Is that the right word for it? The. I'm getting used
to using it, basically. But it's. I hear it
similar to, like, Snapchat, but Snapchat I've never used, except
this is. Does not give you an option to, like, save.
Like, Snapchat supposedly gives you the option to, like, save,
you know, the chats or whatever. Cyber does. Does
(16:51):
not. And Cyber Dust as a company does not have, like, any servers or anything
like that. So somebody sends you a message or
a blast, like they call or a dust. A dust would be like a
dm and a blast would be like a post. And
when people see it or read it, once they open it, the
clock starts, and it's a certain amount of seconds before it disappears.
(17:14):
And it's not stored on any other servers or anything like that. Which
would, I would imagine, means, like, low overhead for them, I guess.
But it's the whole concept of it. It's like, truly, you
know, nah, nobody's reading your shit type of.
Type of forum. And that's where I met both of these people. So,
yeah, I definitely get that. You know, sending stuff out through social
(17:37):
media to, you know, spark conversation and interest and stuff like that
and draw on people's energy. And the final question of the
questionnaire is,
do you have any advice for other writers or creators, whether they're
new, seasoned, or otherwise? And the response
was, write your heart. People can tell
(17:59):
if you're not writing from the very depths of your soul.
If you always write for that, you will always touch
someone. And that was
my favorite response to your questionnaire. And I
couldn't agree more. You know, you had. How do I say
this? You know, sometimes, like, with stuff that I write,
(18:20):
I'm kind of like, you know, that feeling of,
nobody's gonna get this except for me, or.
Or this isn't good enough for anybody else to read and stuff like
that. And a lot of the time it is, don't get me wrong. But in
terms of my stuff. But as long as it's coming
from that place, from that, like, genuine, real place, it's
(18:44):
gonna reach somebody, it's gonna touch somebody, and you have no way of gauging
who it does and who it doesn't touch. And I, you know,
I've written about this in certain free writing posts, and
the quote, unquote announcement that I'm gonna tell you guys about right after the next
questionnaire, I get into it in there as
well. But I think it's your responsibility as a creator, as
(19:06):
a writer specifically, to just let the
thing out. Let it out and allow it to.
If. Allow it to have the chance of reaching and touching
someone. And if it does,
great. And if it doesn't, it at least
meant that to you, and it was therapeutic in that way for
(19:27):
you. And you are someone too, right? So, yeah. Thank
you very much, person that shall remain anonymous per your
request. And I really appreciate you taking the time to
fill out the survey, the questionnaire, and it was a great one.
Thank you very much. And we have one more
questionnaire. Like I told you guys, this one. Let me just make sure this
(19:50):
person said it does not matter in terms of them remaining
anonymous or not. And if you choose that, I'm
gonna say who you are. And this person is
Amy Marcelo. So, Amy, thank you in advance for taking
the time. Question number one of the survey
relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing that you
(20:12):
ever wrote or created. And Amy's response
was, before I could write, my mom used to have me tell
her a story and she would write down everything I said word
for word, even when it didn't make sense. The stories
were usually about birds or animals that like to
play and sometimes get into trouble. It is
(20:34):
nice looking back and reading the grammatically incorrect
details to a young and very vivid
imagination. And I
thought that when I, when I read the questionnaire, when I received
it, I thought that was like such a dope idea. I was actually gonna tell
my brother to do that with my niece when she gets old enough, when she's
(20:55):
actually making like sense. Because now she's, you
know, barely a month out
from her, not even a month out of her one year birthday, so she's
still like speaking gibberish and stuff like that. And she knows how to say cat
and. No, but definitely when she starts making sense, that would be a pretty
cool, a pretty cool idea to, to do something
(21:17):
like this and have her create
stories and write them down and give them to her in the future. And. And
it's really dope that your mother did that for you and
kind of planted that seed of creating stories, I
guess, for you, which is really, really cool. Definitely
a different, a different version of reading your kids bedtime
(21:40):
stories. Right? Allow them to create their own. That seems pretty cool. It's definitely something
I would want to do. Thanks for sharing that. And the next
question is, what inspires you to write or create? And Amy's
response is emotional reactions to anger, heartbreak,
empathy, revelations and aha moments.
And yeah, tying into the
(22:03):
previous questionnaire that I read,
it's, you know, inspiration literally comes from anything and
everything and anywhere. And I guess in Amy's
case, she seems to be more of the. It
comes from places of like heightened emotion,
whether it's like empathy or heartbreak, like
(22:24):
she says, or anger or revelations
and aha. Moments, those are like peaks in emotion,
right? But it's awesome that you can take any of
those emotions from it, like any of those peaks and channel them
into creating, which is key, which is
awesome because all that emotion, all that, that rawness,
(22:46):
all that realness comes out in your writing.
How much of it comes out is obviously completely up
to you. And it's something that as like writers and creators, that's what
we're, we're molding and shaping and honing and
fine tuning. Right. Which is definitely
dope to have that ability to steer it in that direction.
(23:08):
The next question is, what is a hobby that
you have that is unrelated to your craft. And she wrote,
I love to dance, and that's pretty cool.
I actually do not love to dance. I'm probably
like the worst Dominican ever. And my people
are very, very allegre, happy,
(23:30):
Dancy type people. And very much so.
Not more of the introverted, quiet, leave me
alone persuasion, but
I do. I could dance. Not well or anything like that. I'm not. I'm no
fucking Patrick Swayze and Dirty Dancing, but I know how to
dance. And, you know, the
(23:52):
once every. Every leap year, when I do get the
itch to dance, I'll, like, dance my ass off at that one party and
then, you know, never dance again for. For years to come.
So I definitely get the. The appeal of it when
I. When I, you know, look back and think of, like, those
specific moments when I've enjoyed it. And, you know, dancing in itself is,
(24:14):
like, very creative and very free, very, very flowy. You know,
you follow certain preset rules, I guess, and steps
in certain types of dancing, if you're just doing, I don't
know, not all, I guess, but. But yeah, I see.
I see that. I see that connection. Pretty dope. It's pretty
cool. The next question is, how do you get yourself
(24:36):
to sit down and do your work when you're not motivated to? And
Amy responded, I try to find a quiet place
without distraction. Sometimes music helps, but other
times I need complete silence. And that's that. That
was interesting to me because I'm. I don't know, I
guess. I guess it depends on the mood, on my mood, because.
(24:59):
And, you know, judging from your response, I guess it's the same
for you. Like, sometimes you need complete silence, and sometimes music,
you know, some sort of light background, like white noise
kind of gets you going. And I wonder from
reading it, if. From reading your response, Amy, if you mean
that, let's say you don't want to write. You don't. Because this is what I
(25:22):
meant by the question, which, you know, if you didn't get that,
that's completely my fault for the way it's worded. But
when you're supposed to write, which should be, like, all the time, right?
If you're into writing, how do you get yourself to physically
get up and go sit down and write? And if I don't know, I guess
I'm not sure if that's what you. You meant by your response. But
(25:45):
if you meant that you could literally, like, you know, turn off the tv, make
everything quiet, and then that gets you in the mood to write, that's fucking amazing.
That's like a switch, like an on switch that you have
there that you've, you know, disciplined and trained yourself to do.
So it's kind of like, because I kind of feel like the answer that you
gave is kind of after you get yourself
(26:08):
to write, you just have to, you know, after you
have you sat down and kind of made that push in the direction of
writing that you kind of then have to like shut everything off and then,
you know, so could start flowing and you can start, start writing.
But yeah, it's, that's like the toughest part for, for all of
us. And I think
(26:30):
that's a pretty well known and understood,
you know, similarity amongst writers that, you know, just actually
sitting down and doing the work is. That's the hard part, like getting yourself
to, getting that push of motivation and
inspiration to go and actually physically do the work.
And lastly, the last question of
(26:53):
the last questionnaire that we have for the day is,
do you have any advice for other writers or creators, whether they're new,
seasoned or otherwise? And Amy
responded, writing is the easy part. Don't let rejection
letters be the demise of your passion. There are so many
resources and directions to explore.
(27:15):
The Internet can allow your writing to touch any audience
you want. And I think finding that in today's world is
where you'll find the most value
and have the most impact. And I
could not agree with you more. Again, Amy, thank you very much for taking the
time to fill out the questionnaire. That was a very, very dope
(27:37):
response and kind of the perfect segue
to the announcement that I said told
you guys last week that I would have for you this week. Which I'm not
where I want to be with it, but I'm
enough into it where I could announce it
to one light of fire under my ass to make sure I get it done
(27:58):
and to keep my word of having an
announcement for you guys. So like I said, like Amy said
in this last response, writing the easy part, don't let rejection
letters be the demise of your passion. There are so many resources
and directions to explore. I
am in the process of
(28:20):
self publishing my first book and
that's the announcement. Tada. The spun today
questionnaire response filled out by Amazon
bestselling author Joshua Robertson. And
Joshua is someone that I found on
YouTube. Actually his. He has a couple YouTube channels.
(28:42):
The one that I've seen a handful of
videos of that I find helpful I link to in the episode
notes. He is, like I said, a fantasy
author, an Amazon best selling Fantasy author.
