Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Probably one of the most frequent questions I'm asked is how can a writer sustain the momentum required to finish writing projects.     According to surveys, writing a book at some point is the secret desire of 90% of the population - as though writing a book somehow validates us as humans - and perhaps makes us a little more immortal. But only around 1% of people will ever rise to the challenge - and even they will falter more times than not. Of these would be writers, less than 1% will ever FINISH their books - and just to be even more depressing now, only a handful of that one percent will ever get to be published.     Faced with this punishing reality, how do we find the strength to carry on writing?     Let me answer by first telling you a story.     Once, a very long time ago, I asked a professional motivational guru how I could become rich. I say it was a long time ago because in those days I was very cynical and I asked...

In the spirit of recycling, I decided to use an old newsletter from 2007. How different is life now? You’d think it would be very. But really, not much has changed!     Getting published is every writer's dream. It's apparently what we want, it's what provides the motivation and gives us the spark to keep going, and keep writing and submitting until we finally crack the big one: a publishing deal, a proper one, with a real trade publisher who will promote our books for free - and pay us royalties every six months for the rest of our lives!     That's the dream, right?     But how close is this to the reality of being a modern working writer?     Certainly having an offline bestseller can change your life. Desk bound introverts can become movie moguls (Dan Brown). Single-parent mothers can become very rich media celebrities (J.K. Rowling). And advertising executives can become household names (James Patterson).   ...

    I’m thinking of creating a new course on using Jungian archetypes to help with fiction writing. Would this be useful to you? That’s usually my main criteria for making a new course: will this area of study help my subscribers become better writers? I touch on the use of archetypes in my hero’s journey course, but mainly in the context of the Tarot deck, which I find fascinating. The Tarot is like a story-telling manual that encapsulates history and all of the possible interactions of humans. I should explain to those who don’t know that Dr Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist working at the beginning of the 20th century, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. Jung developed the idea that archetypal characters like the hero, the mother, the trickster and various others continually reveal themselves in fiction because, on some level, we all recognize these generalizations as based on reality. A fascinating idea. Using Freudian psychobabble to help justify and explain some character ...

Again, no time to do much creative work this week. Quite possible this newsletter may have to wait until next week. The weather is so hot here, they say record temperatures, that by the time I’ve made my TikTok video and watered the garden, it’s already lunch time. There goes the hour or so of my prime writing time.   As for editing my manuscript - which I mentioned last week - I’m still at a loss, though I have thought of another way forward. To get me back on track with my novel, I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet that tracks which chapters I’ve finished. I’ve found that if I do a little - just a few minutes here and there - then I can progress slowly. At least something is getting done. We’ve got the band coming over tomorrow and we’ve had to move the music studio into the house. Two months of relentless forty degree heat has meant the music room is just way too hot for five people. Better we play inside, with the air conditioning on full. Honestly it’s no wonder so many early Au...

    I have a novel to get out. You might remember I told you about it during its creation. It’s called “HERESY” and it’s basically, to all intents and purposes, done. Finished. Just need a final proof/copy-edit to make sure there are no glaring errors and no embarrassing typos. Then formatting the text for publishing. Done the cover too. Mostly. I guess you can tell, in reality I’m a long way from completing the novel but I kid myself there’s not long to go - mainly to make myself feel better! Fact is, finding enough time to edit, proof, and polish a novel is probably the hardest part of book writing for me. Especially if you’re a busy boy. I usually like to fit things like writing in between other duties like making a daily TikTok video, watering the garden, sorting out my Academy admin, making lunch and beverages, eating, washing up, tidying and hoovering, walking the dog, rehearsing music for upcoming shows and squeezing in my daily swim. Now, I know you’re probably thinkin...

    So you’ve written a book. Now what? Of course I’m talking about a self-published book because a traditional publisher (like one of the Big Four) would likely already have a plan which you probably wouldn’t be part of. Let’s say you’re printing up your own copies and you don’t really know what to do next. Before we start I should tell you that for over twenty years I’ve run my own publishing company and therefore have lots of experience in this arena. I’ve helped many authors promote their books and guided many writers through the myriad of possibilities. One thing I can tell you is that there are hundreds of ways to promote a book and eager self-published authors end up trying most of them. Ignore the net for a moment and understand that marketing in the real world is a complex business operation that requires brainstorming, strategizing, organizing and lots of labor intensive work with long hours pursuing many avenues, none of which are guaranteed to make sales or in real...

  I was reading a newspaper the other day. Yes, an actual piece of print with words and black and white pictures. Inside, there was an interesting article about the idea that optimists don’t make very good financial decisions, mainly because they tend to believe the best will happen. In reality, the article said, optimists can easily lose money because of their sometimes irrational, rose-colored, faith-based decisions. Though the idea makes sense, it sounded more likely the author had an agenda to me. Or maybe her editor thought the angle would make an interesting read. But the more I thought about the idea, the less impressed I became.   Because the whole idea implies that only the sad and cynical make sound financial decisions. So that, even if you’re depressed and pessimistic, you’ll apparently have lots of money. And I guess they revel in the righteousness that often accompanies pessimism. But if you think about it, you can’t destroy or even offend an optimist because by d...