Welcome back to the Spun Today podcast! In this episode, Tony Ortiz dives deep into the creative process, taking you behind the scenes of his own writing journey. This is a special “free writing session” episode, where Tony shares his candid writing stats—celebrating the progress, confronting the setbacks, and reflecting on what it really takes to pursue your creative goals.
Tony opens up about the challenges of working on his second novel, the importance of letting go of perfectionism, and the power of the so-called “zero-th draft” approach, inspired by N.K. Jemisin’s masterclass on writing. You’ll hear about his ongoing project of translating his book "Make Way for You" into Spanish with a little help from AI, and how tracking writing habits can be both humbling and motivating.
This episode also highlights a practical writing tip from Naomi Kanakia, explores key takeaways from his recent read—Ta-Nehisi Coates’ "Between the World and Me"—and offers concrete strategies for building worlds and characters in your own fiction. As always, Tony wraps up with an honest, unfiltered free writing piece from his personal notebooks, inviting you to reflect on missed opportunities and the importance of showing up for your craft.
Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, this episode is packed with real talk, motivational gems, and creative fuel to help you push past self-doubt and get those words on the page. Stick around—you're bound to leave feeling inspired and ready to tackle your next writing session.
Check out all free-writing pieces at: spuntoday.com/freewriting.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Like too precious with it at times, which speaks to
like my trepidation with and just lack of writing and
working on book two, a fractal. And then that
just stops things from ever being a thing. Even if it's a first draft that
I know it's going to get polished and worked on. It's like that zero with
draft, as she calls it. I'm like working it out in my head and not
(00:23):
getting past that point to get it on paper, which it needs to
be to be able to move forward and to start molding and, you know, get
momentum going. But I like that she has this approach, and she's a
prolific writer, of just writing a zero with
draft, a raw draft that obviously nobody sees except her. And it's full
of errors and mistakes and brackets and thoughts, ideas. And that's
(00:44):
definitely, definitely helpful takeaway. To see someone at her
level that does that kind of takes a bit of the mysticism
out of it.
(01:12):
What up? What up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Sponsor Day podcast,
the only podcast that is anchored in writing, unlimited in
scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This
is episode 287 of the Sponsor Day podcast
and it is a free writing session. I've missed you guys. It's
been minutes since I wrote a free writing session episode
(01:35):
or put together a free writing session episode rather. And in this style
of episode, what I normally do for the uninitiated is share
my writing stats, which I track, meaning how many days I've
written versus days that I did not work on writing. I share
a writing tip that I picked up on for my fellow writers and creatives
out there. I tell you about what I've been reading, share some notes and
(01:57):
takeaways of that specific book. In
this episode, I'm also going to share my notes on a
master class that I took from NK Jemisin. And last but
certainly not least, I wrap up with a free writing piece of my own. So
stick around for all that good stuff. It's definitely a how the sausage
is made type of episode while also being a way for
(02:21):
myself to keep myself or get myself
back on track to striving for and achieving the writing goals that
I set for myself. So definitely stick around for all that good stuff. But first,
I wanted to tell you all about a quick way that you can help support
this show. And if this quick way is not the way that you would like
to help support this show, Please go to spontanely.com
(02:42):
support where you'll find a bunch of completely free
and a bunch of paid ways that you can help support this show if you
so choose. Your support is invaluable, helps keep the
proverbial lights on here at Spuntery Studios and is very much
appreciated. Spuntery.com support
and then after this we'll jump right into the episode.
(03:06):
Another great way for you to help support the show and also take care
of your foundational health is by going to sponsay.com
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(03:28):
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(03:50):
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AG1. So it's been a minute
(04:12):
since I've done one of these free writing session episodes
as I mentioned in the intro. So I have a bunch of writing stats
to share with you folks. I have my stats for February
2025, March, April, May
and I would have also had June and July had my
writing track record for the past few months
(04:35):
not been absolute dogshit. So for June July I didn't
even track my writing stats. But in retrospect they were very similar to
what I did for like April and May, which you'll see in a bit.
So let's get into in February
2025 I wrote only nine
out of the 28 days of the month for a writing percentage of
(04:56):
32.14%. For March, I stepped up my game
a bit. I wrote 14 out of the 31 days of the month
or writing percentage of 45.16%
for April, my birthday month. Shout out to my fellow
areas out there. I remember telling myself that I was going to give myself the
gift of having written for my birthday and
(05:20):
I wrote 1 out of the 30 days of the month
for a writing percentage of
3.33%. In May
of 2025 I wrote 8 out of the 31 days of the month
for a writing Percentage of 25.8%
and as I mentioned June and July, I did not even track
(05:42):
my writing stats. So March was decent.
I always want to try to get that number consistently above 50%
and 45% is the closest that I've been in a while.
But every other month is inexcusable, atrocious,
and if I'm looking at this realistically, it's a direct
(06:02):
directly translates into my writing goals for the
year either being on track or being achieved or not. Which they're not,
right? So a definitely a big takeaway for myself objectively is
I set these goals to for example, translate Make
Way for you in Spanish into Spanish, which I'm going to tell you guys
in a bit. That's actually a lot of what I was working on in March,
(06:25):
which is why I was more productive that month. But
also complete and submit the first draft of
the continuation of my time travel Novel
Fractale Book 2 by the end of the year
and I forget what my other goal was right from a writing perspective. But
I've dabbled with fractal. I continue to do so, but I'm not
(06:48):
close on that one. I've definitely made progress on the
translation of Make Way for you, which for those who don't know
is a I call it the Poor Man's War of Art.
It's modeled after that book. It was the first book that ever published. It's a
non fiction. It's kind of like a motivational inspirational
work for creatives. It's a collection of tips for getting out of your own
(07:11):
way. So if you're interested, definitely check that out.
Sponsored.com/forward/books but again, if I'm looking
at these writing stats objectively, this is almost half a year's worth of writing
stats and all
most if not all have been under 50% of
days that I've written verse days that I did not write or did not
(07:32):
work on writing. And that's a direct There's a direct correlation between that
and okay, this is why you're not achieving your goals. Which is why I
want to track the stats, which is why I want to have something tangible,
something practical that I can look back on and say, okay, this is what I
have to work on. If I increase these writing
percentages, I should start seeing more results. I should start
(07:54):
seeing myself achieve more of the goals that I set for myself in the beginning
of the year. And I share it with you fine folks as a way to
keep myself honest. But also, it's kind of like a Little how the sausage is
made behind the scenes type of thing. And also maybe something that you would want
to emulate in your own work, but obviously with higher
percentages, but definitely tracking the what it is that you're doing, what it
(08:15):
is that you're working on and how often you do. So I think is. Is
definitely something worth emulating. And those are my writing stats to
date. Oh, but before I switch to the writing tip, as far as
the translation for make way for your tips for getting out of your own way
en Espanol, I translated a good
portion of that book when I had the
(08:37):
idea to. To do the translation. Shout out to
Joanna Penn. She's like my, my writing muse
many years ago. And I started. I speak Spanish,
I'm fluent in Spanish, I'm first generation Dominican. But for those that
are similar to me, we got like C pluses
and B minuses in Spanish class in high school. Because
(09:00):
first generation Dominican Spanish doesn't necessarily translate into
the most proper form of the language.
So I translated, I would say 25 to 30% of the
book myself just how I believe it should be
written in Spanish. I leveraged Google Translate
for like the spelling of certain Spanish words that I didn't know offhand.
(09:23):
So that first 25 to 30% was like slow going. And it was something that
I would just, you know, translate one to go back one piece because it's
broken up into individual pieces. The book, I think it's like
75, 77 or like 80 different
entries. And then I would put it down, I would go back to it, you
know, a few days or weeks later and then just
(09:44):
started working on other, other things really for a couple years probably
when I started working on fractal then melted cold. And
I got the. The idea, I believe was also from Joanna Pen, you
know, to leverage AI for
translation purposes. And I've been doing so and it gives
you a phenomenal base to work with. And what's cool about
(10:06):
the one I'm using for this task specifically, which
is Anthropic's clawed AI, is that
I feed it the what I originally wrote in English
and I asked it to translate it into Spanish but with
a more Dominican tone or
bend, and it translates the piece instantly and then gives you
(10:29):
a breakdown of like, this would be the traditional way to say this
phrase, for example, but if you wanted to say it in a more Dominican way,
you can use this phrase. And then that's where I,
you know, first of all, like read the original text that I wrote, read
the translation version, see if it makes sense to to me, just to my
knowledge of Spanish. But I know the spelling is on point
(10:51):
and then I make the decision on which
pieces to change myself for something that I think
would sound better said differently in Spanish, even if it's not
quote unquote correct Spanish. But ultimately it's how I want to express
myself, or if I want to take the suggestions of
the colloquial Dominican bend
(11:14):
that it offers for certain phrases. So it's pretty
dope. And that has gotten me to in a very
short period of time, which is a lot of what I was working on in
March, which is why the writing sets are a lot higher that month.
