"" Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog: August 2013

Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Power of Expectation

Want to be the next millionaire Amazon author? Click on the pic! Independent Authoring
 
 

The Power of Expectation


Rob Parnell

Isn't it funny how, if you expect everything to go badly, it usually does?

But what if you always expected everything to go well?

Does that make you a Pollyanna - or a resourceful creative artist?

Fact is, we all take risks in our lives at some point or another.

We might decide to start a new business - or write a novel, or marry someone!

All risks entail the possibility of failure. But if we always thought that risk would lead to disaster, we'd never leave our beds in the morning!

You don't need to be some new age airhead to understand that if you believe that things will turn out for the best, you're giving yourself a fighting chance at success.

We often get what we focus on. You know that's true.

If you focus on how little money for have, you stay poor.

If you're convinced your partner doesn't understand you, your relationship gets worse.

Whenever you say or even think that you're not up to a job - shazam - you're suddenly incapable of finishing it.

But people with blind faith can often achieve things most folks regard as impossible or impractical or unlikely to succeed, purely because they don't dwell on the negative.

Starting a new project is a case in point.

You have to be full of energy and optimism to to begin a new project.

Otherwise you won't bother. The new project usually has to mean something to you - deep down and personally - to give it the necessary impetus for you to continue.

And the impetus is what keeps you pushing to succeed.

I don't think it's as simple as just believing makes it so. Although it would be nice if things worked this way.

I think it's more obvious than that.

Basically if you expect to succeed and you believe that your success is inevitable, you'll simply try a lot harder!

Imagine if someone told you that underneath a rock on a beach there was a diamond worth millions.

If you believed that person, you'd look under every darn rock until you found it!

But if you suspected that the person might be lying to you - or was delusional. you might look under half a dozen rocks just in case and then think better of it.

I think this is the way it works for success - in anything.

If you totally believe that success and wealth is inevitable, you'll do everything in your power to make it happen!

Sometimes these things just take time - and more work!

Like having a business succeed. Most businesses need around three years to prove that the entrepreneur was right about the business idea. Or for the business to keep innovating until it finds its niche.

Writing a book can take a lot longer than you first imagined - but you need to believe it will do well once it's written - or that you're going to feel fabulous about yourself - in order to keep persevering with it.

And any marriage needs time to settle down and mature and deepen. The initial rush of love and lust might fade but unless you commit to the idea that unceasing love and compromise in a relationship will eventually make things perfect, you're not going to bother.

And most people don't these days - 50% of marriages fail because we don't believe that happiness is possible without the 'perfect' partner.

Nine out of ten would be novelists give up.

And four out of five new businesses fail.

Why?

Because, as a species, we often lack appropriate expectation.

You have to believe in what you're doing. You have to believe that your projects will turn out well. You need to trust your decisions. And know that your intuition is always right.

Fear of failure is not your intuition talking. It's the logical sceptical mind that makes you doubt things. Your instinct is more primitive, less discerning.

Total unfailing belief in inevitable success seems irrational...

But is it?

Not if you ask consistently lucky and successful people!

They see success as part of their modus operandi.

They know that with enough work, tenacity and action based on feedback, even if that means changing strategy or having the courage to scrap a bad idea, their plans will always lead to positive, life enhancing results.

It's just a question of perspective.

And the correct perspective is seeing the world as a place where anything is possible and that YOU are capable of achieving whatever you want!

That's the power of expectation.

You need to rely on the fact that everything will turn out for the best because you BELIEVE that it will.

Not because your belief makes success happen. But because your belief in the inevitability of resulting good things makes you more persistent in your desire to get to a positive end result!

So don't dream about a life full of wealth and success and happiness!

Expect it!

Keep Writing!
 rob at home
THIS WEEK'S WRITER'S QUOTE:
"If I live I ought to speak my mind." Benjamin Jowett

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Imagine Your Way To Success

The Essene Heresy: If you want to receive my latest thrill ride of a serialized novel - totally free - go here.

And if you need to find out how to become a wealthy bestselling Amazon author yourself - go here.

STOP PRESS: My latest course, Write to the Top has become so sought after that there are now bootleg copies of the lessons flying around the net! I'm trying to find out who's responsible - but in a way it's flattering that the information is so valuable that some people feel compelled to steal it! Get your official copy HERE.

Keep Writing!

Rob@easywaytowrite.com
Your Success is My Concern
http://easywaytowrite.com

Want to be a millionaire Amazon author? Click on the pic! Independent Authoring
 
THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE:

Imagine Your Way To Success


Rob Parnell

There's little doubt that writing gets easier the more you do it. The more practice you endure, the greater your confidence level too.

Writing an entire book is far less intimidating after you've already written one, two or ten.

Plus, as your confidence increases, your writing improves.

Much of my writing instruction is rooted in giving new and old writers the mental tools to write with fluidity, regardless of their ability. In a word, confidence.

My feeling is that far too many writers (even some potentially very good writers) worry so much about their ability that they end up stopping before they know what they're capable of.

I get far more emails about 'not writing' than I ever do about the issues writers face when they do.

