Tag Archives: #gamefulwriting

One Minute Read from the Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

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Here is another blog post in a series featuring videos on YouTube, where I read from one of my motivational books for one minute.

In this video, I read from my new book Gameful Blogging on Medium.com: Thirteen Levels in the Epic Adventure of a Top Writer and Super Creator on Medium (Book 6 in the “Gameful Life” series).

I am reading the first section of the chapter “Level 11. Being Clear about the Goals.”

Here it is if you want to read along, prior, or afterward.

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Excerpt from the Gameful Blogging on Medium.com

What happened before

The previous article (chapter) I wrote about turning writing and publishing on Medium into fun games was about enjoying the breaks in publishing there, such as during the holiday season. I referred to those breaks as cooldown phases, well-known in sports and games.

In that story, I recommended not worrying if you notice yourself watching your stats and earnings. In fact, I even mentioned that it might be fun and enlightening, especially during a cooldown phase.

But at the end of the article, I also recommended looking less at the stats and earnings during an active phase, that is, while writing and publishing on Medium.

There is another important aspect to the stats and earnings:

If you connect your goals to the numbers in your stats and Medium Partner Program earnings, you will not really be turning your time on Medium into fun games. Instead, you will be chasing a fantasy, a Fata Morgana.

Here is why.

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The next step

If you want to find out more about gaining the feeling of success and fun while blogging on Medium and also how to persevere writing and publishing on Medium in fun and gameful ways, then I invite you to read Gameful Blogging on Medium.com. To look at the book and buy it on Amazon, click on its title above or this image below:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.

I wish you a beautiful and gameful day!

Happy Spring 2021

My little Martisori treasure chest (Image courtesy of the author)

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I am taking a little break from my series of blog posts and readings from my books today to honor a Moldovan tradition — Moldova is where I originally come from — and to wish you a happy Spring!

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Mărțișor — A beautiful Moldova tradition

We celebrate this day by giving little signs of love and friendship to members of our families, friends, teachers, and colleagues. These small tokens are called Mărțișori (singular: Mărțișor). In the picture above, you can see my current collection. Some of them I got from my family and especially my sister — she once brought a whole bag of them for me to share and keep. The other I made myself over the years and kept one from each year’s collection as a token to remember and maybe to reproduce at another time.

Here is how Wikipedia defines Mărțișor:

Mărțișor (mərt͡siˈʃor) is a celebration at the beginning of spring, on March the 1st in Romania, Moldova, and all territories inhabited by Romanians.”

I featured this tradition in my first book, a novel based on a true story of my late father, Mihail Ichizli, The Truth About Family:

” I remembered well how we would all sit together braiding red and white threads into strings, and making little men and women or flowers from the same wool to bind to the ends of the strings. We would give these special talismans, or little Marches, to each other and the teachers on the first of March. Our teachers would have a host of Mărţişori decorating their jackets and sweaters for the whole month.”

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This year’s Mărțișor project

In the past years, I created various designs for the Mărțișori I gave as little gifts to my family. This year, I tried something different and turned it into a little art project. I took a coloring block of postcards and colored only some of the fields with red color, leaving all other white. Then I added one or two Mărțișori on each card.

Here is the result:

This year’s Martisor project/art (Image courtesy of the author)

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Capture your family traditions in a story

We all have these beautiful traditions from where we come from. If you ever considered writing a memoir or a fictional story based on your family’s or your own story, then I invite you to feature those traditions inside. They will add color to your creations and bring light to the whole story.

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If you need help

Sometimes it can be daunting to start a project featuring your family’s or your story. A memoir can appear daunting to write. I feared writing one for many years, although the wish was significant.

A novel based on a true story might get you going. It did help me. The Truth About Family was a blessing to write; it healed many wounds and brought my mother and me even closer together.

Whatever style you choose, here are a couple of resources that can help you:

 

If you would like to work with me to help make your memoir or novel describing a personal to you story a reality, you can reach out to discuss how we can collaborate through one of the channels listed on my contact page.

If you are interested in checking out my experience with writing memoirs and novels based on a true story, then take a look at these:

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Happy Spring

All there is to say now is to wish you Happy Spring 2021! We all need the hope the Spring seems to bring with it in these insecure times.

Here’s the little Mărțișor picture I created for my mother this year. And here it is for you!

Happy Spring and Happy Mărțișor!

