#297 – Fueling Your Creative Fire: Stats, Strategies, and Celebrating Writing Wins (Free-Writing Session)
Welcome to episode 297 of the Spun Today Podcast! I’m your host, Tony Ortiz, and in this free writing session, we’re diving into the intersection of motivation, creativity, and the craft of writing. In this episode, I’ll share my own writing journey, including detailed stats on how I've been keeping up with my writing goals—even amid holidays and life’s curveballs. I'll talk about the process of revamping and self-publishing my first book, "Make Way for You," and discuss the labor—and breakthroughs—of translating it into Spanish using cutting-edge AI tools.
You’ll get a practical, behind-the-scenes look at modern self-publishing, from designing your own covers with new technologies to making your stories accessible in multiple languages. I’ll also pass along an essential writing tip inspired by the age-old practice of keeping a commonplace book—a method that has fueled some of today’s most prolific authors.
Plus, we’re diving into Omar El Akkad’s powerful new book, "One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This." I’ll unpack some of its most striking passages—not just for their social and political weight, but for the craft behind them—and extract actionable lessons for writers seeking resonance and precision.
To round things out, I’ll read one of my own reflective free writing pieces, exploring the balance between accomplishment and the creative hunger for what’s next.
So, whether you’re looking for inspiration to start writing, tips to refine your creative practice, or simply a fresh perspective on the art of storytelling, this episode has something for every writer and creative thinker.
Check out all free-writing pieces at: spuntoday.com/freewriting.
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Links referenced in this episode:
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad: https://amzn.to/4s8mlMj
Ryan Holiday’s Commonplace Book: https://youtu.be/gT1EExZkzMM?si=DR70Zqndh8NSJ0Fu
Jared Henderson’s Commonplace Book: https://youtu.be/aaHEgPk0tNM?si=Q61lKeCBnaE55Ydg
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Check out my Books
Make Way for You – Tips for getting out of your own way
ÁBRЕТЕ CAMINO: CONSEJOS PARA DEJAR DE SER TU PROPIO OBSTÁCULO (Spanish Edition)
Melted Cold – A Collection of Short Stories
http://www.spuntoday.com/books/ (e-Book, Paperback and Hardcover are now available)
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transcript
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transcript 〰️
Tony Ortiz [00:00:00]:
But in this video, he breaks down how from his perspective, you know, books aren't these precious things. Like we, we should go through them. They should look worn and we should like essentially drain them for every ounce of knowledge and inspiration that we can get out of them and write in them and highlight. And they should look bended and all, all fucked up when we're done reading them, which I thought was definitely an interesting take. What's up? What's up, folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 297 of the podcast, and it is a free writing session episode. In this episode, I'll be breaking down and sharing my writing stats since my last free writing session episode and let you guys know about what I've been up to within my creative space.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:18]:
I'll be sharing a writing tip that I picked up on for my fellow writers and creatives out there. I'll also be telling you guys about what I've been reading. This episode's book is by Omar El Akkad titled One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. I thought it was a powerful read, and regardless of where you stand on the political sides of that debate, I have some great writing takeaways for my fellow writers and creatives out there because Omar is masterful. With the pros. And last but certainly not least, the reason why these episodes are dubbed the Freewriting Session episodes, I'll be sharing one of my own freewriting pieces from way back when. Stick around for all that good stuff. But first, I wanted to tell you all about a way that you can help support this show if you so choose, and then we'll jump right into the episode.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:14]:
For my fellow writers and creatives out there, a really cool way you can help support this show is by going to SpunToday.com. Support and clicking on the 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 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 sponsored.com/support, click on the banner for ProWritingAid, and check out their free option as well as their different tiers of paid options. Sponsored.com/support. My writing stats. This is the section where I like to keep myself honest, give myself a check-in on what I've been doing, kind of a, a check-in reflection of what I've been doing, how often I've been writing, and draw a correlation to the fact that I set a certain amount of writing goals in the beginning of the year.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:30]:
And this is a very practical way of checking in and seeing if I need to recalibrate what I'm doing or not doing to be able to achieve those goals., and I share with you fine folks how often I've been writing versus not writing for each month. And since the last free writing session episode, which I will be doing more often as mentioned in my— as one of my goals for the year, but the last one I did, I covered the months prior to September 2025. So I'll be covering here October through January. So in October 2025, I wrote 12 out of the 31 days of the month for a writing percentage of 38.7%. In November of 2025, I wrote 11 out of the 30 days of the month for a writing percentage of 36.6%. In December of 2025, similar to October, I wrote 12 out of the 31 days of the month for a writing percentage of 38.7%. You know, decent, I would say, consistency there, especially for last quarter of, of the year with all the holidays and shit like that. Not too mad at myself there.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:47]:
And for January, I ramped it up. And January 2026, I wrote 22 out of the 31 days of the month for a writing percentage, my highest in a long time. Of 70.96%. I'm definitely happy with that. February, which we're in as of the recording of this episode, I've been keeping my writing days up. Maybe not as strong as January, but definitely keeping it up and haven't slumped much and aiming to keep that trend going. Now, what I've been working on specifically, I am happy and proud to announce that I achieved a goal that I set for myself already for the year. Achieved it already now in February of 2026, which was re-releasing the updated version of Make Way for You: Tips for Getting Out of Your Own Way, which is my first book originally published back in 2015 that I revamped with a new cover design as well as with updated front and back matter.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:55]:
So for folks who may not know what that is, that's like the inside cover, the copyright page, the dedication, stuff like that is considered the front matter. The back matter would be things like about the author section. Yeah, your acknowledgments, so on and so forth. So all that has been updated and brought up to date because those things do tend to change over time. The front and back cover essentially, but the front cover mainly. Keeping true with the idea behind my original release of the book, which was that I wanted to do everything that it takes to publish a book from A to Z myself. So no graphic designer for the COVID as I've used for my other books. No professional editing.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:47]:
I self-edited. And also, this is a collection of free writing pieces for those who may not be aware, which I wrote over a couple of years and then reflecting back on them, realized that they were kind of like advice to myself on how to get out of my own way and go for what it is that I wanted to do, which was write and publish books. And I cherry-picked the ones within that theme or the free writing pieces within that theme and created this book out of it. So I stayed true to all of that, self-designed it with AI-assisted cover design. So what I did there, just to get into the nuts and bolts of it for fellow writers and creators who may want to do the same, I fed ChatGPT. I used for further The Assisted Cover Design, different covers that I liked, minimalist covers that I was looking for, for this redesign, and went back and forth with it in terms of what I wanted. I wanted more of a light color scheme. The original release was like a very rudimentary black cover with a white border around it.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:59]:
You know, I fed it my, my manuscript, and so you get an idea of what the book is about. And the fact that it's within the self-help, creativity, motivation space. And it came back with a few ideas in terms of the color palette and how I should lay out the design. And it even gave me a couple of mockups, none of which I wound up using. One of them had like a door, kind of like a doorway design that I didn't wind up liking, but I did like some of the ideas, including the color scheme. And it wound up, uh, you know, asking it to give me like exact dimensions and the color palette name, so on and so forth. And then I took that information, went into Canva and designed the COVID And now for— you have to, when you self-publish, you have to do everything yourself, right? So, or, you know, obviously you can hire people to do certain aspects of it, but I had to figure out how to not just create the book cover design for the front cover, but since the book is also available in paperback and hardcover, I need to create the spine of the book as well as the back cover. And there are specific dimensions that you have to adhere to, which Canva is great for.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:19]:
There's like templates available on Canva for paperback books, different sizes, Amazon which is where the book is available, as well as through other outlets as well, but mainly through, through Amazon. There's a lot of helpful support pages through KDP that you input the number of pages of your manu— uh, that your manuscript consists of, and it gives you the dimensions of how thick your book is going to be because that's going to lead to the width of your spine, and then you select the exact size of your paperback and/or hardcover, and then it gives you literal dimensions in inches that you then input into Canva to create your template for your book cover, like the dimensions of the, uh, of it. And then there you start designing your actual book cover, and then you output the final design, upload that to Amazon, and you're off to the races. And you're off to the races. But yeah, very happy with that and with how it came out. So definitely check that out. I'll link to it in the episode notes as I do in all episodes for all my books. You can find links to them in the episode notes.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:32]:
And secondly, what I was up to was I finally accomplished a years-long goal that I've definitely mentioned to you fine folks, but it has finally come to fruition of translating my first book. That Make Way for You: Tips for Getting Out of Your Own Way. Translating it into Spanish. I'm happy to say that the Spanish version is now available. Ábrete Camino: Consejos para Dejar de Ser Tu Propio Obstáculo is available in digital, hardcover, and paperback formats. Links are in the episode notes if you are interested. If you want to get it for a relative, a friend, someone who reads more so in Spanish, maybe for yourself, feel free to get one or both, the English or Spanish version. And for that, as I've definitely mentioned in the past, it was a very laborious process to translate it in the beginning.
