Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

The more you write, the more you realize how hard it is to get anyone to take any notice of you. Newbies often worry that their words are going to have some awful and monumental impact on people - way out of proportion to reality. First time novelists often email me in varying states of panic, asking if it's okay to say this or that. Others are so afraid of putting their name to their own writing, they want to invent pseudonyms - usually just before publication! In case their own words come back to bite them somehow. In today's world, it's hard to even get noticed, let alone raise a stir in people enough to provoke a response. There's about billion new words appearing on the Internet every day. In the real world, probably a billion again appearing in new books, newspapers and magazines. Writers everywhere are trying to read and to be heard, to be taken seriously. And yet, a celebrity's kiss will always be more compelling news. You've got to see ...

Many writers tell me the scariest thing they have to do is submit their work to publishers, magazine editors and agents. This is understandable. You may have poured your heart and soul into a piece of writing. You may have spent a very long time working on it - so much so that it feels like a part of you is somehow exposed. You fear criticism at best, ridicule at worst. Placing your work in an envelope can bring on palpitations and an overwhelming sense of panic. Writers ask me if this ever goes away. The short answer is no. It doesn't matter how long you've been writing, or how many times you submit material or show your work to others, there's always a nagging trepidation associated with the experience. It's akin to first night nerves. Actors, not matter how accomplished, still feel it just before the curtain rises. Musicians and singers still feel it, just before the song begins. Even great speakers - gurus - feel it, as they walk out to face the ...