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The Easy Way to Write

Presents

How to Achieve Writing Success

Rob Parnell
____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Rob Parnell is owner and founder of the Easy Way to Write, an Internet company established in 2002 and dedicated to providing excellent writing resources to writers of any proficiency from the beginner to the seasoned pro. The Easy Way to Write provides books and courses designed to help authors with everything from self-motivation and practical writing solutions to selling their work. You can sign up to free writing courses and newsletters here: www.easywaytowrite.com Easy Way to Write resources include: The Easy Way to Write a Novel
http://www.easywaytowrite.com/novel.html

The Easy Way to Write Short Stories That Sell


http://www.easywaytowrite.com/sstories.html

The Easy Way to Write Romance


http://www.easywaytowrite.com/romance.html

The Easy Way to Write Thrillers


http://www.easywaytowrite.com/thriller.html

The Easy Way to Write Screenplays That Sell


http://easywaytowrite.com/screenplay_ebook.html

The Easy Way to Write Fantasy Fiction


http://easywaytowrite.com/Fantasy_Course.html

The Easy Way to Write Your Own Autobiography


http://easywaytowrite.com/autobiography_writing.html

Fiction 101 - The Ultimate Novel Writing Masterclass:


http://easywaytowrite.com/writing_success_assured.html

Easy Cash Writing


http://easywaytowrite.com/easycash.html

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Contents

1. How to Achieve Writing Success 2. How to Structure Stories 3. The 10 Rules for Writing 4. The Easy Way to Write - What's it all About? 5. Murder Your Darlings 6. Building Novel Templates 7. Writing Resolutions That Stick 8. Tall Poppy Syndrome

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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How to Achieve Writing Success

Here's the cute non-reality that most people generally believe:

Writing is more than a skill, a pastime or a way of making a living. It is a vocation - like being a nurse or missionary. In order to commit yourself, and impress those that would read your work, you have to want to do it for nothing.

Indeed this is how many of us become writers - it's something we feel compelled to do, whether asked to, required to or not!

Certainly I've noticed that when you first start dealing with publishers, your enthusiasm, commitment and talent are of primary concern. Any talk of money too early in the process will see you ostracized very quickly. You're supposed to want to write for yourself - for Art's sake - first.

I guess it's about trust. The people that would help us get our work seen - in other words, published - need to be sure that our motives are sincere. That we write for some purpose

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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other than just to make money.

Tosh!

Robyn and I have discussed this aspect of the writer's dilemma many times - and we have a counter argument.

Writing is time consuming, hard work sometimes and almost impossible to sustain a good living at for most writers - 80% make less than $10,000 a year according to the last survey I read.

It's clear that if writers don't get paid, they can't continue writing - at least not without considering poverty as a career choice.

Given the vast millions that publishers make, I've always thought that they should pay new writers to submit work - but of course that's never going to happen! There's simply too many would be writers who are willing to chance it based on nothing more than a vague possibility of success.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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But This is To Your Advantage

Because for every one hundred writers that try and fail - either through discouragement, the apathy of publishers, or the sheer force of having to pay the rent - there's one, like you, that ain't givin' up!

But how do you sustain the momentum - the will and the courage to continue? Easy. Get obsessed. Dream about your writing success. Fantasize about it every moment of every day. Create a compulsion within yourself that cannot be undermined.

Be insane. Be illogical. Be unrealistic!

Because...

Over the years I've noticed something very telling. The writers with the most talent don't always rise to the top. But the writers who don't stop and won't take no for an answer, and just keep going regardless of criticism and bad experiences, are the ones that make it every time.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Reflection Strengthens Determination

Actively thinking about your writing is not just about trying to improve or responding positively to feedback, it's about organizing your thoughts and reactions to to what people say about your writing. You can take criticism well or badly. It can fire you up or destroy you. It's your choice.

I used to think I wasn't good enough to be a professional writer - and my lack of success reinforced that view.

But I had it all wrong. What I failed to understand at the time was that, if you just keep going, respond to feedback and keep plugging away at new projects, you become good enough over time.

Your technique may improve. You may begin to write more effectively or tell better stories. But none of that matters if you don't have the single minded drive to overcome the apparent obstacles to your success.

It's too easy to get discouraged. The system is designed for that to happen - to weed out

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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those that are not determined.

Take heart, if you are fully commited, there are no obstacles that cannot be overcome, there are no barriers - real or imagined - that you cannot triumph over.

