Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

  Here is something I hear from my students all the time: If I only had such and such, or so and so, then everything would be fine. Listen. No one is coming to rescue you. No one out there will save you.  There is no magical event that can change your circumstance or make you more successful. YOU are the only person who is responsible for your current state of being and YOU are the only person who can change that state and improve on it. In fact you can worsen your current state simply by believing that someone or something out there can, might, or will rescue you. That's faulty logic that you may have arrived at by using what psychologists call magical thinking.   You have to accept responsibility for your circumstance and acknowledge that if you don't like where you are and you hate what's happening to you, you MUST do something about it - take action, and do it NOW! The fact is that having faith in a magical solution will only take you further into madness. The first r...

Last couple of days I’ve been trying to fix the end of a novel I’ve been working on. I’m tired and frustrated because I keep thinking everything will repair itself by magic. Trouble is, I know in my heart that’s not going to happen and I’m getting depressed knowing that I will have to approach the ending with a lot more focus and concentration. The whole thing is silly because I know that’s all I have to do: FOCUS, but I can’t bring myself to work properly and I guess it’s out of fear. Partly fear of knowing I’m almost at the end, therefore the wonder of creation will soon stop. But also fear of the amount of work I’ll have to put in to make the ending work well. Sometimes this just happens. Pleasure becomes work and you just have to grit your teeth and get on with the graft. (It’s what a lot of us have to do every day from 9 to 5.) It’s annoying because I’ve enjoyed writing all of the chapters up to this point. About 70,000 words have been fun. But now I realize that the ending won’t ...

  If writers are not owed a living, how the heck do we survive? Following on from last week’s newsletter when I mentioned the WGA writers’ strike, Bill Maher summed up the issues by proclaiming that screen and TV writers shouldn’t expect a guaranteed income. He said that the nature of the industry was so hit and miss that nobody who makes entertainment shows should feel secure. Trouble is - and I can vouch for this personally - TV and movie producers use this attitude to screw writers, all the time. They make them write on spec, for nothing, for as long as possible, letting you know you have no power or influence over a project until the very last second, until they realize the project can go no further without your enthusiastic involvement. That’s the free market, Bill says. That’s how it works. The actors and tech people are on the same deal. When you want to work in the arts, you have to accept that living a life of uncertainty and potential poverty is the trade-off for success,...

  Life is about experimenting, finding out what works for you, what doesn’t, and eventually discovering what makes you happy.  That’s my theory anyway. Many people get trapped in a rut where they think life is about achieving material success. This is often counter-productive, because you will only become happy if you choose the path that is right for you. From the moment we start writing, we’re on a quest to discover what works for us, how to best express ourselves, how words work for us and how we want them to work for our readers. We aspire to gain proficiency, an objective viewpoint, and we sharpen our ability to control our talent, art, and craft. In short, we constantly strive to make ourselves better artists. Given the world we live in, this is not always a smooth journey. During my younger days I did a lot of meditating. Ostensibly to calm myself during times of stress. And believe me, did I experience a lot of stress when I was younger! From horrible jobs, terrible bo...

  Since the beginning of the year I’ve written two novels, a short story, a few articles and some ongoing courses for my Academy. I’m sure you’ll believe me when I say I know all about getting stuck and feeling like I’m blocked. Actually, as you probably know, I don’t like to use the word blocked. Sounds far too permanent. Stalled is probably a better word. More accurate, less scary sounding. I like to write an average of 500 words a day minimum and generally feel useless and miserable if I don’t achieve that figure. Now, I know, 500 words is quite low but I chose it deliberately because I believe achieving only a small amount is better than nothing at all. Plus, if I happen to write a couple of thousand one day - a creative spurt every once in a while - then that feels like a serious bonus.   As a long term consistent writer, I can confirm that navigating obstacles, blocks, and stalls is all part of the process of writing. In fact you could say you’re not writing properly unl...

  So, this week I thought we'd try something new. I want to bring back my weekly Friday newsletter. Whether I do or not is really up to you! Tell me what you think. Welcome to The Thoughts of Chairman Rob (Or some such title, I haven’t decided yet.) Yes, I want to talk to you - again - on a weekly basis about writing, creativity, inspiration, and motivation. Plus I want to fill you in on what’s happening in the writing world and what I think about the issues facing us. Plus, you know, we can metaphorically shoot the breeze about life, the universe, and writing from my perspective. Just to let you know, my writing web presence is now over twenty years young. And apart from running the Academy full-time from my little piece of antipodean paradise in the Land of Oz with my beloved Robyn, I’m still writing. New courses, books, novels, and short stories - generally being creative in words, music, and film.   Now, I know it may be hard to believe, but not everyone was a fan of my ne...

  Have you ever tried to give something up? Like smoking – or drinking? What about drugs? Or sugar? Fat? Meat, Sex, Gluten, MSG, lemon popsicles, treating people badly, or even watching TV, or worst, scrolling Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok for hours…             Well, I have good news for you because, after twenty years of successfully giving up lots of bad habits, I suddenly had an epiphany the other day that may help you in your quest to be perfect but remain perfectly happy.              Because that’s the hard part, right? We all think that willpower should carry us through the difficult times, but it never does. Then we get depressed because we can’t fight the urge to return to our normal bad habit. And feeling sad makes us justify giving up stopping the thing we’re giving up!             You know how it ...