Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

The great Chinese ruler, Mao Tse Tung, once said,  'In order to break the rules of a system, one must first learn and understand them.'  (Okay, I paraphrase - he was actually talking about Communism.) But so it is with POV in fiction.  Learn the rules first, then you can break them. I get so many emails from writers asking how they should deal with point of view that I thought it might be interesting to discuss the subject here. The truth is, there's no right or wrong way to do things - but there are guidelines that, if you adhere to them, will mark you out as a good and competent writer.  Similarly, if you ignore them (without understanding what you're doing) then you'll most likely come across as an amateur. Before we go on, let's make sure we know the terms of reference. For most fiction, you have 4 basic alternatives. 1. First person, where everything is told from the limited POV of the protagonist - the classic '...

(According to Google this is my most popular article - something short I wrote back in 2003. It's reproduced in over 160 places on the Net and even gets a reference on Wikipedia as a qualified information source. Cool!) “Murder your darlings” was a phrase first coined by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (or Fitzgerald or Faulkner or Nabakov or even Stephen King, depending on who you believe). They're all referring to what you might call your “best bits.” The “bits” you should edit out of your work. As Elmore Leonard once said, “If I come across anything in my work that smacks of ‘good writing,’ I immediately strike it out.” The theory is that writing you’re particularly proud of is probably self-indulgent and will stand out. You might think this is good. Wrong. You will most likely break the “fictive dream.” (This is the state of conscious...

I was asked this question by an esteemed subscriber this week and thought it might make an interesting article. In the publishing and movie industry the terms theme and premise are bandied around liberally - and it's assumed that writers know the difference, even if agents, publishers, and marketing people are not so up on the precise meanings. Basically the premise to a story is your starting point, the idea behind it - its reason to be. I've heard members of writer's groups ask the question: "Can you write a story without a premise?" I would have to say you could try - but fairly soon you'd run out of things to say. You need a premise to give a story legs. Besides which, most writers are able to sum up what their story is about - or going to be about - in a short sentence of two. So what makes a premise? Mostly an intriguing idea...

The other day, a writer friend of mine told me her publisher recommended she read a certain book to get the flavor of what they liked to publish.  Eager to know, my author friend rushed to find the book and devour it... only to feel slightly disappointed - and confused. She wondered what it was about this book the publisher liked.  The story wasn't great.  The writing was average.  Some of the pacing seemed awkward.  Then it hit her.  It was the ATTITUDE of the protagonist that gave the book its appeal.  The hero was feisty, quick to anger, even spiteful and yet somehow lovable. It's no secret that I believe the key to good story telling is 'character'.  It should come before everything else - before plotting, before story, even before putting pen to paper.  If your characters aren't real to you, their stories will never work. And while I've spent much time elsewhere talking about the imp...