You Get What You Focus On

It's easy to feel negative.

The media is always telling us we're on the brink of economic collapse - or war - or the AI invasion - that it's only a matter of days before the biggest slump since last crash and this one will take away the value of our property, our savings, and our livelihoods.

Many would-be writers are tightening their belts, ignoring the call to write in favor of the day job. They're giving up their dreams in droves, convinced that it's all too hard...

Uh, did I miss something?

Doesn't anyone remember basic economics from school?

I thought it was well-known that economic activity goes in seven year cycles - apparently something to do with the sun - and that boom and bust years are natural and inevitable.

Smart stock market people know there's never a bad time for investors - there's just alternate opportunities. While some stocks slide, others climb. 

 

When the market is overpriced, it adjusts itself by devaluing. When stocks and interest rates are high, people stop buying. When stocks are cheap, new investors snap them up and the investment picks the market back up again. This is how it works. The world economies have been surviving like this for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

 

Except now the computers already control the stock markets and make many of these adjustments automatically. It's called progress.

So why is it that now, today, things are supposed to be so much worse?

Could it possibly be because we're collectively making it that way?

That by tightening our belts we're actually starving the economy of the investment it needs?

Maybe you think I'm naive - but I did study Economics! And one thing I learned well is that much of the stock market is driven by good old human fallibility - and perception.

What the market focuses on is what it gets. Boom and collapse become self-fulfilling prophecies - every time - because, as humans, we believe that's how it should work.

Prosperity and hardship, security and scarcity are all illusions. They are not real concrete things - they are merely 'feelings' you have about yourself and people, the world around you.

Real success and genuine happiness have got nothing to do with money. 

 

You either feel good about yourself, your situation, your world, or you don't. Prosperity comes from within.

Do you have less chance of being a professional writer now than you did last year?

Of course not.

If anything you have a better chance - because so many other writers are throwing in the towel!

Don't you be one of them.

Stick with it. Be positive. Fight back. Come up with new angles. Write more, submit more, publish more, be the exception.

Often, to make progress, we just need to change the way we think - and remove our own negativity when all around us are in train wreck mode.

If you really believe we're heading for a crash or a war or a robot invasion (to continue the metaphor), get off the train. Go for a walk in the sunshine. Move towards your goal feeling light. Remind yourself that when you believe in yourself and your talent and capabilities, things always work out for the better.

It's self-doubt and lack of motivation that will kill your ambitions every time.

I'm convinced that if we all got together and decided the crash/war/invasion wasn't going to happen and even if it did, so what - the apparent looming crises would all dissolve, as if by magic, overnight.

Don't buy into the doom and gloom.

It's not real.

And if it's not real, surely it can't hurt you.

Be happy, be grateful for what you have, make big plans and move into the future with confidence.

You have a duty to believe in your dreams, and take action consistently.

To quote the old 80s pop song: "The Only Way is Up!"

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell's Writing Academy

Your Success is My Concern

How To Write When You Don't Feel Like It

 

One question I get asked all the time is, "How do I write when I'm not inspired or have nothing to say?"

Many new writers feel good about what they do and can work on pieces of writing because they are inspired. But many times they are taken aback when the inspiration fades and they are left with the 'task' of simply finishing a story, an article, a book, or a novel.

It can be quite alarming to feel like a writer, know your writing is good, but dread picking up where you left off on that manuscript!

Rest assured, this is normal.

It's not possible to be inspired, excited and even happy writing all of the time. Sometimes the work just has to be done.

Here are a few tips on maintaining your enthusiasm for writing.

Develop Multiple Projects

Diversify your writing portfolio. Be open to new ideas and commit to 'having a go' at different types of writing. Sometimes, when the idea of finishing a large project is too daunting, a sense of achievement can be gotten by completing smaller tasks - like an 800 word article, or a short story.

When Hemingway was uninspired he wrote short paragraphs - and spent hours editing them to finish up with 100 to 200 word vignettes. This is good practice - and can give you a great sense of accomplishment.

Make Lists and Schedules

We all know the importance of having goals. Without having something to aim at, how can you ever hit a target?

Sure, write down your objective. But go one stage further, break the process of achieving your goal into smaller chunks. Make a list of the baby steps necessary to complete a project. Put them in order and commit to spending ten minutes or half an hour, today, on at least starting your list of writing-things to do.

Dream, Focus, Fantasize

There's nothing wrong with imagining your success, and visualizing how you will feel and what might happen as a result of you finishing a project. It might be that 'seeing' your book published in your mind's eye is exactly the impetus you need to keep writing, especially when the process is slow and painstaking.

Attach Rewards

Reward yourself every step of the way. Everything from a nice cup of tea at the end your next page to a glass of wine - or three - at the end of a writing session.

Promise yourself a treat on completion of a chapter, or give yourself a holiday at the end of a novel. Consciously associate the reward and the work in your mind, let each inspire the other.

Do What You Enjoy Most, First

Why break your back and your spirit doing the most difficult tasks first? Do the thing you enjoy first and you'll feel happier and more energized when it comes the next item on your list. (You do make lists don't you? It's long been proven that the most successful people in life are those that list their objectives, daily, if not hourly!)

Write Out the Problem

First understand that there's no such thing as writer's block. You're either writing or you're not, there's no middle ground.

A builder who is not doing anything does not have builder's block. He is a lazy toe-rag charging me $95 dollars an hour to drink my coffee on my veranda.

The best way to overcome a writing block is to write down what you think the problem might be - and keep writing until you have written past the block. No other solution works as well as this.

Do Something Else

This is my secret weapon. When I can't think of what to write, I get up and walk around, or go sit in the garden for a bit. Other times I'll cook, or clean the dishes, or Hoover the carpet - it surprises me just how quickly ideas come when I take a short break.

Hm. What would happen if I got a cleaner in? Actually I know. In the past, I've always ended up helping them!

What I don't do nowadays is put on some music or have the TV going in the background. It never really helped and was way too distracting.

Deadlines

I've noticed that I'm very productive when something absolutely has to be done, whether I want to do it or not.

Sometimes a producer or publisher will need to have a manuscript in by a certain time and, against the odds, I'll be able to come up with thousands of words I didn't know I had in me.

Try setting artificial deadlines. Create your own sense of urgency and write, whether you want to or not, right up until the project is done. Sometimes this is the only way to complete the project.

When All Else Fails, Fake It

Whatever your mood, go to your manuscript, start working on it and keep going for ten minutes.

Pretend to be enjoying yourself. Pretend that what you're doing is important. Pretend that your writing absolutely needs to be done - for whatever reasons.

I guarantee that after just a few minutes, you will feel your mind 'catch up' with the pretence - and you will begin to enjoy the writing process.

It's weird how this works - but it does.

If this doesn't work for you - or indeed, if all of the above fails to work for you - it's probably time to consider an alternate career, as Mark Twain once famously said, like chopping wood.

In the mean time,

Keep writing!

Your Success is My Concern
Rob Parnell's Writing Academy

The Hydra Syndrome

 
Have you ever noticed how you, as a writer, see-saw? 

For one heady moment you know you're brilliant and then, later, with just as much clarity, you know what you do is awful. It's the writer's curse.

I've noticed this happens at certain times in the writing process.

