Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Rob Parnell Seven keys to unlock your dreams, seven words you need to hold dear on your journey. They are: 1. Passion You cannot devote your life to anything without a passion for it. No amount of coulda, shoulda, woulda will help. If you don't know what your passion is, look for it, identify it. You'll know what it is when you feel warm inside and a smile touches your lips. Follow your passion. 2. Energy You cannot fuel your passion without the enthusiasm to pursue your chosen path. Enthusiasm needs your body fit and your mind alert. Then you can focus on what is important to you. If you're not feeling healthy, find time to relax and nurture your self, your being. When you're relaxed, your energy will multiply and your enthusiasm go further - and your passion can become manifest. 3. Resolve All the passion and energy in the world will amount to naught without a goal and the determination to reach it. When you venture on a course you know to be fulfilling, you must see ...

Rob Parnell As writers, we all know that careful editing makes the crucial difference between rejection and acceptance. Only a complete novice thinks that editing is not as important, if not more important, than the actual writing. For the purposes of this article, I'm assuming you know all the usual advice about editing for publication. If not, go here: http://easywaytowrite.com/selfediting.html Editing for publication requires a clearer focus on some very specific issues. The object of the editing and rewriting process is to get your book into a shape that is instantly recognizable as a serious contender in the marketplace by the agents and publishers you will send it to. These people – people who read manuscripts all the time – recognize when you’ve done this work correctly. The signs are in fact all too clear. Right up front. For instance, if your first line is meandering and vaguely pointless (a common enough scenario for 90% of all manuscripts), they know that the rest of the...

Do you ever have those days when you're feeling muzzy and unmotivated? You know how it is. Sometimes you feel you should write, but you don't feel like it. And even if you did, you're plagued by the thought you can't think of anything to write about. Or maybe you know you have an important scene or an article to write and you can't find the necessary impetus to get you started. Worse, you just can't be bothered to write at all - it's too hard to even contemplate. What do you do when this happens to you? If you write for a living, this can be especially troubling. After all, if you're not writing, you're not working. So you feel bad because you know that not writing equals no money coming in, now or in the future... What's the solution? First of all you need to get your head around 'The Big Secret.' And the big secret is that career writers don't need a reason to write. They don't need inspiration or a good idea. They don't eve...

Rob Parnell It's one of those bizarre phenomena - the way writers see-saw between a love/hate relationship with their own writing. You're in the throes of a story or an article - you don't want to stop because you're feeling inspired. Each word and phrase seems to resonate with profound meaning. The drama and/or the thought process seems to be unfolding well - and you're on a high. Finally, it seems as though the hotline between your thoughts and the page are in sync - you're writing well and all is right with the world. This feeling can last a few hours, even a few days... ... until you look back at what you've done. Then the angst sets in. The writing you thought was superb suddenly seems clunky and inadequate. The phrases you particularly liked now seem awkward and ill-formed. Worse, your intellect seems exposed: you feel as though your writing shows you to be the hack you never wanted to be: the metaphors lack depth and the imagery is weak. The writing d...