In the words of a very old cliche - and things become cliches, remember, usually because they're true:

"There is nothing you can't do once you set your mind to it."

So, this year - go for it!

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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How to Structure Stories

At the time writing, Robyn and I are working on about three stories. We've been complimented recently for our ability to make stories and their characters compelling. So what's the process we use for constructing a story?

Generally one of us will come up with an idea - usually a character in an interesting situation against a backdrop. The character and the backdrop are usually the easy bit - a person in a place or at a particular moment in time. It's the interesting situation that's usually the inspired bit - the reason for wanting to tell the story.

But most times there's not enough in the initial idea to fill out a story, so where do we go from there?

Well, we know that the character most likely has an issue that needs resolving - and will face a series of obstacles to that resolution. But what will the obstacles be?

When we brainstorm the idea together - usually over a game of pool - we try to think of

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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scenarios that either help or hinder the main character's journey through the story. I like to come up with other characters that will make the story more interesting - in that they are just as compelling but they have agendas at odds with the main character.

This makes the hero's quest more interesting and the resolution hopefully more satisfying.

Plotting should always be character driven. We never plot in a vacuum or try to force a plot onto a character - that way madness lies - and stories that won't work. Besides, letting your characters plot your stories is so much easier. You just need to ask, "What would they do now?" and make note of the answer. And then, "What now?" and keep going until the 'end' of the story.

Finally, when we're convinced we've thought of all the angles on the story - and rejected the ones that don't seem to further the story or act as diversions from the main point - we are ready to begin writing.

Not everyone works this way. Indeed, we don't work this way on all of our stories - just the ones that need expanding. But at some point before the actual writing, the structure of the story should be in place - even if only in its vaguest form.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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When it comes to structure I write down headlines that I will later expand into paragraphs or whole sections. The headlines are easy to manage because if I have say 20 or 25, I can juggle them (cutting and pasting on a Word doc) until I have them in the most pleasing order. The order that makes sense of, and enhances the main story idea.

The hardest part is resolving all - or at least most - of the character's agendas in the last part of the story. Now, many writers choose to resolve everything after the climax but this is where I differ I think. Because what I like to do is make the climax of the story the very reason why the character's agendas are resolved.

It's really worthwhile brainstorming a story to make sure this happens. It gives a 'point' to the story in a way that simply relating words cannot.

To me this makes the climax not only exciting and meaningful in the context of the characters - but also more satisfying to a reader. It also means I don't have to waste words after the climax 'winding down' and tying up all those loose threads. I hope this (very) little explanation of how we structure stories helps you in your own work.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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The 10 Rules for Writing

Elmore Leonard

These are rules Ive picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when Im writing a book, to help me show rather than tell whats taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

1. Never open a book with weather.

If its only to create atmosphere, and not a characters reaction to the weather, you dont want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

There is a prologue in John Steinbecks Sweet Thursday, but its O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: I like a lot of talk in a book and I dont like to have nobody tell me what the guy thats talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guys thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . .

Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. Thats nice. But I wish it was set aside so I dont have to read it. I dont want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.

3. Never use a verb other than said to carry dialogue.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with she asseverated, and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb said . . .

. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances full of rape and adverbs.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words suddenly or all hell broke loose.

This rule doesnt require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use suddenly

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you wont be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants what do the American and the girl with him look like? She had taken off her hat and put it on the table. Thats the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Dont go into great detail describing places and things.

Unless youre Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if youre good at it, you dont want descriptions

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

And finally:

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, hes writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the characters head, and the reader either knows what the guys thinking or doesnt care. Ill bet you dont skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

11. If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.

Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I cant allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. Its my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character the one whose view best brings the scene to life Im able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and whats going on, and Im nowhere in sight.

What Steinbeck did in Sweet Thursday was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts is one, Lousy Wednesday another. The third chapter is titled Hooptedoodle 1 and the 38th chapter Hooptedoodle 2 as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: Heres where youll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it wont get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.

Sweet Thursday came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and Ive never forgotten that prologue.

Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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The Easy Way to Write - What's it all About?

As I often do, I'm responding to a subscriber query recently about the type of writing advice I offer in my courses and ebooks.

First of all I should state - again - for the record, that I believe the most surefire way of improving your writing is simply to write.

Studying is one thing. I try my hardest to offer good advice on genre requirements and writing style to make it easier for the writer to compete in the marketplace and get published.