But leveraging that tool for the translation has
gotten me probably past 50, 60% of
(11:35):
the book translated. So just as a check in for
that overall goal writing goal of mine here, now that
it's a bit past mid year, I think that's definitely one that should be
achievable if I continue with this pace. And definitely something that I think might be
worth considering for fiction as well, although that
seems a lot more of a daunting and longer
(11:57):
task, but much more manageable with the use of
some AI writing tools and ideas like that.
Moving on to the writing tip that I want to share with you folks. This
is from a Substack email that I received on
May 16, 2025. I will link to the actual post in the
(12:17):
episode Notes for folks to check out. The piece is by Naomi
Kanakia and it's called the Future of
Fiction, and she wrote. Traditionally, fiction
writers practice their craft by getting critiques from their peers and
workshops, but Substack offers an experience more
akin to an open mic night at a stand up
(12:38):
comedy club. You can feel in real time whether your fiction is working,
whether it's landing with the audience that you've built. And that purpose
allows writers to adjust their stories
accordingly until they've found a style that's both true to
their voice and genuinely compelling for the reader. I know this
may sound strange to traditional fiction writers. I've been
(13:01):
one myself for 20 years, with four
traditionally published novels and dozens of short stories to many.
But it was only when I started sharing my fiction on substack that my voice
really sharpened. Only by testing and discarding
the conventions of the traditional short story
was I finally able to figure out which parts of my stories were essential
(13:24):
and which parts I was only including because I thought
editors wanted to see them. The result is fiction that feels
alive, playful, genre defying, and
accessible. If you're a reader looking for something new, something
surprising. This is where to find it. And I thought that was a really
interesting, fresh new take that I hadn't heard or
(13:46):
considered before. And I like the comparison of fiction
writing compared to Stan Comedy because I'm a big st comedy fan.
But just in the approach to honing your
craft, similar to how comedians do on stage, open open mics,
writing jokes, trying out jokes, seeing what works, seeing what doesn't, and over
a matter of a year or two or more, sharpening those
(14:08):
jokes, trying them out for different audiences across the country, across
the world to hone them in to a final
work after doing them over and over and over hundreds, thousands
of times, their final polished versions in the
form of a stand up comedy special. From a writing perspective. And
Naomi's right in this the traditional way
(14:31):
is to have like beta readers. You know, you, you have a.
You write your story, you use the tools that you can
to polish it up. For example
ProWritingAid, which is a great like pre
editing software that I've spoken about in the past. If you
guys want to go check out the episodes on
(14:54):
for example how I published Melted Cold, there's a specific episode
for that, my breakdown, like where each story comes from and just like how
the sausage gets made from that. You know how I use pro writing aid
and other tools to shape it up. And then from there you move on to
professional editing. Some folks also use beta readers before
(15:15):
those stages where they take their feedback and then they adjust their story
accordingly. As Naomi mentioned in this piece, but I never considered
this like direct building your own audience on
substack approach, which is interesting.
I have not done it myself, but again, just find it really interesting. And
I do. I'm on substack. I don't write on Substack,
(15:37):
but. But I follow writers on Sub Stack. Most recently
actually I found the Juno Diaz on there and he seems to be doing something
similar to this. Aside from giving writing advice,
which is great, mainly what I'm there for.
But I know he also puts fiction pieces there, like chapters of
stories in there. And Juno Diaz, for those who don't know, is a
(15:58):
Dominican American writer. But a couple of great books that I really liked,
like this is how youw Lose her the Brief Run, Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wilde, which I actually went to go see the Off Broadway play
for, which was dope. His short story collection, Drown,
so on and so forth. But he's on Substack. A bunch of writers are on
Sub Stack. A bunch of political writers are on substack as well.
(16:21):
But I just thought this was a cool, interesting way to
look at working on the writing craft.
So I want to share with you fun folks. Definitely let me know your thoughts
on that and if you've either considered that in your own writing
or if you follow any writers that are doing that, writers that you
enjoy and give them feedback on their writing, hit me up in
(16:43):
the comments section of the episode and or on
Twitter Fun today and let me know
what I've been reading. I've been reading Ta Nehisi Coates's
between the World and Me, which was a beautiful
love letter of sorts to his son. It
(17:03):
was essentially him telling him about life, his life
growing up as a black man in America and
giving his son life advice, while also recognizing that
his son's version of growing up black in America is going to be very different
from what his version was, as well as
reflecting on how different Ta Nehisi Coates's
(17:25):
version was from his father's version of
growing up black in America and how things change and how certain things stay the
same. And reading this reinforced an idea myself that I
had with writing certain things down as a father of two
boys, writing certain things down for them for the future of
aside from just like thoughts and you know, what my take was on something or
(17:48):
how I felt about something at a certain specific point in time, which I think
my podcast in general, I mean my writing wouldn't form
those answers, but just like general life advice for
things that I went through that they may
go through, thoughts that I've had or wrestled with, things that I
foresee that might be challenging for them or that they may want to lean into
(18:11):
like strengths that I think they have for, you know, for what it's worth, you
know, just being my opinion and not necessarily to publish,
but just like as a thing for them. Like
reading this book kind of like reinforced that that thought
and it's a powerful read, definitely one that I know I will
revisit in the future and that you folks should definitely check out and I
(18:33):
will link to it in the episode notes for you guys to do just that.
And Ta Nehisi Kotai over the years very much enjoyed his
perspective, his take usually political ones on
many different podcasts or interview shows that I've seen him on and always wanted
to read this book. It's always spoken highly
of but never happened until recently and I'm definitely glad I
(18:55):
did. So I just wanted to share a few takeaways that I took away from
the Book, just parts of it that resonated with me
that I wanted to share for different reasons, whether it's the
actual prose on the page and how we put a concept or idea together,
or just, like, the lesson or takeaway. I have about six or seven different
ones. And starting off with this first one, which was
(19:18):
a story that he told that just, like,
brought me to that point in time. Like, I felt I was there. And it's
just the way that he wrote it was just dope. And also somewhat
reminiscent of, you know, my childhood,
but a less extreme version.
But let me just jump right into it. It's a story about him getting robbed
(19:41):
when he was younger and having to process it
alone and then sharing it with his friends in a way
that he, like, laughed it off or, like, they laughed it off. But he
really, like, internalized, like, that pain and that fear from the experience.
And that's the piece that definitely resonated with me. He just breaks it down, like,
so eloquently. And they wrote it almost verbatim. Wrote it
(20:03):
down rather verbatim. Wanted to share with you guys. And he says, quote, in
sixth grade, just before 3:00pm I
recall it in the slowest motion, as though in a
dream. There the boy stood with the gun brandished,
which he slowly tucked, untucked and tucked
once more. And in his small eyes I saw a
(20:27):
surging rage that could, in an instant,
erase my body. That was 1986. That year I
felt myself to be drowning in the news reports
of murder. I was aware that these murders very often
did not land on the intended targets, but fell
up on great aunts, PTA mothers,
(20:50):
overtime uncles and joyful children
fell upon them random and relentless like
gray sheets of rain. I knew this in theory, but could not
understand it as fact until the boy with the
small eyes stood across from me, holding my entire
body in his small hands. The boy did not shoot.
(21:12):
His friends pulled him back. He did not need to shoot. He
had affirmed my place in the order of things. He had let it
be known how easily I could be selected.
I took the subway home that day, processing the episode all
alone. I did not tell my parents. I did not tell my
teachers. And if I told my friends, I would have done so
(21:35):
with all the excitement needed to obscure the fear
that came over me in that moment. I remember being amazed that
death could so easily rise up from the nothing
of a boyish afternoon, billow up like fog. End
quote. That piece was intense, and I just love the way he
worded it, especially this line. Fell upon them, random
(21:57):
and relentless like gray sheets of rain. And so many more in there. This
was definitely a good takeaway. And again, definitely rang true.
He says growing up, he learned a different language, a language of the
streets, and described it as knowing slash,
learning the names and which crew ran
which hood in which city. And
(22:20):
they can tell you the name of all the
captains and all their cousins and offer an
anthology of all their exploits. This was necessary
to survive in certain neighborhoods and to protect their. Their bodies.
And he says, I learned that yo,
shorty, can I see your bike? Was never a sincere question,
(22:42):
which is so fucking true. I remember I was, like, telling my son
a story the other day that I remember from when I was a kid. I
had this, like, banana seat bike, and it was in the
yard. I was, like, riding around inside the. The yard,
and I left it in the yard, and I saw out the window that somebody
came into the yard and was like, buy the bike. Another kid, like around
(23:04):
my age, maybe a couple years older. I was, from
memory, I was like 7, 8 or 9. I could be off on the age,
but around that. That age bracket.
