motivation Archives - Addicted to Writing

Writing Fun and Inspiration Post 3

Posted on September 12, 2013 Written by Pinar Tarhan

I can’t resist saving funny and inspirational writing-related images whenever I run across them, and I love sharing them with you. So let’s have some laughs and smiles:

Much funnier if you have also seen the Friends episode where Ross and Rachel sing “I like big butts and I cannot lie…” to their baby daughter Emma.

This just might be my favorite.

Found this gem via the Facebook page of Page Writing Awards.

I have to admit it’s not exactly writing related. But it’s strangely motivating:)

This is all for today. If you want more funny and inspirational stuff, you can check out the other two posts on the blog:

–-Favorite Cartoons and Images on Writing: The Funny and The Inspiring

–Plain Old Writing Fun: My Favorite Cartoons on Writing

Paul Arden’s Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite -The Bedside Book for Creativity, Motivation and Life Management

Posted on October 23, 2012 Written by Pinar Tarhan

“You can’t afford the house of your dreams. That’s why it is the house of your dreams. You either find a way of getting it (you’ll find the means) or be satisfied with dissatisfaction.”

Paul Arden, from Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite

How are you with motivation? How good are you at challenging and encouraging yourself? Most importantly, how good are you at taking advice? I’m usually terrible at taking advice, for instance.

I stand my ground and I don’t really pay attention to anyone whose advice doesn’t fit in with the way I think. And I don’t think that this is necessarily a bad thing. Because you can only be serious about really listening to someone who you respect- someone who practices what he preaches and preaches what he practices.

And who wouldn’t want a mentor whose advice can help your creative juices flowing in every aspect of life, while telling stories about people who are where they are because they dared to be different?

And when I say different, I’m talking about the people who went their own ways and followed their dreams.

And looking for a mentor like that I finally found mine last year: A wonderfully smart, quirky successful (and unfortunately deceased) man in advertising: Paul Arden.

Paul Arden-Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite — Paul Arden image via goodreads.com.

While I was studying advertising at university, I came across some great names like David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach. And while I was impressed by what they have achieved, I quite hadn’t found the right person whose teachings would go beyond the world of copywriting or advertising in general.

Paul had worked as a creative director for the famous Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency but I fell in love with his ideas when I stumbled upon a book of his: Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite. Just my kind of book, because I do have a way of thinking differently than almost anyone I know in most areas. And this book was basically telling me to keep it up. It rocks to hear you are on the right track from a very successful man.

I got addicted to Paul’s style and bought his other books: “It Is Not How Good You Are, It Is How Good You Want To Be” and “God Explained in a Taxi Ride”. I would buy whatever else he wrote, but unfortunately Paul Arden passed away in 2008…

Now, on to the book:

Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite tells the fun yet notable success stories of people and firms who challenged the norms and by applying the opposite.

Examples include: photographers, Olympic athletes, bookstores, Kodak, Paul Arden himself, fashion designers, rockers and many more.

This is a book that you can eat up in a couple of hours. It has big fonts, paragraphs that are not too wordy, funny and/or interesting pictures and attention-grabbing page design, usually by being simple. Yep, Paul Arden knew a lot about readability too.

But soon after you finish it, you will want to come back again and again to remind yourself it is a good thing to challenge and even change status quo by being innovative, different, opposite. I love every page and every word of it.

Have you read it yet?

(I did use affiliate links in the post.)

How to Handle a Big Boost in Ideas, Projects and Needs

Posted on June 16, 2012 Written by Pinar Tarhan

Does it seem familiar? Busy Writer cartoon via weblogcartoons.com.

Freelancers often worry about creativity blocks, lack of time, unsatisfactory levels of productivity and lack of promising projects. But what happens when you find yourself bursting with ideas, enthusiasm for promising projects, inspiration for your own marketing efforts, combined with the expectations of your day job/part-time job if you have one?

My “juggling” need started in late May when I had to deal with multiple competitions I wanted to enter, lots of ideas to pitch to different kinds of clients, upcoming deadlines for existing clients and the much-needed updates to my own web presence and marketing plans. With only 2 to 4 weeks to pull it all off, I came with an efficient plan to manage everything – without losing any valuable ideas in the process. I’m progressing at an effective speed.

Oh, yes – this can happen. Maybe it is the summer bringing out extra creativity in me or the upcoming deadlines of writing competitions, but I never had so many ideas and deadlines at the same time. The competitions want the type of stories I’m interested in, I have a lot of cool ideas both for my own and other people’s publications, potential new clients…and did I mention that the deadlines are relatively close and I also have a part-time job?

