Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

This week, I was interested to read about brain waves and how they work, and apply what I could glean to writing. Here's the basic info: Beta Waves In our normal waking lives our brain waves pulse quickly, at between 14 to 100 Hz. These are called Beta waves and are good at keeping us awake and attentive enough for our daily tasks - working, playing, eating, socializing and watching TV and movies. Curiously Beta waves aren't that conducive to prolonged study or activities like factory or office work because at the Beta level, the brain is looking for more stimulation. It's as attentive as a butterfly, constantly vigilant for more stimuli and easily bored by monotony. Gamma Waves Gamma waves pulse at a higher rate - from 24 to around 70000 Hz and are normally associated with a 'higher state of consciousness' in that they seem to give us an increased sense of meaning and connectedness to the world around us. Commonly, during times of inspiration and joy, or playing sp...

Let's face it, the evidence is all around us. If you pitch your writing at a fourteen year old, you'll be monstrously successful. And I don't necessarily mean that you need to write about fourteen year olds, I mean you should write for that intellectual level. Hollywood has known this since Jaws and Star Wars, when Spielberg and Lucas proved that nobody really wants adult movies. People want escapism. And they want to feel young again. Look what's current and coming up. Star Trek, Wolverine, another Harry Potter, Angels and Demons - and yes I believe Dan Brown (deliberately or not) aims his stories at an intellectual age of fourteen. I mean he's not exactly challenging to read, is he? James Patterson too has finally come out of the closet to write YA novels - which, to me, read just like his other novels but without the blood and violence. The big market is pubescent. The late great Michael Chrichton also understood this principle. Look at the body of his work: Jura...

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...

I must be the last person in the world to have started reading The Secret. We bought the book last week and have the video on order. Can't wait. I'm really enjoying the book - not least because it's outlining what I've always believed. It struck me as amusing that its primary author, Rhonda Byrne, is a fellow Australian. She explains in the intro to the The Secret that when the idea came to her, she had to travel to the US to find validation and willing exponents of her cause. I wondered if this meant she couldn't find any positive people in Australia! Having lived here for nearly a decade now (I'm a Brit if you didn't know) I think I can relate to her dilemma. There's a weird attitude that permeates the society over here - and is endorsed and promoted by no less than the government - that success happens to other people, usually in other countries. Australia likes to think of itself as a classless country - where no 'Bruce' is better...

It's an old debate - one that never ceases to divide writers. Should you make a plan before you write - or should you just start and see what happens? An esteemed subscriber recently raised the issue again in the context of 'types' of writers. It seemed to her that genre fiction writers probably needed a plan in order to deal with the complexities of plotting - and cut down on editing in the subsequent drafts. However, she maintained, it was the more 'literary' writers that insisted that planning somehow stifled creativity. And that a good literary writer didn't mind editing for sense and structure after the first draft was down. She asked me which I thought was the best approach. Do Plans Work? It's hard to imagine a business succeeding without a plan - but clearly some do. Even very large businesses - which surely don't intend to go billions into debt, though it seems to happen all too often nowadays. Some would say that many marriages survive without ...

This must be the single most fascinating issue amongst new writers - and non writers. Throughout their careers, authors are consistently asked the same question: Where do you get your ideas from? As though there is some secret locked store-room full of them, hidden away, and that only the best writers are mysteriously given the key. If you're one of those people that has apparent trouble coming up with ideas, let me reassure you right away. You already hold the key to the 'idea store'. Just like any other writer or creative person, the ideas are inside your head - and all you need is an easy way to tap into them. Something I'm just about to give you. You may not be conscious of it now but your subconscious is a swirling mass of ideas just waiting for your attention. The problem for most long term writers is not 'Where do I get ideas?' but 'Which one of the thousands I have am I going to work on next?' The dilemma then becomes 'When am I ever going to...

Are you the kind of person who dwells on the past? We all do it to an extent. Some of us more than others. But have you ever found yourself getting stuck in a groove, replaying a mistake in your mind, over and over, ten, twenty, even thirty years after the fact? You know the old maxim: "You get what you focus on." Has it occurred to you that when you dwell on past mistakes, you're setting up yourself to fail - again? We all make mistakes. That's why there's a delete key on your computer. If everything we did was perfect first time out, our lives would be bland and most likely, unmemorable. Our mistakes, our errors in judgment, our embarrassing interludes, help us grow and learn and become wise. But replaying them in our minds, cringing and wishing they'd worked out differently is a surefire way of ensuring the same kind of result in the future. Don't Make Excuses Have you ever noticed that most people have a hundred reasons why they shouldn't pursue t...