And I ran out to the yard, and
the kid sees me, gets, like, startled. And I was like, that's
my bike. Like, I don't know, like, what to say. I said something, something to
(23:24):
that effect, and it was like, oh, I didn't know.
And he just, like, left the yard. And I was like, what the hell? I
remember thinking, like, this, dude, you're trying to take my bike. And then
I don't remember if it was a few days later or a few weeks later
somebody did steal that bike. Probably that same kid.
But yeah, it's like little nuances of like, he. He's speaking
(23:45):
to you folks that literally grew up on the street, you know, like, about
that life, which I was definitely not, but you're close to it
enough to understand that takeaway of. I
learned that, yo, shorty, can I see your bike? Was never a sincere question.
And that's so true. And then this next one was,
he says, and yo, you was messing
(24:08):
with my cousin was neither an earnest accusation nor a
misunderstanding of the facts. That was just a way for
somebody to start fucking with you, basically. And the next one I
wrote down was, algebra, biology and English were
not subjects so much as opportunities to better discipline the body,
to practice writing between the lines, copying the
(24:31):
directions, legible, memorizing theorems extracted
from the world. They were created to represent that. That
was an interesting take. Then he wrote to my son, quote,
my work is to give you what I know
of my own particular path while allowing you
to walk your own. You can no more be black like I am
(24:55):
black like I can be black like your grandfather was.
That's such an important takeaway right there. I want to give you what I
know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your
own. That's something I definitely want to emulate for for my own kids.
And I thought this was just an interesting part of his life story
when he's telling his his son about his wife and them
(25:18):
meeting and just about the early parts of their relationship. He
says that his wife secured a job in New York after college
and he followed her to New York even though he wasn't
financially necessarily able to like she was the main
breadwinner. He said that what little he did
make from his writing, which was from like reviewing an album or a
(25:40):
book, it was enough to cover approximately two electric
bills the entire year. And Taboo. They arrived to New York two
months before 911 and then two more that I want to share with you
folks from again ta Nehisi Coates's between the World and Me.
He says, here's how I take measure of my progress in life.
I imagine myself as I was back there in
(26:03):
West Baltimore, fearful of the schools
and the streets. And I imagine showing that lost
boy a portrait of my current life and asking him
what he makes of it. That definitely resonated with me and
in, in a couple ways in a way that it it's definitely a great
touch point for yourself to reflect on. Think about yourself
(26:25):
as a kid, the hopes and dreams and desires that you had at
some point in your life and what you think your
childhood self would think of where you are now.
It's a good way to recalibrate. And I know I often
wonder if I've done enough, if I strive enough, if I
try enough, if I am enough, you know, like a lot of
(26:47):
us I'm sure do. And in retrospect, I've definitely
achieved a lot of goals that I know would have
made my childhood self
happy. You know, the childhood version of myself fast
would be happy that I'm married, I have children, we
have our own place, finish college, have
(27:10):
a good career. I work hard at emulating my
parents practices of putting family first and you know, raising a good
family. I have passions that I work towards like writing, podcasting,
so on and so forth. Like things like that I know the childhood version of
myself would be happy with and look forward to. But it
also helps to look at things from that vantage
(27:32):
point and how that child would tell me now,
hey, what's taking so long to write that second book or third book and then
allow to reprioritize things accordingly? So definitely a dope
takeaway. And last but not least, what I jotted down, which definitely rings
true when I'm rereading it now, although I don't recall why
exactly resonated, but it was that
(27:55):
quote, the things that get you are so small,
the things that keep you up at night are so particular to
you that when you try to explain, the only
reward anyone can give to you is a dumb polite
nod. And that, folks, are the takeaways and
specific moments that resonated with me from Ta Nehisi Coates's
(28:19):
between the World and Me, which again I will link to in the episode notes
for you fine folks to check out.
So one of the ways that I enjoy working on
writing and learning more about the craft is by taking
master classes of other writers. It
doesn't necessarily have to be within genres that I'm interested in writing in. Just
(28:41):
writers that I've read and some. That I never even heard of just to
get different perspectives on how they approach writing. The
latest masterclass that I took was from an author named
N.K. jemisin who is a fantasy and science
fiction writer. And I'm just going to read through. Like when I take the
master classes, I take notes in the notebook
(29:04):
that I have specific for that. And I noticed in this one
I actually did a few like doodles like drawings to
like get down like either a certain visual that she presented
during her master class or just like an idea. So I'm
actually going to add some of these notes,
at least to the web page
(29:26):
for this specific episode. So if you want to check those out,
Definitely go to sponsor.com
forward/podcast forward/287
this is episode 287 and check those out.
But for now I'm just going to read off of some
of the notes that I took down that resonated from taking this
(29:49):
master class. From lesson two, I wrote down
elements of world building in Sci fi and
fantasy. World building is essential, and
one of the pieces that set them apart from other genre
fiction is that you have two
general types of settings. If your story is set on Earth, which is
(30:12):
known as a first world, or if it's one removed from Earth, which is known
as a secondary world, and you want your world to
feel real and lived in, when you do that, it'll melt
away and your readers will focus on the characters and plot,
which is what you want as the world builder. You need to understand
that world as if you live in it.
(30:35):
The reader doesn't have to, but the writer does because
you want it to. You want to make sure that you don't take
the reader out of it and just jotted down a random quote which was go
forth and create something new. Then she breaks down world building further.
In lesson three, she says built the world, the macro world building.
And then lesson four, she focuses on micro world building. But let's start with the
(30:57):
macro I wrote down. Write a story about people in
this location, factor in the weather, isolation,
etc. Is it a desert land or mountainous?
When researching, consider similar areas and weather
from our own world and use elements from it. And I
thought that was an important takeaway when, when thinking about
(31:20):
your setting and not for nothing thinking about
your setting that deeply you know. This story taking place
in New York, what month is it? Is it going to be cold? It's going
to be hot? Is it taking a place in some like fictional place?
And if so, what am I basing that place off of? Is
it a desert place? Is it a mountainous place? Is it cold? Is it hot?
(31:42):
Is it raining? Is it snowing? The way seas exist in this world, you know,
so on and so forth. Like, think about that level of granular detail
so that the reader doesn't have to and it informs your writing.
And she gives an example of Element X is
the thing about your story which makes it
drastically different than our world. And it
(32:04):
affects everything from there on out in your story once you
introduce it. So that's definitely something you have to keep in mind. Lesson four, she
focuses more on the micro world building. She says, develop your species,
whether it's humans or otherwise. Decide if the people in your
world ascribe value to
the minor differences amongst them. That made me think of, for
(32:27):
example in my novel Fractal, which is a science
fiction time travel tale. Check it out@spontane.com
books fractal. It made me think of
skippability. How some characters have the ability
to skip through time, through their dreams and
effects, how things change and translate in the future. So it's
(32:50):
definitely big to know and to understand when you're world
building. Do your characters care about that type of stuff? What are the values that
they ascribe to differences amongst them? The next one is that
changing just one element of your society's culture,
for example military, religion, financial system, environment,
it will affect everything within your world. So it's Definitely
(33:13):
good to keep in mind and to keep track of. However, you can like the
ripple effects of changes like that that you make. Just writes, consider
power dynamics and ask yourself who is powerful in this world?
Who is powerless? People who want to assert that power,
they have. People who want to assert that have more
power will take up more space, for example. And people who
(33:36):
have less power tend to take up less space. They scrunch
up or huddle. And these are ways to
demonstrate that power dynamic. Then skipping on to Section 7,
I wrote down consider research. Oh,
this is. This was this was. This takeaway was more for.
From the financial, I guess, like,
(33:58):
business lens of writing. And she says
consider research part of the cost of doing business as a writer,
which it absolutely is. Right. But she takes it a step
further in saying that if your story is based on a real world
place, try to visit that place and you can write it off on your
taxes. You can write off on your taxes, for example, part of a family vacation
(34:22):
that was used to do research, for example. So if
you're writing a story about, you know, or an element of your story
takes place on the beach and you take a family vacation somewhere on the
beach, you, you know, obviously I'm not an accountant. She's not an accountant. Work with
your accountant on this type of thing. But that is
definitely something that I know writers do. Joanna Pen has spoken
(34:44):
to this as well. And it literally takes trips to certain places. You know,
she. She writes like Stephen King esque type of
fiction and very like
gothic. And I know she's into like churches and cemeteries and things like that
and goes to visit them around the world and writes off those trips as part
of the research for her writings. So just a dope
(35:06):
takeaway. And this one I like double highlighted, which I thought was.
