Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Isn't life wonderful? I don't think we say this often enough. I read a great quote yesterday from Alan Clark - a UK politician you've probably never heard of. He said, "If you want to be great, you should always start from the position that you can do anything and that anything is possible." Okay, so I've probably paraphrased (ie misquoted) a little - but the sense of his wisdom is there I think. In the spirit of pushing ourselves, I've been rehearsing with a theater group recently - acting in a play, actually a farce, due to open on the 31st of March. Should be a lot of fun. Today, my article is about the "Fantasy Fiction Formula" - and how it's the basis of every fantasy novel out there - from Lord of the Rings to Eragon - and everything in between. Now, most fantasy writers have been constructing their fictional world since childhood. It grows with them; they add to it as they develop as writers until it's so real to them that writing...

I've been reading Robert McKee's book on 'Story', where he outlines what he perceives to be ideal story structure - not just for movies but for novels and short stories too. He's based his theories on a lifetime of examining story form and structure - and from being employed to read story proposals for Hollywood studios. His conclusions are interesting and educational - not least because they're so specific! McKee is able to identify stories that work and why - but also how to structure them for maximum effect. Below I've tried to summarize his theories. Defining Story Terms First we need to understand the terms of reference Robert McKee uses, in order to fully grasp what he's saying. An Emotional Exchange is the smallest fragment of drama within a story. It is a point at which a character openly deals with either his external world or his internal demons. It is commonly called a Beat. Ideally, a Beat in a story should be non-coincidental, which means it...

A student asked me this week if I knew of any successful writers that 'showed' how they took their first drafts and made them into the highly polished versions you see in the bookstores.  I could only think of a couple. Stephen King in On Writing includes a rough draft of a paragraph and gives the reader an indication of how he goes about editing it to make it tighter. Cutting out words, changing phrases etc, generally improving the work. All very illuminating. (Incidentally, people were so intrigued by Stephen's spontaneous example that he felt forced to turn it into a full blown story which became 1408 !) Anyway, the only other person I could think of was Ken Follett.  I remembered that I'd read a book once by Al Zuckerman which included various drafts of Ken's work as he edited his manuscripts to a publishable standard. So - I took a look at Ken's website. On that I found a gem: a masterclass on writing a bestseller. And this is from a man who...