But if confidence comes from writing and you're blocked - where is the confidence going to come from?

Your imagination.

That's why you were given one.

Your imagination is designed to create internal realities that do not necessarily reflect actual reality.

Without imaginative thought, it's unlikely we would have made it out of the primordial swamp. It is our ability to imagine possible futures for ourselves that has given us supremacy over the animal kingdom.

Our brains are split into two halves - one half for logical evaluation, one for creativity.

This is deliberate and crucial to our evolution as a creative species.

We have the power to visualize things and events - and futures - that are not necessarily real. But, what you need to understand is that a visualized reality IS just as real as what you feel touch and experience - at least to the subconscious mind.

When you imagine that you are an experienced and successful author, you can fool your subconscious into believing that is its reality.

Especially if you combine emotion with your thoughts.

The subconscious reacts to emotion far more than it does to reason. So if you can fool your subconscious into believing you are already a confident and successful writer, then you can become instantly unblocked, simply by tapping into the energy you create by bypassing your logical mind.  

Think about it. If you've already written five or six novels, you're not going to be overly intimidated by writing another one - even if you think your writing might not be great that day or week or year.

Stephen King has said you have to keep writing - even if you think you're writing crap. Because you have to fight against your logical mind all the time.

So it's clear that if you imagine that you're already an experienced and accomplished writer, then the writing process gets easier.

There's another reason for using your imagination to help you.

It's a bit more 'out there' but totally inline with what used to be dubbed the 'Law of Attraction'. (Whatever happened to that?)

Essentially the theory is that if you associate good strong positive emotions with your desired outcomes, your energy level vibrates at a higher frequency - and that this hgher frequency 'attracts' the desired future from out of the universal ether.

The problem with the Law of Attraction theory is that it's hard to prove that it works. It appears it does for those who believe in it - and doesn't for those that don't - because believing it works is apparently fundamental to making it work!

If the LOA is too woohoo for you, think about this:

We do create our realities. We generally get what we focus on and our lives tend to live up to our expectations.

Successful people simply have higher expectations about what is possible - and what they're capable of.

So if you're struggling with your creativity, enthusiasm and energy level, it makes perfect sense that you wouldn't if you could short-circuit your low expectations and imagine yourself as capable of whatever you want to achieve.

And so it is with writing.

You need to circumvent the part of your brain that says I'm no good, this is awful and I'm never going to finish this.

You need to write with confidence. Imagine you're a good writer. Ignore your inner critic and let your subconscious creativity guide you.

Because that's the easy way to write.

Keep Writing!
 rob at home
THIS WEEK'S WRITER'S QUOTE:
"If I live I ought to speak my mind." Benjamin Jowett

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Art of Focus

They call us the millennials.

We have the attention span of a fish. No sooner are we fascinated by something, a newer, shinier thing catches our eye - and we're off, surfing there, linking to that, getting swamped by info and ads.

But is this true? Do we enjoy being treated like guppies?

I don't know about you but I hate trying to read through a sea of other links and distractions - and online newspapers are the worst.

And don't you just seethe when you're looking for a download to fix a computer problem - and the link you need is hidden amongst half a dozen ads that look exactly like download links?

And those awful sites that look like they're about your search term - but all they've done is repeat your search term back at you?

Don't get me started...

Keep Writing!

Rob@easywaytowrite.com
Your Success is My Concern
http://easywaytowrite.com

Want to be a millionaire Amazon author? Click on the pic below. Independent Authoring
THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE:
 

The Art of Focus


Rob Parnell

More than half the battle when you're trying to write is remaining focused enough to complete a project.

It used to be that most writers complained about lack of time to finish their novels, even their short stories and articles.

Life has always had a way of distracting us from our goals - and that was before the Internet.

Yes, there was such a time.

It reminds me of that old joke about "how did we ever look busy at work before computers?"

Now it's like "how did we ever fill our leisure time before the Net?"

A hundred years ago apparently we sat in dim light singing songs around a piano. Or got pissed on gin in a tavern.

Then came TV and we sat around watching black and white drama and variety shows on the BBC, who (my mum says) told you when to go to bed when they stopped broadcasting.

Now it's all gone crazy.

Entertainment by the yard, distractions by the bucket load, total information overload - how is a writer supposed to think, let alone write!

And none of this includes dealing with our jobs, the shopping, the chores, our families and having real off-line friends to socialize with.

In Japan they sell clean air apparently - because it's such a rare commodity.

I reckon the person who can package and sell FOCUS will be the next billionaire.

We recently upgraded our broadband - from crap to vaguely acceptable - because these are the only two options Australia offers its customers.

Now, everything electronic in our house is permanently connected, not only to the Net, but to each other. Things ding and ping randomly and we have designated charging points for all our mobile clutter. 

It's all great and wonderful - until I need to write!

The afternoon has recently become my "technology free" zone. It's hard - actually really hard - but I switch off my connection so I'm free to write articles, blogs and my latest novel.

It's absurd that I often have to go off line to answer emails - otherwise they'd never get done!