What I don't do is force you to study other writers and how they go about what they do. I think to focus too heavily on how a particular author or three get their results is to slightly misunderstand the point of studying writing.

If you take a tertiary degree in order to study writing, you will be presented with lots of theories as to how writers go about creating stories and all the options available to a

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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writer trying to emulate them. But to me this is counter-intuitive.

Just because you have analyzed how Dickens or Conrad or Stephen King have achieved the final draft of their manuscripts, the knowledge doesn't necessarily help you when drafting your own stories or books.

Writing is a process. Analyzing the final product tends to leave you in awe - and intimidated - when you should realize that a lot of changes and rewriting went on in order for the final product to look and seem so effortless.

That doesn't mean it was easy for the author, or that they didn't make lots of mistakes along the way - of course they did. Nor does it mean that you shouldn't attempt to write something just as good. When Robyn and I write books and get them published, we're often amazed at how different - and how much better - the final drafts are to our first efforts. This is the process.

Writing is first of all about getting your thoughts down on paper. Then it's about clarifying those thoughts into a coherent argument - whether it's fiction or non fiction. Next it's about polishing. Then it's about submitting to publishers (or movie producers!).

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Then it's about rewriting, changing your writing to suit others and your readers.

What writing to me is NOT about is studying the greats over and over only to beat ourselves up into thinking that great writing is beyond us.

The purpose of the Easy Way to Write is to inspire you to get involved in the process of writing - and learn to enjoy it - and learn more as you progress and improve, based on feedback from the real world, not some classroom type environment.

Studying classic writers, while sometimes illuminating (once you know the terms of reference), should not be the focus of a working, or even aspiring writer.

Studying is for students. Writing is for writers.

Curiously, when certain (probably one in a thousand!) writers complain to me and say I haven't given enough in depth analysis of a particular topic, I ask to see examples of their work so that I can give them more specific, in depth advice on their own work.

Guess what happens to these students that prefer to study than to write?

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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They find writing too hard - and don't have anything to show me.

I don't want this to happen to writers. I want them to come to the Easy Way to Write and feel encouraged, inspired, energized and raring to write.

That's what the Easy Way to Write is all about.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Murder Your Darlings

Murder your darlings was a phrase coined by F Scott Fitzgerald (or Quiller Couch or Nabakov or even Stephen King, depending on who you believe). They're all referring to what you might call your best bits. The bits you should edit out of your work.

As Elmore Leonard once said, If I come across anything in my work that smacks of good writing, I immediately strike it out.

The theory is that writing youre particularly proud of is probably self-indulgent and will stand out.

You might think this is good. Wrong.

You will most likely break the fictive dream. (This is the state of consciousness reached by readers who are absorbed by a writer). And breaking your reader out of this fictive dream is a heinous sin!

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Editing out the best bits is the hardest thing a novice writer has to do after all, isnt it counterproductive to write good things down only to cut them out?

Look at it this way

When you start out, every word you write is precious. The words are torn from you. You wrestle with them, forcing them to express what youre trying to say.

When youre done, you may have only a paragraph or a few pages but to you the writing shines with inner radiance and significance.

Thats why criticism cuts to the core. You cant stand the idea of changing a single word in case the sense youre trying to convey gets lost or distorted.

Worse still, you have moments of doubt when you think youre a bad writer - criticism will do this every time. Sometimes you might go for months, blocked and worrying over your words and your ability.

There is only one cure for this to write more; to get words out of your head and on to

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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the page. When you do that, youre ahead, no matter how bad you think you are.

After all, words are just the tools a collection of words is not the end result, it is only the medium through which you work. In the same way that a builder uses bricks and wood to build a house the end result is not about the materials, its about creating a place to live.

As you progress in your writing career, you become less touchy about your words. You have to. Editors hack them around without mercy. Agents get you to rewrite great swathes of text they dont like. Publishers cut out whole sections as irrelevant.

All this hurts a lot. But after a while, you realize youre being helped. That its not the words that matter so much as what youre trying to communicate.

Once you accept that none of the words actually matter, and have the courage to murder your darlings, you have the makings of the correct professional attitude to ensure your writing career. This is a tough lesson to learn.

But, as always, the trick isto keep writing!

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Building Novel Templates

During some recent Easy Way to Write chat sessions I've been banging on about building novel templates assuming everyone knows what Im talking about!