When the ideas are fresh and you're starting out on a project, the adrenaline is flowing, the words are spewing on to the page - everything seems so clear, so clever, so you.

And then after, when you look back, the words seem dull, the structure contrived and the talent - well, non-existent. But then... later, it can seem smooth and inspired again... and then, even later... dire.

Hold up! What's happening here?

I call it The Hydra Syndrome or, for short, THS.

You may remember that the Hydra was a mythological creature with many heads - and each time one was cut off, another sprouted in its place.

And the trouble with being a writer is that we too have many heads. Some are kind and benevolent, some are harsh and critical. And it doesn't matter how often we try to quash one head's opinion of what we do, there's always another that will have the alternate point of view.

It depends on our moods I think. When we're happy and confident, our words seem to fire all the right neurons on the brain, the synaptic gaps are bridged with ease. There's more than just the words in our writing - there's a whole world of meaning implicit.

But then sometimes when we're tired and listless, our brains are foggy and the words seem empty, unable to quite convey the richness we wanted to invoke.

At other times, we feel nothing. We see the words for what they are - just words: pale shadows of reality with no depth, no power, no meaning.

Whenever I'm suffering from a bout of THS, I have to remind myself that, when reading through a different head, I thought my writing was fine. But then I think, am I deluding myself? Maybe the bad head that hates my writing is the true head? Maybe the happy head is a liar and is secretly chuckling behind my back... oh, the woes of writing!

The other day was a good example.

I'd just finished editing (for about the twentieth time) the first 9500 words of my new novel, intending it for submission. I was pretty darn proud of what I'd done. As well as the words being perfect (or so I thought) there seemed also a profound depth of hidden meaning, subtle interconnectivity and the odd clever nuance that would have my readers in awe, enrapt... and yet...

I gave it to Robyn, my partner, to read. As she did so, I waited, butterflies threatening to burst out of my stomach like the alien in, um, Alien.

At least she read the whole thing in one sitting. I was dreading that she'd put it down and say, "I'll read the rest tomorrow." That would have hurt. Big time.

Anyway. At the end she said, "Yeah, it's excellent." But, of course, because she didn't say it's brilliant, I was disappointed.

"What's wrong with it?" I cried.

"Nothing. It's really good." Really good? What's that supposed to mean? She must hate it!

Tentatively, I ask, "Anything that might need fixing?"

"Well, there's a couple of typos." Typos! Gah - after twenty passes! How could that be? "Nothing major," she added.

"And?"

"Well..." Here it comes, I thought. "You've got a couple of point of view issues. You tell the story from one guy's point of view in one chapter and I think you should do it from the hero's."

I slumped. Reality check. Thanks, Robyn.

She was right of course. I have to go back and fix it. But now I'm thinking my 9500 words are heavily flawed, and will remain so, until I've dealt with the problem. Now I wouldn't show my submission to another soul because it's dreadful, awful, until I've rewritten at least two large chunks of it. But then, maybe then, it will be perfect! Yay!

And to think, I used to wonder why my mother thought that writing was a silly way to make a living. Maybe she was right. I can find at least one of my Hydra heads that would rush to agree with her.

But I think the real point is that we need to be critical of our writing - at least some of the time. If we thought that what we did was always brilliant, we'd lose objectivity and we wouldn't want to improve, wouldn't know how to improve even.

Being hard on our writing sometimes is what makes us better writers.

But at those other, special times, loving what we do is what keeps us doing it!

Keep writing!

Creating Better Writers
The Writing Academy

Making Resolutions That Stick

Probably one of the most frequent questions I'm asked is how can a writer sustain the momentum required to finish writing projects.

    According to surveys, writing a book at some point is the secret desire of 90% of the population - as though writing a book somehow validates us as humans - and perhaps makes us a little more immortal. But only around 1% of people will ever rise to the challenge - and even they will falter more times than not. Of these would be writers, less than 1% will ever FINISH their books - and just to be even more depressing now, only a handful of that one percent will ever get to be published.

    Faced with this punishing reality, how do we find the strength to carry on writing?

    Let me answer by first telling you a story.

    Once, a very long time ago, I asked a professional motivational guru how I could become rich. I say it was a long time ago because in those days I was very cynical and I asked the question as more of a challenge than a query. The guru gave me a quick answer:

    "Want to be rich."

    I gave a dismissive grunt at this and asked, "Yeah, so what if that doesn't work?"

    She smiled when she said, "Then you didn't want it enough."

    At the time I took this to be a cop out. I congratulated myself, smugly, that I had exposed her phoniness.

    Now, of course, I know better.

    Because this is precisely how life works. In order to make anything happen, to get things done, achieve results, you have to want them enough.

    But, but, but...

    Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Knowing this isn't getting you any closer to the 'how'.

    How do you get yourself to want something that much? I mean writing success is one thing - but all that work! Isn't there an easier way?

    Well, yeah there is actually - and all it requires is a little shift in your perspective - and a whole lotta dreamin'...

    Now, I could list a bunch of 'things to do' to help you create a little writing success but that can wait for another day. Today, I want to tell you about the single most important aspect of success.
    
Today's the Day

Success is not a place or a time or a circumstance.

    It's a state of mind.

    And it's happening to you right now - all you have to do is to reach out and grasp it.

    Take a few moments - actually the rest of the day - and imagine that you are rich, fulfilled and able to do anything you want, whenever you like.

    Pretty cool, huh?

    Now ask yourself: How would you feel? What would you do?

    This is the shift in perspective I was talking about. You're never going to help your subconscious deal with writing success unless it believes it's already happening. Because it's only when success is actually happening to you that you will begin to make the right decisions for your writing career and enable yourself to perpetuate the writing life you want.

    Writing for a living requires commitment. Some things will work out, some things will not. That's the reality. You can't wait for the good times and then expect everything to be fine from then on. It doesn't work like that.

Achieve Your Writing Goals This Year

You need to decide, right now, that you are a writer - and will continue to be a writer from this moment on. And while you're about it, tell yourself you're already a successful writer - dwell on it, dream on it, and make it real.

    Because it's believing that you are already a good and talented writer that will get you to finish writing projects.

    I know this is true because, I've seen it over and over, no matter the actual talent of the writer, it's the one's that believe in themselves and dream about the writer's life that make it. Every time.

    I also know because a long time before we had houses and cars and money, Robyn (my wife) and I behaved in this way. Though we may have been naive and perhaps not that good to begin with, we never stopped believing we were meant to be successful writers.

    And believing made it so.

    Believing made us write more, made us read more, made us study writing, made us take courses and keep on learning as much as we could.

    We still do it today because writing success is not a destination but a lifelong education. You don't just wake up one day and say "Ah, now I get it, now I know enough."

    Writing is a way of life and it's when you immerse yourself in it totally that you gain the necessary resolve to finish things - and to then get them out there and published!

    To Your Success.

Keep writing!

Rob Parnell's Writing Academy

Is it Still Worth Chasing a Publishing Deal?

In the spirit of recycling, I decided to use an old newsletter from 2007. How different is life now? You’d think it would be very. But really, not much has changed!

