Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Dear Fellow Writer, Probably about a year later than everyone else we watched The Social Network the other night. Enjoyed it. Beautifully shot with one of Jim Jannard's RED cameras I do covet. Clearly the sub text is the irony that a guy with no real friends would set up the biggest 'friend' site on the Net. I don't know how true the film is to reality but I'm willing to believe its basic premise - that nerds, and their obsessions, are now set to rule the world! What puzzles me about the Net is how free web sites with no real profit to show for themselves, like Facebook, can be valued so astronomically high. Five to seven billion - for a website? Give me a break. The 2000 dot com crash (remember that) proved that Net sites were routinely overvalued - and yet we seem to have learned nothing - and continue the myth that hits mean profits for free website owners. Ask any writer trying to get traffic to their book site and you'll di...

The way to feel good about yourself, your life and the work you do is to keep yourself in a positive frame of mind. Read uplifting books and articles - stay away from the bad news in the media - and surround yourself with affirmative influences. Too many people want to tell you the sky is falling in. These Henny Penny types waste your time and creative energy warning you of all the things that can and will go wrong. But just like the Henny Penny character, these people bring the worst scenarios upon themselves. Focusing your mind on the positive not only creates better results, it's easier and less stressful to produce successful outcomes. Your creative spirit is precious - and always right and good. Use it liberally and your life will begin to blossom into a magical adventure. Probably the single most important issue writers faces is the ability, even the inclination sometimes, to finish what they start. We all know how this works. We have a great...

Isn't technology wonderful? Currently I'm penning this newsletter to you in my car. It's warm outside and Robyn's in a meeting - she'll be about an hour. Enough time for me to put together an article and then relax with my Tarot book and cards. I've been seriously studying the Tarot recently. I find some of the insights into the human condition fascinating - and good research into some of the finer points of motivation that helps bring good fictional characters alive. Onward... Keep Writing. Rob@easywaytowrite.com Writers! Click here to get published free by Magellan Books. THIS WEEK'S ARTICLE: Directing Your Writing Rob Parnell For anyone who doesn't feel they have enough control over their life, or enough motivation to write sometimes, I recommend directing - either plays or videos, even short movies. The discipline required to direct a visual project is not only ...

 Creative people often get bitter about what's not happening. The trick is to know that you have always had total control of your destiny. You make things happen, you decide, you control. When things don't work out it's because either we don't have as much control as we thought we had - or we perhaps we really haven't really tried to exert it as much as we could have. And it's wondering why we didn't try harder that we need to deal with, rather than blame the universe - or others - for not responding as we wished. Do you believe you're entitled to success? Nothing happens without good reason. Some people get rich and famous. Some people don't. Some people live lives of quiet desperation, or an existence of silent rage. Some people have a lot to give. Some people can't let go of what they have. Some people's light shines so bright they can't hide it. Some people live in a place so dark that their light can't esc...

It's hot and sticky here today - almost too hot to write. Ah well, better stop complaining and get on with it! As you probably know, I always put out a newsletter on Fridays, come rain or shine. That's the kind of commitment writers need to make, I always advise. When you decide to do something, you must do it, finish what you start - because if you get into the habit of doing something, the habit makes you stronger. That's my theory anyway! What happens when you can't think of anything to write about? People ask me this all the time - especially young writers, who feel the overwhelming urge to write, or at least BE a writer, but when it comes to sitting in front of a screen, nothing comes out. Nothing interesting enough to write down anyway. Do you get days like this? I think all writers do. It's worst when you're half way through a novel and you can't think of an interesting way to get to the next plot point. There are various ways of getting through block...

I hope you're well and happy and that your writing is going well. Most of you will know by now that I send out a free newsletter every week - usually on Fridays. But I'm not sure everyone will know why. Fact is, I have a dream... I've always known I wanted to write. I actually started writing before I could read properly. I've kept a diary of my private - and not so private - thoughts since I was around five years old. I don't know why, but it always seemed logical and somehow important to record my insights in written form. I guess that's how most writers start out. Later, I wrote plays, short stories, movie scripts, even novels as projects that had to be fit around the rest of my life, working to pay the rent in whichever place I found myself. Mostly London, UK, as it turned out - where I submitted manuscripts and played music to earn a crust for almost two decades. Over that time, I read as many books about writing as I could find. I took cours...