And he has a bunch of helpful videos online related
to writing. Like, for example, where to get reviews that I've
(29:04):
watched or why to join a writer community, how
to characterize your characters, learn from your
fears, like, stuff like that. That resonated with me. A bunch of stuff that
he's shared and spoken about. And
he took the time to fill out the
spontaneity questionnaire for us, and I appreciate that very much, and
(29:26):
I'm going to share his responses with you guys now. Question
one, relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing you
ever wrote or created? And Joshua responded, the first
story I remember creating was a horror story around
the age of nine. Damn, that's awesome. That's what. That's how you know
you're doing what you're supposed to be doing when it's something that you
(29:48):
were doing when you were nine. He continues and says
the story focused on a group of kids going into a
haunted house on Halloween. I continued to write short
stories throughout the age of 15 and then finally completed my first
novel at 17. Damn, that's
awesome. At 17, I was trying to figure out, like,
(30:11):
what worked better between Noxzema and Neutrogena or
something like that. So that's really cool that Josh was able to do
that at 17. Question number two. What inspires you to write
or create? And Joshua responds, my ideas are primarily
inspired by dreams I have had throughout my life.
My bestseller, Mel Corca, was completely based
(30:33):
off a dream I had in 2013. And that's really cool to hear
because, like I've told you guys in the past, there's
that again. I picked up from different writing podcasts and
blogs and stuff like that. The
A tip, I guess, given by a lot of writers is
(30:53):
to have a sleep journal. You know, sleep with, like, a book or
something that you could write in next to your bed and, like, when you wake
up, just jot things down. I spent a long
time, like, having certain ideas and then thinking that I'm gonna remember them and,
you know, being too lazy to write them down. And then the next day I'm
like, fuck, I had such a good idea. And, you know, completely, you know, it's
gone. So that's a tactic. If you
(31:16):
guys can't remember your dreams, use that. I use that on two
occasions so far because I don't dream that often, or
at least not anything that I have felt
worthy of turning into a story. But I've written
two short stories, including the one that I still owe you guys, that I'M still
working on that I told you guys about, but one that
(31:38):
I did put on the website called Chopper City,
located at spontaneity.com Short Stories. Chopper City. That was a story
completely that came to me like, in a dream. And, you know,
I did an episode of like
the Chopper City audiobook version of the podcast
where I go into the details of explaining where that story came
(32:01):
from, et cetera, et cetera. But anyway, it's cool to hear that Josh was able
to turn a dream into a bestseller. And the title of that
book again is Milkorka. I'm going to link also to
Josh's Amazon or, like, book page so you guys can check out
his books as well. You can find that in the episode notes.
Question number three. What is a hobby that you
(32:22):
have that is unrelated to your craft? And Josh wrote,
I have another YouTube channel based around my business called Goblin
Horde, and that's spelled G O B L I N for
Goblin and Horde H O R D E. I
am lucky to have a hobby where I can be a nerd with my
nerdy family and find support from a great nerdy community.
(32:45):
And that is not the original
YouTube page. Like I told you guys, he has a couple YouTube pages. But I
did check this one out since Josh filled out the questionnaire
and it's pretty cool. I believe it's with his wife and children are part
of it. And that's pretty cool if you're into that type of thing. Check that
out again. It's YouTube.com
(33:06):
C goblinhoard. And by C I mean the letter
C, not S E E or S e. A question
4. How do you get yourself to sit down
and do your work when you're not motivated to.
Josh responds, rarely do I find
myself not motivated to write, but in those times I bribe myself with
(33:28):
chips, salsa and coffee. Nice. Definitely,
you know, bribing yourself and giving yourself, I guess like incentives like that
definitely has to work or could help in working. In my
case, I drink way too much coffee
for to be able to to bribe myself with that as is because then that
means I would have to cut myself off to then bribe myself with it, which
(33:50):
wouldn't work. So I'm gonna have to find something else to bribe myself with. But
it's definitely a good, good tactic to use and
something that I could figure out something to implement, like something that I like, you
know, cut it out and then I'm gonna give it to myself once I like,
complete a short story or something like that, which I'm struggling with now because
it's taking so damn long to finish. Sometimes
(34:13):
again, going back to the whole paralysis by analysis and writing and rewriting
type of thing, I'm gonna take my own advice and just put it out there.
Right? Okay. And the last question, do you have any
advice for other writers or creators, whether they're new, seasoned or
otherwise? And Joshua stated, join a writing
community and build real relationships. That's something that
(34:34):
I saw in one of your videos. Josh and I
have begun a little bit. I
can't say like really actively, but I joined a couple like Facebook writing
groups and definitely have to look into
into that more deeply. It's logical advice. It makes sense, you know, surround
yourself with people that you want to be around and learn
(34:57):
from and learn with and et cetera. And that
is Joshua's responses to the Sponsored A questionnaire which is
available to any and all creatives at sponsor
a.com forward/questionnaire the same five questions you
can fill out your responses to
and be part of a future episode of the podcast. Joshua
(35:19):
Robertson again, his Twitter, his YouTube page as well
as Amazon book page will be linked to in the episode
notes. And Josh, thanks for taking out the time to fill out the
questionnaire. The questionnaire that I told you guys about.
So Elaine, Ms. Montana
Almonte is my best friend's kid sister.
(35:41):
Come to think of it, she probably doesn't even know that I've ever referred to
her as that because it's not like I would introduce
her or someone and say, hey, best friend's kid sister. This is so
and so. Hey so and so. This is my best friend's kid sister. You know,
I mean, so it's not like something that she would probably hear. So when she
hears this she's probably. Gonna be like what the fuck are. You talking about, best
friend's kid sister? But yeah, it's like de Carino type of thing. Like I have
(36:02):
referred to her as that in the past. I don't even know when, but
I don't know, probably like in passing like oh yeah, that's my best friend's consistent
or whatever anyway. Which by the way, I don't know why I would even call
her that because she's like a year younger than me. Like a grown ass
woman. But whatever. Shout out to Elaine.
She was kind enough to fill out the Spun Today
(36:24):
questionnaire that is available to any of you folks of you
fine folks to fill out if you are so
inclined. And I will do the same exact thing that
I'm doing now and I'M going to share the responses
to those five questions which are geared towards creative types, as you
guys will hear in a bit. And the point of it is to
(36:47):
see someone else's perspective on how they approach
something that they're passionate about. And sometimes you
get, or I've gotten from these, receiving and reading these
questionnaires and sharing them tips such as, you
know, wake up early and right before work and
you know, different apps to use, like Evernote or
(37:10):
Day One, which is another free app that's pretty user friendly
and like good for writing and stuff like that. And you just get
a glimpse into somebody else's process, which I think is cool and inspiring. And
it kind of like demystifies like the whole thing for other people,
which is really important to me, which is the fucking catchphrase of the podcast,
right? Like substitute the mysticism with hard work.
(37:33):
And I really appreciate whenever
anybody decides to fill one of these out and definitely
appreciate Lane doing so. So let's
jump in and see what she had to say. Question number one is
relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing you ever
wrote or created? Aileen responded, yes,
(37:55):
a journal entry. In fourth grade, my school
gave all the girls journals for Christmas. That's so sexist.
How about the guys now? Let me stop. That's pretty cool. That reminds
me of in seventh grade we had
something similar. Not, you know, we didn't get like journals or anything like
that. And it definitely wasn't the first thing I ever wrote. But the.
(38:19):
My seventh grade English teacher, which is part of
the dedication section, a large part of the dedication
section within my book. Make Way for you. Available
now. She made us write journals in class and she called them lit
logs, short for literature logs. And I
don't remember if it was daily or
(38:40):
weekly or what it was, but we would write them. It
would usually be based on something that we were reading in class. She
was give us like feedback on it. And I remember like the feedback she would
give me was just like so elaborate and she was like so into like whatever
it was that I wrote and really liked the way I wrote
and always gave me compliments and stuff like that. And
(39:02):
it's, it's definitely boosting to have that
type of support from a teacher or from a school and stuff like that. So
it's pretty, pretty dope that you got those journals in the
fourth grade. Now the response to this question also reminds me
something that I told myself that I was going to do after Daniel Ippoleti's
response to this question in A past
(39:24):
questionnaire. And that is that the way
I wrote the question was, do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?
My assumption was in crafting that
question, which clearly hasn't like permeate,
permeated, is that people would say, oh yes. And what I wrote was
blah, blah, blah. Because I would love to hear that part of it. So
(39:47):
Elaine, tell me if you remember what it was they wrote. Hit
me up and let me know. And I definitely have to amend that question on
the website. Watch me forget until the next questionnaire comes out.
All right, question number two. What inspires you to write or create?
Annie Lane wrote people's stories, family bonds,
things humans experience and think are unique
(40:09):
to them. Pretty things, sad things. And I
couldn't agree more. It's pretty much everything, right? Like different
experiences that you all just life as life happens to you or in spite
of you or whatever,
you absorb different
sparks of inspiration. I feel like that's
(40:31):
common in any writer that I've like
followed or heard of. And in interviews and stuff like
that, their mind is always on in that way. Like it's
always like in. It's always receptive to the
type of input that would spark an idea or inspiration. So they tend
to get it from anything from the way the plate was, you
(40:53):
know, almost fell off the edge of the table or how angry the guy was
in the train that was complaining about the train being stalled. Or
how happy the little kid seemed that, you
know, was walking down the hallway like anything. I like the whole, the things
human experience, humans experience. Are you a
humanist, Miss Montana? What about Shady? What about his
(41:14):
experiences? Now let me stop. Question 3.
What is a hobby that you have that is unrelated to your craft?
