My name is Yennaedo Balloo.
I’m an salesman by day, indie-author by night. I’ve been writing in some form as a passion my entire life. Two years ago I decided if I’m going to spend time on a thing, either give it your best effort and utmost focus, or just don’t bother.
This blog follows my ongoing work on novels and other writing. It contains plenty of excerpts from whatever novel I’m currently at work on, or other more technical insights into how I plan, outline, draft and edit.
I’ve already self-published a pair of works, which you can see in the Novels section. My thoughts on writing both from a technical approach to an emotional/spiritual one can be found in the On Writing section.
This blog is a part of my ongoing discipline to maintain a steady habit and routine of writing. It is both the outlet to put that discipline on display, as well as a form of discipline in itself. The results of that discipline are stories which (I hope) will amuse, entertain, and share in some of the beauties we hopefully all taste in life.
There are things you are guaranteed to take and appreciate from life, but the irony? That’s always been optional.
Questions, concerns or possible topics you’d like my discussion or thoughts on? Feel free to contact at optional.irony@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter: @Optional_Irony
You have a lot of good advice that I find to be very inspirational. A lot of the challenges in writing you cover under On Writing are things I find myself faced with when I try to write, especially the post about motivation!
Thank you, I’m honored that it resonates with you! Finding motivation to not only write, but also to outline, edit, rewrite and continually improve one’s work is always a challenge. It’s a misconception that art should just “flow,” sometimes we need to conquer ourselves to produce it and that struggle makes it all the more important to continue working at it with discipline until it’s in a state where we can say that it is as good as we can make it, it is the story I wanted to tell, it is finished. Keep at it, and stay in touch!