Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

I get asked this question all the time. Writers everywhere want to know what's popular, what will sell now and in the future. They think there might be some great oracle out there that can answer this question - or that maybe publishers and agents on the inside might know this information and are somehow keeping it to themselves. Would that this were true! Think about it. Five years ago could you have predicted what you are doing now? Most of us don't know where we're going to be living in five years time - and even if we think we do, events conspire to change our plans. Life is organic, some might say unreliable. Even two years ago, is there any way you could have foreseen today's news? Could you have known which celebrities or politicians were going to be in the spotlight? Or which ones had faded from view? Of course not. It doesn't work that way. The bestselling books and movies that are with us today were conceived and written AT LEAST two years...

Let's get one thing straight. A lot of people search the term 'writing style' when they're actually looking for 'writing fonts'. I know. I regularly get Google visitors who've typed in 'tattoo writing styles' or 'graffiti writing styles'. Clearly, they're not looking for 'writing style' at all but rather a collection of fonts they can refer to, copy, or learn from. 'Style' is different - more aligned to technique than anything else. There are various official writing styles - but these are more specifically ways of constructing essays or theses rather than refering to what most writers regard as 'ways of writing'. The APA style is set by the American Psychological Association and is basically a way of organizing information for reports and social science documents. Hardly of use to the average creative writer. The MLA style dictated by the Modern Language Association is favored for college essays and e...

The author John Braine once said, "A writer is someone who counts words." Do you? You should - because it's a sure fire way of getting around writer's block -and a good way of keeping yourself on track. Having specific word counts to aspire to, will keep you writing more - and for longer.  You'll have more to show for your efforts, more to submit, and consequently more work coming in.  Your writing success is directly correlated to your word count. Last night I was talking to a writer - well, someone who wanted to be a full time writer - and she told me she'd taken a year to get to her manuscript to where it was now.  I asked, casually of course, how many words she'd written so far. "Four thousand," she said.  Four thousand!   G'ah - that's less than eleven words a day - what's she doing, I thought, chiseling them in stone? By stunning contrast, Robyn held the whip to me yesterday (metaphorically speaking) and...

Let me ask you a question. Do you avoid / dread / loathe writing the big scenes in your fiction? Over the years I've noticed one of two things. One, the writer is so nervous about writing the big important scenes that they will subconsciously avoid them by taking ages over getting to them. Here's how it goes. There's a crucial scene in the story where there's a confrontation or a climactic event - and the writer is creeping up towards it, filling the pages with exposition and preparatory dialogue - only to freeze just before 'the big scene' and put off writing anymore - sometimes for months or, in some cases, years. The other scenario involves glossing over that part of the story. You'll often see writers fill pages with the run up to the big event - all good showing instead of telling and yet, when it comes to 'the big scene' it's told from a distance or from an uninvolved point of view or, most commonly, in retrospect, after the ...

Many new writers are afraid of opening up and letting people know what they're like inside. They're nervous of allowing readers access to what they think and believe. They don't want people to see inside of them because they're afraid of criticism and ridicule. How do you defeat this debilitating condition?  Because, really, that's what it is. In reality, nobody important is going to attack you or your writing. Even if they do, what does it matter? Critics display much more about their own failings when they attack others. You need to get over any insecurities about the way you express yourself and find the strength to be honest, at least in your writing. The fact is your writing will never truly soar unless you have the courage to let it all out and 'expose yourself' to the world. Oooh-er! Seriously, you will only ever be seen as 'original' if you learn to be open and honest in your writing. Your own slant on the world is what mak...

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...

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...