Martisor, the symbol of the Spring (Image courtesy of the author)

One Minute Read from the Gameful Writing

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Here is the seventh blog post in a series featuring videos on YouTube, where I read from one of my motivational books for one minute.

In this video, I read from a parable Gameful Writing: Seven People, Seven Stories, Seven Lessons Learned (Book 4 in the “Gameful Life” series).

I am reading the extract from section 3 (“***”) of chapter 5, “Torben.”

Here it is if you want to read along, prior, or afterward.

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Excerpt from the Gameful Writing

Torben finished reading the blog post and reread it. The blogger was right. It was time to play. It was time for him to pack all this stuff and move back to Odense. Maybe without letting Karina know. But he would call just in case to make sure she still wanted him to come back.

But first, the pre-quest. Torben felt strange, he realized. He still wasn’t sure about the writing thing. He could find other ways to spend his time. For example, the pre-quest, or the side-quest, as the blogger called it. Never really a gamer himself, Torben was still wondering, how just one article, or five if he was honest, had moved him to speak in terms of a game player. In Lily’s slang, as he realized, and as it seemed this blogger’s too.

OK, let’s get my favorite cup. Torben went back to the kitchen and took out the cup he wrapped in paper towel before reading the last Gameful Writing blog post.

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The next step

If you want to find out more about these seven stories in one about turning writing or anything else in life into fun games regardless of the circumstances, then I invite you to read Gameful Writing. To look at the book and buy it on Amazon, click on its title above or this image below:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to my page, Optimist Writer, on ko-fi for $5 a month, and besides supporting what I do, you will also get access to all my motivational books, which I share there once a month or each time a book is out. Right now, you can get access to four of my books there — one upon subscription or one-time support and three in the posts solely for subscribers. Gameful Writing will appear later this year or sooner upon explicit request from the subscribers.

I wish you a beautiful, gameful, and creative day!

How to Use Doubts as Assets in Turning Life into Fun Games

(Image by the author)

If you open any of my books or other resources on turning life into fun games, you will discover — among others — the recommendations to add some quirky and even silly rules, and not to forget to record your progress in any project or activity you want to pursue by giving yourself points, badges, and observing the levels you reach in your games.

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The doubts and skepticism

You might wonder if this could hinder you in progressing in what you want to accomplish.

You can have your doubts.

I must say, I “slid” into turning my life into games. I just followed my curiosity and became utterly engaged and even addicted. Now, I don’t escape into games or reading from my life, as I used to in the past. Instead, I turn everything in my life, including playing games and reading, but also everything else, including work, private life, relaxing, exercising, sleep, dealing with health issues, and so much more, into fun games for myself.

But I still resonate with the doubts. In fact, I discovered that any doubts in this approach are a brilliant way to test it. I must confess that I am in a constant testing phase of my self-motivational games. I don’t stop developing them, testing, then again tweaking their design, and playing again.

Besides, these doubts and experiences of those I know and myself in life have helped me write my first ever parable called Gameful Writing.

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What is Gameful Writing about?

Gameful Writing is about turning writing into fun games. It considers writing not from the point of view of possible genres but by how we treat it or think of it. Most of us deal with writing something every day, be it a novel we want to write but don’t manage, a blog post for the company we work for, a report, a thesis, an e-mail, or simply expressing ourselves to our loved ones — be it in writing or over a video or phone call. And we fear, resist, and overthink all those types of writing.

This little book acknowledges all these fears and overthinking because it features seven people who face them and manage to shift their focus from upsets into something uplifting and empowering them. They achieve it by turning their writing and lives into fun games — the Self-Gamification way.

This book is a work of fiction, but it features many real-life experiences from those I know and myself. Losing loved ones to illnesses and despair, grieving, letting other people grieve, forgiving ourselves, others, and even life itself for whatever grief they and we might have caused us, and instead find empowerment in the moment of now and with what we have available. These stories are braided strongly into the stories of turning writing and life into games.

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Your gain and savings from investing into turning your life into fun games

I invite you on this gentle and awakening journey of discovery to turning anything into something joyful for yourself.

Why is it worth it?

First of all, you will be able to save yourself the costs of drama and seriousness and instead gain resourcefulness and joy in whatever you set out to turn into fun games for yourself.

By reading the seven stories in this little book, you will see what you can gain from turning your life into fun games, and you will be able to join the characters in the book in this fun adventure of playing a fantastic game collection called life.

To take a look at the book and buy it on Amazon, click on its title above or this image here:

If you want to see where else you can buy it, then go to the book’s page on this website here.