Alien wrote decorating, creating dessert tables
for parties with specific themes. I also like to
watch Luke Cage Iron First. Is
it Iron first or Iron Fist? Iron First. The
(41:37):
Boondocks Family guy and the Magicians. I know
Elaine was into decorating. I wasn't. I didn't know she was into the whole creating
dessert tables, parties and stuff like that. Which is pretty cool because actually
my sister in law is into that type of shit. So you guys should. I
think you guys have met before, but yeah, she's like
heavy into that now, so it'd be cool to like connect the two, I
(41:59):
guess. And she's learning how to make like Dominican cakes and all types
of shit like that. The, the decorating, if I'm not
mistaken, Elaine decorated for her father's
retirement dinner that, that we all went to, which was dope
and Everything was. Was beautifully done and very, very
tasteful, very elegant and modern slash
(42:21):
bohemian type of
thing. So it's really cool. It's like a different type of creative
outlet that's not just watching TV like everything else here on
the list. Luke Cage, I heard, is dope. I heard
it's good. And I got to check that out. I haven't heard of
any of the other ones. I think I've heard of the Boondocks, but I'm not
(42:42):
sure what that is. Family Guy, obviously, I know what that is. I watch it
sometimes, too. My wife is into that. And, yeah, I haven't heard of the other
ones. All right, next. How do you get yourself to sit
down and do your work when you're not motivated to?
And Elaine responded, I don't. Herein lies my issue.
And this is something, as she knows, that I've busted her chops about
(43:04):
in the past. Not that I'm on some fucking. Trying
to sound, like, preachy or, like, be on my high horse, like, oh, I write,
and I'm the most consistent person ever, and blah, blah, blah, because I'm far
from it. If you guys saw my. I tweet out
and post on my Patreon page
the amount that I write per month. So I have a calendar right above
(43:26):
my computer here. And I.
For every day, I had to put a checkmark or an X mark. All the
checkmarks represent days that I've written. All the X
marks represent the days that I did not write. And I keep a
ongoing tally. I've been doing this for about a year and a half for every
month, or probably two years for every month. I have, like, an Excel
(43:47):
spreadsheet, and I have everything, like, mapped out and broken down into
percentages. And last month I
wrote. And I'll give you guys an exact number on only
12 of the 31 days in March.
So 12 days, I wrote. 19 days, I did not. That is a
38.7% completion rate in terms
(44:08):
of the goal of, you know, trying to write every
day. And so I'm far from perfect. So I'm definitely not coming from that
type of, you know, do what I do type of thing.
But I do come. I am coming from. I do get on her about it
because, like, we've spoken about writing a line in the past,
and. And Elaine's probably, like, one of the
(44:30):
first people to ever, like, read anything that I wrote. And we. I
remember we used to give each other, like, little writing
assignments, which was really cool for just, like,
exercise your writing muscle. Chops, just give
yourselves, like, a task, like a topic to write
about. And just write, like, little paragraphs or a short
(44:51):
story or whatever. Like, I remember a cool one that
she gave me was, look at somebody on the
train when you're commuting to work tomorrow and
write something about them. Like, write, you know, what you think their life
is about or where they're going or whatever. And I
wrote like a little, like a mini
(45:13):
short story about this kid that I saw on the train that
looked, like, young, probably, like fresh
out of high school or maybe college.
And he had, like a suit on and he looked nervous. And I wrote this,
like, whole little short story about him going to
his first job interview and being nervous about it and how he was, like, all
(45:34):
in his head and didn't even notice the girl next to him that was trying
to flirt with him. And, like, I made all this stuff up, but it,
like, exercised that, like, writing muscle, you know, I mean, so we used to do,
like, shit like that and like, email it to each other and comment
on each other, on each other's stuff. And I really, really like Elaine's
writing. I really enjoy it, which is why I, like, tell her to write more
(45:54):
often and stuff like that. And the place that I am
coming from is that, like, you know, through, you know, creating
this podcast and setting certain
goals, writing goals, like trying to write every day, even though it's a
lofty goal that I haven't hit yet. I think my highest accuracy was
like, actually accuracy percentage was like 70 something
(46:16):
percent of the days that I actually wrote within a given month.
But just like setting those certain goals, it's kind of like the
whole aim for the moon and if you miss, you land amongst the stars type
of thing. It's like you're taking steps in the direction at least,
you know, you're not just not writing at all.
And you have to make certain, like, practical
(46:38):
tweaks. I feel that definitely come in handy. And what came in handy
for me when I was, you know, struggling, trying to, like, either
wait for inspiration to hit me to write, which never happened.
And then, you know, writing at night when
I was also trying to. Which I did for a long time, like, just
staying up late at, like, until like 1, 2, 3 in the morning
(47:02):
and writing. And then I would feel the repercussions of that the next day,
and I'd be just like, even more grouchy than I normally am with my
fucking, like, grouchy Persona and just, like, out of it and not
feeling well, like, stuff like that. And then I got
the tip of a.
Another writer that filled out this question in the past and he
(47:25):
was like that he wakes up at 5:30 in the morning. You know, he has
a regular nine to five day job. He wakes up at 5:30 in the Morning,
writes for an hour or two and doing that for, you know,
a couple years at a time. And like in a dedicated way he
like self published like two or three novels or something like that. And
a lot of people start out that way. Joanna Penn, which has a successful podcast
(47:46):
and has a very interesting business model, which I would, which
is a more realistic one to me
to like in terms of pursuing it. Like she has multiple revenue streams
in terms of speaking, speaking engagements and podcasting and writing books. And she
writes also both fiction and nonfiction, which I try to do.
And like she worked a
(48:09):
day job for six years while simultaneously doing a
podcast and writing books before she was able to generate enough
from the writing books and podcasting. And you know, her
authorpreneur I think it is that she calls it or
some like marketing word like that.
(48:30):
Before she was able to like quit her job and just live off of that
like full time. And then eventually her husband was able to quit his
job and help her with her business. And
it's something that, that snowballs over time or that could snowball over
time, but it definitely won't if you just
don't like put in that work or make that decision. And it
(48:53):
was like one probably one of the hardest decisions like for my lazy ass because
I can't wake up for shit in the mornings at all.
Especially while I was in that rut of, you know, going to sleep
madly. If I'm going to sleep like at 2, 3 in the morning, like trying
to do writing and then trying to make that switch to okay, tomorrow I'll wake
up at 5:30 and then from there I'll start and it's like, nah, shit won't
happen that way. Like I had to spend a couple weeks of like
(49:16):
forcing myself because then I'm like wired at night and I can't like go to
sleep that easily. So it took like weeks of like trying to
force myself to go to sleep at, at 12 and then 11 and then
10 and then between 10 and 11 to. Then when
I wake up at, at 5:30, which I do now,
it, it doesn't impact me as much. And then by then you kind of like
(49:39):
flip it a little bit. You wake up that early, you do
some writing, you know, it could be half an hour it could be 45 minutes,
an hour. Like what? I don't have to be like, you need five hours before
work or something, you know, just something and just let it
snowball. And then by the time the next day comes around and it
is 10, 11 o'clock at night, you're like naturally tired and you want to go
(50:00):
to bed anyway, you know what I mean? And if that type of thing doesn't
work for you, then figure out some. We all have, we
have to all have 24 hours in the day, right? We all have different responsibilities,
family responsibilities, work responsibilities. Other people are able to get
it done. So which means that you can too. Like, nobody's situation is
completely unique in the sense that they
(50:21):
can't, you know, schedule their time in a way that
would benefit them. You could block out for yourself, you
know, 30 minutes a day or 30 minutes five days a week or
whatever it is, even if it's on a Saturday. Okay, let's say Saturdays. You sleep
in or something and wake up at 11, wake up at 10:30 and write
for half an hour or Sundays or you know, whatever.
(50:44):
Sundays night, Sunday nights between 7 and 8, you know, cut out,
you know, give up iron. Iron first. It sounds
whack. Anyway, give that one up and write for an hour
whenever that, Whenever you normally watch that and
like it has to be. You have to balance it that way. But
definitely I would want to like see more of that. That would be
(51:06):
like my advice, I guess, like my take on that. Not that you really asked
for it, but there it is anyway. And lastly,
do you have any advice for other writers or
creators, new, seasoned or otherwise?
And Elaine wrote spend time traveling. Inspiration
will come. I absolutely agree with the whole
(51:27):
traveling thing. I think the more we experience experience and the more inputs we
get, the better it is for us. It's like taking an
ammunition that we use to like
explode within our creative
selves. The inspiration will come. I agree with
to a certain extent, but as long as we're not only waiting
(51:48):
for inspiration to come, as I pointed out, like with the last
question, it's kind of like we gotta like meet it halfway type of thing
and don't just wait on it. And that's pretty much it. That is
Elaine's feedback. Elaine Almonte, thank you again,
Elob, very, very much. Really appreciate it.
And anybody else that wants to, wants to give some feedback on it, hit us
(52:10):
up. You guys know how to reach me. And yeah, thanks
again. Best friends, kid sister, aka Elaine,
aka Cole, aka Ms. Montana, aka
ah, aka what up though. All right,
that's enough. And
that, folks, was episode 275 of the Spun Today
(52:33):
Podcast. A nice little throwback compilation of tips and advice from
fellow writers and creatives hopefully gets us back
into the creative spirit if we've deviated at all.
And for those of us who haven't sticking the course, who have been
disciplined with our craft, hopefully this
just emboldens you that much more. For any fellow writers and creatives
(52:55):
that are listening to this episode, feel free to navigate to
spuntoday.com/forward/questionnaire where you can check
out the same questionnaire that you just got the
responses on. On this episode. You can fill out your own absolutely
for free, and I will be happy to learn from
and share your responses on a future episode of the Sponsor Day Podcast.
(53:17):
As I mentioned in the original intro of the episode, you have the option to
remain anonymous if you so choose, but if not, it's a great
way to get some free promotion and publicity around
some of your creative work. Spuntoday.com
questionnaire and with that folks, I am going
to ask that you stick around just for a couple minutes to listen to a
(53:37):
few ways you can help support this show. If you so choose. Your support
means a ton, helps keep the lights on in the proverbial sponsoreday
studios, and is highly, highly appreciated.
