Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

  Never try to second guess the market or try to be clever with your audience - or trick those who would help you achieve your aims. Be true to yourself and be honest with your readers - because that's the only way to create anything of value and to sustain an artistic career of any kind. It's easy to get fooled by the system into thinking that you work to get paid, therefore you can write anything for money - but it doesn't really work like that. Not with art anyway. Not with anything creative. Creativity requires more than just turning up and punching the clock. Writing, painting, sculpting, playing an instrument, making movies, anything that requires personal expression, needs a soul at work. Your soul - your time and passion and commitment. That's what creativity of any kind demands: YOU. It's intimidating, sure, when you

  New writers often talk about their quest to be published. They talk as though it's the end result to their work - as though, when they're published, everything will change and be wonderful.    This is not exactly how it works for most professional writers. Getting your stuff published is often only the beginning - the starting point for a career that may, after a while, feel very much like where you are now - as in, working for a living! You may improve as a writer. You may start to find it easier - though I doubt it. You may have success - whatever that means to you. But at the end of the day, wherever you may be in your writing career - a newbie or a seasoned pro - you're still in a constant burgeoning relationship with words. I use the word 'relationship' deliberately - because I think we should see writing as a kind of mistress, toy-boy or lover. Listen. Your starting point and your end point is to improve the way you communicate your ideas through writing. An