I sometimes forget that not everyone out there has read The Easy Way to Write a Novel.

Seriously, for the benefit of those who want to know how to go about constructing simple plans for their novels, here's a simplified version of what's in the book.

First, know your characters inside out, work through a rough story outline either in your head or on paper, making sure it's your characters that define the story and not the other way round.

Okay, so that's the tough bit. Now for the easy bit.

Get a piece of paper and write 1 to 10 down the left hand side with plenty of space for writing in between.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Next to No 1, write Intro.

Next to No 10, write Finale

At No 1, write one sentence, no more, describing your opening scene.

At No 10, write one sentence describing the last scene in your book.

For instance, if you were writing a love story, next to No 1 you might write: Jane finds herself alone after husband John dies

At No 10, you might write Dirk asks for Jane's hand in marriage.

It's simplistic I know but that's almost the point.

Now, against 2 to 9, write down the major plot points that will take your reader from the beginning of your novel to the end. These will act as cues for scenes in your writing.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Now read it through. Is there logic? Does it seem satisfying? Is there a moral, a point to the story?

If so, good. If not, start again. Its no big deal.

If youre happy with what you've got, write a couple of words, lines etc. linking the plot points. These act as more cues for scenes in your novel.

Next, transfer everything on to PC and begin to expand on your short sentences.

Start to describe how youre going to open scenes, what youre going to write about, what actions take place, what the various conversations will be about and how issues might be set up and resolved.

At the end of this process you should have a draft template for your novel.

Read over if a few times to see if it includes everything you want to mention in your novel.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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This is a great exercise for many reasons, not least that it helps you visualize your novel in its entirety, probably one of the best tricks youll ever have to pull as a writer!

Not only that, it can help you iron out problems before you start writing. Too many writers stumble during their novels because they run out of steam and can't remember where it was going, or discover it's now different from how they imagined it.

I know planning novels is not everyone's idea of creative bliss. Indeed many writers tell me they just can't do it, don't want to do it, and will fight to protect their right to make up the story as they go along.

Fine. That works for some. But let me tell you something I've learnt, in my long career teaching writers to write novels.

With a novel template you are at least twenty times more likely to finish your novel than without one! Sobering thought, eh?

So before you dismiss the idea, at least give the template a fair go.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Writing Resolutions That Stick

Probably the most consistent problem I'm asked to help with is sustaining the momentum required to finish writing projects.

Writing a book is apparently the secret wish 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 5% of people will ever rise to the challenge - and even they will falter more times than not. Of these would be writers, less than one percent will ever finish their books - and just to be depressing now, only a handful of that one percent will ever be published.

Faced with this punishing reality, how do you find the strength to carry on writing? Let me answer by telling you a story.

Once, a very long time ago, I asked a practising 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 the

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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question as more of a challenge than a query. The guru gave me a quick answer: "Want to be rich."

I gave a dismissive grunt at this and asked, "Yeah, so what if that doesn't work?"

She smiled when she said, "Then you didn't want it enough."

At the time I took this to be a cop out. I congratulated myself, smugly, that I had exposed her phoniness.

Now, of course, I know better.

Because this is precisely how life works. In order to make anything happen, to get things done, achieve results, you have to want them enough.

But, but, but...

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Knowing this isn't getting you any closer to the 'how'. How do you get yourself to want something that much? I mean writing success is one

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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thing - but all that work! Isn't there an easier way?

Well, yeah there is actually - and all it requires is a little shift in your perspective - and a whole lotta dreamin'...

Now, I could list a bunch of 'things to do' to help you create a little writing success but that can wait for another day. Today, because it's New Year's Day - I want to tell you about the single most important aspect of success.

Today's the Day

Success is not a place or a time or a circumstance.

It's a state of mind.

And it's happening right now - all you have to do is to reach out and grasp it.

Take a few moments - actually the rest of the day - and imagine that you are rich, fulfilled and able to do anything you want, whenever you like.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Pretty cool, huh?

Now ask yourself: How would you feel? What would you do?

This is the shift in perspective I was talking about. You're never going to help your subconscious deal with writing success unless it believes it's already happening. Because it's only when success is actually happening to you that you will begin to make the right decisions for your writing career and enable yourself to perpetuate the writing life you want.

Writing for a living requires commitment. Some things will work out, some things will not. That's the reality. You can't wait for the good times and then expect everything to be fine from then on. It doesn't work like that.

