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So I made this. It's been one year that I've been doing this vlog, and it's been such a freaking great year. But there are more videos to come. Will update soon. Love you all so much. <3

#openellbey #lindabarsi #vlog #writing #advice

Here is a new vlog I posted today. It's about when it's time to end a relationship so you can keep growing. Hope you like. (also, preface: I'm not breaking up with this vlog. This vlog - of any project I've done - is one that has helped me grow the most).

#when to break up #vlog #lindabarsi #OpenEllbey #writing #advice #help #relationship

A thought that might be helpful... Also! Now that it's the middle of the year, let's get crafty! Leave a comment, tweet at me, or email me at [email protected] for suggestions and/or questions about future video topics.

And here's the Setups and Payoffs video from last week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a5lBTvO5UQ

#lindabarsi #openellbey #vlog #week 19 #worse #better #projects #difficult #New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year's guys!

"Week 17: No Regrets and My New Year's Resolution"

Inspired by this article: "The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/03/top-5-regrets-of-the-dying_n_3640593.html

#2014 #lindabarsi #openellbey #nye #resolutions #vlog #week17 #fun #happy #new #year

How I’m Going to Let Myself Be Happier in 2014

What is my definition of a really good day? One in which I do these three things:

1 . Love myself

2 . Love others

3 . Love what I create

Three-step happiness. Sounds simple enough, but for me, this requires some mindfulness. Below, I’ve written out specific ways I plan to let myself be happier in 2014.

Morning – LOVE MYSELF

Often I wake up in a funk. Sometimes it’s because the alarm woke me up. Sometimes it’s because I’ve been dreaming about how I messed up and someone in my dream was disappointed in me. I want to get practiced at getting in a better headspace before I start my day.

This year I want to take time to ask myself how I feel in the morning more often and maybe even journal for a minute about it. Articulating how I feel and thinking about why I feel that way often helps me see whatever is bothering me really isn’t a big deal. Meditating for a few minutes also helps me get to a calmer, more positive mental state.

This year I want to think self-affirming thoughts while commuting to work. Honestly, it’s pretty cool that I have an hour of alone time in the morning and I want to use that to think more positively about myself.

This year I want to give up criticizing myself. I know, I know, a radical sounding idea for sure (at least that was my reaction when I first read this in Louise Hay’s book). But over time I’ve realized that giving up self-criticism only helps me with everything I want to do.

Day – LOVE THE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE

I’ve noticed that when I’m understanding to myself, it becomes easier to grant that same kindness to others (that’s why ‘loving myself’ comes before ‘loving others’ in this list). But that being said, I want to be even more mindful about taking time to appreciate the amazing people in my life.

This year I want to really listen when someone is talking to me instead of pulling out my phone or thinking about the next five things I have to do. Plus, I like looking at my friends’ and families’ faces (my phone has no such charisma).

This year I want to trust people more. In LA, it’s especially easy to become wrapped up in the mindset that you always have to be on your guard. Frequently I have an alarmist state of mind that is eager to prepare me for the worst, but this year I want to let go of my knee-jerk reaction to assume that someone is upset with me just because they’re tired or having an off day.

This year I want to initiate more contact with people I care about. Frequently I wait until someone (a friend, old classmate, family member) calls or texts me before catching up with them or arranging a time to hang out. I want to make the first move more this year. A while ago I heard a speaker say the best part of life is the connections we make with other people. And I have to say, I agree with them.

Night – LOVE THE PROJECTS I COME HOME TO

Anyone who knows me knows my passion projects are a big part of my life. I want to be nicer to them when I come home to work on them. Like a helicopter parent, sometimes I get very antsy over their in-progress state.

This year I want to be more patient with my projects. Compared to a year ago, I’ve actually improved on this a lot, but I still want to let myself be more confident in my rough drafts and notes. Great things take time and there’s no reason to not give my baby-projects time to take shape.

This year I want to play more. As someone who is prone to worry, I often try to minimize risk by regimenting my creative process, but this is completely backwards. All the breakthroughs I’m most proud of in my creative work have come out of moments of relaxation and musing.