    Getting published is every writer's dream. It's apparently what we want, it's what provides the motivation and gives us the spark to keep going, and keep writing and submitting until we finally crack the big one: a publishing deal, a proper one, with a real trade publisher who will promote our books for free - and pay us royalties every six months for the rest of our lives!

    That's the dream, right?

    But how close is this to the reality of being a modern working writer?

    Certainly having an offline bestseller can change your life. Desk bound introverts can become movie moguls (Dan Brown). Single-parent mothers can become very rich media celebrities (J.K. Rowling). And advertising executives can become household names (James Patterson).

    But I would argue that having an offline bestseller is not the only definition of success. Just because the average person in the street hasn't heard of a writer doesn't mean that they aren't rich and successful.

    I get this all the time. I’m judged by the fame of my work. If you say you're a writer and the stranger you're talking to doesn't recognize any of the titles you throw at them, they seem to think you're not really an author!

    It's a trap that we, as writers, must not let ourselves fall into.

    There are literally hundreds of thousands of professional writers out there who make a living, many are even very rich and successful, but whose names wouldn't raise an eyebrow. Not everyone can be in the media spotlight. All those TV and movie writers out there who get paid by the script or cable TV creation get very wealthy doing it - but you don't see their names plastered all over the tabloids. Ever.

    Look at the average author list of ANY publishing house - and you'll see at least 100 names you don't recognize to every one that rings a bell. Do you think these 'unknown' writers are unsuccessful?

    Why do we associate success with fame? And fame with success - when clearly some people are famous just for being famous - and not particularly talented? I think we need to get over this idea. Because it's the only way to see our own success in perspective.

    If someone could wave a magic wand, what would you ask for?

    Financial independence brought about by writing? Most writers I know would give their mother, grandmother, and firstborn for JUST this, never mind fame or a spot on a chat show!

    Which brings us back to getting a publishing deal. Sometimes writers are very disappointed by the reality of having a deal with a trade publisher. Rather than being the endpoint at which a writer can relax, kick back and enjoy a steady flow of money inwards, most new author's experience is very different. Getting published is not an endpoint - or even a starting point most times - it's a signpost on the journey of a writer's life. It's just one of the many signposts that indicate your ongoing success.

    Other signposts might include winning a writing prize or self-publishing e-books - or giving a talk about yourself or meeting with a movie producer. There's no particular order of things that you MUST follow in order to achieve writing success. It doesn't work like that.

    You are the best judge of your success. YOU decide whether you're getting somewhere or you're not.
  
     Many writers I know start writing and releasing ebooks AFTER their publishing deals - for two main reasons.
    
    1. Fame and riches do not necessarily follow from having a publishing deal.
    
    2. They look at internet writers of Kindle books and notice that, far from being 'lower' on the pecking order, they're better off and more respected nowadays.
    
    No longer is there a stigma attached to writing for the net - nor with self-publishing. In fact, technology has revealed the secret that publishing companies have been holding on to for centuries - that THERE IS NO SECRET.   

    An independent author has just as much chance of creating a bestseller than does a publishing company, most of whom grub around in the dark wondering what will sell - rejecting authors out of hand for no good reason - simply because they don't really know what they're doing!
    
    Most publishing companies loath their writers because we think we know what we're doing - and we don't listen to them. They give us the brush off because they have hundreds of other projects that don't make money - and don't have time for another that might. (Ours!)
    
    The writing industry is entirely geared to say 'no' first, last and everywhere in between. Sometimes I feel that the hacks who are supposedly there to help writers lack the passion and commitment that are the prerequisites of a working artist. They just don't get it.
    
    I guess the point is to encourage you not to think of agents and trade publishers as the be and end all of your life. There are a hundred, maybe even a thousand, other fine ways of becoming a successful writer.
    
    And, you should perhaps be targeting those too!

Keep Writing

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Archetypes and Fiction Writing

  

I’m thinking of creating a new course on using Jungian archetypes to help with fiction writing. Would this be useful to you? That’s usually my main criteria for making a new course: will this area of study help my subscribers become better writers?

I touch on the use of archetypes in my hero’s journey course, but mainly in the context of the Tarot deck, which I find fascinating. The Tarot is like a story-telling manual that encapsulates history and all of the possible interactions of humans.

I should explain to those who don’t know that Dr Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist working at the beginning of the 20th century, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. Jung developed the idea that archetypal characters like the hero, the mother, the trickster and various others continually reveal themselves in fiction because, on some level, we all recognize these generalizations as based on reality. A fascinating idea.

Using Freudian psychobabble to help justify and explain some character motivations has been common over the last one hundred years, especially for screenwriters. Could Jungian archetypes take us to any better places? As an intellectual exercise, yes, these issues are probably helpful to writers but, as for to supplying believable motivations, I’m not so sure.

Curiously Jung believed there was absolutely nothing wrong with having sex with his patients, indeed he seemed to think it might help them. In our more enlightened age this is troubling behavior. Today we would call that abuse. The risk of cancellation aside, these were different times. Despite his questionable transgressions, Jung’s philosophies are still interesting.

His groundbreaking idea that there is something like a shared collective consciousness that holds us all together is a good theory, a quantum argument for the ages. Synchronicity is a fascinating idea too. But archetypes require the kind of understanding that seems less appropriate with each passing year. Women are either maidens, mothers or crones - which is horribly insulting. Heroes are always masculine and, if they’re not, they are women dominated by their masculinity. I mean, come on. Who was he working for? The Catholic Church?

Archetypes are an interesting intellectual exercise but for storytelling I think they are limiting, even destructive to good fiction. We need to move away from stereotypes and think more laterally. I mean really, is presenting cliche ideas about personality and suggesting you use them in your work wise? What if you are striving for originality? How can it be original to use character “types” that allegedly present universal traits, especially when we live in a world that is certainly not totally black and white.

Besides, archetypes are often only identifiable AFTER the fact, and usually by their behaviors and their functions. Not always because they represented the intention of the author. I’ve never believed in making assessments about writing based on finished products. This is not the way authors create. We invent first and rationalize later.

In my view Jungian archetypes are simplistic and assumptive. Jung blithely assumes that the archetypes are part of a subconscious intelligence that may be simply a romantic imposition onto reality because they may not represent reality beyond what a well educated person may connect. This is reductionist and in this PC world, not helpful. Indeed modern psychologists think that seeing people as archetypes might be a sign of madness.

You need to free yourself of preconceptions and templates when you create. Inspiration should be free flowing and instinctive.

Sure, learn, study, take on board all the information you might need.

Absorb it, make it part of who you are. BUT when you’re inventing stories, plotting, building characters, let your instincts take over. Clear your mind and simply invent, imagine and dream.

Archetypes will limit your imagination. And make plotting harder. Trying to force square pegs into round holes will simply frustrate and irritate you. Best to come at a new project clean. Start with a “what if” question and set your spirit free.

Ask yourself questions and go for the first answer you get and then ask again. Often the third or fourth idea will be the most original but that doesn’t matter. Stick with the idea that feels right to you, even if you can’t explain that decision.

Try not to be formulaic but do make sure you are not stretching credulity.
There’s nothing wrong with “off the wall” ideas as long as they make complete sense to you and you know you can “sell” the ideas in your storytelling. But don’t go the painless route just because it’s easier. Think through the consequences of making a decision and see where logic takes you. There’s a fine line between logic and fancy. They have to work together to create a satisfying whole.