Achieve Your Writing Goals This Year

You need to decide, right now, New Year's Day, that you are a writer - and will continue to be a writer from this moment on. And while you're about it, tell yourself you're already a successful writer - dwell on it, dream on it, and make it real.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Because it's believing that you are already a good and talented writer that will get you to finish writing projects.

I know this is true because, no matter the actual talent of the writer, it's the one's that believe in themselves and dream about the writer's life that make it. Every time.

I also know because a long time before we had houses and cars and money, Robyn and I behaved in this way. Though we may have been naive and perhaps not that good to begin with, we never stopped believing we were meant to be successful writers.

And believing made it so.

Believing made us write more, made us read more, made us study writing, made us take courses and keep on learning as much as we could.

We still do it today because writing is a lifelong education. You don't just wake up one day and say "Ah, now I get it, now I know enough." Writing is a way of life and it's when you immerse yourself in it totally that you gain the necessary resolve to finish things - and then get them out there and published!

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Tall Poppy Syndrome

Why is it that the more successful you become, the better you get at doing what you do, the more people want to criticize you?

It's a bizarre phenomenon that seems to be far more prevalent in Australia than in the US. In fact, in Australia, we have a name for it. It's called the Tall Poppy Syndrome.

It assumes that if you achieve success - or even want to be noticed for something you're doing, then everyone else has a right to cut you down. To the extent that 'it's your own fault' for raising your head above the other flora. It doesn't matter how proud or good and right you are - the fact you have the audacity to stand tall must mean you deserve every bit of criticism you get!

I've read that Americans love success - in whatever arena, artistically, creatively, even in business. it doesn't matter - success is the pinnacle of the American Way. Which is cool.

Not so in Australia. Success is treated with suspicion, even fear by the locals who seem to

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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regard talent and vision as some kind of illness of which you need to be cured. If not, then beaten down like some leprose interloper and driven back into obscure, safe normality.

Success goes against the Australian Way - where the culture is based on equality and fraternity. But it's telling that anyone who's ever made it artistically in Australia ends up leaving these blessed sun-burnt shores. And who can blame them?

They all have the same complaint. That not only are artists unappreciated in the land of Oz, they can't get anything done! The entire culture flattens initiative, stifles talent, squashing new projects so fast you can barely hear the wheeze of dying artists.

I used to think it was a generational thing.

I remember my mother - and many of her ilk who grew up in the 1940s and 50s - that encouraged their children not to get ahead of themselves, to accept a life of 'security' and quiet desperation. I kind of understood it. I'm sure that anyone who lived in the decades after the second world war would have felt that way. It was a tough time. It was hard to survive on a daily basis, let alone fight your way out of the gray mire to do something worthy.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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Times have changed. That war is over.

I grew up in the 80s - a time when you were encouraged to express yourself - in almost ridiculous ways - but still there were those who said, take it easy, artistic success happens to others, not you. Go back to your day job - be realistic! But now there's no excuse.

Okay so there's yet another recession - we're being encouraged to tighten our belts. But this is an artist's age, surely. Apart from the banks, as always, who's making all the money?

The media. Movies, TV, computer games, books, online information - that's where the fortunes are being made. And that's where we as artists should be heading. To take part in the burgeoning entertainment and informational markets.

But watch out - that way lies the trap of fame!

It's unfashionable to say so but I think being famous is quite hard. Imagine it was you, standing there, paraded in front of the public week after week - and all you get is people

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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taking potshots at you: questioning your motives, denigrating your talent, setting out to undermine your confidence on a systematic basis - when all you want to be is creative.

Can you imagine how that would make you feel?

Putting out your books and stories, laying your soul and your unique vision bare to the world - only to be consistently attacked and put down by critics and those with smaller minds.

Why is that? Why?

Because still, in the 21st Century, most ordinary people fear success - other people's that is.

Why do you think the media follows around movie and pop stars, intent on discovering their secrets and exposing their faults?

Obvious. Because it's easy. And to level them - to cut them down. To reassure the public that money and power bring you nothing - and least of all: respect.

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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It takes a special kind of person to handle fame and success nowadays - but maybe that's what those who criticize you hate the most.

That you are special - and they are not.

Keep writing!

Rob Parnell The Easy Way to Write http://easywaytowrite.com

____________________________________________________________________________________ Rob Parnell 2008 and forever www.easywaytowrite.com

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