Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

When it comes to creating characters, you want readers to love your protagonist or, at the very least, empathize with him or her. Having an unattractive hero - as in psychologically unattractive - can be a surefire death warrant for a novel. Even having a protagonist with a shallow or undeveloped personality can be enough to make publishers think twice about accepting your magnum opus. So - what to do? Coming up with someone 'heroic' to carry your story is not always about creating a superhero with special powers. Indeed, even special powers alone won't cut it. No, you need a set of characteristics that say to your reader that your protagonist is special, if not identifiably 'unique'. In Hollywood, this problem is easily solved. Just get a famous star to play the role, someone physically attractive usually, an actor with screen presence... But how do you affect 'presence' in prose? Passion is the key. Y...

Rob Parnell It's one of those bizarre phenomena - the way writers see-saw between a love/hate relationship with their own writing. You're in the throes of a story or an article - you don't want to stop because you're feeling inspired. Each word and phrase seems to resonate with profound meaning. The drama and/or the thought process seems to be unfolding well - and you're on a high. Finally, it seems as though the hotline between your thoughts and the page are in sync - you're writing well and all is right with the world. This feeling can last a few hours, even a few days... ... until you look back at what you've done. Then the angst sets in. The writing you thought was superb suddenly seems clunky and inadequate. The phrases you particularly liked now seem awkward and ill-formed. Worse, your intellect seems exposed: you feel as though your writing shows you to be the hack you never wanted to be: the metaphors lack depth and the imagery is weak. The writing d...

Writing short pieces - say up to around 5000 words - is fairly straightforward. You can, in most cases, just start writing and keep going until you've said everything you wanted and then go back and edit for sense. If you've missed something out, you can slot it into the text. Or, if you've overdone a section - or the writing is bad or unnecesary - you have good friend in the delete button. Writing longer pieces is different. Having a lot to say will take time and effort - the two things a writer cannot afford to waste. So what's the best way to approach writing longer works? It's all about preparation. It's about knowing where you're going and having some idea of your destination. Some writers say they can't write using a plan - or even knowing what the ending is. They cite Stephen King - who says he doesn't know what the endings of his stories are going to be when he starts out. It's deliberate he says because he wants to write his ch...