Tag Archives: inspiration

40K

I woke up this morning to a pretty cool surprise. I had reached 40,000 followers on this blog, which is kind of a big deal, at least to me.

When I first started blogging a year and a few months ago I couldn’t possibly imagine that so many people would like my writing. To be frank, I didn’t even know what I wanted to write about, or if I had anything to say. I knew that I wanted to become a self-published writer, and I knew that I wouldn’t give up. I made myself this promise: that I would be relentless in this pursuit, no matter what. And I’d just keep blogging and writing.

A lot of indie writers ask themselves if blogging can help their careers. Today I’m going to answer this question. Continue reading →

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All the way

give_up“If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.” – Charles Bukowski

Whether you believe in God or karma or simply fate odds are that at least once in your life you’ll feel as if the entire Universe is working against a specific desire of yours. And you will think about giving up. Continue reading →

irevuo Showcase 2013

showcaseLet me explain this irevuo Showcase thingy I plan on releasing this summer. Basically it’s a sort of catalog of indie visual artists. A showcase. It’s going to be made available in electronic format and a print format.

The idea is that you’re supposed to get some exposure from this, mostly because the electronic format will be made available for free. Of course, inclusion in this showcase is free.

What do you need do to in order to get your work showcased? Continue reading →

I have loved the stars too fondly…

night skyThough my soul may set in darkness,

it will rise in perfect light.

I have loved the stars too fondly

to be fearful of the night. – Sarah Williams
Words are our most important discovery. Forget about fire, forget about all the places we’ve been to, and all the places we’ll reach. Words allow us to see farther than any telescope. And, at the same time, words allow us to see inside each and everyone of us, to see every lever and gauge and all the other tiny elements that make us work. So it’s also a microscope.
Sometimes you read something a stranger wrote on a lonely night and you feel less lonely. You feel like you somehow know them, and your only regret in the world is that you haven’t read their words sooner. It doesn’t matter that it’s late and you’re tired, it doesn’t matter that tomorrow the words will still be there. Continue reading →

The “baby”

babyIf you write long enough odds are that you’ll start working on a story for longer than normal. Odds are that you’ll try to make it perfect, even when it’s clear that you’re just afraid to let it go. You’ll fear rejection and bad reviews. You’ll think you’re not good enough to write the story the way it deserves to be written. You haven’t lived long enough and stuff like that.

Maybe you do so because you feel this story’s the “one.” This is the story where you actually say something no one else can, where you leave behind more of you than you’ve done before. It’s a story that defines who you are more than anything else ever written. Continue reading →

We need superheroes

DeathofsupermanI “created” my first superhero when I was five years old. His name was Captain Hank, and he possessed super-human strength, speed, and he couldn’t age. That was all, basically.

Then, of course, I had to make some villains, and then some other superheroes to aid Hank in his fight against evil.

To some, the concept of  superheroes acts simply as a metaphor for greatness. It can be easily understood by almost anyone, regardless of age, education, culture, and so on. I never actually agreed with this definition.

I believe the concept itself is so primordial that most of us actually miss the point entirely. My definition is that superheroes are characters who possess certain abilities and traits that make them better than normal people in many ways.

But they also have flaws and weaknesses, and they make mistakes. Continue reading →

Five painters

paintersYou’ve got five painters in the same room, painting the same object. If all five of them employ the same style (or manner) when painting that object, almost always at least four of them are doing something wrong.

At least two of them would much rather paint something else, and of those two at least one would use the same style and technique as before.

Also, at least one of them would like to paint the same object, but in a different style.

What I’m trying to say is that there are only two requirements when making art: one is to be passionate about your subject matter, and the other one is to do it exactly how you feel like it. Continue reading →

1 day 01:41:32

We interrupt this program (of no new content – don’t worry, I’m working on something…) with the following announcement:

There are only about 25 hours left, in which you can buy an e-book bundle with all my 2012 releases for only $4.99. That’s 2 novels, 2 short stories, and a compilation of essays for less than half the usual price.

So, yeah, it’s not shameless promoting if it’s actually a nice deal. At least, that’s what I think. Anyway, you can buy the bundle here and only here. It doesn’t matter, all roads lead to Rome, and both of those two links lead you to the same buy page.

Cheers (and enjoy the summer),

Cristian

This is water

Maybe you’ve already read David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon University, maybe you haven’t. Either way, this is one hell of a speech, mostly because it’s not grandly inspirational, it’s not overwhelmed with analogies and anecdotes and stuff. It’s just DFW at his best, which means that this speech is about something we all experience but we rarely recognize, let alone put into words, and in my humble opinion this was Wallace’s greatest ability.

You can read the commencement speech here.

Just in case you don’t feel inclined to give this speech a try, here’s my favorite little bit: “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.”