Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Rob Parnell In a few of my articles recently I have suggested that the path of the modern writer may not always lead down the traditional walkways of novel writing, journalism or indeed any of the more familiar routes a writer might want to take. There are new opportunities of all kinds. The Net, for one, with its need for constant content and marketing material. Offline too there are a myriad of writing jobs - many of which I explore in Easy Cash Writing. For the committed writer there are always new and varied avenues to pursue. In the spirit of which, we ventured into the world of TV yesterday, when we visited an executive from a certain funding body to pitch some ideas we'd had for TV shows. I won't mention our contact's name, not because it's a secret or because we're being coy, but because these people don't like it when you bandy their names around (especially not in a public forum like a blog). The last thing a TV exec wants is to be seen to be endorsing...

Rob Parnell The best part about getting away to foreign climes is the way it can help adjust our perspectives. When we see through different eyes, we grow - and this can only help our writing. Once in a while we all need to get away from the everyday routines we fill our time with. We need to experience new things, taste new foods and walk in new locations. The aspect of Singapore that struck me most was the sheer volume of people - and the fact that they all seem to be out shopping in the middle of the night! Robyn will tell you that I spent the evening after the Art of Story workshop rhapsodizing over the crowds - and admittedly, the potential market for any new business, including my own. There again, as a writer, I don't get out much. We spend our time locked away in our little house in Morphett Vale, flexing our mental muscles, rather than interacting with a lot of 'real' people. We work hard basically - but much of our lives happen in our imaginations! It was nice to ...

Rob Parnell Many people email me to ask about short story markets. Where are they? And where have they all gone? The market for magazine length (2000 to 5000 words) short stories has dwindled almost to vanishing point in the last fifty years. Nowadays, unless you're already famous, you can't get short stories published at all it seems. There's the New Yorker, a few SciFi monthlies - and the odd woman's magazine - where the competition is savagely fierce, and that's about it. Basically, the short story market has crashed. The advent of our high speed, high tech world has left the short story on the platform, waving at the departing train of progress. The short story has been replaced by newer markets like TV, movies, computer games and true life (ie reality) based magazine 'confessions.' All very sad. But is it? Instead of bemoaning the death of the short story, writers need to adjust their worldview and move with the times. Many writers are reluctant to atta...