No, I’m not complaining. I’ve been quite thrilled and motivated actually. OK, I did panic a bit in the beginning. But once I sat down and came up with a followable plan (which is a plan that doesn’t push my limits more than it has to.) Everything fell into place.

So how do you start taking steps to enable yourself to juggle everything at once while performing satisfactorily at all of them without missing deadlines? Beware that you’ll need to do most (if not) all steps simultaneously.

1) Take a deep breath, and start researching.

What are your options? The deadlines? The costs? Conditions?

Prioritize according to your needs, expectations and the potential rewards. Then get to work, starting from number 1 on your to-do list.

2) Note down all the ideas- no matter how big or small, good or mediocre, detailed or precise.

Note who they might be for, and don’t limit yourself to one market/client. If this is a perfect fit for more than one market, write that down too.

3) Take this rush “period” to quickly but efficiently digest the extra information you need on the markets and how-tos.

I know there are a lot of great resources lying around waiting to be studied- and there is no time like the immediate need to devour the urgently-needed tips. This might even give you more ideas, which you will include in action number 2. Nobody is 100% creative or productive all the time, so take full advantage of this period.

4) Do the actual work – whether it is marketing, designing, writing, editing or else.

5) Switch between projects, without missing deadlines, when you get stuck or less productive.

6) Check, polish and deliver to the final destinations – but don’t forget to keep track of what you did for whom and when.

7) Cross “the done” off from your list of priorities – and make a new list of priorities if you have discovered more of those.

8) Review, refresh and edit your list of ideas- note their desired destinations and make a plan for the next couple of months.

9) Relax a little, do the social stuff you might have missed to recharge for the next round of rush period.

10) Reap the rewards and lessons of this insanely busy period.

Inspiration Caught This Freelance Writer Big Time

Posted on June 7, 2012 Written by Pinar Tarhan

inspiration-moment, writing inspiration, inspiration for writers — Image via copyblogger.com

I can’t believe my last post was a month ago. I’m so sorry about that. But I have a valid excuse: I was listening to my own advice (I’m a big fan of practicing what I preach.) Inspiration and motivation were chasing me at record speed so I willingly surrendered. I’m not saying that I didn’t get any valuable ideas to share here. I did. But I wanted to keep a really good record of every idea and goal so I jotted down a lot, changed my mind a couple of times about which contests to enter, wrote my drafts and I’m back. And I promise not to stay away for so long again.

Inspiration-struck Me:

– I have had these two fun screenplay ideas (actually I’d written the first drafts a long time ago) for ages but there was no way I’d be able to format them in time for the Big Break Contest organized by *Final Draft (a screenwriting software I’ve been happily using whose review I’ll post soon).

But Big Break’s *extended deadline is 15^th June, they want the full script and the awards are nothing short of amazing. But my two scripts need adjustments in many areas, and there is no way they will be fit for a contest until the deadline.

Then I realized that I could enter the Script Pipeline’s Great Idea contest, where you are allowed to write anything from a logline to a treatment of 3-5 pages.

So guess what? Currently I’m writing 2 treatments and editing them. I’ll then submit & keep my fingers crossed. And even though I don’t get to be a finalist, I’ll have two very clear ideas on how I want to outline the story, and relive the events and my characters. Of course I won’t be sitting on these screenplays afterwards.

– I have some upcoming fun and useful writing posts.

– I have some wonderful movie post (for my entertainment blog) ideas, based on the romantic in me. It’s all Forget Me Not’s fault really. I can no longer delay those posts, such as the most romantic & original marriage proposal in a movie.

– My favorite TV shows are either over or on a seasonal break- which incidentally is on its way to be another post here. Oh yes, it is perfectly writing-relevant, trust me.

– I’m planning a two week trip to Norway and Sweden which motivated me further to pitch and research more efficiently.

Not only is it a specific deadline challenge, but also its blows to the budget will provide more incentive to increase my freelance income. Not just because I will spend a lot, but I’ll want to go on a travelling spree again very soon.

Yes, I confess, I am addicted to traveling, nearly as much as I’m addicted to writing and entertainment.

There’s more, but let that be another post.

How has your writing been going?

Please note that extended deadlines typically mean increased entrance fees.
The links in these posts aren’t affiliate links, just the direct links to the contest information pages.