This year I want to practice recalling three nice things that happened to me that day before I fall asleep. I really like the idea of going to sleep with visions of what I love, rather than projections of what I think will happen the next day. And for me, good sleep is essential to good writing. The hours I spend with my subconscious are important to me. Why not try and make the most of them?

I don’t expect that I’ll remember to do all of these things everyday, but since my goal is to feel more balanced overall, I know making an effort to remember the values I’ve put on this list will help me with that this year.

And of course if I really miss a day, I can always pick it up the next day.

Happy New Year’s guys!

Here’s to starting 2014 with some good feels.

Love you all,

Corresponding vlog episode: "Week 17: No Regrets and My New Year’s Resolution" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=078MYJ7xS5E

#lindabarsi #openellbey #vlog #week17 #new year's resolution #2014 #reflection #writing #positive #mental #health #love

Hi I really like your vlogs, they make me want to write more! and I have a question, I am currently studying Film in the UK (I am from Germany though) and will have my BA next year. Now I have to face the feared question: "What to do after Uni?" And if I am honest I really want to write for TV (american TV tbh) so I am thinking about an MA in TV script writing, maybe in the US or Canada (ugh money though right?) any advice/thought? Sorry if this is waaaay to specific (: keep up the awes videos!

My thoughts on pursuing film/TV after university

Hello! That’s a completely understandable and important question to ask. Thanks for sending it in.

It sounds like you’re very driven and you have already done a lot in school towards pursuing writing for TV, which is great. I also love that you’ve spent time weighing the specifics of what kind of writing you want to do. A lot of people move to LA and don’t know if they want to write for TV or film or both (I had no clue for a while) so that’s great that you’ve already given it some serious thought.

What I’ve done is written up below my thoughts on several topics I feel are relevant to your question. While you are the only one who can decide what is best for you to do (pursuing the arts is annoying like that), I hope the following helps. :)

As far as getting an MA goes, I’m hesitant to encourage anyone to pursue a masters in the arts because as you said it’s very expensive, especially in the U.S. I myself decided not to do a masters program. It’s not because I didn’t think I would enjoy it or get a lot out of it, it’s just, I didn’t want to spend the money and I had an inkling I could learn a lot on my own. After all, getting a masters in a creative art is different from getting a masters in chemistry. In other words, with the arts a lot of times you just need to learn by doing. Now, it’s been over two years since I made this decision to pass on grad school and I’ve never regretted it. Learning on my own with scripts, movies, TV shows, internet resources, books, podcasts, and friends who write has worked for me. Also, I find it’s really nice to be living without any school debt. But for others, grad school was a choice they’re very pleased with and I think that is fantastic too.

As far as learning on your own, the bottom line of writing (and the advice that was told to me) is “you just have to do it, you have to write.” Now this advice was frustrating when I first heard it, because it gives you direction on what to do, but not on how to do it. I was such a bundle of nerves and stress and overly concerned about failing and not failing and trying to be perfect at my ambitions when I started, that it took me a while to figure out how to regularly write where I wasn’t having a nervous break-down over the threat that I would FAIL. My process through this is the reason I started my vlog. I wanted to try and help people learn how to get in a healthy mindset where “just writing” was a lot easier. Once I figured a lot of good stuff out I was like “dang, I wish I had a friend who could have just told me this stuff.” So, fun fact, that’s the story behind my vlog.

As far as moving a significant distance from home, that’s something I can relate to (moving from Alaska to upstate New York for college and then from New York to California). And if I’m completely honest, it’s hard. It’s hard to be far away from home. As I’m now in my mid-twenties I really love that I’m living on the west coast (closer to my family) rather than living across the country on the east coast like I was in college. But, that being said, I do hope to live in many other places in the near future, when I have means to travel more, so I can relate to the desire to explore and I think it’s a wonderful impulse. Again, this is one of those things where you’ll have to look at your options and decide what you feel is best for you.