So. I would still like to know what you think.

Would you like to see a course devoted to character creation using Jungian archetypes as a starting point?

I’m quite happy to create one, even if only as an intellectual exercise.

Personally, when I’m inventing characters, I prefer to see them as real people with real motivations. I see them in my mind’s eye. I find it difficult to take seriously the visualization of archetypes. They’re a bit too nebulous for me.

But writing about them?

I can do that!

Keep Writing.

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Random Writing Thoughts

Again, no time to do much creative work this week. Quite possible this newsletter may have to wait until next week. The weather is so hot here, they say record temperatures, that by the time I’ve made my TikTok video and watered the garden, it’s already lunch time. There goes the hour or so of my prime writing time.
 
As for editing my manuscript - which I mentioned last week - I’m still at a loss, though I have thought of another way forward.

To get me back on track with my novel, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet that tracks which chapters I’ve finished. I’ve found that if I do a little - just a few minutes here and there - then I can progress slowly. At least something is getting done.

We’ve got the band coming over tomorrow and we’ve had to move the music studio into the house. Two months of relentless forty degree heat has meant the music room is just way too hot for five people. Better we play inside, with the air conditioning on full.

Honestly it’s no wonder so many early Australian immigrants abandoned outback living. It’s not just the heat, and the flies, it’s the fact there’s no water, not even damp drizzly days to break up the monotony.

On a different note, there’s a writer I know whose having problems. She keeps sending me cryptic messages about life and writing, the kind that people send when they’re on the edge of suicide.

I’m worried about her. But I wish she was more specific. I might be able to help her if I knew what the real problem was. As it is, she talks in generalities about abandonment (I assume her partner’s just left her) and about losing her way and having to relearn meaning and inspiration. She talks about being blocked but really I think she’s probably horribly sad and depressed.

She talks about a general lack of direction when to me she needs to drill down at her problems. Stop glamorizing her depression and start dealing with it.

But I know that trying to fix things is the classic male response - and apparently not always what is required. Females say they prefer to be heard, listened, sympathized with, and don’t necessarily want their problems fixed. It can be frustrating for both parties because, however well-intentioned either may feel, neither is receiving what they need.

This is the same writer who believes that her fictional characters need lots of back-story to work.

I don’t agree. I believe fictional characters, heroes especially,  shouldn’t be over analyzed. You don’t need to know everything about a person to find them compelling. In fact, just like in real life, it might be better not to know everything because a little mystery keeps you coming back. To know and understand everything about your hero (or your partner for that matter) makes them predicable and dull. Better to be surprised every now and then by their behavior. We need to be surprised sometimes. The world and the people residing here should not always act true to form. Your assumptions needs to be shaken, at least when it comes to writing.

Because, without sudden conflict there can be no drama.

There’s a lot of nonsense spoken by so-called writing gurus about these issues. To me, the process of writing needs to be simplified, not complicated. I feel strongly that if you’re going to help people write then you should make the process seem as easy as possible, not to fill potential author’s heads with a bunch of unnecessary obstacles.

Like the idea of creating a secret “wound” for your antagonist. The very idea is enough to give you a block just trying to get your head around it. And why would you need this wound? Surely the idea is simply playing into some Freudian trope that psychopaths need motivation? In reality that’s not the case.

Some people are just wired wrong. I’ve met enough sociopaths to know that there is often no “initiating event”. These people were born horrible. That’s what makes psychopaths evil - they have no conscience, no reason to be awful.

Besides, the motivation of the bad guy is usually an irrelevance. The only thing you need is an antagonist whose agenda is at odds with the hero. Whatever the hero wants or needs is thwarted by the antagonist. They have opposite agendas. Simple, clean, neat - and totally believable to a reader.

Why make life complicated? What’s the point of giving yourself headaches before you start. Stop thinking and just write, get it all down. If a wound occurs to you, and it fits, great, but if it doesn’t, don’t go there. It’s not necessary!

We should never get sucked in by imaginary blocks. As Douglas Adams once said, Writers' Block was invented by Californians who can’t write.

If you’re tempted to believe you have blocks, you need to get over yourself and stop imagining that there are gremlins out there bent on persecuting you. It’s not true.

The rest of us just need to get on with it.

      There's no such thing as Writer's Block. Don't buy into the myth! You've never heard of surgeon's block, have you? Or astronaut's block? Of course not.

      That would be just dumb.

Keep Writing

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Finding Time To Write

  

I have a novel to get out. You might remember I told you about it during its creation. It’s called “HERESY” and it’s basically, to all intents and purposes, done. Finished. Just need a final proof/copy-edit to make sure there are no glaring errors and no embarrassing typos. Then formatting the text for publishing. Done the cover too. Mostly.

I guess you can tell, in reality I’m a long way from completing the novel but I kid myself there’s not long to go - mainly to make myself feel better!

Fact is, finding enough time to edit, proof, and polish a novel is probably the hardest part of book writing for me. Especially if you’re a busy boy. I usually like to fit things like writing in between other duties like making a daily TikTok video, watering the garden, sorting out my Academy admin, making lunch and beverages, eating, washing up, tidying and hoovering, walking the dog, rehearsing music for upcoming shows and squeezing in my daily swim. Now, I know you’re probably thinking I’m complaining about nothing, but I just feel I don’t have enough time for everything…

The obvious answer is probably to employ more technical people. But the trouble is I’m a hands on, won’t let go, kind of person. I end up checking every word someone edits, thereby undermining their work, and paying for something I’m already doing.

I guess I could pay someone to garden, cook, clean house, walk the dog etc. But to be honest, I don’t like having people round here, especially not strangers. Plus, we’re so cut off I’m not sure many people would want to work here.

Is there a more practical solution?    

The truth is I found the time to write the novel, all 100,000 words of it so, in theory, I could apply some of the time creation techniques I learned there.

Trouble was, when I finished the novel, I replaced the writing time with TikTok, Instagram posting, and newsletter creation. Now, whenever I have free time, my attention moves to writing articles and blog posts, which, though I love doing them, takes up all my time. I feel like I’m doing something important but the editing hours have disappeared.

It’s funny, posting a daily TikTok video about the writing process seemed like a good idea a couple of months ago. Since then I’ve learned that any kind of “influencer” status is achieved only through 24/7 commitment . A sixty-second video can take anything from twenty minutes to six hours to complete, upload, and post. Doing that every day is a irksome undertaking. The good thing is that my TikTok following is growing consistently - which was the idea and will hopefully reap more rewards in the future, though what they might be remains a mystery as yet.

Social media is like life. You think it must be important because everyone else is so heavily involved in doing it but perhaps it’s not. Perhaps it’s so ephemeral as to be pointless, simply a banal way for everyone to pass their time. We’ll see.

Sometimes I wonder where all the Internet Gurus went. When I started out you couldn’t move online without bumping into an internet marketing guru. They were all basically writers who had found a niche where you could talk about yourself and get rich selling your ideas. They were everywhere back in the noughties and on the whole were nice, helpful, even inspirational people. I spoke to a lot of them at various times. Now, I don’t know where they’ve all gone.