Tony Ortiz [00:11:31]:
You know, even me being bilingual, I'm, you know, not a classically trained writer in Spanish. Or something like that, you know what I mean? I'm first-generation Dominican American, so it was a lot of translating it myself, then running it through Google Translate at the time, you know, when I first had the idea years ago to translate it into Spanish to begin with. And I did about 25 to 30% of the book that way, and just on and off, and for literally years I would translate a passage or two put it down, go back to it weeks or months later, do a couple more, so on and so forth. And then now, thanks to tools that writers have at their disposal, that everyone has at their disposal, like AI, I leveraged Anthropic's AI Claude, which I use for this, and I was able to ramp up the remaining 75% of the book that I hadn't translated. And I did that within probably like the last quarter of last year when I started focusing on it. Hence all the upped writing percentages there that I mentioned a bit ago. And for those who may want the nuts and bolts of that, what I did was I used Claude AI, which again is Anthropic's AI. So a competitor, if you will, to ChatGPT.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:55]:
And I literally gave it the prompt. Help me translate this passage into Spanish from the Dominican Republic. Also point out how it would be different had I said to translate into Spanish without the mention of the dialect of a specific country so that I can compare. And then I would drop in one passage at a time. I'd give it that prompt and drop in one passage at a time, and it would first translate the entire passage. And then give me a couple options, like in this sentence you use the word such and such. In colloquial Dominican tone, you can use the translation above, or if you want, you can also use a more slang term prevalent within the Dominican Republic, which is XYZ, or use this more broader, uh, used terminology used in other speaking Spanish-speaking countries, so on and so forth. And it would gimme breakdowns like that.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:55]:
And then I would go through it. I would, you know, make my edits and updates to it and then move on to the next. So it's definitely not like a, you know, drop everything in, click translate, translates everything for you. Then you copy paste and upload your book. It's definitely not that. It definitely shouldn't be used that way, but it gets all the grunt work, all the like that foundational laborious steps out of the way and gives you like such a great, fairly full scaffolding to work off of and sped up the process tremendously. So yeah, Make Way for You: Tips for Getting Out of Your Own Way, revamped and re-released, is available now, as well as Ábrete Camino: Consejos para Dejar de Ser Do Proprio Obstáculo. Each is available in digital format via Kindle or otherwise, as well as paperback and hardcover editions.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:53]:
Stay tuned for the audiobook versions for both, which I will definitely keep you fine folks in the loop. Writing tips. In this section, I like to share a writing tip that I picked up along the way. It could be advice from a writer on an interview or something that I read or a video that I watched that I aim to apply to my own writing, or that I have and that I find helpful and wanted to share with you fine folks. And this episode I have a two-for-one special, and it's a writing tip that is something that I have always done in a way, but actually wound up becoming the inspiration for, for my first book that we just spoke about, Make Way for You. But I never knew that it was— that it had a name, that it had a practice. And I learned through one of my favorite writers, Ryan Holiday, and a video that he put out, which I'll link to in the episode notes for you guys to check out, that there is such a thing. And it's called a the concept of a commonplace book, and the idea dates back centuries apparently, and everybody does it a little bit differently, but the core concept is the same, which is essentially having a place where you write down your thoughts and ideas.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:19]:
Doesn't have to have any specific structure to it, or it can, and that's the gist of it. Now I have two different writers that I'm going to mention and tell you about how they keep their commonplace book. So for Ryan Holiday, his method is that when he's reading, he's constantly writing in the margin of the books, highlighting, dog-earing pages, etc. He constantly rereads books, sometimes even years later, and then, you know, rewrites in them, rehighlights, so on and so forth. Then when he's done reading a book, and making all his notes within it, which I thought was interesting, by the way, because I kind of do. I have books that I do highlight in. I don't think I've ever written like in pen, like within the book itself, but I definitely have books that I highlight. And even then I kind of feel bad doing so.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:13]:
But in this video, he breaks down how from his perspective, you know, books aren't these precious things like we We should go through them. They should look worn and we should like essentially drain them for every ounce of knowledge and inspiration that we can get out of them and write in them and highlight. And they should look bended and all, all fucked up when we're done reading them, which I thought was definitely an interesting take. But anyway, so he does this to books that he reads, then he lets it sit for a while, sometimes for weeks or a couple of months, then he comes back to them. And he comes back to them with index cards, and then he manually copies down those things that he wrote down or highlighted into index cards, and then he files those index cards away in a box full of index cards. And that box is his commonplace book. That's the format of his commonplace book. So it's not a literal book.