I've always been loath to tackle the subject of writer's block. A personal, largely superstitious thing - but still I get asked what writers should do about it - all the time! So here goes: 1. Crisis, What Crisis? First off, you need to deny that there is any such thing as writer's block. This debilitating condition can only hurt you when you give it the privilege of a concrete name. Take away its name and you begin to take away its power over you. Tell yourself, there is no such thing as writer's block. There is writing and not-writing. Only writers have a name for something they're NOT doing. Think about the absurdity of builder's block, or doctor's block, or pilot's block. Any kind of inability to write is similarly absurd. Writing is like breathing - something you learned to do a long time ago without thinking. Stop thinking about it - and just do it. 2. Stop! In the Name of Love. If you've run out of ideas or you're st...

Many people write to me about writer's block. They hate it when the urge to write drops off in the middle of a novel or a non-fiction book or a screenplay, even during a short story. They worry about what that means. Are they really a writer? Has the Muse deserted them? Or is it symptomatic of some more serious psychological issue? Some writers worry about stopping even before it happens to them. A recipe for disaster if ever there was one. Whatever the problem, my feeling is that if you get stuck, you need to go back and examine the reasons why you started in the first place. That place was most likely the strongest position you ever occupied in relation to your writing. Why did you start to write? To make order from chaos? To right wrongs? For catharsis? Or simply to enjoy the creative process? Personally, I've written for as long as I've been able. I wrote little pamphlets about hating my sister and stealing candy from the local shop at...

I borrowed a book from the library, written by Ray Bradbury, called "Zen in the Art of Writing". It's so packed with great writing advice I'm almost loathe to finish it - because then I'll have to take it back! Writers often wonder about inspiration - and how to get good ideas for stories. And often, when writers start out, they wonder what kind of writer they're going to be - and what kind of stories they will write, and in which genre. Mr Bradbury has some advice on both of these issues. In the pages of his book, he explains what helped him. He says he's been writing at least a thousand words every day of his life since he was twelve. Great. We like to hear that all the best writers have this simple habit ingrained. He'd been reading a lot of science fiction since he was a kid he said and naturally thought he was destined to be an SF writer. Trouble was, in his early twenties, he wasn't having much success with his SF stories. Editors complained ...

What happens when you can't think of anything to write? It's funny because I've noticed this is quite a common problem - for the newbie and the professional alike, but usually for different reasons. Often the newbie will be flushed with the conviction that she's a writer. She feels it, she knows it in her bones. And yet when it comes to sitting down in her writing space, she wonders what she should say - exactly what should she focus on? What should she communicate - or at least commit to paper? The professional writer too can get stuck. He may have exhausted his current topics of interest and want to start on something fresh. Like the newbie, the professional may ask himself, what can I say that is of interest to my editor, my publishers or my fans? Both the newbie and the professional may get stuck on what to write NEXT. Create You Own Emergency Deadlines and external pressure work for the professional. Often working writers have no choice but to slog along on their w...

During some sleepless-night downtime, I was thinking about stories and what made them work, and what made them satisfying to read. I mean, pretty much anyone can sit down and write - but it takes a little extra thought to write a story that other people will care about.  And I wondered what that was.  Was there a secret ingredient? And if so, is there one word that could sum up what makes a good story? I believe there is. It's not form or content.  It's not characterisation or plotting.  It's not even talent. I believe you can sum up what makes a story compelling in one word: Survival. It's clear to anyone that studies short stories and novels, even autobiographies and other literary forms that good stories are made up of characters overcoming obstacles.  Without obstacles, there's no point in telling a character's story.  Without something to fight or yearn for, or dream about, the reader can't identify with and / or get involv...

Is writing an insane way of spending our time? My mother seems to think it is - even now that she's finally accepted that's what I do. And my dad too was bemused by my choice of career, seeing as, to him, actually reading an entire book is akin to having his fingernails forcibly removed. Robert Louis Stevenson once said he felt reading was 'mighty bloodless' and no substitute for real life - but there again he was famously adventurous, a fact he used to advantage in his novels. But I think most authors wouldn't agree. On the opposite side of the spectrum you have Logan Pearsall Smith who said, "People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." I can relate to that. I like my own blood to stay on the inside of my body - whereas I don't mind reading, and writing, about someone else's blood spilling all over the page in the fight for justice, truth or freedom. It's not really about coming down definitively on one side or the ot...