And if I find it tough, what about those people who tweet every hour of every day? How do they find the time to do anything else?

Maybe they don't.

I guess that's it - tweeting IS what they do - maybe in between their novels?

I don't know.

It's hard not to look online, isn't it?

Just a quick peek that turns into an hour or two?

I've started editing manuscripts in bed - but on my tablet - which of course is only a screen-flip away from the entire web. It's a wonder we get anything done these days...

And yet there are still thousands of authors out there who do get things done!

My hat is off to them.

Personally I will continue to try and find that elusive balance.

I call myself a writer - because that's what I do (mostly). I would hate to get so distracted I lose site of that imperative.

Which does happen sometimes - and I loathe myself for being so unproductive...

I hope you too find your balance.

And that we continually remind ourselves to FOCUS when necessary.

The best to you,

Keep Writing!
 rob at home

THIS WEEK'S WRITER'S QUOTE:

"I have never had a thought which I could not set down in words with even more distinctness than that with which I conceived it."
Edgar Allan Poe
(Whoa... than that with which?!?)



Thursday, August 1, 2013

How To Become an Independent Author Using the Web, Kindle and Social Marketing

News, Views & Clues... to Writing Success
 
 
Dear Fellow Writer,

They say you shouldn't look back. Living in the past prevents you from grasping the future and enjoying its possibilities.

Dwelling on past events, mistakes and memories, even the good ones, is usually a sign that you're not fulfilling your potential.

But this last week it occurred to me that 12 years ago I had a completely different outlook on life. One that was largely shaped by the publishing industry.

A lifetime of trying to get published had made me feel crushed, inferior and like I was somehow wasting my time...

In 2001, I had a literary agent who told me that my fiction wasn't commercial and that seriously, Rob, who needs another writer's self help book? I got rid of that agent as soon as the contract expired!

Since then I've sold over a million books, ebooks and courses. 

A million! That could have made some publisher and agent very rich, could have bought them houses and sent their kids through college.

But as it happened I chose to ignore dumb criticism and go my own way - and instead of being oppressed by publishers that wouldn't know talent if it mugged them in a dark alley, I'm an independent author! And very happy about that too!

Sometimes it's good to look back - just to see how far you've come!

Keep Writing!

Rob@easywaytowrite.com
Your Success is My Concern
http://easywaytowrite.com

Independent Authoring

THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE:

How To Become an Independent Author Using the Web, Kindle and Social Marketing


Rob Parnell
 
Self publishing has a stigma attached to it - one that is often completely undeserved. Especially these days, when self published online authors are laughing all the way to the bank!

In the last decade I've sold over one million books, ebooks and courses as an online independent author.

I have no need of publishers, nor agents, nor PR companies nor media consultants.

I've built a virtual empire based on one simple rule: write every day.

That's the writer's dream, isn't it?

Since 2001 I've seen all kinds of writers come and go. I've seen all manner of Internet fads rise and fall. I've out-survived a thousand so called gurus and bestselling writers - and those who jump on the latest bandwagons to success, only to disappear a few months later.

My guess is they all lack one essential quality: persistence.

And,
if you lack persistence, what you really lack is self belief.

Writing is no quick way to get rich. But don't get me wrong, writing for a living is a very lucrative and liberating way to spend your days.

You just have to stick with it - and over the long haul, when your name becomes more important than your writing, you've got it made!

The mistake most would be successful writers make is to look at the short term - and give up, usually just before momentum kicks in.

As Tony Robbins once said, you often never realize just how close you are to your dream.

The beauty of the Internet is that career writers don't have to rely on the traditional publishing industry anymore.

Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords and all the marvelous new avenues for social marketing - which didn't exist when I started out - have taken the lottery out of writing success - and placed it firmly in the hands of those who write - and want to keep writing for a living.

But do you feel intimidated by the new world order for writers?

If so then you clearly need to take my courses - which have always been designed to help you find the easiest and most doable routes to writing success.

My latest course, Write To The Top, is a case in point.

If you've ever wondered how to pull social marketing and self publishing together into one cohesive strategy for success, then I've got you covered. Even if you just want to write fiction.

No longer do you have to wait on the whims of a publishing industry that doesn't really care about you and your writing anymore - if it ever did.

Now you can take control - and become the successful independent author you were always meant to be.

And who better to trust than a guy with more experience than a hundred other writing 'gurus'. A nice guy who's just happened to have sold more books, ebooks and courses - even movies and songs - than most people ever dream could happen to them...

I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet here - okay, maybe a little - but I'm really just trying to make a point...

If there ever was a secret to success, it's helping other people.

And that's what I've tried to do over the last decade plus.

In my courses, I give you the best advice and guidance I can muster.

In my fiction and films and songs, I do all in my power to entertain.

In my blogs and articles - of which I have thousands - I keep you at the forefront of my mind.

And in my latest writing course, the one that will catapult your books into bestsellerdom, I want nothing more than your success.

Go here for more info.

Keep Writing!
 rob at home

The Writing Academy

Welcome to the official blog of Rob Parnell's Writing Academy, updated weekly - sometimes more often!