As far as which city to pursue filmmaking, in the U.S. it seems to be either New York or Los Angeles that everyone talks about. This is a dichotomy on which I have many thoughts. LA is not an easy city to live in and neither is New York, especially when you’re starting out and you don’t have a lot of money. And if you’re trying to get a job in the entertainment industry it makes things even harder. For example, if you’re fortunate enough to get a job in film or TV, the pay will be low, like $10 an hour - sometimes with benefits like insurance and sometimes not. And often times they’ll ask you to work for free first as an “intern” even though you’re not a student. That’s another thing I have mixed feelings on as a good internship can be really good, but a bad internship can be really, really bad, and sometimes it involves extreme cases of companies taking advantage of young people.

(Also as a side note, since you’re from Germany and bilingual, never underestimate your ability to speak two languages as a powerful way to make a living. There will always be students wanting to learn German and there will continue to be tutoring companies in many, many cities - LA included - that will hire native speakers to teach American students, whilst paying the tutors a good wage.)

As far as my experience living and working in LA …basically, I could have learned to write in any number of cities, but living in LA made the stakes very real. I made a bold move to come to LA and after realizing I wasn’t going to get to the career point I wanted by putting a lot of energy into working for a demanding company I didn’t care much about, I became a part-time nanny and started spending all my spare time that I could writing. THIS is when my real writing education began. I spent a year working on just my writing (read scripts, started a blog, wrote and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote my feature script). To an outsider it didn’t look like I was doing much maybe, but I know that decision I made was the best and hardest career move I ever made. So, if you can make the stakes real for yourself, to put nearly everything you’ve got into writing for a significant amount of time, maybe you don’t need to make the drastic geographical move right away. Or maybe you do, and if that’s the case that’s fine too. Certainly, there are some dramatic moves that are easier to do when you’re younger (aka, when you’re not tied down and when you’re pretty good at living frugally).As far as how the internet is changing the entertainment industry, it is. It really is. I believe the business of media and TV and film production will look extremely different fifteen years from now. Honestly, the rate of change with relatively young companies like Netflix and Hulu making original content (and QUALITY content at that) has many people in Hollywood concerned and understandably so. We’re living in an informationally revolutionary time. In other words, we don’t know what the future will look like when it comes to entertainment. More and more productions are taking place in diverse locations. The requirement that stuff has to be made in either LA or New York is going away. When this realization hit me about a year ago, I decided to be excited for it because to me change also says possibility. I love that the internet and the digital age is very democratic. A person can quite easily get an affordable and high quality digital camera these days. That, combined with the internet’s amazing, AMAZING power of free distribution, makes for a whole new way to do media. In other words, the right people making good content at the right time can be unstoppable. We’ve already started to see it happen and every time I come across a new case it genuinely makes me smile.

In closing, the best advice I can give (the first one, I’m stealing from a friend) is:

(1) Make time for the things you can’t afford not to do.

In other words, start writing those projects you muse about now, even if you feel ridiculous and unprepared doing so. All the greats have felt those same anxieties and know that you are completely worthy of this pursuit. You are.

And,

(2) Question the way things have been done before.

In other words, see what you can do right now with the amazing information age we’re currently living in and get creative. Know that you have every power to be brave and innovative and explore. People who have already done so in the field of entertainment are the ones I find most inspiring, and know that there’s no reason people like you and I can’t join that category of innovators.Wishing you all the best (and sending a hearty thank you for a great question),

#OpenEllbey #lindabarsi #vlog #advice #university #tv #film #writing #career

I love you guys

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately which led me to rewatch my “Week 1: How I Stopped Dating and Started Writing” video, the first vlog I ever made, and I was struck by something.

I just want to say to the people who follow my vlog that I feel incredibly blessed to have you in my life. While reading the comments on my Week 1 video, I couldn’t believe how many names of internet friends I recognized - people I didn’t know before this vlog but who now I love “seeing” every week online.

I don’t think you guys know how much you encourage me every week with your honesty and your thoughts in comments, tweets, messages and tumblr posts. The last 4 months of my 2013 would not have been the exhilarating chapter of my life that it has been if it weren’t for you guys.

I hope you all are well and know how amazing and powerful you all are. You guys are brave and I love you so very much for it.

-LB

#lindabarsi #openellbey #vlog #love #socialmedia #writing