Tony Ortiz [00:18:15]:
In his case, it's a box of index cards. And if you know Ryan's history, he learned the practice of writing on index cards from Robert Greene, another amazing author, which he is the protégé of. And I knew that Ryan had this practice for writing his books, but I didn't know that they all— or not all, but they— some of his books started out as a sliver of those cards within his commonplace book. What he would do, since these are all just like different ideas from different books all in one place, he pulled out a few of the, of those cards from that commonplace book and created a separate box for it and started expanding on that idea. And That idea eventually became one of his books, the, which is The Obstacle Is the Way. And then that box became like a box full of index cards just for The Obstacle Is the Way that he then takes from index cards to transcribing and eventually becoming his books. And he does that for each of his books. But I found interesting how it just started as an index card or two within his commonplace book.
Tony Ortiz [00:19:33]:
It's a cool video. I'll link to it again in the episode notes for you guys to check out. The second writer whose video I also watched about this concept of a commonplace book is Jared Henderson, and his method, which is very similar to mine in how I do my free writing pieces, is to write down quotes or sections from books or movies or podcasts into journals. And then what he does is reflects on them. Sometimes, you know, he could have several— he showed an example where he had like several quotes that he just wrote down within this book, his commonplace book. And then he saw like a theme within those 3 or 4 quotes and then reflected on those quotes and the similarities between them within his commonplace book. And I thought that was pretty cool. It's very similar to— I have two different types of freewriting that I do, which is one, which is just pen to paper.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:31]:
Let whatever is on the mind, whether consciously or not, come out and just start writing. That's one way that I freewrite. Another way that I freewrite is to a specific quote, which is very similar to Jared Henderson's approach. I— it could be a quote from a book or a movie or a podcast or a TV show, so on and so forth. It could be anything. And I write down the quote that resonated with me, attribute it, and then I reflect on that specific quote or thought or idea. And I thought that was, that was pretty cool. I never had heard of this concept before of a commonplace book.
Tony Ortiz [00:21:06]:
Definitely glad that I know it's a thing now. And it's also fulfilling in a weird way when you realize that you're doing something that is a thing, but you kind of like discovered it on your own. So I thought that was pretty cool too. And if you enjoyed these writing tips, check out my YouTube page. I have a playlist full of these writing tips that you may be interested in. And also on my Instagram @spuntoday, there is a highlights section full of different writing tips and advice within this vein that you may find interesting. So check those out. What I've been reading.
Tony Ortiz [00:21:44]:
I've been reading One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. And like I said in the intro, regardless of where you stand politically with the goings-on in Gaza and the Middle East and the reprehensible atrocities still going on against mostly innocent civilians, including children, I think it's a powerful, important read either way that folks should check out if so inclined. And I want to share a few writing takeaways. That resonated with me, starting with the idea of when language loses its music. One of the most beautiful passages in the book describes the word "inshallah," and he writes about how in literal translation it means "if God wills." But English, he writes, tasked with a word like this, becomes stiff, monophonic, where inshallah is orchestral. And that really stayed with me because he's really writing— because what he's really writing about isn't just translation, it's loss. Cultural loss. Emotional compression.
