FREE E-book. Ideas: The Ultimate Guide to Inspiration

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

It happened again, didn’t it?

Another week or month has passed, and you’ve made zero progress on your writing.

Deep down you know your writing is important, but it seems impossible to take consistent action

What’s going on here?

The truth is, you don’t feel inspired.

You can’t help but marvel at other writers who seem to come up with one great idea after another.

How do you get there?

How do you find the inspiration you need in order to become the prolific, popular, and successful writer you have always dreamed of becoming?

It’s simple. This guide contains 99 ways to find inspiration.

If you’re creatively bankrupt, you’ve got 99 ways to snap out of it.

Ideas: The Ultimate Guide to Inspiration is available as a free e-book download here.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY

What Really Sells a Book?

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Some might say the trickiest part is actually selling the book. Or writing it? Opinions differ. But what really sells a book? What marketing tool? What recipe to follow? Is there a recipe?

Well, let’s analyze one of my favorite novels, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, and hope that I’ll be able to offer some insight as to how people decide to buy a book. Continue reading What Really Sells a Book?

12 Books That Will Surely Make You Cry

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Art is supposed to make you feel something, right? And what more can you ask from a book other than to be moved by it in such a way that you end up shedding a few tears?

Also, psychologists claim that crying is kind of good for releasing stress and making you stronger emotionally, so here are twelve books that are guaranteed to make you cry. Continue reading 12 Books That Will Surely Make You Cry

Showcase and Interview: Gina Iacob

Posted on by Cristian Mihai
Gina Iacob is a twenty five year old self-taught Romanian artist, who likes to experiment with different techniques and styles. She’s also interesting, interested, inspiring, inspired, and quite funny. Don’t believe me? Check this interview out.

Continue reading Showcase and Interview: Gina Iacob

Top 5 Underrated Movies of 2018

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Now that 2018 has ended (well, for quite some time) here are five underrated movies that you must, absolutely, really, really watch. Continue reading Top 5 Underrated Movies of 2018

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12 Books Every Man Should Read

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Whether sexual in nature, or books that deal on subjects such as family, history, or the relationship between men and women, these are must read books for any man, true treasures of information when it comes to a man’s place in today’s society. Continue reading 12 Books Every Man Should Read

Eight Easy Steps To Writing a Bad Novel

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Lots of folks have painstakingly tried to write all sorts of guides to writing a bestseller or a perfect novel. How-to guides are quite abundant. But I thought I should try to write a guide on how to write a bad novel. How does one go about that? Let’s find out. Continue reading Eight Easy Steps To Writing a Bad Novel

pas-sion

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

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“Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati. It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.” — Mark Z. Danielewski

I first started writing fourteen years ago. I thought it would be easy. I didn’t like to read, but I did like to imagine.

For a long time it was a lot easier to imagine than to write.

Passion as a feeling carried me at all kinds of ceremonies and book signings and stuff. It was all so clear. I was going to become rich and famous and my words would change the world.

What words?

Exactly. Continue reading pas-sion

TMM: The Muse Needs Time

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Time. The world’s most valuable commodity. Not only that, but you can trade it for anything else.

The muse also needs it. The more time you spend doing the work, the better you become. It is a rule of nature.

But sometimes people get caught in this romantic way of thinking. Art is about inspiration, about some sort of poetry, not just work ethic. They discard the craft part of art…

But truth is, the muse demands you sit at your desk and do the work. That you set aside a certain number of hours each day and get stuff done.

It’s the one rule you cannot bend or break.

Don’t water this down.

Don’t be seduced into thinking that art is inherently different than any other kind of work.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story

Posted on by Cristian Mihai

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most influential writers of this century, passed down a simple list of rules for writing a short story, though I think they can be applied to longer narratives as well.

He did say that Flannery O’Connor broke all his rules except the first and that great writers tend to do that, but I believe his famous eight rules can provide a skeleton to writing fiction.

And I think that this is what’s really important in art. A foundation. Simply by reading or following rules, or by taking creative writing courses, but it’s also crucial for the artist to make his own decisions. The moment rules start feeling like a cage, you should escape. It’s like strolling through a garden and picking the flowers you like. If you absorb too much or if you simply follow rules (someone else is choosing what flowers you should pick), you’ll never develop a style of your own.

In a world of fixed rules, there’s no room for improvement. Or improvisation. Or evolution.

In today’s post, I’m going to analyze Vonnegut’s famous rules, most of which are common sense anyway. So let’s get started. Continue reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Eight Rules for Writing a Short Story