It kind of like gave me the license to
write and get out of my own way, as it had been with this
second fractal book. And she says she calls the draft
before the first draft the raw draft or the
0th draft, the own, the one
(35:28):
nobody sees but her and is full of misspellings and
brackets. And it always reminds me, or I'm always reminded rather
of Ernest Heming Hemingway's quote, which is the
first draft of Everything is Shit. But she even added like another layer to that,
like concept or idea. Because we as writers, me especially, like, I'm
like, very much so in my own head, even before writing like a first
(35:50):
draft of something, if I'm not just doing free writing, which I think is a
way just for me to like blah, just like vomit on
the page. And I know it's that, so I'm not as precious with
it. But when I'm writing like a short story, if
I don't start it off in that free writing type of way, which I definitely
have to get back to just to get the juices flowing, I'm like too
(36:12):
precious with it at times, which speaks to like my
trepidation with and just lack of writing and working
on book two, a fractal. And then that
just stops things from ever being a thing. Even if it's a first draft and
I know it's gonna get polished and worked on. It's like that zero with
draft, as she calls it. I'm like working it out in my head and not
(36:34):
getting past that point to get it on paper, which it needs to
be to be able to move forward and to start molding and, you know, get
momentum going. But I like that she has this approach and she's a prolific
writer of just writing a zero with draft,
a raw draft that obviously nobody sees except her. And it's full of
errors and mistakes and brackets and thoughts, ideas. And that's definitely,
(36:56):
definitely helpful takeaway. To see someone at her level that
does that kind of takes a bit of the mysticism out of it.
In this next section, which is definitely one that I'm going to post to the
website because it has a couple drawings in it, she breaks down
Maslow's hierarchy of needs and then compares
that to her character model. So Maslow's
(37:19):
hierarchy of needs. It starts picture. If
you're just listening to this, and Again, go to sponsor.com
podcast287 if you want to see the visual of this, which I'll add to the
website, picture a pyramid or a triangle. The base of the
triangle is physiological needs. So like housing,
food, clothing. Then above that is safety needs you
(37:41):
to feel safe. Above that it's a love and belonging. Then after
that is esteem. And at the tippity top is self
actualization. And the idea is from Maslow's
hierarchy of needs. If you remember learning about that in like school and
psychology, that would be as you rise up the
hierarchy and secure your needs, you're able to
(38:03):
be more creative and have loftier goals. So
folks that are worried about physiological needs
like food and shelter are not as focused
on safety. Once they have
those covered, those physiological needs covered, then they
can focus more on safety and moving to a better neighborhood, for
(38:25):
example, or getting away from violence.
And then once that's secured, they focus More on love and belonging and
family time, so on and so so forth. Because their time and attention is not
pulled or consumed rather by
the safety needs and psychological needs and the attention that that's
required to achieve those. So on and so forth.
(38:48):
So Ms. Jemison has a character model that
follows this same hierarchy of needs approach.
And she has the base of it as demographics, which
is your character's age and race and gender, etc. Things
that you know at a glance just from looking at them. Then above that,
their outer life, which is based on how
(39:10):
someone presents what they do, their behaviors. Then their
inner life, which is more so based on things that
you only know by knowing them, what are their goals, what are
their fears, etc. Then you have an external
driven arc above that and an internal driven arc above that, which
is the tippity top of that triangle. And
(39:33):
she writes, and I highlighted that you're able to create arcs.
So internal arcs and external arcs for your character
based on the below three, based on their inner
life, their outer life and their demographics. So be
intentional when you're creating your character. And their
inner life should tie directly
(39:56):
to their internally driven arcs and their outer life
could tie it to their externally driven arcs. And I thought that was
definitely an interesting approach to character creation. And I
also wrote how to convey outer life. Another
takeaway is there are techniques out there
which won't make it feel as info dumpy. And
(40:18):
an example that she gives is like a basic description by them
or another character which could happen in like
conversation. So a few more here.
The basic plot arc I always like rereading and
reminding myself, you know, like the beginning, the middle and the end. And I wrote
a little diagram here that she shared in the master class. And
(40:40):
that again I'll add to the website for this episode for you guys to just
check out. And it's broken down into three parts. Beginning, middle and end.
The beginning bucket has the exposition and the conflict.
Then the middle has the rising action and the climax. And then the end
has the falling action and the resolution. And that's your basic
plot arc. Just gives some more examples of externally
(41:02):
driven character arcs. Three Specifically the first one is
Steady State, which is the character is going about
their day, day to day life. And to establish that
this character is worth following when the next stage comes
in, make it makes the audience empathize and care
about that specific character. That's a way to start writing a
(41:25):
steady state externally driven arc. Then an inciting
incident, she breaks down as being the event that occurs that
changes their world. And three, the ending
state, which is like the resolution
and how that character settles back into their new reality,
their new world, after going through the conflict that they
(41:48):
go through. In the story that you write, I like this takeaway as well, which
is the last one that I jotted down, which is
show more and create more marginalized characters as the
hero or protagonist of your story. Write people from different
backgrounds because that's what we see in real life and that's what a lot
of us are right. And that, my fine folks,
(42:11):
my fellow writers and creatives out there, are the takeaways that I
got from N.K. jemisin's masterclass. You can
go to my webpage for this specific
episode sponsored.com forward/podcast
forward/287 and I'll take a picture of
some of the images of my notebook here where I jotted these
(42:32):
things down for you fine folks to take a
look at. Just some of those like doodles and drawings that I think help inform
some of the takeaways that I shared there.
And last but certainly not least, I'm gonna share with you
a piece of my own free writing,
(42:53):
which I like to do. I like to dig into the crates if you will,
and I grab one of my notebooks, I flip through it, find a
post that I've not shared in the past, usually
this being one of them, and I'll add this to the website so you guys
can check out and read if you want to. I have a section in my
in my website for a bunch of my free writing,
(43:15):
which again, I do a lot of free association writing. I do it in notebooks,
pen to paper, but I transcribed some of them and put them on the website
for you guys to check out at sponsor.com
forward/freewriting and here's one
from 2017 and I wrote
I've squandered opportunities in the past. I think we all have,
(43:37):
but I feel as if I've only come to
reconcile this today. If you can't think of any
squander opportunities, try shifting your perspective a bit.
Should be able to find something, whether it be as minute as a
chance to go work out at your local gym this week,
or as impactive as pursuing or taking advantage
(43:58):
of a career opportunity for fear of engaging
in the conversation that would create the circumstance to
ask for what you want. In the spirit of learning from
past mistakes and not making them again,
phase one of two is done and that being realizing the
issue and the patterns in the past behavior,
(44:22):
Phase two should be adjusting said behavior or
behaviors and being open enough for
continuous tweaking so that future opportunities are
not squandered. And I wrote that on Sunday, March 12,
2017 shout out to my brother David. That's his
birthday at
(44:42):
1:54pm and it's pretty apropos
that I chose and read that one just now as I look out the window
contemplating if I should go on a bike ride or not. Because it's a beautiful
day out and I definitely want to and this kind
of pushed me over the edge to get up off my ass and go do
so. So let's not make that a squandered opportunity
(45:04):
that I look back on later today and regret. But yeah, if you want to
check out that free writing piece and more, go to
spontaneity.com forward/freewriting
and that folks, was episode 287 of the Spun Today podcast.
Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen.
It is much, much appreciated. Please do me a favor and go to
(45:26):
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a bunch of different ways that you can help support this show if you so
choose. There's a bunch of free ways to do so, like following on socials at
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Have a bunch of discounts on there that you guys can benefit from and would
(45:48):
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Spontane.com forward/support
also if you go to sponsay.com click on the
Shop link. Up top you would go to the sponsored
A fourth Wall store where you can buy a bunch of
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(46:09):
T shirts and support that way.
Here are a few more ways you can help support this show if you so
choose. And I'll check you guys out next time. Peace.
What's up folks? Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today
podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a
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(46:32):
writers and creatives out. There, a really cool way you can. Help support the show
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I put it out or before I ship it off to my editor
so. That it is in as pristine condition. As I can
(46:55):
probably get it. ProWritingAid offers a great toolkit
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(47:16):
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(47:38):
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Wind up with a couple good usable. Images and a bunch
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In one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover
(48:00):
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(48:22):
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(49:08):
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(49:29):
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Writers or creatives out there. Also available is
Fractal, which is my debut time travel novel
and last but certainly not least, Melted Cold, which is
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(49:51):
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(50:15):
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(50:37):
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and as. Always folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and
(50:58):
start taking steps in the. General direction of your dreams.
Thanks for listening.
I love you Aiden. I love you Daddy.
(51:21):
I love you Grayson.