Tony Ortiz [00:22:57]:
The flattening of something lived and inherited into something sterile and clinical. And when he says that generations have heard this word at piano recitals and graduations and newborn arrivals. He's expanding the meaning beyond theology. He's showing how language carries memory. And an important takeaway for us as writers is that language is never just denotative. It carries music. It carries history, tone, texture. As writers, when we translate, whether it be culturally, politically, emotionally, we risk flattening something that's alive into something literal.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:48]:
If you want your prose to resonate, ask, what's the music of this word? Not just the meaning. Later in the book, he moves on to describing the Hamas attacks very poignantly, I thought, as being orchestrated by exactly the type of entity that thrives in the absence of anything resembling a future. His phrasing there is doing a lot of work. He doesn't just reduce it to evil, which we can all agree it definitely was that. He doesn't justify it at all. But he contextualizes it structurally. He's pointing at the despair as the breeding ground while also highlighting the despair that's being cultivated since. And that line reframes violence not just as a spontaneous eruption, but as an ecosystem.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:45]:
And something I took away from a writing perspective when writing about extremism or corruption or destruction, look at the soil, look at the breeding ground for the occurrence, not just the explosion. What conditions allow something monstrous, something that monstrous to grow? He also spoke about Guantanamo Bay and have a few takeaways from that section. And when speaking about it, he used the phrase assigning legitimacy, which really stood out to me. Because legitimacy isn't inherent. It's granted. It's framed. It's narrated into existence. The idea that something can be pseudo-governmental but treated as real through language is a powerful concept because institutions don't just flutter into existence and function.
Tony Ortiz [00:25:43]:
They're described into authority. And a writing takeaway that I got from that is that authority in fiction works the same way. You don't need to tell us something is legitimate. You show how people behave around it. Legitimacy is perception, and perception is narrative control. There's another section within there where he writes, the afflicted don't need comforting. They need what the comfortable have always had. And that line is so surgical and cuts deep into your psyche because it shifts the conversation from charity to equity, from pity to highlighting a structural imbalance.
Tony Ortiz [00:26:27]:
And as a piece of writing, it works because it collapses an argument into a single sentence without any qualifiers. And without softening it. And from a writing perspective, short declarative sentences like that can carry enormous moral force. You don't always have to argue the point. Sometimes just stating what it is speaks volumes in and of itself. Now, circling back to Guantanamo Bay, his description of it was haunting. He says that It's a parcel of land, neither fully Cuban nor American, a nowhere place, a legal gray zone where a flimsy scaffolding of law can exist outside the reach of actual law. And he details after visiting that its court is unlike any other in the world.
Tony Ortiz [00:27:24]:
Reporters sit behind the glass in another room with an audio feed that's on delay, that is constantly muted if the judge deems something said to be classified. And things that are muted are like the names of key witnesses, certain pieces of evidence, so on and so forth, literally at the whim of that judge. And that to me read like some sort of 1984 dystopian fiction, but it isn't. Like, it's a real place in existence right now. And framed within the context of writing, a takeaway there is that setting can embody a theme. A quote-unquote nowhere place becomes a metaphor for moral evasion. If you want to explore ethical ambiguity, build a physical environment that mirrors it. And for the record, me personally, I have zero qualms with actual terrorists who committed acts and/or were part of plotting acts that were committed being there.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:33]:
But Omar El-Akkad reminds us that many detainees were and have been determined to have been there wrongfully. They were wrongly detained to begin with. And in some cases were there for years or a decade plus. And there were folks that were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. They could have been literally swept up because they were in the vicinity of, you know, shopping or something where a known terrorist was. And they just grabbed everybody that was around them and they poof, literally get plucked out of their lives, dropped into Guantanamo Bay for a decade plus. And the way he says it in the book, the wrong place at the wrong time, was just felt so casual, which just makes it all the more devastating. And he writes that when lawmakers argue that detainees can't be moved to the US, the political argument is closing Guantanamo Bay.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:32]:
But then what do you do with the folks that are housed there? Where do you put them? And Some lawmakers make the case that they should be moved to prisons on U.S. soil, and some lawmakers argue back that detainees can't be moved to U.S. because they're too dangerous. And it was interesting how El-Akkad flips the framing and he says that if they didn't hate the West before decades of their lives were taken, mustn't they hate it now? And that rhetorical framing is powerful. He doesn't shout. He just simply asks, if you wrongfully detained someone that never even thought of the West or hated the West for decades of their lives, mustn't they hate the West now? And that's like the logic of some of these folks that argue for them staying detained and not being brought to actual justice. Through the legal system on U.S. soil, so on and so forth, because again, they're in this legal gray zone, right? But piggybacking off of that phrasing there, from a writing perspective, I took away that questions can destabilize certainty more effectively than declarations can.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:50]:
And if you want to challenge the reader, pose a logical extension of the current statement as a question. So something you're stating within your book, flip it into that type of format of a question that will make them think the same way El-Akkad's framing there made me think. He goes on to speak about politics as a negotiation and the politics of negation specifically, which I thought was a really interesting take. And he writes about how campaigns become framed as elect us or they will do X, Y, and Z. So for example, vote for us or they will abolish abortion rights, or vote for us because if not, then they, the other party, will put more migrants in concentration camps. But he very poignantly points out that once elected, that threat, quote unquote, becomes neutralized. So then what, right? Because they said the argument on the campaign trail is of negating what the other side would hypothetically do. So if you elect me, you solve for that problem.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:03]:
So that's it. I technically accomplished what I campaigned on just based on the fact that I got elected. So then what? And he writes that what is the use once elected of doing anything of substance when what was necessary which is the negation of some other hypothetical outcome, has by definition already been achieved. And that idea that politics becomes and has become about negation rather than construction, I found fascinating and very well put. And within the frame of writing, a specific writing takeaway we can gleam from that, what I think to be a factual statement, is that conflict driven purely by preventing something is dramatically thin. In storytelling, characters need positive aims, not just avoidance of disaster. Desire is much more compelling than defense. And he closes out the book with all but pointing out how the muscles of indifference are being conditioned.
Tony Ortiz [00:33:13]:
And one of the most resonating, devastating lines that he wrote, in my opinion, is that a world that shrugs at one kind of slaughter has developed a terrible immunity. No atrocity is too great to shrug away now, the muscles of indifference having been sufficiently conditioned. And that metaphor is chilling and so true. We become callous and what we choose to just nonchalantly look away from. Indifference becomes muscle memory, and that practice makes the numbness permanent. And from a writing perspective, the psychological nature of that, the metaphor helps become much more palatable by describing it as something physical, as muscle conditioning. Definitely allows it to resonate that much more. And in closing, I'd just say that what makes this book resonate isn't outrage, it's precision.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:19]:
Omar El-Akkad doesn't scream, he reframes. He isolates phrases. He chooses language carefully enough that it reshapes the ground beneath the argument. And for my fellow writers out there, I think that's the main lesson. You don't always need more volume. Sometimes what you need is sharper sentences. If you'd like to check out this title, and I highly recommend that you do, I will link to it in the episode notes. The title again is One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:55]:
My free writing piece for this episode is titled What's Next? And it's posted on my website at spontaneity.com/freewriting, where you can check out this piece and all others. And the date of this post on the site is February 24th, 2026. But I originally wrote it in my notebook back in 2015. Here's what I wrote. Be wary of false senses of accomplishment. Meeting a goal should come with both a feeling of accomplishment and the motivating pursuit of meeting your next goal. Don't rationalize complacency. There's an inevitable void left behind by the goal that you just met.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:40]:
An emptiness waiting to be filled with the dedication and aim that comes with your next goal. Was your most recent accomplishment worth not accepting anything else? Or not accomplishing anything else, rather? I didn't think so either. Be proud of what you've done, but keep moving, keep grinding. And I wrote that on Sunday, December 20th, 2015, at 5:58 PM. It's a bit of a throwback there. Wow, that's 11 years old already. That's insane. Almost 11 years old.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:13]:
10 years and a few months. But that's nuts. And I do, and I guess still agree with the idea that Completing a goal kind of creates a void. It's an interesting way to look at it, but also rings true to me. You know, just in accomplishing what I, what I mentioned earlier in the episode of, for example, translating my first book into Spanish, which was a goal for years and definitely a goal that I wanted to finalize this year and I achieved earlier than expected within the year. It does kind of leave a Oh, I've been, you know, for a couple of months just focusing myopically on that. And now that's gone. That's done in a sense.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:54]:
Like, at least that part of it, right? Still got to market it and try to get some of you fine folks to actually read it. But it does kind of leave a bit of an emptiness. But what should you do? Fill that void with your next goal. Move on to the next. Don't rationalize complacency. Don't rest on your laurels. Enjoy it. You know, don't be a dick about it either.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:17]:
Pat yourself on the back a bit, but don't stop. Keep moving forward. Keep grinding. Decent advice there, if I do say so myself. That piece again, folks, is called What's Next? It's posted on my website at spunte.com/freewriting. The date of the post on the site is from February 24th, 2026. And that was episode 297 of the Spun Today podcast. Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:47]:
I really do appreciate it. Please support this podcast by rating and reviewing it wherever it is that you're listening. Go to SpunToday.com, click on the shop link if you want to check out the Spun Today notebook or the cool redesigned coffee mug with the Spun Today logo on one side and the phrase, start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams on the other. Which comes in a bunch of different cool color schemes. And of course, by checking out my books, go to spuntoday.com/books. Again, that's spuntoday.com/books. Here are a few other ways you can help support the show if you so choose, and I'll check you guys out next time. Peace.
Tony Ortiz [00:38:29]:
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 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 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 sponsoredaid.com/support, click on the banner for ProWritingAid, and check out their free option as well as their different tiers of paid options. Spunstudy.com/support.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:30]:
A great way for my fellow writers and creatives out there to help support this show is by going to spunstudy.com/support and clicking on the mockup shots banner. When I first started writing and putting out content, I wanted to think of creative ways to help market my books. So I would take my own pictures, place the books in different places, take it to the beach with me, put it out in the snow. And I'd wind up with a couple good usable images and a bunch more mediocre ones. And also, in the case of the snow example, a completely soggy book. Then I found Mockup Shots. In one click, Mockup Shots turns your book cover into thousands of images, videos, graphics, and more. If you follow me on social, it's what I use to promote my books.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:17]:
You can check 'em 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 largest instant book mockup archive for 50% off. That's right, that's 5-0% 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. It's a great marketing tool. Go to spuntoday.com/support and click on the banner for Mockup Shots to claim your 50% off discount. You can also support by checking out my writing.
Tony Ortiz [00:40:56]:
Go to spuntoday.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 spuntoday.com/shortstories to check out my latest short stories and also listen to the free audiobook versions of those stories. You can also support my writing by going to spuntoday.com/books and check out what I have available for sale. Currently available is Make Way for You, which is a collection of tips for getting out of your own way. It's a great read for my fellow writers or creatives out there. Also available is Fractal, which is my debut time travel novel. And last but certainly not least, Melted Cold, which is a collection of short stories.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:54]:
Each of the books are available in all digital formats for your Kindle or iBook or any other e-reader, as well as paperback and hardcover options. Again, go to SpunToday.com/books, and I'd love to hear what you chose to check out as well as your thoughts after reading. SpunToday.com/books. If you're a fellow creative, a cool way that you can help support the Spun Today podcast and actually be part of the podcast is by filling out my 5-question questionnaire located at SpunToday.com/questionnaire. Here you'll find 5 open questions related to your craft, your art, what inspires you to create, what type of unrelated hobbies you're into, and what motivates you to get your work done. You can choose to remain anonymous or plug your website and your work. And once you submit your questionnaire, I read your responses on a future episode of the Spun Today podcast. It's completely free at no cost to you.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:51]:
And what I like to say about it is that if your responses could potentially spark inspiration in someone else, Why not share that? SpunToday.com/questionnaire. And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening. I love you, Aiden. I love you, Daddy. I love you, Grayson. I love you, Daddy.