Aaron Farrell on Writing and Identity, from Barcelona to V13

Episode 012 – Aaron Farrell | MAKE // BREAKWelsh-born writer Aaron Farrell returns to MAKE // BREAK for a candid, high-signal conversation about discipline, identity, and creative survival. Author of The Lost and Found and the poetry collection Artbeat, The Ekphrastic Spastic, Aaron traces the path from lockdown essays and his “Violent Expression” column to an unflinching Barcelona manuscript, while reopening his work with V13. We get into stay-at-home parent realities, pandemic PPE and burnout, martial arts as a writing method, and why killing perfectionism is the only way forward. With Jung in one hand and Eastern philosophy in the other, Aaron makes a case for truthful prose, pragmatic publishing, and showing up when it’s hardest.👀 What you’ll hearTrace the leap from lockdown columns to longform books without waiting for permissionCompare discipline in martial arts to muscle memory in writing and creative practiceUnpack honest fatherhood, neurodivergence, and why progress is jagged not linearReframe perfectionism with pragmatic publishing habits you can start todayMap the “violent expression” era to a new V13 chapter and concrete next steps🕰️ Chapters00:00 Cold open and return-guest banter00:22 Who is Aaron Farrell now and why he’s back on MAKE // BREAK03:05 Stay-at-home dad energy, sick kids, showing up anyway05:22 PPE reality check and pandemic life in hospitals08:31 Barcelona move, curfews, and starting over12:18 Transmetropolitan, Spider Jerusalem, media cynicism16:45 Violent Expression origin, truth-telling, culture shock22:06 Self-publishing in lockdown, first books and columns26:24 Beat of Barcelona draft, decadence and discipline32:48 Style over fitting in, permission to write as yourself40:03 Breaking down, autism context, rebuilding identity55:43 Jung, sense vs nonsense, closing notes and next time🔗 Guest Linkshttps://v13.net/tag/violent-expression🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Linkshttps://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/makebreakhttps://instagram.com/lowkeyhellishhttps://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish🔗 V13 Media https://v13.netSubscribe for more and drop a comment: do film or game scores help your writing focus?(explicit language)#MakeBreak #AaronFarrell #Writing