And I'll check you guys out next time. Peace.
What's up folks? Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today
(53:58):
podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few
ways you can. Help support the show. For my fellow writers and
creatives out. There, a really cool way you can help support this show
is by going. To spuntoday.com support
and clicking on the. Pro Writing Aid banner. If you're a listener of the show,
you know that I use prowritingaid to pre edit all of my writing
(54:20):
before. I put it out or before I. Ship it off to my
editor so that it is in as pristine
condition as I can probably get it. ProWritingAid offers
a great toolkit that helps you polish your work with easy to use grammar
checks and the writing assistant that also looks into things like
pacing improvements, typos, punctuations, and much more.
(54:42):
Go to spuntoday.com support, click on the banner for
Pro Writing Aid and check out their free option as well
as their different tiers of paid options. Spun
today.com forward/support a great
way for my fellow writers and creatives out there to help support this show is
by going to spontaneity.com forward/ support and clicking on
(55:04):
the Mock Up Shots banner. When I first started writing and
putting out content, I wanted to think of creative ways to help market
my books. So I would take my own pictures, place the books in different places,
take it to the beach with me, put it out in the snow, and I'd
wind up with a couple good usable images and a bunch
more mediocre ones. And also, in the case of the snow example,
(55:26):
a completely soggy book. Then I found Mockup Shots.
In one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover
into thousands of images, videos,
graphics, and more. If you follow me on social it's what I use to
promote my books. You can check them out on Instagram at Spun
Today to take a look at the professional creative quality of
(55:48):
what Mockup Shots has to offer. And now for my listeners, you
can get unlimited lifetime access to the
largest instant book mockup archive for
50% off. That's right, that's
50% off and you can use it for any books
that you currently have available or any books that you will write in the future.
(56:08):
I highly recommend it. It's a great marketing tool. Go to
spuntoday.com support and click on the
banner for Mockup Shots to claim your 50% off
discount. You can also support by checking out my writing. Go to
spun.com here you'll find
a collection of freely written thoughts which is intended to be
(56:30):
a cathartic, meditative practice for myself, but also winds up
doubling up as motivation and inspiration for
myself and others. You can also go to
spuntoday.com shortstories to check out my latest
short stories and also listen to the free
audiobook versions of those stories. You can also support my writing
(56:51):
by going to
sponsored.combooks and
check out what I have available for sale. Currently available is
Make Way for you, which is a collection of tips for getting out of your
own way. It's a great read for my fellow writers or creatives out
there. Also available is Fractal, which is
my debut time travel novel, and last but
(57:14):
certainly not least, Melted Cold, which is a collection of
short stories. Each of the books are available in all digital
formats for your Kindle or Ibook or any other e
reader, as well as paperback and
hardcover options. Again, go to
spuntoday.com books and I'd love to
(57:35):
hear what you chose to. Check out as well as your thoughts. After reading
spuntoday.com books. If you're a
fellow creative, a cool way that you can help support the Spun Today podcast and
actually be part of the podcast is by filling out my five question
questionnaire located@spun today.com
questionnaire here you'll find the five open questions related to your
(57:56):
craft, your art, what inspires you to create, what type of unrelated
hobbies you're into, and what motivates you to get your work done. You
can choose to remain anonymous or plug your website and your
work. And once you submit your questionnaire, I read your responses
on a future episode of the Spun Today podcast. It's completely free at
no cost to you. And what I like to say about it is that if
(58:18):
your responses could potentially spark inspiration in someone else,
why not share that spuntoday.com
questionnaire? And as always, folks, substitute the
mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general
direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening.
(58:50):
I love you, Aiden. I love you Daddy.
I love you Grayson. I love you Daddy.
What's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the
only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm
your host Tony Ortiz and I appreciate you listening. This is
episode 275 of the podcast and it is a
throwback episode I'm re releasing. An oldie but a
goodie. The original episode was episode 175 and
(00:41):
it's a compilation of tips from creatives for
creatives. So if you're a listener of the pod, just to give you a
quick background, I have a free questionnaire on my
website. If you navigate to spuntoday.com questionnaire
you can check it out. It's five open ended question all related
to writing and creativity, the details of
(01:03):
which I actually break down in the original intro of the
episode, which I'm going to play for you in its entirety. So I'm not going
to get into it here. Just wanted to drop in and give you
guys a quick background of what the episode is about. Appreciate, as
always, each and every one of you taking the time to listen. Shout out to
the sponsored writing community out there. If you've been bogged down
(01:23):
with writer's block or just life getting in the way of your writing
plans, I definitely feel your pain. Hopefully this episode
does something in the way of motivation my fellow writers out there. And
for myself, without further ado, Here is
episode 275 of the Sponsor
Day Podcast which is a throwback of episode 175 of the Sponsor Day
(01:45):
podcast. Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen. I'll
check you guys out next time with a brand new episode.
For my fellow writers and creatives out. There, a really cool way you can help
support this show is by going. To spuntoday.com
support and clicking on the Pro Writing Aid banner. If you're
(02:05):
a listener of the show, you know that I use prowritingaid to pre edit all
of my writing before. I put it out or before I. Ship it off to
my editor so that it is in as
pristine condition as I can probably get it.
ProWritingAid offers a great toolkit that helps you polish
your work with easy to use grammar checks and the writing assistant that
(02:26):
also looks into things like pacing improvements, typos,
punctuations, and much more. Go to spuntoday.com
support click on the banner for prowritingaid and check out their
free option as well as their different tiers of paid
options. Spuntoday.com support.
(02:47):
What'S up folks? What's going on. Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast.
I'm your host Tony Ortiz. Thank you in advance for listening.
I'm recording this episode on May 8,
2017 and it is to vault it
for future use at a future date that is
still yet to be known to myself. And eventually when you guys are listening
(03:09):
to this, then this is the date that I decided to drop it pretty much.
I save certain types of episodes that are quote unquote
timeless in the sense that I'm not referencing any like
current events or anything like that for future
use in case I'm ever unable to record
an episode in time for my bi weekly
(03:31):
releases. And that could be for literally any reason. You know,
sickness, family related stuff, or
just I feel lazy as fuck and don't feel like recording anything. But as they
say, the show must go on. There was a previous episode
of the podcast that,
if everything goes as planned, should have been released prior to this one, which
(03:54):
was also a vaulted episode that
encompassed four past
Sponsored a questionnaires that have been filled out and
this is a continuation of that and exhibiting four more.
So in this episode I share a throwback montage of four
Spun Today questionnaires that have been filled out in the past. Why
(04:17):
not have a single episode that centralizes all the tips,
motivation, tools and tricks adopted by fellow writers
and creatives? If you'd like to partake in filling out your own
questionnaire, check it out@spuntoday.com
questionnaire thanks again to Amy Marcello,
a person that chose to remain anonymous, Joshua Robertson and
(04:41):
Elena Monte, which are the features of this re
release episode. Amy Marcelo is a writer.
The person that chose to remain anonymous is also a writer. Joshua
Robertson is also a writer, a fantasy writer to be specific.
And Elaine Almonte is also a writer and a friend
and a designer
(05:03):
event planner. Now the actual questionnaire that I've referenced
plenty of times in the past is a five question questionnaire
that as I state on the landing page,
quote, if your responses could potentially spark inspiration in someone
else, why not share that end quote and I designed
the questions in a way that I myself or the and the
(05:25):
listeners rather of these Bunsen podcasts can gain
something from it. You kind of sort of get a glimpse into the creative
process of someone else that that's into the same
sort of things that you're into as well as
the humanizing of them in terms of finding out what
else they're into. Like you know, TV shows that they watch or movies and
(05:48):
other hobbies that they have. You're also able to pick up on
practical motivational tips and tools that they may use for
themselves to get themselves to do what they want to be doing and pursue what
they want to be pursuing in the way that they do and
in a digestible way that you can then take for
yourself and see if you can apply it to
(06:09):
your own life and see what the results are there
thereafter. Now, the five questions are, and again, you
can find these@spontaneity.com forward slash questionnaire.
The five questions are, number one, relating to your craft.
Do you remember the first thing that you wrote or created? If so, what
was it? Question two, what inspired you to
(06:32):
write or create? Question three,
what is a hobby that you have that is unrelated to your craft? This could
be anything from what you're currently reading, a
show you're watching, to something you're
experimenting with, etc. Question four, if you get
yourself to sit down. I'm sorry, how do you get
(06:54):
yourself to sit down and do your work
when you're not motivated to? That's a key question
to me, in my opinion. I'd love to see people's take on that because something
that all creatives and specifically all writers deal
with. And lastly, question five, do you have any advice
for other writers or creators, whether they're new, seasoned or
(07:16):
otherwise? Then of course you have the option to remain anonymous if you choose
to. And if not, then I definitely give you a shout out. You know, I'll
plug your blog or your Twitter account, etc.
And you know, all this shit is free of charge. Obviously
it's a win win, you know, you get to promote your stuff for free to
these Spun Today podcast listeners and the Spun Today podcast listeners and
(07:39):
myself gain from your insight.
And that's pretty much it, folks. I'm not sure when again, I'll be needing to
use this episode, but when I do, I hope you guys enjoy
it. And once again, thanks to Amy
Marcelo, the person that chose to remain anonymous, Joshua
Robertson and Elena Monte. Without further ado,
(08:02):
here are their questionnaires. Now, the first
person that submitted a questionnaire this week chose to
remain anonymous. So I'm not gonna say the
person's name or anything like that or where you can contact them if you would
like to, but I,
like all others, am going to read their answers to the
(08:23):
questionnaire, obviously to help, you know,
share their insights and their tips with other
people that could, you know, hopefully have a
ripple effect of motivation for others,
including myself. Okay, question number
one is relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing
(08:45):
that you ever wrote or created. And this
anonymous person stated, the very first thing that I
remember creating was a mini book in first grade.