Even the writing gurus have disappeared too. I can think of maybe half a dozen still working but a decade ago there were literally hundreds. I know because I used to do joint ventures with them. Now, nothing like that is possible. Most have drifted away because having an online presence is just so expensive nowadays.

Even the education platforms are challenged. Interestingly I got an email from Udemy the other day. Greg Brown, the CEO, explained how they need to keep more of the money they make from the courses they sell, to keep Udemy going. They are the biggest education provider online, but clearly they’re struggling. They apparently tried economizing and sacking people. But still they need more money. But. Surely they must know they wouldn’t have ANY money if it wasn’t for the course creators. The teachers, the people doing all the work. They say they’re proud they pay out 200 million a year to instructors, but now they want to keep half of it. I’m sure they do. For their shareholders no doubt, and the venture capitalists they owe money to.  

I shouldn’t complain. Companies like Udemy and Amazon still pay me royalties and I’m happy writing, living my busy life, only having writer’s problems.

Because that’s what it’s all about, right?

Get to where you need to be and be happy when you’re there.

Complaining I don’t have enough time to do what I love is, after all, cowardly and inappropriate. Many people have awful lives and I should be ashamed that my biggest problem is not having enough time to put out another novel.

Thanks for listening. And forgive me, I shall try to right my ways. And simply…
 
Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Marketing Your Books

 

 

So you’ve written a book. Now what?

Of course I’m talking about a self-published book because a traditional publisher (like one of the Big Four) would likely already have a plan which you probably wouldn’t be part of. Let’s say you’re printing up your own copies and you don’t really know what to do next.

Before we start I should tell you that for over twenty years I’ve run my own publishing company and therefore have lots of experience in this arena. I’ve helped many authors promote their books and guided many writers through the myriad of possibilities. One thing I can tell you is that there are hundreds of ways to promote a book and eager self-published authors end up trying most of them.

Ignore the net for a moment and understand that marketing in the real world is a complex business operation that requires brainstorming, strategizing, organizing and lots of labor intensive work with long hours pursuing many avenues, none of which are guaranteed to make sales or in reality, even raise an eyebrow.

People always think you should have a launch party. Do that if you want. You might sell anywhere from 3 to 300 books. But then it will be over. Better to see your launch as part of a strategy that may take a few months to a year to play out.

You need to be thorough. Way before you set a date for your launch, your first job is to identify what you want to achieve, what is practical, and mostly, what you define as success.

Selling books is not always the only thing that matters. Getting an agent or a traditional publishing deal for instance may be better, more practical goals.

Don’t rush out and print as may books as you can. The last thing you want is thousands of books filling up garage space that you have no idea what to do with. Work out the cost of printing what you actually need, what you have guaranteed orders for, so that you can recoup your investment. This is the first rule of author-preneurship:

Don’t spend more than you can afford.

While you’re brainstorming your ideas, think of angles. What makes your book project interesting, relevant to the modern media and likely to be of interest to journalists and program makers in TV and radio? The angle can be tenuous, even silly, barely rational but something, anything that connects you to the news cycle will help you get coverage.

When people think of interviews, they visualize the top celebrities they see on TV, forgetting that internet and radio stations are always looking for interesting people and topics to cover at odd times like the middle of the night, or as part of a podcast series.

Collect together five of your best anecdotes, especially the ones that pertain to your book. You don’t want to have to think of things on the spot. Agree with the interviewer what you want to talk about before you go “on air”.

There’s no getting around it, you will have to call local radio stations and email podcasters to introduce yourself and ask if they’d be interested in your book. Usually they will want something in return like access to your mailing list or a cross promotion that favors them or their listeners.

The net is the hardest place to create a stir but using TikTok and Facebook to raise your profile and focus your energy can be good for you in the short term. If only to show you how little you can achieve with social media - and of course, how expensive creating social media advertising can be.

Same rule applies: Don’t spend what you can’t make back.

Networking is hugely important when it comes to book marketing. Not just for meeting new people, finding business partners, but also for gaining instant feedback on what’s working, and what’s not.

In the old days press releases were a handy way of alerting the media. These days not so much. Plus, finding a website that will allegedly send your releases around the globe is expensive and not always effective.

Decent PR companies start at around five thousand a month. And for that you’ll get very little. You have to engage a PR company for a couple of years to really see some benefit. Again the rule is, don’t do it unless there’s an immediate influx of cash or some other reward. Just because you have money to throw at promotion, doesn’t mean you should.

You might consider a tour. Trying to get all of your promotional activities to happen at the same time can help in all sorts of ways. Combine visits to libraries, bookshops, and local radio slots to foster momentum.

Remember, despite the best will in the world, advertising rarely actually sells products. Paid ads are primarily for creating brand awareness and alerting customers who were going to buy anyway.

If all else fails you can drive yourself to local markets, car boot sales and book fairs. Get a desk made up with posters, banners, and other promotional material - and copies of your book - and trawl your state for places to visit.

Even if you never sell a book, you’ll probably have a lot of fun.

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Looking On The Write Side

 

I was reading a newspaper the other day. Yes, an actual piece of print with words and black and white pictures. Inside, there was an interesting article about the idea that optimists don’t make very good financial decisions, mainly because they tend to believe the best will happen. In reality, the article said, optimists can easily lose money because of their sometimes irrational, rose-colored, faith-based decisions.

Though the idea makes sense, it sounded more likely the author had an agenda to me. Or maybe her editor thought the angle would make an interesting read.

But the more I thought about the idea, the less impressed I became.  

Because the whole idea implies that only the sad and cynical make sound financial decisions. So that, even if you’re depressed and pessimistic, you’ll apparently have lots of money. And I guess they revel in the righteousness that often accompanies pessimism.

But if you think about it, you can’t destroy or even offend an optimist because by definition, optimists see the best in every situation, even poverty and disappointment.

You can’t destroy an optimist because when things go well they are validated and when situations go badly Pollyanna-tinged people tend to think their time hasn’t come yet, but of course, it will. Whereas, sad realists are always disappointed and feel justified that their dismal version of the world is the correct one.

My feeling is that the more optimistic you are about an impossible situation, the better you are able to cope with the realities of the time taken to reach fruition and the disappointments of not getting what you want immediately.

Pessimism is not going to get you very far. A pessimist thinks that everything will go badly, and perhaps it will, so why bother at all?

This is not the thinking of a winner.

Gaining success at writing is an act of faith. Long term belief in yourself is the main prerequisite for an aspiring author, for someone who is willing to invest the necessary time and effort in a near impossible dream.

But that’s the caveat: near.

Almost impossible is enough for a writer. Because almost means there is a chance. And optimists know there’s a chance because their heroes make it every day. An ambitious optimist knows there will always be room for one more. Eventually their time will come…

The Scottish crime writer, Ian Rankin, wrote for fifteen years, financially supported by his wife, until he finally got a royalty check he could bank. Now he’s knighted and received a thousand awards. Against the odds, he - and his wife - believed, as only optimists could.

Of course, some authors won’t be so lucky. Despite the best will in the world, and all the work, some may never get the attention or the support they need or would like.

Probably only about one in a thousand writers are as good as they think they are. But, because they remain positive, many will make it anyway. Just through pure grit, determined longevity, and self-belief.

