Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Recently I set up a Scrivener file for blog article writing. I have a page for ideas and a separate folder for every article I start. I’m way ahead of myself. I have weekly articles for months to come. I’ve also written two novels this year, a Sherlock Holmes episode, a few more short stories, and I’m feeling like I could keep going like this forever.  It’s funny because when I first started out - a few decades ago - I couldn’t sit still for long. Literally, youthful adrenalin prevented me from being immobile. I used to perch and write for short periods, literally five or ten minutes, then get up and pace around the room, burning off excess energy, waiting for the next wave of inspiration to hit. A totally exhausting process to be sure - and really not a very productive way to work. But I had to do it that way or I’d do nothing. Growing up I also wrote in short spurts, literally five minutes here and there because I felt embarrassed and didn’t want my family to know I kept diaries...

  To let you know, I managed to get over the problems I was having with my Heresy novel. I just kept writing out the issues, deleting words and paragraphs that led to the tricky parts in the first place and generally giving over more time to writing new material to get myself back on an even keel. Short version: I finished the first draft of the novel at just under 90,000 words. Now I’m taking a short sabbatical from the book so that I can get some distance. I never know what the right amount of time to take but I’m less than a week in and already feel like I’m wasting time, and yes, becoming a waste of space. So I’ve been writing more articles just to keep myself busy and now I’m looking at the next Sherlock story in my Zombie Slayer series, seeing if I can get any further with that. Based on some pertinent student feedback, I’ve been wondering recently, what does one do when there’s no evidence that your artistic endeavors are worthwhile, successful, or even being noticed? Now t...

On average the number of people dying each year in Australia has increased by 10 percent since the vaccine roll out. In fact nobody in the land of Oz died of Covid-19 until the vaccine was rolled out. Let’s go further. There is a direct correlation between the mRNA vaccine and excess deaths all over the World.   There, I said it.   (And why shouldn’t I say it if it’s my truth.)   It’s ridiculous that the medical establishment here now wants to investigate why suddenly more people are dying. Absurd because the cause is so blatantly obvious.   The vaccine is the “cure” that dare not speak its name.   We’re not allowed to speak ill of the vaccine because our rulers invested billions into its development and roll-out. The media are gagged by the government position, which is basically: THOU SHALT NOT QUESTION THE EFFICACY OF THE VACCINE.   We’re all part of this Second Deception.   The First Deception was that the vaccine was any kind of cure. It wasn’t. I...

They say it’s a bad time to do anything today because it’s Friday the thirteenth. On this very date in 1307, King Philip of France rounded up the Knight’s Templar in an attempt to steal their money and break up their power base by making them look like Satan worshiping sodomites. Funny, this reminds me of my article from last week. Accuse people of bad things and the sting never quite goes away. Even after 700 years. Curiously, one of the great mysteries of history is what happened to all the Templar money. King Philip never did get hold of very much and he died about a year later, apparently cursed by the Templar’s head honcho, Jacques de Molay, during his grizzly execution. Enough general knowledge, this week I promised you (and myself) I would make this article about writing, so I won’t bore you with all the silly (Jason) stuff associated with this date. Instead, let’s talk about research, truth, and its relationship to fiction writing. People often ask me how much research they sho...

  The presumption of innocence prior to conviction is enshrined in the law of most Western countries.  However, for people generally, and the media especially, this is not how justice works in practice. Simply the accusation of a crime is often enough to condemn a person for life and ruin their career. And sometimes that’s the point. In a world where image is everything, it’s far too easy to destroy someone’s credibility and undermine their entire life’s work simply by suggesting they might not be wholly without fault. This cancel culture we live in is a scourge. We may look back in a few decades and wonder why we ever had the audacity to reject an artist’s work because their private lives did not live up to the impossible standards imposed by bigots and fanatical lobby groups whose stances did not always reflect the views of the compassionate majority. But rather than bemoan a society that is supremely intolerant of bad decisions and regrettable lapses in judgment, I think we...

  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 ...