Like too precious with it at times, which speaks to
like my trepidation with and just lack of writing and
working on book two, a fractal. And then that
just stops things from ever being a thing. Even if it's a first draft that
I know it's going to get polished and worked on. It's like that zero with
draft, as she calls it. I'm like working it out in my head and not
(00:23):
getting past that point to get it on paper, which it needs to
be to be able to move forward and to start molding and, you know, get
momentum going. But I like that she has this approach, and she's a
prolific writer, of just writing a zero with
draft, a raw draft that obviously nobody sees except her. And it's full
of errors and mistakes and brackets and thoughts, ideas. And that's
(00:44):
definitely, definitely helpful takeaway. To see someone at her
level that does that kind of takes a bit of the mysticism
out of it.
(01:12):
What up? What up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Sponsor Day podcast,
the only podcast that is anchored in writing, unlimited in
scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This
is episode 287 of the Sponsor Day podcast
and it is a free writing session. I've missed you guys. It's
been minutes since I wrote a free writing session episode
(01:35):
or put together a free writing session episode rather. And in this style
of episode, what I normally do for the uninitiated is share
my writing stats, which I track, meaning how many days I've
written versus days that I did not work on writing. I share
a writing tip that I picked up on for my fellow writers and creatives
out there. I tell you about what I've been reading, share some notes and
(01:57):
takeaways of that specific book. In
this episode, I'm also going to share my notes on a
master class that I took from NK Jemisin. And last but
certainly not least, I wrap up with a free writing piece of my own. So
stick around for all that good stuff. It's definitely a how the sausage
is made type of episode while also being a way for
(02:21):
myself to keep myself or get myself
back on track to striving for and achieving the writing goals that
I set for myself. So definitely stick around for all that good stuff. But first,
I wanted to tell you all about a quick way that you can help support
this show. And if this quick way is not the way that you would like
to help support this show, Please go to spontanely.com
(02:42):
support where you'll find a bunch of completely free
and a bunch of paid ways that you can help support this show if you
so choose. Your support is invaluable, helps keep the
proverbial lights on here at Spuntery Studios and is very much
appreciated. Spuntery.com support
and then after this we'll jump right into the episode.
(03:06):
Another great way for you to help support the show and also take care
of your foundational health is by going to sponsay.com
support and clicking on my affiliate link for
Athletics Greens, aka AG1.
One scoop of AG1 in your water helps to fill nutrient
gaps, promote gut health, and support whole body
(03:28):
vitality. Just one serving delivers a comprehensive blend of
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which work together for the strongest foundation for better health. I personally take
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(03:50):
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travel packs absolutely for free. Again, go to
spunte.com support and click on the banner for
AG1. So it's been a minute
(04:12):
since I've done one of these free writing session episodes
as I mentioned in the intro. So I have a bunch of writing stats
to share with you folks. I have my stats for February
2025, March, April, May
and I would have also had June and July had my
writing track record for the past few months
(04:35):
not been absolute dogshit. So for June July I didn't
even track my writing stats. But in retrospect they were very similar to
what I did for like April and May, which you'll see in a bit.
So let's get into in February
2025 I wrote only nine
out of the 28 days of the month for a writing percentage of
(04:56):
32.14%. For March, I stepped up my game
a bit. I wrote 14 out of the 31 days of the month
or writing percentage of 45.16%
for April, my birthday month. Shout out to my fellow
areas out there. I remember telling myself that I was going to give myself the
gift of having written for my birthday and
(05:20):
I wrote 1 out of the 30 days of the month
for a writing percentage of
3.33%. In May
of 2025 I wrote 8 out of the 31 days of the month
for a writing Percentage of 25.8%
and as I mentioned June and July, I did not even track
(05:42):
my writing stats. So March was decent.
I always want to try to get that number consistently above 50%
and 45% is the closest that I've been in a while.
But every other month is inexcusable, atrocious,
and if I'm looking at this realistically, it's a direct
(06:02):
directly translates into my writing goals for the
year either being on track or being achieved or not. Which they're not,
right? So a definitely a big takeaway for myself objectively is
I set these goals to for example, translate Make
Way for you in Spanish into Spanish, which I'm going to tell you guys
in a bit. That's actually a lot of what I was working on in March,
(06:25):
which is why I was more productive that month. But
also complete and submit the first draft of
the continuation of my time travel Novel
Fractale Book 2 by the end of the year
and I forget what my other goal was right from a writing perspective. But
I've dabbled with fractal. I continue to do so, but I'm not
(06:48):
close on that one. I've definitely made progress on the
translation of Make Way for you, which for those who don't know
is a I call it the Poor Man's War of Art.
It's modeled after that book. It was the first book that ever published. It's a
non fiction. It's kind of like a motivational inspirational
work for creatives. It's a collection of tips for getting out of your own
(07:11):
way. So if you're interested, definitely check that out.
Sponsored.com/forward/books but again, if I'm looking
at these writing stats objectively, this is almost half a year's worth of writing
stats and all
most if not all have been under 50% of
days that I've written verse days that I did not write or did not
(07:32):
work on writing. And that's a direct There's a direct correlation between that
and okay, this is why you're not achieving your goals. Which is why I
want to track the stats, which is why I want to have something tangible,
something practical that I can look back on and say, okay, this is what I
have to work on. If I increase these writing
percentages, I should start seeing more results. I should start
(07:54):
seeing myself achieve more of the goals that I set for myself in the beginning
of the year. And I share it with you fine folks as a way to
keep myself honest. But also, it's kind of like a Little how the sausage is
made behind the scenes type of thing. And also maybe something that you would want
to emulate in your own work, but obviously with higher
percentages, but definitely tracking the what it is that you're doing, what it
(08:15):
is that you're working on and how often you do. So I think is. Is
definitely something worth emulating. And those are my writing stats to
date. Oh, but before I switch to the writing tip, as far as
the translation for make way for your tips for getting out of your own way
en Espanol, I translated a good
portion of that book when I had the
(08:37):
idea to. To do the translation. Shout out to
Joanna Penn. She's like my, my writing muse
many years ago. And I started. I speak Spanish,
I'm fluent in Spanish, I'm first generation Dominican. But for those that
are similar to me, we got like C pluses
and B minuses in Spanish class in high school. Because
(09:00):
first generation Dominican Spanish doesn't necessarily translate into
the most proper form of the language.
So I translated, I would say 25 to 30% of the
book myself just how I believe it should be
written in Spanish. I leveraged Google Translate
for like the spelling of certain Spanish words that I didn't know offhand.
(09:23):
So that first 25 to 30% was like slow going. And it was something that
I would just, you know, translate one to go back one piece because it's
broken up into individual pieces. The book, I think it's like
75, 77 or like 80 different
entries. And then I would put it down, I would go back to it, you
know, a few days or weeks later and then just
(09:44):
started working on other, other things really for a couple years probably
when I started working on fractal then melted cold. And
I got the. The idea, I believe was also from Joanna Pen, you
know, to leverage AI for
translation purposes. And I've been doing so and it gives
you a phenomenal base to work with. And what's cool about
(10:06):
the one I'm using for this task specifically, which
is Anthropic's clawed AI, is that
I feed it the what I originally wrote in English
and I asked it to translate it into Spanish but with
a more Dominican tone or
bend, and it translates the piece instantly and then gives you
(10:29):
a breakdown of like, this would be the traditional way to say this
phrase, for example, but if you wanted to say it in a more Dominican way,
you can use this phrase. And then that's where I,
you know, first of all, like read the original text that I wrote, read
the translation version, see if it makes sense to to me, just to my
knowledge of Spanish. But I know the spelling is on point
(10:51):
and then I make the decision on which
pieces to change myself for something that I think
would sound better said differently in Spanish, even if it's not
quote unquote correct Spanish. But ultimately it's how I want to express
myself, or if I want to take the suggestions of
the colloquial Dominican bend
(11:14):
that it offers for certain phrases. So it's pretty
dope. And that has gotten me to in a very
short period of time, which is a lot of what I was working on in
March, which is why the writing sets are a lot higher that month.
But leveraging that tool for the translation has
gotten me probably past 50, 60% of
(11:35):
the book translated. So just as a check in for
that overall goal writing goal of mine here, now that
it's a bit past mid year, I think that's definitely one that should be
achievable if I continue with this pace. And definitely something that I think might be
worth considering for fiction as well, although that
seems a lot more of a daunting and longer
(11:57):
task, but much more manageable with the use of
some AI writing tools and ideas like that.
Moving on to the writing tip that I want to share with you folks. This
is from a Substack email that I received on
May 16, 2025. I will link to the actual post in the
(12:17):
episode Notes for folks to check out. The piece is by Naomi
Kanakia and it's called the Future of
Fiction, and she wrote. Traditionally, fiction
writers practice their craft by getting critiques from their peers and
workshops, but Substack offers an experience more
akin to an open mic night at a stand up
(12:38):
comedy club. You can feel in real time whether your fiction is working,
whether it's landing with the audience that you've built. And that purpose
allows writers to adjust their stories
accordingly until they've found a style that's both true to
their voice and genuinely compelling for the reader. I know this
may sound strange to traditional fiction writers. I've been
(13:01):
one myself for 20 years, with four
traditionally published novels and dozens of short stories to many.