Using writing as a means to become successful is kinda crazy, and yet the most prolific and successful authors really are those who won’t take no for an answer. Georges Simenon for instance wrote over 400 novels. Now that’s a commitment. Agatha Christie wrote 80, a fairly modest amount considering Enid Blyton wrote over 800. Barbara  Cartland composed more than 700 romances. Isaac Asimov 500 SF books. The writer R L Stine has written over 450 children’s horror novels, and he’s not finished yet.

It’s probably a temperament issue. Some of us just think in words, we live our lives interacting with the written word. We see the world through writing, experiencing it, through language. Some people are just built to sit at home and write. It’s what they do, like Robert Jordan, who died saying he’d liked to have had a life but couldn’t find the time because he had so much more writing to do. I understand. Writing is addictive and does take over you life if you let it.

Being obsessed with writing will take you a long way. Authors like Ken Follett and Steve Berry make their mark with sheer quantity and focus. They know what people want and hit the mark every time. This makes them relevant and bankable - oh yes, and very rich. Dan Brown in contrast writes slowly and carefully, plotting beautifully and putting a book out every couple of years.

My favorite authors tend to write two or three books a year, like Val McDermid and Scott Mariani - they write relentlessly. I wish sometimes I could do the same but I keep coming back to teaching and motivating.

    My sister thinks I’m unfriendly and selfish but I’m not, I’m just shy and reserved, preferring to live my life through art and words. People think I must be extroverted because I sing and play guitar in public but that’s just acting and getting an ego fix. In reality I’m quiet and prone to hiding away.

So, yes, some of us choose a writer’s life for personal reasons and to keep ourselves sane. It doesn’t mean we don’t like life. Far from it. We’ve just found the best way to remain optimistic is to hunker down and write.
 
Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Writing - The Magic 3-Point Rule

 

Whenever I get stuck, I invent a three-step rule to help me out. Using this discipline has helped me complete a dozen novels, fifty writing courses, and over three thousand articles in the last twenty years. Most of all, the practice has helped me stay sane. I recommend you do the same.

As a general example, if I find myself obsessing over the past or beating myself up over a mistake, I use this 3-stage mind shifter:

1. Stop
2. Now
3. Forward.

I find this helps me back to the present and keeps me focused on being real in the moment, instead of getting trapped by regret.

As far as the writing goes, the 3-pointer I use if I get stuck or stressed is this:

1. Relax
2. Review
3. Rework

I find this is a useful way to remind me the writing problems I face are often the same. Stressing doesn’t achieve anything. Sitting back and quietly reading what I have will help identify the issues, then reworking the text or the story, no matter how loathsome and dreadful, is generally the best way to fix things.

The three-point rule I use to begin a story is one I of my favorites.

1. Character
2. Agenda
3. Plot

This one is fairly self-explanatory but also very useful as a teaching aid as well as a writing technique.

Because once you have a character in mind, then the rest is easy. Try it. Think of a name, a type of person, their profession, gender, then invent the most important aspect, their agenda. What does your character want? What gets them moving through the text?

When you’re first trying to plot a story, keep the agenda simple. She wants to date someone, he wants to steal some money, they want to be  accountants, or a killer.

Use the agenda to predict your character’s next move. Imagine them waking up in the morning and… doing what? Why? That’s the starting point for your story. Where do you go from here? Pretty soon you’re going to need an antagonist, someone who will try to thwart your hero’s agenda. Drama and conflict will begin to inevitably ensue.

The conflict between your characters’ agendas becomes the story, which you can then plot accordingly from obstacle to obstacle.

I use software like Scrivener’s cork-board function to create plot points.

Use a three-point system to create each plot turn:

1. Event
2. Consequence
3. Obstacle

Use about five to ten of these plot point “turns” for a short story and fiftyish for a novel.

The trick is not to get too precious. Your story will no doubt change as you write it anyway.

The most important rule of writing is to remain productive. Writing should always be your default activity.

The reality is that the odds are against you. 99% of would-be authors never make it. You have to force your mind to make quick decisions you stick to. You do this by training yourself by reinforcement. Habit. You need to write every day and know that you will not break the habit. After a while you will start to notice that a large proportion of what you do create is actually fine and the more you work at your editing your faith in your decisions grows stronger.

It’s just about practice. And learning to love what you create.

You might think that because you wrote at school then it’s a skill you haven’t lost. But I get messages from people all the time who realize that’s not the case. To my mind it’s just about strengthening old muscles. Regaining faith that your fiction abilities will get stronger. Positive reinforcement is needed to reacquire the skills you already possess. As kids we have no issue with making things up because that’s how we naturally play. Imagination begins with play, with the willingness to stretch a premise to prove something profound.

Use these three stages of positive reinforcement:

1. Practice
2. Believe
3. Persist

Invent three-stage technologies for yourself. Be on the lookout for ways to improve.  Many of the blocked writers I know remain blocked for months, sometimes years at a time because they let habits take over. The more they think about their reasons to be blocked, the deeper those negative grooves get in the brain. You have to dismantle negative grooves by finding ways around your blocks.

First of all, there’s no such thing as writer’s block. You are either writing or you’re not.

A writer writes by definition. If you’re not writing, you’re not a writer, so stop beating yourself up and get on with your life. Do something else. Accept that perhaps writing isn’t your thing. Stop thinking about it, stop talking about it, find another avenue of expression.

My experience is blocks are not usually about the writing anyway. They’re about an imagined eventuality, or a possible result. Very often they’re about a plot that won’t work because you’ve written yourself into a corner - realizing that a lot more work and editing or deletion is necessary, and it’s the feelings associated with these issues that cause the blocks.
Again, the way out is to teach yourself to enjoy writing.

1. Practice
2. Practice
3. Practice.

The ultimate three-step fixer.

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy 

Making Your Hero Likable

I’ve heard authors say that in fiction, the future will be dominated by heroes of questionable ethics and/or moral ambiguity. I’m not sure this is true. My instinct tells me we want heroes to be ourselves on our best days, not our worst…

Many of us can readily relate to a loser, especially if they’re a winner in disguise, something we wish we were, or could be.

It’s the difference between the function of classic heroes against the appeal of anti-heroes. When it comes to creating fiction, there’s likely a time and place for both. The trick is to know when and why…

The classic fictional hero has a template: he or she is strong-willed, motivated, attractive, morally sound, and, in the context of a story plot, driven by a worthy agenda.

It’s interesting that women are more likely to be flawed these days. In The Girl on The Train, for instance, the heroine starts out as a sad drunk with an empty life who, through her investigation of a mystery, becomes focused and smart, enjoying a life with purpose. Classic hero’s journey stuff.

In my own fiction, I’ve always wanted to create antiheroes, probably as a reaction against characters like Superman, Luke Skywalker, and the white-hatted cowboys of my childhood. I never empathized with classical clean-cut heroes. I prefer real people with flaws. But I realise now that even a total loser should have the necessary traits to help complete their hero’s journey.

Tony Soprano and Walter White were great role models for writers because they represented dark characters with lots of potential for violence, intrigue, and drama. Plus, as a surprising bonus for the creators of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, these characters turned out to be engaging and exceptionally likable.

