A curated collection of the latest and most interesting podcast episodes about the author life.
Hey, It’s JP Rindfleisch IX, back again! When I write, I like to use the Pomodoro method. Twenty-five minutes of writing, followed by five(ish) minutes for a break. For the past three months, I’ve been using this app whenever I sit down and write, and it is amazing. You can check it out at https://www.centered.app/. Basically, you get a 25 minute timer, nudges when you aren’t working, nice calming music, access to groups to see when others are working with you, and an intelligent break timer. Something about this app has kept me going back to it, so if you are looking for something to help you get into flow, try it out.
Top 3 Must-Listen Episodes
Creator Dad // Permission to Die with Jim Kukral
In a wonderfully inspiring episode, Zach interviews creator and cancer survivor, Jim Kukral. Jim discusses how his brush with mortality transfigured his life and encouraged him to step away from the author and marketing worlds, and dive into the creator space he’s passionate about.
Through surgery, chemotherapy, and his Post-Traumatic Growth, Jim has created two performances called Once Upon a Pandemic and The Dead Shoe Diaries that he will take on the road.
He mentions a book that impacted him on this transformation called Rise Above Chaos, by Erick Rheam. Through the exercises in this book, Jim discovered his superpower is inspiring people.
After hearing Jim in person, I can 100% agree that he has an ability to own a stage and leave people ready to act.
One interesting thing he noted in this episode was that people haven’t lost their attention spans but have gotten better at deciding what to pay attention to. Using that understanding, he plans to put his audience in a dark theater, which is a natural space for the audience to give their full attention.
As a last note to the listeners, Jim says,
“Now is the time to create. If not now, when?”
Writer Craft Podcast // EP 68: Pacing
In this episode of Writer Craft Podcast, Valerie and Erick discuss pacing in books. Pacing is the perceived speed of the story for the reader. Some great examples of this would be something like a high paced chase scene versus a highly detailed dinner party. They discuss that story pacing should ebb and flow, with a mixture of fast-paced scenes and slower paced scenes to give the reader variety.
One important take away I have from this episode is to look at the overall story from a 10,000-foot view and see where the pacing is slow and fast, and discover any points that swing too much from one extreme into the other. Using a scene where a character can process the face paced events before jumping into the next action, or even taking a moment to sit in an emotion before a slower scene comes into play, is a great way to keep the reader engaged.
Another way to look at pacing is to consider the emotional tones you want your reader to feel. Anxiety will lead to faster paced scenes and recognizing that your reader and your character need an emotional journey where they can feel anxious, calm, scared, and triumphant will drive the pacing of the story.
The Rebel Author Podcast // EP 137: How to Write About Mental Health and Trauma with Iona Wayland
Sacha Black interviews author and mental health practitioner, Iona Wayland. I found this episode really enlightening on how to approach writing mental illness and trauma on the page. I appreciated the discussion surrounding villains with mental health, and their frustrations with turning the diagnosis into a personality trait, which only perpetuates the stigma around mental health.When writing about mental health or trauma, Iona recommends plenty of resources for writers, from the National Institute for Mental Health, the National Association for Mental Illness, looking up testimonials on places like YouTube, the DSM 5, or a TED Talk by Nadine Burke Harris.
They also discussed how trauma is expressed, which may include actions of fight, flight, freezing (either literal immobility or disassociation, fidget (involuntary), or possibly fawn (the act of over-niceties to redirect the focus).
One thing we as writers don’t want to do while depicting mental illness or trauma on the page is throw the “kitchen sink” of symptoms onto a character to represent the illness. In terms of coping with trauma, think of what action your character did in the past to cope with their trauma. Did they become very still and silent? If so, then this is likely their continued coping mechanism, even if they are triggered on stage and expected to give a speech. Same goes for mental illness. Two people can suffer from depression, yet one might have hypersomnia while the other suffers from insomnia. Better representation of trauma or mental illness is not by making one character define the illness, but maybe multiple characters representing different facets of the same illness.
The last takeaway I had is to not be afraid to write mental illness or trauma, but to do your research, be willing to change your understanding, and have beta readers any sensitivity readers read your work if you want to ensure that what you put out into the world reflects real life.
The Latest from The Author Life Podcast
63: WHY IS THE AUTHOR LIFE COMMUNITY NOW FREE?
This week authors J. Thorn and Crys Cain discuss why they made The Author Life Community free and what they’d like to see from the change.
The Wildcard: Interesting Episode from a Non-Writing Related Show
The Music NFT Show // EP 1: The Week in Web3 Music // 05-16-2022
New podcast by none other than J Thorn (take a shot!)
J Thorn shares news around web3, NFTs, and music weekly. This week he shares three quick news segments.
First J has news from Brian Fanzo, digital futurist and public speaker, about music NFTs and learned that Fanzo believes that music NFTs are about to have their moment in the spotlight. Knowing someone like Fanzo is excited about the future of music in the NFT space is something for all web3 enthusiasts to pay attention to.
Next, continued news about music NFTs becoming a bigger market than the current crypto art hits the twitterverse, further validating my interest in this Music NFT podcast and discovering what creatives plan to do in this space.
Last bit of news is Madonna, who is launching her first 3D NFTs with Beeple, an amazing and prosperous graphic designer. This continued interest from well-known celebrities is only further evidence that the NFT space is the next frontier.
Overall, I love the production of this new podcast, and J has done a wonderful job throwing me back to the 80s/90s style MTV news that I didn’t know I was missing in the crypto space. I can’t wait to hear more.
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