But it was only when I started sharing my fiction on substack that my voice
really sharpened. Only by testing and discarding
the conventions of the traditional short story
was I finally able to figure out which parts of my stories were essential
(13:24):
and which parts I was only including because I thought
editors wanted to see them. The result is fiction that feels
alive, playful, genre defying, and
accessible. If you're a reader looking for something new, something
surprising. This is where to find it. And I thought that was a really
interesting, fresh new take that I hadn't heard or
(13:46):
considered before. And I like the comparison of fiction
writing compared to Stan Comedy because I'm a big st comedy fan.
But just in the approach to honing your
craft, similar to how comedians do on stage, open open mics,
writing jokes, trying out jokes, seeing what works, seeing what doesn't, and over
a matter of a year or two or more, sharpening those
(14:08):
jokes, trying them out for different audiences across the country, across
the world to hone them in to a final
work after doing them over and over and over hundreds, thousands
of times, their final polished versions in the
form of a stand up comedy special. From a writing perspective. And
Naomi's right in this the traditional way
(14:31):
is to have like beta readers. You know, you, you have a.
You write your story, you use the tools that you can
to polish it up. For example
ProWritingAid, which is a great like pre
editing software that I've spoken about in the past. If you
guys want to go check out the episodes on
(14:54):
for example how I published Melted Cold, there's a specific episode
for that, my breakdown, like where each story comes from and just like how
the sausage gets made from that. You know how I use pro writing aid
and other tools to shape it up. And then from there you move on to
professional editing. Some folks also use beta readers before
(15:15):
those stages where they take their feedback and then they adjust their story
accordingly. As Naomi mentioned in this piece, but I never considered
this like direct building your own audience on
substack approach, which is interesting.
I have not done it myself, but again, just find it really interesting. And
I do. I'm on substack. I don't write on Substack,
(15:37):
but. But I follow writers on Sub Stack. Most recently
actually I found the Juno Diaz on there and he seems to be doing something
similar to this. Aside from giving writing advice,
which is great, mainly what I'm there for.
But I know he also puts fiction pieces there, like chapters of
stories in there. And Juno Diaz, for those who don't know, is a
(15:58):
Dominican American writer. But a couple of great books that I really liked,
like this is how youw Lose her the Brief Run, Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wilde, which I actually went to go see the Off Broadway play
for, which was dope. His short story collection, Drown,
so on and so forth. But he's on Substack. A bunch of writers are on
Sub Stack. A bunch of political writers are on substack as well.
(16:21):
But I just thought this was a cool, interesting way to
look at working on the writing craft.
So I want to share with you fun folks. Definitely let me know your thoughts
on that and if you've either considered that in your own writing
or if you follow any writers that are doing that, writers that you
enjoy and give them feedback on their writing, hit me up in
(16:43):
the comments section of the episode and or on
Twitter Fun today and let me know
what I've been reading. I've been reading Ta Nehisi Coates's
between the World and Me, which was a beautiful
love letter of sorts to his son. It
(17:03):
was essentially him telling him about life, his life
growing up as a black man in America and
giving his son life advice, while also recognizing that
his son's version of growing up black in America is going to be very different
from what his version was, as well as
reflecting on how different Ta Nehisi Coates's
(17:25):
version was from his father's version of
growing up black in America and how things change and how certain things stay the
same. And reading this reinforced an idea myself that I
had with writing certain things down as a father of two
boys, writing certain things down for them for the future of
aside from just like thoughts and you know, what my take was on something or
(17:48):
how I felt about something at a certain specific point in time, which I think
my podcast in general, I mean my writing wouldn't form
those answers, but just like general life advice for
things that I went through that they may
go through, thoughts that I've had or wrestled with, things that I
foresee that might be challenging for them or that they may want to lean into
(18:11):
like strengths that I think they have for, you know, for what it's worth, you
know, just being my opinion and not necessarily to publish,
but just like as a thing for them. Like
reading this book kind of like reinforced that that thought
and it's a powerful read, definitely one that I know I will
revisit in the future and that you folks should definitely check out and I
(18:33):
will link to it in the episode notes for you guys to do just that.
And Ta Nehisi Kotai over the years very much enjoyed his
perspective, his take usually political ones on
many different podcasts or interview shows that I've seen him on and always wanted
to read this book. It's always spoken highly
of but never happened until recently and I'm definitely glad I
(18:55):
did. So I just wanted to share a few takeaways that I took away from
the Book, just parts of it that resonated with me
that I wanted to share for different reasons, whether it's the
actual prose on the page and how we put a concept or idea together,
or just, like, the lesson or takeaway. I have about six or seven different
ones. And starting off with this first one, which was
(19:18):
a story that he told that just, like,
brought me to that point in time. Like, I felt I was there. And it's
just the way that he wrote it was just dope. And also somewhat
reminiscent of, you know, my childhood,
but a less extreme version.
But let me just jump right into it. It's a story about him getting robbed
(19:41):
when he was younger and having to process it
alone and then sharing it with his friends in a way
that he, like, laughed it off or, like, they laughed it off. But he
really, like, internalized, like, that pain and that fear from the experience.
And that's the piece that definitely resonated with me. He just breaks it down, like,
so eloquently. And they wrote it almost verbatim. Wrote it
(20:03):
down rather verbatim. Wanted to share with you guys. And he says, quote, in
sixth grade, just before 3:00pm I
recall it in the slowest motion, as though in a
dream. There the boy stood with the gun brandished,
which he slowly tucked, untucked and tucked
once more. And in his small eyes I saw a
(20:27):
surging rage that could, in an instant,
erase my body. That was 1986. That year I
felt myself to be drowning in the news reports
of murder. I was aware that these murders very often
did not land on the intended targets, but fell
up on great aunts, PTA mothers,
(20:50):
overtime uncles and joyful children
fell upon them random and relentless like
gray sheets of rain. I knew this in theory, but could not
understand it as fact until the boy with the
small eyes stood across from me, holding my entire
body in his small hands. The boy did not shoot.
(21:12):
His friends pulled him back. He did not need to shoot. He
had affirmed my place in the order of things. He had let it
be known how easily I could be selected.
I took the subway home that day, processing the episode all
alone. I did not tell my parents. I did not tell my
teachers. And if I told my friends, I would have done so
(21:35):
with all the excitement needed to obscure the fear
that came over me in that moment. I remember being amazed that
death could so easily rise up from the nothing
of a boyish afternoon, billow up like fog. End
quote. That piece was intense, and I just love the way he
worded it, especially this line. Fell upon them, random
(21:57):
and relentless like gray sheets of rain. And so many more in there. This
was definitely a good takeaway. And again, definitely rang true.
He says growing up, he learned a different language, a language of the
streets, and described it as knowing slash,
learning the names and which crew ran
which hood in which city. And
(22:20):
they can tell you the name of all the
captains and all their cousins and offer an
anthology of all their exploits. This was necessary
to survive in certain neighborhoods and to protect their. Their bodies.
And he says, I learned that yo,
shorty, can I see your bike? Was never a sincere question,
(22:42):
which is so fucking true. I remember I was, like, telling my son
a story the other day that I remember from when I was a kid. I
had this, like, banana seat bike, and it was in the
yard. I was, like, riding around inside the. The yard,
and I left it in the yard, and I saw out the window that somebody
came into the yard and was like, buy the bike. Another kid, like around
(23:04):
my age, maybe a couple years older. I was, from
memory, I was like 7, 8 or 9. I could be off on the age,
but around that. That age bracket.
And I ran out to the yard, and
the kid sees me, gets, like, startled. And I was like, that's
my bike. Like, I don't know, like, what to say. I said something, something to
(23:24):
that effect, and it was like, oh, I didn't know.
And he just, like, left the yard. And I was like, what the hell? I
remember thinking, like, this, dude, you're trying to take my bike. And then
I don't remember if it was a few days later or a few weeks later
somebody did steal that bike. Probably that same kid.
But yeah, it's like little nuances of like, he. He's speaking
(23:45):
to you folks that literally grew up on the street, you know, like, about
that life, which I was definitely not, but you're close to it
enough to understand that takeaway of. I
learned that, yo, shorty, can I see your bike? Was never a sincere question.
And that's so true. And then this next one was,
he says, and yo, you was messing
(24:08):
with my cousin was neither an earnest accusation nor a
misunderstanding of the facts. That was just a way for
somebody to start fucking with you, basically. And the next one I
wrote down was, algebra, biology and English were
not subjects so much as opportunities to better discipline the body,
to practice writing between the lines, copying the
(24:31):
directions, legible, memorizing theorems extracted
from the world. They were created to represent that. That
was an interesting take. Then he wrote to my son, quote,
my work is to give you what I know
of my own particular path while allowing you
to walk your own. You can no more be black like I am
(24:55):
black like I can be black like your grandfather was.