Marvel has always tried hard to make their superheroes likable. Tony Stark (Iron Man),  Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Peter Parker (Spider Man) worked because they seemed like real people who just happen to be “super”.

Comic book origin stories work because the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary and we can see ourselves making that transition.  

Superheroes generally have a flaw, a kryptonite of some kind. Some authors I know call this “the wound” that represents the terrible secret we hide from the world. I don’t believe it’s entirely necessary for a rounded character. Look at Harry Potter, Jack Reacher, Robert Langdon, James Bond, no wounds there. Their adversaries however have a few gaping sores…

Making heroes deliberately unlikable seems clever but is ultimately self-defeating, even if your real purpose is to add more realism to your stories. Perhaps since Marvel and DC took over the movie industry, the whole idea of heroes has taken a back seat to spectacle.

Disney is always trying to define new heroes but has been failing recently. People simply don’t want those kinds of stories anymore. Barbie worked well but self-awareness is a novelty that can wear off quickly.

Sympathy for a fictional character is usually created by showing extraordinary behavior during a stressful situation. Making your hero the eye of the storm.

My feeling is that being normal under pressure is the true definition of heroic.

Readers like to ‘wear’ fictional heroes. To inhabit them and experience the world the hero lives in. People want to become the hero and be in that world for a while, surrounded by an environment that is not their own.

The hero is always the reader. When people read about a strong good-looking hero they see themselves.  

Just because writers often need to suck people in with a spectacular opening, doesn’t mean that’s going to work for the average person who is not yet invested in the characters. People have to like the characters first before you subject them to anything readers can relate to. Creating this empathic link with a lead character is probably more important than any other piece of storytelling. Best of course if you can combine both, by describing the hero going about their daily business in the context of a gradually unraveling plot.

In male oriented stories, we may see action with a character at the center but there’s perhaps little to like about him except his manner. This is why characters are often described as good-looking because you have to do less work to make your reader like them.

Men who are tall, strong, handsome and talented inspire our respect in fiction in a way that would be impossible in real life. When we meet perfect men in real life, we’re often suspicious, cynical, threatened, even outright hostile.

When it comes to women too we can be jealous of beauty and perfection, especially in social situations. But in fiction, we associate good looks with approachability, warmth, even friendliness.

I think it’s simply this fact: we are prepared to be intrigued by a “perfect character” for longer than we would a “normal” person. And what we’re actually doing is fusing ourselves into the role that character represents. We are becoming the hero. We do this in books by imagining the hero or heroine in our minds. We embark on a certain leap of faith, which is the expression of a psychological empathy that’s based on our innate need to identify with an inspiring, aspirational, personality.

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy  

Structure Versus Slapdash

  

An author friend messaged me earlier this week. Apparently he’d been lying awake at night thinking about my advice. I recently tried to convince him that planning his novel was a good way to get him out of a block. He’d contacted me to say he wasn’t sure that planning stories worked for him, actually for any writer. He thought perhaps “making stuff up as you went along” was better.

Hmm…

Indeed, he went further, suggesting that if a writer did something right, like accidentally write a good book, then they were likely to be more surprised than anyone. Clearly he’d been obsessing far too much over this whole issue. In the end he let me know he was of the opinion that most writers really didn’t know what they were doing and that if they did by chance create something wonderful, it was a probably a total fluke.

To be honest I think this attitude is pretty dumb. Sad actually. And wrong.

My experience tells me it’s clear many authors know exactly what they’re doing from start to finish. And they know instinctively that pre-planning a novel is the most effective way of creating something that will approximate a decent first draft.

I have spent enough time encouraging new authors to know the very worst thing you can do is to make up novel fiction as you go along because this will always create massive problems when it comes to structure, sense, and the proliferation of logic flaws. In short, to borrow the old adage, when you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.

True, many great pieces of writing can be created as a result of naked inspiration, or unstructured, flowing thought. Many authors too, swear by letting their imaginations run free, by allowing their creativity to fly unencumbered. Yes, all these techniques can work. You can even use these same techniques to augment your planned structures!

Seriously, blocked writers often need to convince themselves of all kinds of silliness to get them back on the writing path. Ego and arrogance can play a part. Bending the truth can be helpful on occasion, even lying to yourself. I know that at certain points in their career, many would-be writers assume they need learn nothing more and just hope for the best.

My author friend I assume needed to reject my advice, at least for a while, to get to a more positive place. But I would argue that undermining the self-evident might not be the best way forward.

There is much a writer can learn without relying on the hard way, that is through trial and error, by using up much of their potentially productive time by writing badly when they could have learned a few useful conventions that are already widely accepted.

To be honest, I would have been more convinced by his argument if he’d made a better case. I found his writing, at least in his messages to me, to be almost incoherent. This may sound cruel and prematurely judgmental but If his books are anything like his texting style, he clearly has a lot to learn about technique, not to mention grammar and punctuation.

You might say you can’t tell a person’s literary style from their emails, their texts and DMs, and I would disagree. These things are important. Careful writers know you should get “text-speak” right if you’re going to message properly.

Because that’s what writers do. That’s their true purpose: to communicate effectively.

It’s not fair to write badly and then expect other people like editors to “fix” your work.

It’s lazy for one. Insulting actually. And ultimately disrespectful.

Why would you subject your editor to painful errors that you could easily cure yourself from making? Especially simple things like using conventional punctuation - the bane of an editor’s life.

This whole issue is related to the other age-old writing question. Which is better: plotting or pantsing?

The easiest way to get to the bottom of this issue is to ask a room full of writers for the answer. (Something I have often done!)

The experienced will say plotting (planning) while new authors will say pantsing (making it up as you go along). I think this result is to do with the difference between fear of failure and experience (reality). Because beginners can’t trust their fragile egos to perform under pressure while professionals know nothing is as dependable as hard work.

Newbies think writing should be fun, even if they don’t create anything. Professionals think the fun is in actually creating something.

New writers tend to make the same mistakes over and over. Advice is really only there to help you look more professional. There’s nothing to be afraid of. If you enjoy the struggle of not knowing the correct ways to write - or you like learning in public, that’s fine. Do that if you don’t like to follow the rules and conventions designed to help you.

The rules on point of view, show don’t tell, structure, the hero’s journey, dialogue, characterization, pacing, style, and punctuation et al, these are all necessary protocols that you can’t ignore or say don’t matter.

Because they do.

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

PS: My author friend still hasn’t got past his block. Good job I’m also blessed with patience!

Help Yourself to Writing Success

  

“I had no idea we were surrounded by so many birds until I started looking out the window.” My photographer wife said this to me the other day and I immediately thought, there’s an article, or a life lesson, in there somewhere.
 

Opportunities can be around us all of the time but we don’t see them because we weren’t specifically looking for them.

I once spoke to a New York publisher who said the world didn’t need more self-help books. Clearly the sentiment is not true but I do understand it is harder to get them published these days, unless you’re a doctor, psychologist, or a celebrity. And even then…

I hear that Arnold Schwarzenegger is having trouble promoting his latest self-help book because he’s old school. He believes in self-determination, making something of yourself. This astonishing guy worked his ass off to get what he got. From bodybuilding to learning English to schmoozing with Hollywood producers and politicians.

