Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Nobody will ever miss something you didn't write. People don't wish they could find a genius they are unaware of, hanker after a writer to inspire them, or wish they could find the book that hasn't been written. It's the harshest reality a writer must face.  Nobody cares whether you finish your magnum opus - or gives a toss whether you work on it at all. A book is nothing until it's published - and even then, given the way things are, it's unlikely to sell more than a few copies. Funny, I write for a living. Have done for the last 20 years. You can get a lot of eyes on things if you include the words: “money, fast and easy” in your marketing but write about anything else and your stuff pretty much disappears.  It’s never stopped me though, because I’m a writer, and writers write, no matter what happens… can you say that? Writers must find their own reasons to write - and be self-motivated enough to continue without anything but selfish...

When writing for publication it's important to keep your eventual reader at the forefront of your mind. Writing primarily for yourself can be a lot of fun and, if that's what motivates you, then that's the best way forward, at least for the first draft. Eventually, however, it's your readers who will decide whether you have written a book that they find satisfying, worthy, and purposeful. It could be that, during the writing and editing process, some degree of self-discipline is required to fulfil the objective of writing a book that people actually want to read - and will enjoy reading. My preferred approach is to write quickly and edit methodically later. I find writing the first draft fast and furiously keeps the juices pumping and doesn't allow for too much time to reconsider word-choice, direction, momentum etc., until   after   the first draft. Writing slowly, painstakingly, I find, tends to make me hesitant, overly self-consc...

Ever have those days when you’re muzzy and unmotivated?  You know how it is. Sometimes you're aware you should write, but you don't feel like it. And even if you did, you're plagued by not knowing what to write about. Or maybe 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 what I call '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. T...

How To Write a GREAT Mystery Do you ever have those days when you don't know what to write about? And worse, do those days turn into weeks and months, even years? You're not alone. I know this for a fact because people email me about it all the time. According to most surveys, 80% of people feel they have a writer inside, someone who could - and thinks they should - write a book at some point in their lives. 80% is a huge statistic. So huge that it's the kind of percentage that would have marketers foaming at the mouth! But real life shows that only around 5% actually get around to any kind of serious writing in their lifetimes - and only around 1% of that 5% end up getting paid to do it. That's why, in marketing terms, writing remains a niche - one of those nebulous terms that means 'so specialized' as to be largely irrelevant to modern demographics. Clearly that doesn't quash the urge to write for you and me. (And yes, “me” is grammatically...

(Irrelevant picture but at least the copyright is mine!)  I'd be lying if I told you that being a full-time writer is all wine and roses and endless days of blissful creativity - especially at the start. It's rarely that for most. If you look at the lives of the great writers throughout history, they invariably grew familiar with the pain of rejection, the fear of failure, and often the gnawing ache of poverty. These days poverty is a relative term. If you have a computer and an Internet connection, you're by no means poor, no matter how you may feel. Recently I spent some time in Luxor, Egypt. There I met many people who thought regularly going without food for a few days was normal; people who thought you were unimaginably rich if you could afford to catch a plane; people who dreamed of one day owning a mobile phone. These people were by no means peasants, they were town dwellers with jobs and apartments who, despite living without electricity, managed to b...

Writing is a vocation.  You may have to keep reminding yourself of this. Especially when you want everything - money, writing projects, publishing success - to go faster.  I read a guy's blog this week where he talked about burn-out. He was so determined to get a novel finished he wrote 16 hours a day for about three weeks. He said that suddenly he couldn't make out the words on the screen. He was looking at a foreign language and he realized his brain had shut down.  The experience frightened him so much that he stopped writing and suffered a long period - over six months - of angst over what had happened. For a long time he was too afraid to start writing again for fear that his mind would play this trick on him again. Luckily that's not happened to me yet. Sounds awful. The worst thing that happened one year was that I got one of those humps on my right wrist - apparently they're caused by hitting the keyboard too hard for too long. It took a few ...

  Recently, one of my esteemed students wrote me a letter - yes, an actual piece of paper with handwriting on it - gasp! She thanked me for one of my courses that she was working through at home. She said she liked my 'metaphysical' approach to writing because it helped her move out of a block she'd been having. I've never really thought about my instruction being 'metaphysical' to be honest. It's not meant to be. A better term might be 'holistic', in that I see writing and the writer as equally in need of guidance and advice. The writer, to me, is inseparable from the writing. You can't be a good, honest and effective writer if you don't aspire to be a good, honest and effective person. If that's metaphysical, then so be it! But you don't have to be perfect. In the same way as your writing doesn't have to be perfect. What's perfection anyway but an intellectual tool we use as a benchmark? Perfection is relative...