Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

The 'world premiere' showing of FIRST CUT was last weekend - during a party shoot at our house. A fabulous time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came and jumped in all the right places! The movie is now entered into the Brooklyn Film Festival - so its New York premiere should happen sometime this year! I'm entering it into the LA Shriekfest too. I've just finished the trailer which I'll be putting up overnight! Keep watching and writing! Write of Passage I was looking up executive producers of TV shows last night - like you do. In the US especially, an executive producer is often a writer too, responsible for helping oversee a script into production. I was curious to see how some people went from writers to becoming show creators. After a while I began to see a pattern. There was clearly a route - albeit a relatively 'slow' one - whereby a writer may get a gig on a show, perhaps a one-off screenplay, followed by furt...

Dear Fellow Writer, Get my NEW THRILLER (and free stuff): KINDRED by Rob Parnell at AMAZON KINDLE Latest Reviews: "Matthew Reilly Meets Stephen King - Kindred should be offered to aspiring authors as a prime example of 'how to write a thriller'. It introduces intriguing characters, sets up a compelling story, and then takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of thrills and chills. It's a kick-ass suspense experience that will leave you breathless and wanting more. Employing effective prose and lots of cliffhangers, this fast paced novel will keep you reading until the very last word has been absorbed. Something that fascinated me about this book is that most of the action occurs in just one location, a place that the characters can't escape without fighting for their lives. Along the way they are confronted by shocking secrets from their past. This story grabs and won't let go." Chris Ryall, Amazon Reader Review "Two days a...

The Rule of Five Whatever you're writing, a good rule is that you expend five times more effort editing than you did creating the first draft. That way you'll be sure to find mistakes, tighten up the text and generally create something actually worth reading. So, if it takes you an hour to write something - be prepared to spend five hours editing it to perfection. This may seem extreme but honestly, if being a lifelong writer has taught me one thing, it's that presentation and effectiveness is everything. And, being a teacher of writing for over a decade, I can honestly say that it's clear many new writers are loathe to look at what they've written even once before they're convinced it's ready. Probably because, if they did, they'd see that it was essentially worthless. As Hemingway famously said, Everyone's first draft is crap. There are five issues that are important when editing. 1. Punctuation 2. G...

Dear Fellow Writer, I am still unashamedly bribing you to read my NEW THRILLER: KINDRED by Rob Parnell at AMAZON KINDLE This week an esteemed subscriber asked me about the process I used to write this latest 349 page novel - and I had intended to write an article about it today. However, the article was turning into a bit of a novel in itself, so perhaps next week I'll write a more condensed version of how I wrote Kindred - and why it took almost 3 years to complete! Plus, in case you've been following this other thing, I have finally finished making  First Cut , my latest horror movie - a 30 minute piece - and I'm ready to start submitting it to film festivals around the world. I'll be putting out a 30 second trailer for it soon. Keep writing! THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: My 30 Day Mentoring Program My subscribers often ask me what they get in my 30 day novel mentoring program - the one that comes FREE with my ...