That's such an important takeaway right there. I want to give you what I
know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your
own. That's something I definitely want to emulate for for my own kids.
And I thought this was just an interesting part of his life story
when he's telling his his son about his wife and them
(25:18):
meeting and just about the early parts of their relationship. He
says that his wife secured a job in New York after college
and he followed her to New York even though he wasn't
financially necessarily able to like she was the main
breadwinner. He said that what little he did
make from his writing, which was from like reviewing an album or a
(25:40):
book, it was enough to cover approximately two electric
bills the entire year. And Taboo. They arrived to New York two
months before 911 and then two more that I want to share with you
folks from again ta Nehisi Coates's between the World and Me.
He says, here's how I take measure of my progress in life.
I imagine myself as I was back there in
(26:03):
West Baltimore, fearful of the schools
and the streets. And I imagine showing that lost
boy a portrait of my current life and asking him
what he makes of it. That definitely resonated with me and
in, in a couple ways in a way that it it's definitely a great
touch point for yourself to reflect on. Think about yourself
(26:25):
as a kid, the hopes and dreams and desires that you had at
some point in your life and what you think your
childhood self would think of where you are now.
It's a good way to recalibrate. And I know I often
wonder if I've done enough, if I strive enough, if I
try enough, if I am enough, you know, like a lot of
(26:47):
us I'm sure do. And in retrospect, I've definitely
achieved a lot of goals that I know would have
made my childhood self
happy. You know, the childhood version of myself fast
would be happy that I'm married, I have children, we
have our own place, finish college, have
(27:10):
a good career. I work hard at emulating my
parents practices of putting family first and you know, raising a good
family. I have passions that I work towards like writing, podcasting,
so on and so forth. Like things like that I know the childhood version of
myself would be happy with and look forward to. But it
also helps to look at things from that vantage
(27:32):
point and how that child would tell me now,
hey, what's taking so long to write that second book or third book and then
allow to reprioritize things accordingly? So definitely a dope
takeaway. And last but not least, what I jotted down, which definitely rings
true when I'm rereading it now, although I don't recall why
exactly resonated, but it was that
(27:55):
quote, the things that get you are so small,
the things that keep you up at night are so particular to
you that when you try to explain, the only
reward anyone can give to you is a dumb polite
nod. And that, folks, are the takeaways and
specific moments that resonated with me from Ta Nehisi Coates's
(28:19):
between the World and Me, which again I will link to in the episode notes
for you fine folks to check out.
So one of the ways that I enjoy working on
writing and learning more about the craft is by taking
master classes of other writers. It
doesn't necessarily have to be within genres that I'm interested in writing in. Just
(28:41):
writers that I've read and some. That I never even heard of just to
get different perspectives on how they approach writing. The
latest masterclass that I took was from an author named
N.K. jemisin who is a fantasy and science
fiction writer. And I'm just going to read through. Like when I take the
master classes, I take notes in the notebook
(29:04):
that I have specific for that. And I noticed in this one
I actually did a few like doodles like drawings to
like get down like either a certain visual that she presented
during her master class or just like an idea. So I'm
actually going to add some of these notes,
at least to the web page
(29:26):
for this specific episode. So if you want to check those out,
Definitely go to sponsor.com
forward/podcast forward/287
this is episode 287 and check those out.
But for now I'm just going to read off of some
of the notes that I took down that resonated from taking this
(29:49):
master class. From lesson two, I wrote down
elements of world building in Sci fi and
fantasy. World building is essential, and
one of the pieces that set them apart from other genre
fiction is that you have two
general types of settings. If your story is set on Earth, which is
(30:12):
known as a first world, or if it's one removed from Earth, which is known
as a secondary world, and you want your world to
feel real and lived in, when you do that, it'll melt
away and your readers will focus on the characters and plot,
which is what you want as the world builder. You need to understand
that world as if you live in it.
(30:35):
The reader doesn't have to, but the writer does because
you want it to. You want to make sure that you don't take
the reader out of it and just jotted down a random quote which was go
forth and create something new. Then she breaks down world building further.
In lesson three, she says built the world, the macro world building.
And then lesson four, she focuses on micro world building. But let's start with the
(30:57):
macro I wrote down. Write a story about people in
this location, factor in the weather, isolation,
etc. Is it a desert land or mountainous?
When researching, consider similar areas and weather
from our own world and use elements from it. And I
thought that was an important takeaway when, when thinking about
(31:20):
your setting and not for nothing thinking about
your setting that deeply you know. This story taking place
in New York, what month is it? Is it going to be cold? It's going
to be hot? Is it taking a place in some like fictional place?
And if so, what am I basing that place off of? Is
it a desert place? Is it a mountainous place? Is it cold? Is it hot?
(31:42):
Is it raining? Is it snowing? The way seas exist in this world, you know,
so on and so forth. Like, think about that level of granular detail
so that the reader doesn't have to and it informs your writing.
And she gives an example of Element X is
the thing about your story which makes it
drastically different than our world. And it
(32:04):
affects everything from there on out in your story once you
introduce it. So that's definitely something you have to keep in mind. Lesson four, she
focuses more on the micro world building. She says, develop your species,
whether it's humans or otherwise. Decide if the people in your
world ascribe value to
the minor differences amongst them. That made me think of, for
(32:27):
example in my novel Fractal, which is a science
fiction time travel tale. Check it out@spontane.com
books fractal. It made me think of
skippability. How some characters have the ability
to skip through time, through their dreams and
effects, how things change and translate in the future. So it's
(32:50):
definitely big to know and to understand when you're world
building. Do your characters care about that type of stuff? What are the values that
they ascribe to differences amongst them? The next one is that
changing just one element of your society's culture,
for example military, religion, financial system, environment,
it will affect everything within your world. So it's Definitely
(33:13):
good to keep in mind and to keep track of. However, you can like the
ripple effects of changes like that that you make. Just writes, consider
power dynamics and ask yourself who is powerful in this world?
Who is powerless? People who want to assert that power,
they have. People who want to assert that have more
power will take up more space, for example. And people who
(33:36):
have less power tend to take up less space. They scrunch
up or huddle. And these are ways to
demonstrate that power dynamic. Then skipping on to Section 7,
I wrote down consider research. Oh,
this is. This was this was. This takeaway was more for.
From the financial, I guess, like,
(33:58):
business lens of writing. And she says
consider research part of the cost of doing business as a writer,
which it absolutely is. Right. But she takes it a step
further in saying that if your story is based on a real world
place, try to visit that place and you can write it off on your
taxes. You can write off on your taxes, for example, part of a family vacation
(34:22):
that was used to do research, for example. So if
you're writing a story about, you know, or an element of your story
takes place on the beach and you take a family vacation somewhere on the
beach, you, you know, obviously I'm not an accountant. She's not an accountant. Work with
your accountant on this type of thing. But that is
definitely something that I know writers do. Joanna Pen has spoken
(34:44):
to this as well. And it literally takes trips to certain places. You know,
she. She writes like Stephen King esque type of
fiction and very like
gothic. And I know she's into like churches and cemeteries and things like that
and goes to visit them around the world and writes off those trips as part
of the research for her writings. So just a dope
(35:06):
takeaway. And this one I like double highlighted, which I thought was.
It kind of like gave me the license to
write and get out of my own way, as it had been with this
second fractal book. And she says she calls the draft
before the first draft the raw draft or the
0th draft, the own, the one
(35:28):
nobody sees but her and is full of misspellings and
brackets. And it always reminds me, or I'm always reminded rather
of Ernest Heming Hemingway's quote, which is the
first draft of Everything is Shit. But she even added like another layer to that,
like concept or idea. Because we as writers, me especially, like, I'm
like, very much so in my own head, even before writing like a first
(35:50):
draft of something, if I'm not just doing free writing, which I think is a
way just for me to like blah, just like vomit on
the page. And I know it's that, so I'm not as precious with
it. But when I'm writing like a short story, if
I don't start it off in that free writing type of way, which I definitely
have to get back to just to get the juices flowing, I'm like too
(36:12):
precious with it at times, which speaks to like my
trepidation with and just lack of writing and working
on book two, a fractal. And then that
just stops things from ever being a thing. Even if it's a first draft and
I know it's gonna get polished and worked on. It's like that zero with
draft, as she calls it. I'm like working it out in my head and not
(36:34):
getting past that point to get it on paper, which it needs to
be to be able to move forward and to start molding and, you know, get
momentum going. But I like that she has this approach and she's a prolific
writer of just writing a zero with draft,
a raw draft that obviously nobody sees except her. And it's full of
errors and mistakes and brackets and thoughts, ideas. And that's definitely,
(36:56):
definitely helpful takeaway. To see someone at her level that
does that kind of takes a bit of the mysticism out of it.