I drew pictures and had to write a story to go with
them. I think I still have it somewhere. It
was plain awful. I
(09:06):
cannot draw, but I remember feeling very proud that I
created something. And that's, that's, you
know, the dopest part of that is that you still
have it somewhere. And I would say definitely find where that
somewhere is before you lose it and
keep it in a safe place that you can look back on and cherish and
(09:29):
you know, who knows, give it to your kids one day and
just look back on it. It's really cool to have a piece
of your childhood like that, especially if it's tied to a
specific passion that you have for something. Like in
this example, like writing. I remember
when I was in like 8th or 9th, 8 or 9 years
(09:52):
old, when I mentioned this in the past. So for those of you that have
heard this already and bear with me, I'm sorry, but it's pretty fitting
to this, this response in the questionnaire. The
first story, short story that I ever wrote, I was like 8 or 9 years
old. And I remember it was, it was
a cross between like
(10:14):
an army movie and Encino man. And it was called the Thousand Year
Old Soldier. And I wrote it in a black and white marble notebook.
And the premise was a soldier
got trapped under an avalanche and turned into a block of ice.
And then when he thawed out he realized that a thousand years
(10:34):
had passed and he was in the future.
And I don't remember much else aside from that,
but I do remember, I remember writing it and I
remember obviously the premise of it and even the notebook that
I wrote it in and I remember putting it. I had this
metal metallic box that had this fugazi little
(10:58):
key lock on it. And I remember keeping it there
and I used to use that box and store my
private stuff in there and top secret stuff, you know, I'm fucking eight or nine
years old. And long story short,
I stopped using the box. It was like in the basement somewhere
(11:19):
or wound up like in a. I don't
even know where it wound up. But fast forward, years
later we moved and everything. I found that, that
box in the garage. And
I remember like when I saw it, when I found it, like I
remembered right away of like the book and the short
(11:41):
story and just like stuff that I had in there. I was like, oh shit,
I can't believe this box still like exists. I Had completely forgotten about it. And
I went to it, I opened it, and it was full of, like, my father's
tools and shit like that. And I never got to,
like, see the book again, but it would have been pretty dope if I had.
So imagine that story, your version
(12:02):
of. And you actually finding and still having
that picture book now.
And that's a much happier ending than finding a
bunch of screwdrivers and stuff in this place. But,
yeah, find that. The next
question is, what inspired you to write or create? And the
(12:23):
response was, I find that I always have a
museum. Sometimes that muse is a person, sometimes
it's emotion itself. I use them all to fuel my
writing. And I couldn't agree more. You know, inspiration
strikes very randomly, very sporadically,
sometimes very intentionally.
(12:44):
And, yeah, I'm the exact same way. I could hear a
song that inspires me to write. I could hear a quote in a movie. And
that concept of the muse is just like,
you know, you need to physically get yourself to a pen and paper
or, you know, a keyboard and
let it flow through you and onto the screen or
(13:08):
onto the page. And I'm completely with you on that. The next
question is, what is a hobby that you have that is unrelated to
your craft? And the response is,
I'm an avid reader. I read hardcover books and
listen to Audible. I am constantly reading all different
types of books, and that is something I'm trying
(13:31):
to do more and more of, especially as I've gotten into. Into
writing. Obviously, they kind of go hand in hand. And believe
it or not, reading is something that I used to hate very much, so
never used to read at all. And now I really enjoy
it. I'm just not the best reader there is out there. But
definitely enjoy, enjoy the process. And audiobooks are
(13:53):
dope, too, for that. Helping out with a fit with a few books that
were kind of, like, dense and, like, tough to, like, read
and that I really enjoyed the audiobooks
of, like, what was it? Republic Lost by Lawrence
Lessig. And also one of my favorite books, Mastery
by Robert Greene. And those
(14:15):
were pretty dope. And you guys should check. Definitely check
out audio. Audio books if you haven't. Or, like, if you're in that kind of,
like, gray area that you like, you want to, you know, get exposed to certain
things that you want to read, but you really don't, like, make the time, like,
for it and stuff like that. Definitely check out
audiobooks. I have to download more of
(14:36):
them, actually. Let's see. The next question is,
how do you get yourself to Sit down and do your work when you're not
motivated to. And the response is, that's
tough. When I do feel what. Blah. I'm
sorry, that stuff. When I do not feel
inspired, I draw on other people's energy. I send out
(14:58):
questions on social media that will strike chords of emotion and
people. This works well for me. And that's
a. That's a really good idea. That's kind of. I guess that's kind of like
what this questionnaire is like for me. That's like my version of. Is sending out
this questionnaire, and it helps spark,
you know, the, you know, the recording of this podcast, for
(15:20):
example, which has always
been kind of like a closed loop. Right. The podcast makes me want to
write or motivates me to write, you know, keeps me honest, keeps me
writing, and vice versa. Writing gives me content for
the podcast, and it's kind of like a circle
that purposely is set up to
(15:42):
motivate me, to push me in the direction of where I want to be
with both writing and podcasting.
And that's a. That's a really good idea with the asking questions, like,
on social media and just getting, like, different feedback from different people.
This person actually, as well as the other person, that
the other person didn't choose to remain anonymous, but this one did. So that's why
(16:05):
I'm just saying this person I met through or quote, unquote,
met through Cyber Dust, which is
Mark Cuban's, like, social texting service thing
that, that he started or that he's a part of.
And it's pretty interesting. I'm getting used to the.
The. I don't know the.
(16:28):
The format of it. Is that the right word for it? The. I'm getting used
to using it, basically. But it's. I hear it
similar to, like, Snapchat, but Snapchat I've never used, except
this is. Does not give you an option to, like, save.
Like, Snapchat supposedly gives you the option to, like, save,
you know, the chats or whatever. Cyber does. Does
(16:51):
not. And Cyber Dust as a company does not have, like, any servers or anything
like that. So somebody sends you a message or
a blast, like they call or a dust. A dust would be like a
dm and a blast would be like a post. And
when people see it or read it, once they open it, the
clock starts, and it's a certain amount of seconds before it disappears.
(17:14):
And it's not stored on any other servers or anything like that. Which
would, I would imagine, means, like, low overhead for them, I guess.
But it's the whole concept of it. It's like, truly, you
know, nah, nobody's reading your shit type of.
Type of forum. And that's where I met both of these people. So,
yeah, I definitely get that. You know, sending stuff out through social
(17:37):
media to, you know, spark conversation and interest and stuff like that
and draw on people's energy. And the final question of the
questionnaire is,
do you have any advice for other writers or creators, whether they're
new, seasoned, or otherwise? And the response
was, write your heart. People can tell
(17:59):
if you're not writing from the very depths of your soul.
If you always write for that, you will always touch
someone. And that was
my favorite response to your questionnaire. And I
couldn't agree more. You know, you had. How do I say
this? You know, sometimes, like, with stuff that I write,
(18:20):
I'm kind of like, you know, that feeling of,
nobody's gonna get this except for me, or.
Or this isn't good enough for anybody else to read and stuff like
that. And a lot of the time it is, don't get me wrong. But in
terms of my stuff. But as long as it's coming
from that place, from that, like, genuine, real place, it's
(18:44):
gonna reach somebody, it's gonna touch somebody, and you have no way of gauging
who it does and who it doesn't touch. And I, you know,
I've written about this in certain free writing posts, and
the quote, unquote announcement that I'm gonna tell you guys about right after the next
questionnaire, I get into it in there as
well. But I think it's your responsibility as a creator, as
(19:06):
a writer specifically, to just let the
thing out. Let it out and allow it to.
If. Allow it to have the chance of reaching and touching
someone. And if it does,
great. And if it doesn't, it at least
meant that to you, and it was therapeutic in that way for
(19:27):
you. And you are someone too, right? So, yeah. Thank
you very much, person that shall remain anonymous per your
request. And I really appreciate you taking the time to
fill out the survey, the questionnaire, and it was a great one.
Thank you very much. And we have one more
questionnaire. Like I told you guys, this one. Let me just make sure this
(19:50):
person said it does not matter in terms of them remaining
anonymous or not. And if you choose that, I'm
gonna say who you are. And this person is
Amy Marcelo. So, Amy, thank you in advance for taking
the time. Question number one of the survey
relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing that you
(20:12):
ever wrote or created. And Amy's response
was, before I could write, my mom used to have me tell
her a story and she would write down everything I said word
for word, even when it didn't make sense. The stories
were usually about birds or animals that like to
play and sometimes get into trouble. It is
(20:34):
nice looking back and reading the grammatically incorrect
details to a young and very vivid
imagination. And I
thought that when I, when I read the questionnaire, when I received
it, I thought that was like such a dope idea. I was actually gonna tell
my brother to do that with my niece when she gets old enough, when she's
(20:55):
actually making like sense. Because now she's, you
know, barely a month out
from her, not even a month out of her one year birthday, so she's
still like speaking gibberish and stuff like that. And she knows how to say cat
and. No, but definitely when she starts making sense, that would be a pretty
cool, a pretty cool idea to, to do something
(21:17):
like this and have her create
stories and write them down and give them to her in the future. And. And
it's really dope that your mother did that for you and
kind of planted that seed of creating stories, I
guess, for you, which is really, really cool. Definitely
a different, a different version of reading your kids bedtime
(21:40):
stories. Right? Allow them to create their own. That seems pretty cool. It's definitely something
I would want to do. Thanks for sharing that. And the next
question is, what inspires you to write or create? And Amy's
response is emotional reactions to anger, heartbreak,
empathy, revelations and aha moments.
