Unpublishable Author Podcast

Hello and welcome to Unpublishable Author Podcast, I'm your host Tommy Balassa. Thanks so much for stoppin’ by today and downloading this podcast. Over the past two weeks since my last podcast I've accomplished something I’m pretty enthused about. I don't yet know if it’s going to work out because I haven’t fully implemented it, but I’m hopeful. I’ve created a system for myself based on what I’ve learned about writing. Now when I mention a system, I'm saying anything other than "pantsing". As a writer I've always been a "pantser", and while it's fine to “pants” if that works for you, for me “pantsing” ultimately led to too many roadblocks. When I’ve “pantsed”, I've always come up against a wall, a lack of creativity. A harsh stopping place within everything I’ve ever written. I've read and heard a lot of writers talk about writing blocks as being caused by a lack of understanding of your own story. I think that's true. In my own writing experience, anytime I've gone back to reread a manuscript I started by “pantsing” that means all of them, I realized I didn't understand the story I was writing. That's always made it impossible for me to jump back into a story and pick up where I left off. I've tried my hand at outlining and I don't have the organizational skills yet to really make outlining an effective tool at my current knowledge level. For well over six months now, maybe even close to a year, I haven't really spent a lot of time writing on any manuscript. Most of my writing is been non-fiction type stuff, anything from blogging to writing this podcast. Sure I’ve started some fiction ideas, but they all end up bogged down in my lack of organization and inability to jump back into an idea. That fact is echoed in something I read by Larry Brooks in which he talks about having a concept rather than just an idea. I think not understanding the story is because I’ve always started “pantsing” with an idea and never really taken it beyond the idea stage. Since my last podcast I started reading a book called, “The Fantasy Fiction Formula”, by Deborah Chester. Something I read in her book triggered an epiphany and I was inspired to create my own writing formula. I recognize myself in her book and I'm not going to quote it because of copyright, but in Chapter One in the section; “Planning the Plot”, is a passage that inspired me. Look it up and see if it inspires you too. It’s something I feel I should have always known, simple, but we’re all on our own journey. Most of my limitations are self-imposed because of emotional baggage. That passage cut through the emotional baggage and struck paydirt. Taking into account so many books I’ve read, videos I’ve watched and podcasts I’ve listened too, it’s not hard for me to believe that something finally came to concord. I’ve created a writing formula that I haven’t tested yet, but I’m going to this week. It might not we worth anything to anyone else, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway and try it myself this week. I’ll post the Formula on this weeks podcast page. I’ll provide the url at the end of the podcast. I took my idea of story and I broke it down into 9 Sections and 32 Elements. What I did is I took what I know or believe about story elements, they may not be perfect for everyone but for me these seem to ring true, and I created a path from start to finish based on the elements of a story that I enjoy. I’m not creating new ideas or concepts of story. I’m simply distilling what I’ve learned into a process that makes sense to me. If it doesn’t make sense to you, by all means don’t use it. But I’d like to share it with you just in case. If you do try it out, please share your experiences of it with me and let me know how it works out for you, good or bad. Here it is Tommy’s Writing Formula. The First Section: Show the protagonists life as it is, if only briefly. Show a dramatic moment that causes the protagonist to display their false belief system.

Today’s podcast is about how to get yourself to do what you know you should be doing. Ok, it’s really about how I don’t do what I know I should be doing, when I should be doing it. Looking for the Music, Waves and sounds I use for inspiration and focus? Click this Link ---> CLICK HERE!

