Unpublished

About Unpublished

Follow aspiring author Angela Mattes as she drags her fictionally illiterate friend and cohost Daniel Stevens along on the long, bewildering, and occasionally tear-soaked journey of writing a book on the podcast Unpublished. Angela may be unpublished, but she is not beginning from a blank page. She has already completed one original manuscript and written hundreds of thousands of words of fiction read by hundreds of thousands of people online. Along the way, she has developed a process for getting past the obstacles that keep so many aspiring writers from ever beginning: writer’s block, disorganization, self-doubt, too many competing ideas, and the overwhelming question of where to start. As she writes her next manuscript, Angela will break down how she turns the fragments floating around in her head into characters, story arcs, outlines, scenes, chapters, and eventually a finished book. Daniel brings an outsider’s perspective, an addiction to Wikipedia, and the questions of someone who has never understood what writers are actually doing behind their laptops. The journey begins with Eros et Flamingo, Angela’s literary novel about a heartsick assassin who has fallen for one too many of her marks and devises a slightly unhinged plan to find someone capable of loving her back. Part writing diary, part practical guide, part behind-the-scenes look at the publishing process, and part conversation between two friends, Unpublished follows the creativity, uncertainty, obsession, rejection, breakthroughs, and inevitable sobbing involved in turning a flurry of ideas into a fully realized manuscript. The book has not been written yet. There is no literary agent. Publication is far from guaranteed. For now, it's Unpublished.

Publisher

Angela Mattes and Daniel Stevens

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

1 Jul 2026

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

9 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   Episode 9: Angela Scouts a Location

   Angela is taking Eros et Flamingo on the road. In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel talk about the latest progress on the manuscript, where inspiration comes from when you least expect it, and what happens when a vacation to London quietly turns into location research for a novel. Angela heads through Kensington, Knightsbridge, and Marylebone trying to see London through Sal’s eyes, figuring out where she would live, where she would drink, what kinds of places would make her feel...

2. 

   7 Oct 2026

   Episode 8: Angela Writes a Chapter Pt. 2

   The deeper Angela gets into Eros et Flamingo, the more the story and its characters are starting to reveal themselves. In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel continue their conversation about writing chapters, this time digging into the tiny decisions that shape a novel as it grows: where a chapter begins, where it ends, what information gets revealed, and how all those individual pieces eventually start weaving themselves into a larger story. Angela talks about turning...

3. 

   24 Sept 2026

   Episode 7: Angela Writes a Chapter Pt. 1

   Angela is starting to feel some momentum. In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel check in on the latest progress with Eros et Flamingo and talk about what it actually feels like to build a novel one chapter at a time. After spending months rewriting and reworking the opening of the manuscript, Angela is starting to find the rhythm of the characters, the dialogue, and the story itself. That leads into a bigger conversation about how chapters take shape, why some scenes seem to appea...

4. 

   9 Sept 2026

   Episode 6: Angela Tells a Story in Three Acts

   What does it actually mean to tell a story in three acts? In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel dig into Act One, Act Two, and Act Three, and why that familiar structure still helps a story feel focused, emotional, and hard to put down. As Angela works through the opening chapters of Eros et Flamingo, she talks about getting out of the wilderness of the beginning, finding Sal’s voice, shaping the doomed love story with Carlos, and building toward the inciting incident that will la...

5. 

   26 Aug 2026

   Episode 5 - Angela Learns the Business: Genre

   In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel dig into one of the biggest questions facing any writer trying to publish a novel: where does your story actually fit? As Angela continues drafting Eros et Flamingo, she talks through moving from outlining and planning into the messy, surprising, emotionally intense process of writing the first chapters. This episode explores genre from both the reader side and the publishing side, including the difference between commercial fiction, romance, ...

6. 

   12 Aug 2026

   Episode 4: Angela Crafts Her Characters

   What makes a fictional character feel real? In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel dig into one of the most important parts of writing a novel: character development. As Angela continues drafting Eros et Flamingo, she talks through how she is building Sal, Aaron, Carlos, and the supporting characters who will shape the story’s emotional core. This episode explores how writers create complex characters, how backstory shapes motivation, and why a manuscript needs more than a good pre...

7. 

   29 Jul 2026

   Episode 3: How Angela Outlines

   In this episode of Unpublished, Angela and Daniel get into the messy, magical, occasionally panic-inducing process of outlining a novel. Angela gives an update on writing the first chapter of Eros et Flamingo, including the particular terror of turning a book idea into an actual manuscript. From introducing a main character to building an original world from scratch, this episode digs into why starting a novel can feel so different from writing fan fiction, where the characters, settings, and...

8. 

   15 Jul 2026

   Episode 2: Before the First Word is Written

   Where do book ideas actually come from? In episode two of Unpublished, Angela Mattes and Daniel Stevens dig into the strange, messy, magical, and occasionally inconvenient process of turning a tiny spark of an idea into a full novel. Angela talks through how plot bunnies appear, how music helps shape scenes, how playlists become emotional roadmaps, and how a random hotel TV turning on at 4 a.m. can suddenly feel like the beginning of a book. Angela also shares how her upcoming manuscript, Ero...

9. 

   1 Jul 2026

   Episode 1: Angela Becomes an Author

   What does it actually take to turn an idea into a finished book? In the first episode of Unpublished, aspiring author Angela Mattes introduces cohost Daniel Stevens to the strange, solitary, exhilarating, and occasionally tear-soaked world of writing fiction. Angela traces her path from childhood bookworm and journalism student to fan-fiction writer, manuscript author, and proud creator of hundreds of thousands of words read by hundreds of thousands of people online. She also opens up about t...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.