And yeah, tying into the
(22:03):
previous questionnaire that I read,
it's, you know, inspiration literally comes from anything and
everything and anywhere. And I guess in Amy's
case, she seems to be more of the. It
comes from places of like heightened emotion,
whether it's like empathy or heartbreak, like
(22:24):
she says, or anger or revelations
and aha. Moments, those are like peaks in emotion,
right? But it's awesome that you can take any of
those emotions from it, like any of those peaks and channel them
into creating, which is key, which is
awesome because all that emotion, all that, that rawness,
(22:46):
all that realness comes out in your writing.
How much of it comes out is obviously completely up
to you. And it's something that as like writers and creators, that's what
we're, we're molding and shaping and honing and
fine tuning. Right. Which is definitely
dope to have that ability to steer it in that direction.
(23:08):
The next question is, what is a hobby that
you have that is unrelated to your craft. And she wrote,
I love to dance, and that's pretty cool.
I actually do not love to dance. I'm probably
like the worst Dominican ever. And my people
are very, very allegre, happy,
(23:30):
Dancy type people. And very much so.
Not more of the introverted, quiet, leave me
alone persuasion, but
I do. I could dance. Not well or anything like that. I'm not. I'm no
fucking Patrick Swayze and Dirty Dancing, but I know how to
dance. And, you know, the
(23:52):
once every. Every leap year, when I do get the
itch to dance, I'll, like, dance my ass off at that one party and
then, you know, never dance again for. For years to come.
So I definitely get the. The appeal of it when
I. When I, you know, look back and think of, like, those
specific moments when I've enjoyed it. And, you know, dancing in itself is,
(24:14):
like, very creative and very free, very, very flowy. You know,
you follow certain preset rules, I guess, and steps
in certain types of dancing, if you're just doing, I don't
know, not all, I guess, but. But yeah, I see.
I see that. I see that connection. Pretty dope. It's pretty
cool. The next question is, how do you get yourself
(24:36):
to sit down and do your work when you're not motivated to? And
Amy responded, I try to find a quiet place
without distraction. Sometimes music helps, but other
times I need complete silence. And that's that. That
was interesting to me because I'm. I don't know, I
guess. I guess it depends on the mood, on my mood, because.
(24:59):
And, you know, judging from your response, I guess it's the same
for you. Like, sometimes you need complete silence, and sometimes music,
you know, some sort of light background, like white noise
kind of gets you going. And I wonder from
reading it, if. From reading your response, Amy, if you mean
that, let's say you don't want to write. You don't. Because this is what I
(25:22):
meant by the question, which, you know, if you didn't get that,
that's completely my fault for the way it's worded. But
when you're supposed to write, which should be, like, all the time, right?
If you're into writing, how do you get yourself to physically
get up and go sit down and write? And if I don't know, I guess
I'm not sure if that's what you. You meant by your response. But
(25:45):
if you meant that you could literally, like, you know, turn off the tv, make
everything quiet, and then that gets you in the mood to write, that's fucking amazing.
That's like a switch, like an on switch that you have
there that you've, you know, disciplined and trained yourself to do.
So it's kind of like, because I kind of feel like the answer that you
gave is kind of after you get yourself
(26:08):
to write, you just have to, you know, after you
have you sat down and kind of made that push in the direction of
writing that you kind of then have to like shut everything off and then,
you know, so could start flowing and you can start, start writing.
But yeah, it's, that's like the toughest part for, for all of
us. And I think
(26:30):
that's a pretty well known and understood,
you know, similarity amongst writers that, you know, just actually
sitting down and doing the work is. That's the hard part, like getting yourself
to, getting that push of motivation and
inspiration to go and actually physically do the work.
And lastly, the last question of
(26:53):
the last questionnaire that we have for the day is,
do you have any advice for other writers or creators, whether they're new,
seasoned or otherwise? And Amy
responded, writing is the easy part. Don't let rejection
letters be the demise of your passion. There are so many
resources and directions to explore.
(27:15):
The Internet can allow your writing to touch any audience
you want. And I think finding that in today's world is
where you'll find the most value
and have the most impact. And I
could not agree with you more. Again, Amy, thank you very much for taking the
time to fill out the questionnaire. That was a very, very dope
(27:37):
response and kind of the perfect segue
to the announcement that I said told
you guys last week that I would have for you this week. Which I'm not
where I want to be with it, but I'm
enough into it where I could announce it
to one light of fire under my ass to make sure I get it done
(27:58):
and to keep my word of having an
announcement for you guys. So like I said, like Amy said
in this last response, writing the easy part, don't let rejection
letters be the demise of your passion. There are so many resources
and directions to explore. I
am in the process of
(28:20):
self publishing my first book and
that's the announcement. Tada. The spun today
questionnaire response filled out by Amazon
bestselling author Joshua Robertson. And
Joshua is someone that I found on
YouTube. Actually his. He has a couple YouTube channels.
(28:42):
The one that I've seen a handful of
videos of that I find helpful I link to in the episode
notes. He is, like I said, a fantasy
author, an Amazon best selling Fantasy author.
And he has a bunch of helpful videos online related
to writing. Like, for example, where to get reviews that I've
(29:04):
watched or why to join a writer community, how
to characterize your characters, learn from your
fears, like, stuff like that. That resonated with me. A bunch of stuff that
he's shared and spoken about. And
he took the time to fill out the
spontaneity questionnaire for us, and I appreciate that very much, and
(29:26):
I'm going to share his responses with you guys now. Question
one, relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing you
ever wrote or created? And Joshua responded, the first
story I remember creating was a horror story around
the age of nine. Damn, that's awesome. That's what. That's how you know
you're doing what you're supposed to be doing when it's something that you
(29:48):
were doing when you were nine. He continues and says
the story focused on a group of kids going into a
haunted house on Halloween. I continued to write short
stories throughout the age of 15 and then finally completed my first
novel at 17. Damn, that's
awesome. At 17, I was trying to figure out, like,
(30:11):
what worked better between Noxzema and Neutrogena or
something like that. So that's really cool that Josh was able to do
that at 17. Question number two. What inspires you to write
or create? And Joshua responds, my ideas are primarily
inspired by dreams I have had throughout my life.
My bestseller, Mel Corca, was completely based
(30:33):
off a dream I had in 2013. And that's really cool to hear
because, like I've told you guys in the past, there's
that again. I picked up from different writing podcasts and
blogs and stuff like that. The
A tip, I guess, given by a lot of writers is
(30:53):
to have a sleep journal. You know, sleep with, like, a book or
something that you could write in next to your bed and, like, when you wake
up, just jot things down. I spent a long
time, like, having certain ideas and then thinking that I'm gonna remember them and,
you know, being too lazy to write them down. And then the next day I'm
like, fuck, I had such a good idea. And, you know, completely, you know, it's
gone. So that's a tactic. If you
(31:16):
guys can't remember your dreams, use that. I use that on two
occasions so far because I don't dream that often, or
at least not anything that I have felt
worthy of turning into a story. But I've written
two short stories, including the one that I still owe you guys, that I'M still
working on that I told you guys about, but one that
(31:38):
I did put on the website called Chopper City,
located at spontaneity.com Short Stories. Chopper City. That was a story
completely that came to me like, in a dream. And, you know,
I did an episode of like
the Chopper City audiobook version of the podcast
where I go into the details of explaining where that story came
(32:01):
from, et cetera, et cetera. But anyway, it's cool to hear that Josh was able
to turn a dream into a bestseller. And the title of that
book again is Milkorka. I'm going to link also to
Josh's Amazon or, like, book page so you guys can check out
his books as well. You can find that in the episode notes.
Question number three. What is a hobby that you
(32:22):
have that is unrelated to your craft? And Josh wrote,
I have another YouTube channel based around my business called Goblin
Horde, and that's spelled G O B L I N for
Goblin and Horde H O R D E. I
am lucky to have a hobby where I can be a nerd with my
nerdy family and find support from a great nerdy community.
(32:45):
And that is not the original
YouTube page. Like I told you guys, he has a couple YouTube pages. But I
did check this one out since Josh filled out the questionnaire
and it's pretty cool. I believe it's with his wife and children are part
of it. And that's pretty cool if you're into that type of thing. Check that
out again. It's YouTube.com
(33:06):
C goblinhoard. And by C I mean the letter
C, not S E E or S e. A question
4. How do you get yourself to sit down
and do your work when you're not motivated to.
Josh responds, rarely do I find
myself not motivated to write, but in those times I bribe myself with
(33:28):
chips, salsa and coffee. Nice. Definitely,
you know, bribing yourself and giving yourself, I guess like incentives like that
definitely has to work or could help in working. In my
case, I drink way too much coffee
for to be able to to bribe myself with that as is because then that
means I would have to cut myself off to then bribe myself with it, which
(33:50):
wouldn't work. So I'm gonna have to find something else to bribe myself with. But
it's definitely a good, good tactic to use and
something that I could figure out something to implement, like something that I like, you
know, cut it out and then I'm gonna give it to myself once I like,
complete a short story or something like that, which I'm struggling with now because
it's taking so damn long to finish. Sometimes
(34:13):
again, going back to the whole paralysis by analysis and writing and rewriting
type of thing, I'm gonna take my own advice and just put it out there.