Arnie’s whole life is an advert for successful self-help. And yet because the newly woke claim it’s unfair to say you are responsible for your own destiny, he can’t advertise his book properly. He has to maintain his message is about helping others, being of service, which I suppose in a round about way, it is. But primarily his book acts as a warning that if you’re not excited by your life, it’s likely because you haven’t taken responsibility for your own actions. You’re just hanging on in quiet desperation.

At least it’s now politically correct to do that.

But is a life of unfulfilled dreams what you want?

Funny world we live in. It’s become wrong to say that we have the innate ability to change our lives. Self-help has become tainted by the “woke” generation who say you can’t tell people that focus and hard work is the answer because success is apparently not possible for everyone.

Okay, I accept that some will never make something of themselves because they’re disadvantaged. But is it wrong to encourage the rest of us to make better decisions?

The self-help genre certainly helped me. Reading motivational books in the past helped me understand that failure, a life of drab acceptance, was a choice. That losing touch with our dreams and our potential was often the result of bad decision-making.

Without self-help books I would never have started my own business or written my books and courses. Or discovered that helping people achieve their dreams is the best thing I could have done with my life. Self-help books and their authors taught me so much about myself. I would never have been the person I am today without the lessons I learned from the greatest motivators of the 20th Century.

People like Anthony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Susan Jeffers, Wayne Dyer, Joe Vitale. These people inspired the heck out of me. Now - allegedly - they’re close to cancellation for making people feel insecure, giving false hope, because reality does not reward the majority.

So what?

Does that mean we shouldn’t at least try to better ourselves?

Why does modern PC politics want to make us all the same? Isn’t that Communism? What happened to self-improvement? Ambition? Dreaming? Wishing? Hoping?

They say it’s unfair to make people aspire to goals that will never happen to them. That’s realism they say. But isn’t that the point? You can often only achieve your dreams if you are unrealistic. All great artists and inventors and visionaries are unrealistic. That’s how they achieve their extraordinary results.

Sure, not everyone can be Arnie but at least he’s providing a road-map if we wanted one. Surely not everyone thinks that super-success is impossible.

What would be the point to a world where everyone wanted to be average?

Some people see different things when they look out of the window. Especially when they’re shown there are different things out there. Better ways of running your life, of interacting with people, of showing compassion, working together to create superior futures.

Artists, creators, and entrepreneurs tend to want to change the world, improve on it, and that’s a good thing, right? The fact is self-help gurus never say that everyone can change, that every single person on Earth can be successful. No, they only ever try to appeal to the minority who want to improve themselves, those who demand more from themselves. Plus, in a sense, you might argue that most self-help writers are actually just writing for themselves. I think in publishing, this phenomenon is a given.

Let’s face it. The people we look up to never accept ordinary - and we know it.

Focus, hard work, and making your own luck really are the secrets to success.

Actors know it. Musicians know it. Even plumbers know it.

I have my own simple success motto:

Always keep your promises, especially the one you make to yourself.

That’s it. Easy to remember too.

Author success is about writing, publishing, marketing, filling your hours with creative activity, focused on the main goal, and not stopping until you’re there, wherever you want to be.

And if by chance you don’t make it, at least you had a bloody good go.  

That’s surely what matters.

After all, we only ever regret the things we didn’t do.

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy

Writing By The Rules

I’m not sure whether you have the same scenario in your country but around here - South Australia - they’re desperately trying to get people to use self-checkouts in supermarkets. Clearly a bid to save money by not having to employ staff to help their customers through a checkout.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of resistance to this idea. In fact Woolworths claim that around three-quarters of people express their irritation at self-service checkouts by stealing a couple of items each time they use them. Woolies estimate they’re losing, depending on the store’s location, between 7% to 20% of their revenue because of this mild form of protest.

Apparently there’s a phenomenon known as “psychological reactivity” which is when you try to enforce rules that people don’t like, the effort makes them break the law on purpose, just to show their disapproval. Like the way a baby will refuse to eat broccoli. Or a teenager will react against a curfew. Or a billionaire will resist paying taxes.

Writers are like this when it comes to genre writing. Many writers don’t like to follow rules. They see guidelines as disruptive to creativity. Or spoiling the fun. Consequently authors who like writing crime or romance or fantasy may slide easily into a bestselling genre, while those who do not like rules will fall outside of genre classifications and, as a result, find gaining an audience much more difficult.

Authors may not relish genre labels and avoid limiting classifications - but ironically readers prefer them. Genre helps readers find writers they may potentially enjoy.

While genre authors may gain sales, fame, and success, there will always be wannabe “literary” writers who write work that meanders aimlessly from one unfocused topic to the next, from one intricately plotted moment to another unrelated flight of fancy.

Seriously, literary fiction doesn’t sell well because readers don’t know what they’re getting. Genre fiction sells for the precise opposite reason. Readers want and expect a genre piece to behave in a certain way. The characters in genre are recognizable as belonging to the type of story the reader wants to read. The action unfolds as envisaged, or if not, in a way that is surprising and fresh to a reader of that genre.

I guess it’s all about your intention. Do you want book sales or merely the satisfaction of creating art? You probably want a bit of both.

Writing to create art can be very taxing mentally and emotionally and often doesn’t work, especially if you’re a perfectionist. The good thing about genre writing is that you can satisfy a genre reader even when the writing isn’t great. On the other hand, when you work to get around genre conventions you may fail abysmally. Better to be bad than to miss the mark altogether.

Val McDermid is a genre crime writer who said something interesting recently. In one of her books she mentioned that telling a gripping story is only half of the job of the author. The other half is making readers like your characters and your story. Too many wannabe writers get so wrapped up in hyper reality, wallowing in sex, grit, and violence, trying hard to be original but often losing the sympathy of the reader along the way.

There’s no point to being outrageous if you do not create empathy.

My partner and I have just binge watched Dead To Me. The only two seasons of this fun black comedy exemplify much of what I’m trying to say here.

All the characters do bad things, break the law, cause harm and upset but, and here’s the kicker, they’re all likable for different reasons.  

Interestingly too, the Christina Applegate character (Jen) was compelling and sympathetic all the time she was gorgeous and sexy. Her willfulness was attractive. Her ability to get away with her crimes seemed right somehow…

But, through no fault of her own - in real life - the actress contracted MS and started to put on weight. Tragic and sad, yes, and no great crime surely but I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t like her character as much. I stopped wanting her to get away with her crimes. I wanted her to suffer and take responsibility for her actions. Why? Simply because she was no longer beautiful. This taught me a hugely valuable lesson about fiction and our willing suspension of disbelief. Also, I realized why movie stars have to be good-looking. Because, despite the best efforts of writers, their characters often don’t work if they’re not.

Okay. I hate myself for being shallow and for playing to my own prejudices

But we all have inbuilt prejudices.

Rules and conventions are there for a reason. They express ideas that are universal.

It’s about balance at the end of the day. If you’re writing a thriller and you focus on a psychopath to explore his motivation, you’d better have a nice person on the other side of the coin that your reader can root for, someone they can trust and feel at ease “being” while they are reading your book.
Look at your own fictional characters and ask, would anyone want to be them?

Can a reader really lose themselves in your story?

Or is your desire for so-called “originality” more important than your reader’s needs?
 
Keep Writing!

Rob’s Writing Academy