Motivation - Why isn't it always there for the things you love? TRANSCRIPT of the Podcast: Hi everyone, I’m Tommy Balassa. My apologies for today's podcast being late. I recorded Episode 0003 a month ago but refused to upload it, because I was worried listeners would think it was stupid because it wasn’t scripted and my vocabulary wasn’t clear, it just sounded bad. I’m not doing things I enjoy during the week and by the time Friday gets here for my “CREATIVE DAY” I’m worn out and don’t feel creative and end up asking myself “What’s the point?”. By the time Sunday rolls around I have family commitments to deal with, though I could fit it in if I needed too, but instead I detach from the shame I feel and wallow in failure. Why am I recording this today? It’s Friday and I’ve made a tiny change and it’s unexpectedly working right now. I’ve recognized it’s working and why. That means I have to share it. My hope is that this will continue and I’ll return to my creative life. This Podcast was about finding a link to my old self that loves to write and create stories, a way to overcome my behavioral deficiencies as a writer. A way to make contacts and even friends who are serious about writing, especially in the fantasy and Sci-fi genres. However, Podcasts can take a long time to catch on, if ever. So it’s a fools errand for me to expect to gain any insights from others until I have regular listens. That may never happen. Today's Podcast is about how I decided to do this episode today and how I am planning to make sure it keeps happening, along with how I”m going to make writing the focal point in my life. Today's episode actually happened by accident. You see, I have a job working 4 days per week. I’m off Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. As I’ve already mentioned, I have some issues with motivation and self-confidence that I allow to rule me. I love to garden. I love to raise vegetables. I’ve done so for years, never very successfully, it’s very hot in the summer here and makes it quite difficult and time-consuming. For the past couple of years I’ve not really put any effort into gardening because I’d had several failures in recent years with long extended droughts and months of above one hundred degree weather. So this year, as the gardening year rolled around I was also starting the idea of this podcast. I’d put energy into learning about how podcasts are done and trying to figure out how I of all people could contribute anything to the ether of writing. That’s when it hit me that I AM, the contribution, rather said that my behaviors are the subject of the podcast. I came to realize some time ago that my behaviors weren’t all mine. I didn’t create them though I’m well on my way to perfecting them. However, it’s not the good behaviors that I’ve mastered. A couple of months ago I recorded two podcasts, uploaded them and told everyone listening that in two weeks there be a new podcast. It didn’t happen. For the reasons I’ve already gone through, it didn’t happen. A few weeks ago after some failures on a Friday, when I recorded one but didn’t upload it, I did find my way clear to start a garden. That garden is very important to my motivation for doing today’s podcast. It’s connected to who I am as a whole. I’m not a whole person. I believe that is the problem I have that is stopping me from writing and leading me away from doing things I really want to do. If you knew me, then you’d know I’m a very outgoing person around people I know, but pretty reserved among strangers. Well, at least until I don’t think they’re strange anymore. I’ve been a singer in two bands. I waited until I was thirty nine to get into a band. Not because I couldn’t sing, but because I didn’t think anyone would want to hear me and I didn’t want to audition because I was afraid to fail or succeed. I’ve always gone out to listen to live music, but over the past twenty five years I’ve all but s...

(I'm learning to be more vigilant. I thought I posted this Podcast this past Monday, but it never loaded. Sorry for the late drop.) Today's Podcast is about my mindset and how things like procrastination have impacted me and how I'm starting to learn how to overcome. I was losing my voice during the recording so it's a little rough. I'm working on improving the quality.

This is the premier episode of Unpublishable Author Podcast. Thank you all for listening and subscribing to the podcast. Today's episode features my interview with Joseph R. Ferrari PhD of De Paul University of Chicago and our discussion of procrastination. Procrastination has had an adverse effect on my life and especially on my creative projects. It has prevented me from taking specific and positive action more times than I care to admit. Procrastination is by no means a singular point of failure for me. In fact, the reason I decided to start this website as a blog and a podcast, is because I need help dealing with all the bad habits and behaviors that have held me back from achieving the personal and professional success I believe I can attain. I figured I surely can't be the only writer struggling with their personal foibles and demons. So I thought, "why not share this with others like me?". If I'm going to be asking other writers, will-be and successful, to share what has hindered them and or how they overcome those issues, then I need to give back. This podcast is a cry for help and hopefully an answer to the cries of others. Please join the Unpublishable Author community, subscribe and see if you can find the answers and solutions to what is holding you back from achieving your creative success. In the mean time, get out there and create something you love!

This is a preview episode of Unpublishable Author Podcast. A podcast where Will-Be and Successful Authors share their challenges and successes, to help other Will-Be Authors achieve the creative and financial successes they desire.