Right? Okay. And the last question, do you have any
advice for other writers or creators, whether they're new, seasoned or
otherwise? And Joshua stated, join a writing
community and build real relationships. That's something that
(34:34):
I saw in one of your videos. Josh and I
have begun a little bit. I
can't say like really actively, but I joined a couple like Facebook writing
groups and definitely have to look into
into that more deeply. It's logical advice. It makes sense, you know, surround
yourself with people that you want to be around and learn
(34:57):
from and learn with and et cetera. And that
is Joshua's responses to the Sponsored A questionnaire which is
available to any and all creatives at sponsor
a.com forward/questionnaire the same five questions you
can fill out your responses to
and be part of a future episode of the podcast. Joshua
(35:19):
Robertson again, his Twitter, his YouTube page as well
as Amazon book page will be linked to in the episode
notes. And Josh, thanks for taking out the time to fill out the
questionnaire. The questionnaire that I told you guys about.
So Elaine, Ms. Montana
Almonte is my best friend's kid sister.
(35:41):
Come to think of it, she probably doesn't even know that I've ever referred to
her as that because it's not like I would introduce
her or someone and say, hey, best friend's kid sister. This is so
and so. Hey so and so. This is my best friend's kid sister. You know,
I mean, so it's not like something that she would probably hear. So when she
hears this she's probably. Gonna be like what the fuck are. You talking about, best
friend's kid sister? But yeah, it's like de Carino type of thing. Like I have
(36:02):
referred to her as that in the past. I don't even know when, but
I don't know, probably like in passing like oh yeah, that's my best friend's consistent
or whatever anyway. Which by the way, I don't know why I would even call
her that because she's like a year younger than me. Like a grown ass
woman. But whatever. Shout out to Elaine.
She was kind enough to fill out the Spun Today
(36:24):
questionnaire that is available to any of you folks of you
fine folks to fill out if you are so
inclined. And I will do the same exact thing that
I'm doing now and I'M going to share the responses
to those five questions which are geared towards creative types, as you
guys will hear in a bit. And the point of it is to
(36:47):
see someone else's perspective on how they approach
something that they're passionate about. And sometimes you
get, or I've gotten from these, receiving and reading these
questionnaires and sharing them tips such as, you
know, wake up early and right before work and
you know, different apps to use, like Evernote or
(37:10):
Day One, which is another free app that's pretty user friendly
and like good for writing and stuff like that. And you just get
a glimpse into somebody else's process, which I think is cool and inspiring. And
it kind of like demystifies like the whole thing for other people,
which is really important to me, which is the fucking catchphrase of the podcast,
right? Like substitute the mysticism with hard work.
(37:33):
And I really appreciate whenever
anybody decides to fill one of these out and definitely
appreciate Lane doing so. So let's
jump in and see what she had to say. Question number one is
relating to your craft. Do you remember the first thing you ever
wrote or created? Aileen responded, yes,
(37:55):
a journal entry. In fourth grade, my school
gave all the girls journals for Christmas. That's so sexist.
How about the guys now? Let me stop. That's pretty cool. That reminds
me of in seventh grade we had
something similar. Not, you know, we didn't get like journals or anything like
that. And it definitely wasn't the first thing I ever wrote. But the.
(38:19):
My seventh grade English teacher, which is part of
the dedication section, a large part of the dedication
section within my book. Make Way for you. Available
now. She made us write journals in class and she called them lit
logs, short for literature logs. And I
don't remember if it was daily or
(38:40):
weekly or what it was, but we would write them. It
would usually be based on something that we were reading in class. She
was give us like feedback on it. And I remember like the feedback she would
give me was just like so elaborate and she was like so into like whatever
it was that I wrote and really liked the way I wrote
and always gave me compliments and stuff like that. And
(39:02):
it's, it's definitely boosting to have that
type of support from a teacher or from a school and stuff like that. So
it's pretty, pretty dope that you got those journals in the
fourth grade. Now the response to this question also reminds me
something that I told myself that I was going to do after Daniel Ippoleti's
response to this question in A past
(39:24):
questionnaire. And that is that the way
I wrote the question was, do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?
My assumption was in crafting that
question, which clearly hasn't like permeate,
permeated, is that people would say, oh yes. And what I wrote was
blah, blah, blah. Because I would love to hear that part of it. So
(39:47):
Elaine, tell me if you remember what it was they wrote. Hit
me up and let me know. And I definitely have to amend that question on
the website. Watch me forget until the next questionnaire comes out.
All right, question number two. What inspires you to write or create?
Annie Lane wrote people's stories, family bonds,
things humans experience and think are unique
(40:09):
to them. Pretty things, sad things. And I
couldn't agree more. It's pretty much everything, right? Like different
experiences that you all just life as life happens to you or in spite
of you or whatever,
you absorb different
sparks of inspiration. I feel like that's
(40:31):
common in any writer that I've like
followed or heard of. And in interviews and stuff like
that, their mind is always on in that way. Like it's
always like in. It's always receptive to the
type of input that would spark an idea or inspiration. So they tend
to get it from anything from the way the plate was, you
(40:53):
know, almost fell off the edge of the table or how angry the guy was
in the train that was complaining about the train being stalled. Or
how happy the little kid seemed that, you
know, was walking down the hallway like anything. I like the whole, the things
human experience, humans experience. Are you a
humanist, Miss Montana? What about Shady? What about his
(41:14):
experiences? Now let me stop. Question 3.
What is a hobby that you have that is unrelated to your craft?
Alien wrote decorating, creating dessert tables
for parties with specific themes. I also like to
watch Luke Cage Iron First. Is
it Iron first or Iron Fist? Iron First. The
(41:37):
Boondocks Family guy and the Magicians. I know
Elaine was into decorating. I wasn't. I didn't know she was into the whole creating
dessert tables, parties and stuff like that. Which is pretty cool because actually
my sister in law is into that type of shit. So you guys should. I
think you guys have met before, but yeah, she's like
heavy into that now, so it'd be cool to like connect the two, I
(41:59):
guess. And she's learning how to make like Dominican cakes and all types
of shit like that. The, the decorating, if I'm not
mistaken, Elaine decorated for her father's
retirement dinner that, that we all went to, which was dope
and Everything was. Was beautifully done and very, very
tasteful, very elegant and modern slash
(42:21):
bohemian type of
thing. So it's really cool. It's like a different type of creative
outlet that's not just watching TV like everything else here on
the list. Luke Cage, I heard, is dope. I heard
it's good. And I got to check that out. I haven't heard of
any of the other ones. I think I've heard of the Boondocks, but I'm not
(42:42):
sure what that is. Family Guy, obviously, I know what that is. I watch it
sometimes, too. My wife is into that. And, yeah, I haven't heard of the other
ones. All right, next. How do you get yourself to sit
down and do your work when you're not motivated to?
And Elaine responded, I don't. Herein lies my issue.
And this is something, as she knows, that I've busted her chops about
(43:04):
in the past. Not that I'm on some fucking. Trying
to sound, like, preachy or, like, be on my high horse, like, oh, I write,
and I'm the most consistent person ever, and blah, blah, blah, because I'm far
from it. If you guys saw my. I tweet out
and post on my Patreon page
the amount that I write per month. So I have a calendar right above
(43:26):
my computer here. And I.
For every day, I had to put a checkmark or an X mark. All the
checkmarks represent days that I've written. All the X
marks represent the days that I did not write. And I keep a
ongoing tally. I've been doing this for about a year and a half for every
month, or probably two years for every month. I have, like, an Excel
(43:47):
spreadsheet, and I have everything, like, mapped out and broken down into
percentages. And last month I
wrote. And I'll give you guys an exact number on only
12 of the 31 days in March.
So 12 days, I wrote. 19 days, I did not. That is a
38.7% completion rate in terms
(44:08):
of the goal of, you know, trying to write every
day. And so I'm far from perfect. So I'm definitely not coming from that
type of, you know, do what I do type of thing.
But I do come. I am coming from. I do get on her about it
because, like, we've spoken about writing a line in the past,
and. And Elaine's probably, like, one of the
(44:30):
first people to ever, like, read anything that I wrote. And we. I
remember we used to give each other, like, little writing
assignments, which was really cool for just, like,
exercise your writing muscle. Chops, just give
yourselves, like, a task, like a topic to write
about. And just write, like, little paragraphs or a short
(44:51):
story or whatever. Like, I remember a cool one that
she gave me was, look at somebody on the
train when you're commuting to work tomorrow and
write something about them. Like, write, you know, what you think their life
is about or where they're going or whatever. And I
wrote like a little, like a mini
(45:13):
short story about this kid that I saw on the train that
looked, like, young, probably, like fresh
out of high school or maybe college.
And he had, like a suit on and he looked nervous. And I wrote this,
like, whole little short story about him going to
his first job interview and being nervous about it and how he was, like, all
(45:34):
in his head and didn't even notice the girl next to him that was trying
to flirt with him. And, like, I made all this stuff up, but it,
like, exercised that, like, writing muscle, you know, I mean, so we used to do,
like, shit like that and like, email it to each other and comment
on each other, on each other's stuff. And I really, really like Elaine's
writing. I really enjoy it, which is why I, like, tell her to write more
(45:54):
often and stuff like that. And the place that I am
coming from is that, like, you know, through, you know, creating
this podcast and setting certain
goals, writing goals, like trying to write every day, even though it's a
lofty goal that I haven't hit yet. I think my highest accuracy was
like, actually accuracy percentage was like 70 something
(46:16):
percent of the days that I actually wrote within a given month.
But just like setting those certain goals, it's kind of like the
whole aim for the moon and if you miss, you land amongst the stars type
of thing. It's like you're taking steps in the direction at least,
you know, you're not just not writing at all.