In this next section, which is definitely one that I'm going to post to the
website because it has a couple drawings in it, she breaks down
Maslow's hierarchy of needs and then compares
that to her character model. So Maslow's
(37:19):
hierarchy of needs. It starts picture. If
you're just listening to this, and Again, go to sponsor.com
podcast287 if you want to see the visual of this, which I'll add to the
website, picture a pyramid or a triangle. The base of the
triangle is physiological needs. So like housing,
food, clothing. Then above that is safety needs you
(37:41):
to feel safe. Above that it's a love and belonging. Then after
that is esteem. And at the tippity top is self
actualization. And the idea is from Maslow's
hierarchy of needs. If you remember learning about that in like school and
psychology, that would be as you rise up the
hierarchy and secure your needs, you're able to
(38:03):
be more creative and have loftier goals. So
folks that are worried about physiological needs
like food and shelter are not as focused
on safety. Once they have
those covered, those physiological needs covered, then they
can focus more on safety and moving to a better neighborhood, for
(38:25):
example, or getting away from violence.
And then once that's secured, they focus More on love and belonging and
family time, so on and so so forth. Because their time and attention is not
pulled or consumed rather by
the safety needs and psychological needs and the attention that that's
required to achieve those. So on and so forth.
(38:48):
So Ms. Jemison has a character model that
follows this same hierarchy of needs approach.
And she has the base of it as demographics, which
is your character's age and race and gender, etc. Things
that you know at a glance just from looking at them. Then above that,
their outer life, which is based on how
(39:10):
someone presents what they do, their behaviors. Then their
inner life, which is more so based on things that
you only know by knowing them, what are their goals, what are
their fears, etc. Then you have an external
driven arc above that and an internal driven arc above that, which
is the tippity top of that triangle. And
(39:33):
she writes, and I highlighted that you're able to create arcs.
So internal arcs and external arcs for your character
based on the below three, based on their inner
life, their outer life and their demographics. So be
intentional when you're creating your character. And their
inner life should tie directly
(39:56):
to their internally driven arcs and their outer life
could tie it to their externally driven arcs. And I thought that was
definitely an interesting approach to character creation. And I
also wrote how to convey outer life. Another
takeaway is there are techniques out there
which won't make it feel as info dumpy. And
(40:18):
an example that she gives is like a basic description by them
or another character which could happen in like
conversation. So a few more here.
The basic plot arc I always like rereading and
reminding myself, you know, like the beginning, the middle and the end. And I wrote
a little diagram here that she shared in the master class. And
(40:40):
that again I'll add to the website for this episode for you guys to just
check out. And it's broken down into three parts. Beginning, middle and end.
The beginning bucket has the exposition and the conflict.
Then the middle has the rising action and the climax. And then the end
has the falling action and the resolution. And that's your basic
plot arc. Just gives some more examples of externally
(41:02):
driven character arcs. Three Specifically the first one is
Steady State, which is the character is going about
their day, day to day life. And to establish that
this character is worth following when the next stage comes
in, make it makes the audience empathize and care
about that specific character. That's a way to start writing a
(41:25):
steady state externally driven arc. Then an inciting
incident, she breaks down as being the event that occurs that
changes their world. And three, the ending
state, which is like the resolution
and how that character settles back into their new reality,
their new world, after going through the conflict that they
(41:48):
go through. In the story that you write, I like this takeaway as well, which
is the last one that I jotted down, which is
show more and create more marginalized characters as the
hero or protagonist of your story. Write people from different
backgrounds because that's what we see in real life and that's what a lot
of us are right. And that, my fine folks,
(42:11):
my fellow writers and creatives out there, are the takeaways that I
got from N.K. jemisin's masterclass. You can
go to my webpage for this specific
episode sponsored.com forward/podcast
forward/287 and I'll take a picture of
some of the images of my notebook here where I jotted these
(42:32):
things down for you fine folks to take a
look at. Just some of those like doodles and drawings that I think help inform
some of the takeaways that I shared there.
And last but certainly not least, I'm gonna share with you
a piece of my own free writing,
(42:53):
which I like to do. I like to dig into the crates if you will,
and I grab one of my notebooks, I flip through it, find a
post that I've not shared in the past, usually
this being one of them, and I'll add this to the website so you guys
can check out and read if you want to. I have a section in my
in my website for a bunch of my free writing,
(43:15):
which again, I do a lot of free association writing. I do it in notebooks,
pen to paper, but I transcribed some of them and put them on the website
for you guys to check out at sponsor.com
forward/freewriting and here's one
from 2017 and I wrote
I've squandered opportunities in the past. I think we all have,
(43:37):
but I feel as if I've only come to
reconcile this today. If you can't think of any
squander opportunities, try shifting your perspective a bit.
Should be able to find something, whether it be as minute as a
chance to go work out at your local gym this week,
or as impactive as pursuing or taking advantage
(43:58):
of a career opportunity for fear of engaging
in the conversation that would create the circumstance to
ask for what you want. In the spirit of learning from
past mistakes and not making them again,
phase one of two is done and that being realizing the
issue and the patterns in the past behavior,
(44:22):
Phase two should be adjusting said behavior or
behaviors and being open enough for
continuous tweaking so that future opportunities are
not squandered. And I wrote that on Sunday, March 12,
2017 shout out to my brother David. That's his
birthday at
(44:42):
1:54pm and it's pretty apropos
that I chose and read that one just now as I look out the window
contemplating if I should go on a bike ride or not. Because it's a beautiful
day out and I definitely want to and this kind
of pushed me over the edge to get up off my ass and go do
so. So let's not make that a squandered opportunity
(45:04):
that I look back on later today and regret. But yeah, if you want to
check out that free writing piece and more, go to
spontaneity.com forward/freewriting
and that folks, was episode 287 of the Spun Today podcast.
Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen.
It is much, much appreciated. Please do me a favor and go to
(45:26):
spun today.com support so you can look at
a bunch of different ways that you can help support this show if you so
choose. There's a bunch of free ways to do so, like following on socials at
Spontaneity on everything. Subscribe to the YouTube channel,
rate, subscribe, follow wherever it is you're listening to this episode.
Have a bunch of discounts on there that you guys can benefit from and would
(45:48):
help tremendously. Affiliate links, so on and so forth.
Spontane.com forward/support
also if you go to sponsay.com click on the
Shop link. Up top you would go to the sponsored
A fourth Wall store where you can buy a bunch of
merch, coffee mugs, notebooks,
(46:09):
T shirts and support that way.
Here are a few more ways you can help support this show if you so
choose. And I'll check you guys out next time. Peace.
What's up folks? Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today
podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a
few ways you can help support the show. For my fellow
(46:32):
writers and creatives out. There, a really cool way you can. Help support the show
is by going to spuntoday.com support
and clicking on the ProWritingAid banner. If you're 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
(46:55):
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. Go to
spunterade.com support click on the banner for
prowritingaid and check out their free option as well
(47:16):
as their different. Tiers of paid options.
Sponsoreday.com support a great
way for my fellow writers and creatives out there to help support this show is
by going to spunterday.com support and clicking on
the Mock Up Shots banner. When I first started writing and
putting out content, I wanted to think of creative ways to help market
(47:38):
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,
a completely soggy book. Then I found Mock Up Shots.
In one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover
(48:00):
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 what
Mockup Shots has to offer. And now for my listeners you
can get unlimited lifetime access to the
(48:22):
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. I highly recommend it. A great marketing tool. Go to
spunay.com support and click on the
banner for Mock Up Shots to claim your 50% off
(48:46):
discount. You can also support by checking out my writing. Go to
spun.com freewriting here you'll
find a collection of freely written thoughts which is intended to be
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 spuntery.com
(49:08):
short stories to check out my latest short stories and also
listen to the free audiobook versions of those stories.
You can also support my writing by going to sponsor a comm
books and check out what I have available for sale. Currently
available is Make Way for you, which is a collection of
(49:29):
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 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
(49:51):
any other e reader, as well as paperback
and hardcover options. Again, go to spontaday.com
books and I'd love to hear what you chose to check out as well
as your thoughts after reading spun today.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
(50:15):
out my five question questionnaire located@spun
today.com questionnaire here you'll find five
open questions related to your craft, your art, what inspired 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,
(50:37):
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 your responses could potentially spark
inspiration in someone else, why not share that
spontodate.com questionnaire
and as. Always folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and
(50:58):
start taking steps in the. General direction of your dreams.
Thanks for listening.
I love you Aiden. I love you Daddy.
(51:21):
I love you Grayson.
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