Surviving the worst summer ever
I was desperate for an internship that summer. It was my fault, too. I didn’t do anything about possible marketing internships until April, and even then, I wasn’t even close to qualifying.
My Mom decided to help, so she googled “marketing internships new york” and clicked on the first thing she saw. She emailed me some openings from Ziprecruiter, and they seemed too good to be true. But, she found jobs all right, and they were paid and offered free training. Sweet!
So, I sent in my resume using Ziprecruiters “easy apply” button and waited.
My morale was boosted even…
Make your own “house of ideas”
I don’t fear the empty page.
It’s the half-baked page that scares me — the draft with a big idea on it and nothing else.
To me, it lacks structure and makes for an overwhelming task to fill in the blanks. The hardest times were when it was some crazy idea I had last week or from a podcast that I heard two months ago.
Luckily, I found the perfect method for filling those articles, and hopefully, you can use it for yourself. And it all starts with one man and his comic book company.
Pulling Humanity out of Abstract Ideas
How do I make good characters for a story?
Take your concepts or ideas of characters and interview them.
Background
I looked like an absolute idiot.
During one of my psychology classes in college, we learned about the psychological evaluation process and how we could interpret statements and mannerisms as the symptoms of various disorders. The teacher then split us into groups of two to interview each other.
She then told us to take a different identity than our own and act like we were in therapy. The other guy let me go first. Big mistake.
I should have just pretended…
Don’t blame me. My religion made me do it.
I was fourteen years old when my fate was sealed at the dinner table.
I had learned about something in Judaism called “Shomer Negia,” literally translated to “watchful touching.” It’s the rule instituted by Rabbis against men and women touching intimately before marriage. The rule is essentially a safeguard against premarital sex, a big deal in Judaism (but not for the reason you think). So, I had asked my dad if I was “Shomer,” meaning that I would be keeping to this rule.
“Yes,” he insisted with a growl, the first…
Comprehending things we can’t understand
A thousand years ago, one man opened up the mortal world to the mystical.
Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai brought down the universe's complexities and composed the building blocks for Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism). It was such a momentous occasion that Jews worldwide honor him every year on the supposed anniversary of his death.
Jews know it as Lag B’Omer since it’s the 33rd day of the omer counting between Passover and Shavuot, the holiday we received the Torah from Mt Sinai.
Thousands upon thousands of Jews travel to Mt. Meron, where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is buried, to pray and celebrate…
Use Music to Unlock Ideas
Listen here.
There are no songs guaranteed to unlock your creativity. It’s all on you, and that’s what makes it so exciting.
Everyone’s favorite song list is entirely different, just like your go-to karaoke song.
How we react to those songs -those moments filled with nothing but those sounds- can be either active or passive. There’s listening to music, and then there’s using sounds and words to create another idea within your head. While we all do the former, you can allow your brain to do the latter.
It’s something experienced within, like an epiphany.
Some of the best ways to get…
I wrote and published a book. It sucked. Let’s talk about it.
I remember finishing it on a euphoric high.
It was 2 am on a spring night in 2015. I was blasting “Trap Door” by OneRepublic on Grooveshark, writing “THE END, FOR NOW” in bold letters at the bottom of the page. I leaned back in my chair with a big dumb grin on my face.
It’s done, I thought. I just finished the first of many books, the beginning of an era. This book will be my biggest contribution to the literary world- an actual origin story for Peter Pan that fits the pre-established meta and opens the lore to…
No business degree required
I wanted to smack my head against the wall. Hard.
It was during a conversation with a client about growing their social media presence. They had a strong subscription count on their email list, but they wanted to do something entirely different for their social media.
While their brand image on email was similar to an old friend giving you directions, they wanted their presence on social media akin to an abrasive, in-your-face attitude about their products. I asked why they would do something like that.
“Well, (their competitor) did that, so it should work for us.”
It’s in those…
Plus, how to save them properly
Creativity doesn’t care from where it comes.
Using that logic, I’ve learned to collect ideas and save them like stamps, without the crazy amount of binders and labels.
Without fail, if I find something I think goes perfectly with one of my ideas, I store it like a hoarder. It could be either a song, a picture someone drew, or even a fanart you saw on Deviantart. We can’t control what media inspires us. As much as I hate to admit, I’ve even found inspiration in really bad fanfiction.
When I first started writing and creating stories, I had no…
Keep some experiences to yourself
After writing posts for a few months, I’ve been thoroughly infected with the “Medium Effect.”
You probably know what that’s like- the sudden urge to chronicle every experience as a kind of lesson, online or offline. There can be many motivations for this, like favorable algorithms, money, a possible idea that can go viral, etc. The list is very long with possible reasons, but I have one idea- save some of them for yourself.
I’ve tried to live by the following quote:
“Today I finally overcame,
Tryna fit the world inside a picture frame.”
-John Mayer, 3x5
It always reminds…
