Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

In a few of my articles recently I have suggested that the path of the modern writer may not always lead down the traditional walkways of novel writing, journalism or indeed any of the more familiar routes a writer might want to take. There are new opportunities of all kinds. The Net, for one, with its need for constant content and marketing material. Offline too there are a myriad of writing jobs - many of which I explore in my Easy Cash Writing course. For the committed writer there are always new and varied avenues to pursue. In the spirit of which, we ventured into the world of TV yesterday, when we visited an executive from a certain funding body to pitch some ideas we'd had for TV shows. I won't mention our contact's name, not because it's a secret or because we're being coy, but because these people don't like it when you bandy their names around (especially not in a public forum like a blog). The last thing a TV exec wants is to be seen to be...

Gustave Flaubert apparently took five years to write his exceptionally awesome novel Madame Bovary. Not a bad feat considering, over 175 years after it's completion, the book is still regarded as one of the most 'perfect' novels ever written.  Flaubert was famous for wanting to find just the right word - le mot juste   in French. Sometimes, he would apparently spend a whole week in solitude, agonizing  over one single page until he considered it as faultless as he could  manage. In contrast, Sylvester Stallone took a mere two weeks over writing the first Rocky movie - and said of Flaubert's precise writing style, "What was that all about?" What indeed, Sly. Of course the times have changed. In 1856, Madame Bovary was at first considered immoral. Its protagonist has the kind of romantic liaisons that are now, to modern Sex and the City   girls, considered totally normal. Even so, the story still has the power to  shock the middle class sensibilities it w...

  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...