And you have to make certain, like, practical
(46:38):
tweaks. I feel that definitely come in handy. And what came in handy
for me when I was, you know, struggling, trying to, like, either
wait for inspiration to hit me to write, which never happened.
And then, you know, writing at night when
I was also trying to. Which I did for a long time, like, just
staying up late at, like, until like 1, 2, 3 in the morning
(47:02):
and writing. And then I would feel the repercussions of that the next day,
and I'd be just like, even more grouchy than I normally am with my
fucking, like, grouchy Persona and just, like, out of it and not
feeling well, like, stuff like that. And then I got
the tip of a.
Another writer that filled out this question in the past and he
(47:25):
was like that he wakes up at 5:30 in the morning. You know, he has
a regular nine to five day job. He wakes up at 5:30 in the Morning,
writes for an hour or two and doing that for, you know,
a couple years at a time. And like in a dedicated way he
like self published like two or three novels or something like that. And
a lot of people start out that way. Joanna Penn, which has a successful podcast
(47:46):
and has a very interesting business model, which I would, which
is a more realistic one to me
to like in terms of pursuing it. Like she has multiple revenue streams
in terms of speaking, speaking engagements and podcasting and writing books. And she
writes also both fiction and nonfiction, which I try to do.
And like she worked a
(48:09):
day job for six years while simultaneously doing a
podcast and writing books before she was able to generate enough
from the writing books and podcasting. And you know, her
authorpreneur I think it is that she calls it or
some like marketing word like that.
(48:30):
Before she was able to like quit her job and just live off of that
like full time. And then eventually her husband was able to quit his
job and help her with her business. And
it's something that, that snowballs over time or that could snowball over
time, but it definitely won't if you just
don't like put in that work or make that decision. And it
(48:53):
was like one probably one of the hardest decisions like for my lazy ass because
I can't wake up for shit in the mornings at all.
Especially while I was in that rut of, you know, going to sleep
madly. If I'm going to sleep like at 2, 3 in the morning, like trying
to do writing and then trying to make that switch to okay, tomorrow I'll wake
up at 5:30 and then from there I'll start and it's like, nah, shit won't
happen that way. Like I had to spend a couple weeks of like
(49:16):
forcing myself because then I'm like wired at night and I can't like go to
sleep that easily. So it took like weeks of like trying to
force myself to go to sleep at, at 12 and then 11 and then
10 and then between 10 and 11 to. Then when
I wake up at, at 5:30, which I do now,
it, it doesn't impact me as much. And then by then you kind of like
(49:39):
flip it a little bit. You wake up that early, you do
some writing, you know, it could be half an hour it could be 45 minutes,
an hour. Like what? I don't have to be like, you need five hours before
work or something, you know, just something and just let it
snowball. And then by the time the next day comes around and it
is 10, 11 o'clock at night, you're like naturally tired and you want to go
(50:00):
to bed anyway, you know what I mean? And if that type of thing doesn't
work for you, then figure out some. We all have, we
have to all have 24 hours in the day, right? We all have different responsibilities,
family responsibilities, work responsibilities. Other people are able to get
it done. So which means that you can too. Like, nobody's situation is
completely unique in the sense that they
(50:21):
can't, you know, schedule their time in a way that
would benefit them. You could block out for yourself, you
know, 30 minutes a day or 30 minutes five days a week or
whatever it is, even if it's on a Saturday. Okay, let's say Saturdays. You sleep
in or something and wake up at 11, wake up at 10:30 and write
for half an hour or Sundays or you know, whatever.
(50:44):
Sundays night, Sunday nights between 7 and 8, you know, cut out,
you know, give up iron. Iron first. It sounds
whack. Anyway, give that one up and write for an hour
whenever that, Whenever you normally watch that and
like it has to be. You have to balance it that way. But
definitely I would want to like see more of that. That would be
(51:06):
like my advice, I guess, like my take on that. Not that you really asked
for it, but there it is anyway. And lastly,
do you have any advice for other writers or
creators, new, seasoned or otherwise?
And Elaine wrote spend time traveling. Inspiration
will come. I absolutely agree with the whole
(51:27):
traveling thing. I think the more we experience experience and the more inputs we
get, the better it is for us. It's like taking an
ammunition that we use to like
explode within our creative
selves. The inspiration will come. I agree with
to a certain extent, but as long as we're not only waiting
(51:48):
for inspiration to come, as I pointed out, like with the last
question, it's kind of like we gotta like meet it halfway type of thing
and don't just wait on it. And that's pretty much it. That is
Elaine's feedback. Elaine Almonte, thank you again,
Elob, very, very much. Really appreciate it.
And anybody else that wants to, wants to give some feedback on it, hit us
(52:10):
up. You guys know how to reach me. And yeah, thanks
again. Best friends, kid sister, aka Elaine,
aka Cole, aka Ms. Montana, aka
ah, aka what up though. All right,
that's enough. And
that, folks, was episode 275 of the Spun Today
(52:33):
Podcast. A nice little throwback compilation of tips and advice from
fellow writers and creatives hopefully gets us back
into the creative spirit if we've deviated at all.
And for those of us who haven't sticking the course, who have been
disciplined with our craft, hopefully this
just emboldens you that much more. For any fellow writers and creatives
(52:55):
that are listening to this episode, feel free to navigate to
spuntoday.com/forward/questionnaire where you can check
out the same questionnaire that you just got the
responses on. On this episode. You can fill out your own absolutely
for free, and I will be happy to learn from
and share your responses on a future episode of the Sponsor Day Podcast.
(53:17):
As I mentioned in the original intro of the episode, you have the option to
remain anonymous if you so choose, but if not, it's a great
way to get some free promotion and publicity around
some of your creative work. Spuntoday.com
questionnaire and with that folks, I am going
to ask that you stick around just for a couple minutes to listen to a
(53:37):
few ways you can help support this show. If you so choose. Your support
means a ton, helps keep the lights on in the proverbial sponsoreday
studios, and is highly, highly appreciated.
And I'll check you guys out next time. Peace.
What's up folks? Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today
(53:58):
podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few
ways you can. Help support the show. For my fellow writers and
creatives out. There, a really cool way you can help support this show
is by going. To spuntoday.com support
and clicking on the. Pro Writing Aid banner. If you're a listener of the show,
you know that I use prowritingaid to pre edit all of my writing
(54:20):
before. I put it out or before I. Ship it off to my
editor so that it is in as pristine
condition as I can probably get it. ProWritingAid offers
a great toolkit that helps you polish your work with easy to use grammar
checks and the writing assistant that also looks into things like
pacing improvements, typos, punctuations, and much more.
(54:42):
Go to spuntoday.com support, click on the banner for
Pro Writing Aid and check out their free option as well
as their different tiers of paid options. Spun
today.com forward/support a great
way for my fellow writers and creatives out there to help support this show is
by going to spontaneity.com forward/ support and clicking on
(55:04):
the Mock Up Shots banner. When I first started writing and
putting out content, I wanted to think of creative ways to help market
my books. So I would take my own pictures, place the books in different places,
take it to the beach with me, put it out in the snow, and I'd
wind up with a couple good usable images and a bunch
more mediocre ones. And also, in the case of the snow example,
(55:26):
a completely soggy book. Then I found Mockup Shots.
In one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover
into thousands of images, videos,
graphics, and more. If you follow me on social it's what I use to
promote my books. You can check them out on Instagram at Spun
Today to take a look at the professional creative quality of
(55:48):
what Mockup Shots has to offer. And now for my listeners, you
can get unlimited lifetime access to the
largest instant book mockup archive for
50% off. That's right, that's
50% off and you can use it for any books
that you currently have available or any books that you will write in the future.
(56:08):
I highly recommend it. It's a great marketing tool. Go to
spuntoday.com support and click on the
banner for Mockup Shots to claim your 50% off
discount. You can also support by checking out my writing. Go to
spun.com here you'll find
a collection of freely written thoughts which is intended to be
(56:30):
a cathartic, meditative practice for myself, but also winds up
doubling up as motivation and inspiration for
myself and others. You can also go to
spuntoday.com shortstories to check out my latest
short stories and also listen to the free
audiobook versions of those stories. You can also support my writing
(56:51):
by going to
sponsored.combooks and
check out what I have available for sale. Currently available is
Make Way for you, which is a collection of tips for getting out of your
own way. It's a great read for my fellow writers or creatives out
there. Also available is Fractal, which is
my debut time travel novel, and last but
(57:14):
certainly not least, Melted Cold, which is a collection of
short stories. Each of the books are available in all digital
formats for your Kindle or Ibook or any other e
reader, as well as paperback and
hardcover options. Again, go to
spuntoday.com books and I'd love to
(57:35):
hear what you chose to. Check out as well as your thoughts. After reading
spuntoday.com books. If you're a
fellow creative, a cool way that you can help support the Spun Today podcast and
actually be part of the podcast is by filling out my five question
questionnaire located@spun today.com
questionnaire here you'll find the five open questions related to your
(57:56):
craft, your art, what inspires you to create, what type of unrelated
hobbies you're into, and what motivates you to get your work done. You
can choose to remain anonymous or plug your website and your
work. And once you submit your questionnaire, I read your responses
on a future episode of the Spun Today podcast. It's completely free at
no cost to you. And what I like to say about it is that if
(58:18):
your responses could potentially spark inspiration in someone else,
why not share that spuntoday.com
questionnaire? And as always, folks, substitute the
mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general
direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening.
(58:50):
I love you, Aiden. I love you Daddy.
I love you Grayson. I love you Daddy.
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