Novel Writing

Exercise Your Demons

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com

Before They Exercise You


Enjoy all of your SELF because only the stifled emotions will push back harder. Wallow in the pain, feel the emotions that you want to hide, let them out. Don’t  throw daggers at yourself throw love in abundance because it will stick eventually.

Embrace all of your characters, love them and let them grow, let them see the light.  Prune them and then let them grow up perhaps up, up and away. Maybe up, up and within making you stronger. Wherever they go acknowledge them because they are or were a big part of you.

There is nothing within your SELF that you cannot understand because you experienced it and chose to keep hold of it. What did it teach you? What invaluable lesson did you learn? Pretty clever aren’t you, teaching yourself these lessons of life?

My novel Sharks and Lovers is available at Amazon Kobo and iBooks

The Treatment

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com


I have finished the first draft of my treatment, which has involved merging my two written novels together to form the very beginnings of a screenplay.

It has been a really interesting process and kind of like cutting all of the best bits together. Obviously all of your threads still need to nicely merge together to build the picture so although I have cut 150,000 words down to 12,000 the story still needs to build. I have had to let go of a few sub-characters but perhaps they will re-emerge in another draft.

It has been such an education, all of my characters talk in first person so I have had to re-write all of the scenes in third.  It is obvious I need to work on third person writing which doesn’t come naturally and makes me wonder how good I am at stepping outside of the situation.

The process has given me a greater perspective on situations in the manuscript that I have drawn from my own experience which has made the story stronger.

I would highly recommend writing a treatment of your novel to anyone struggling as the editing process really makes you realise what is vital to you the writer but more importantly what is crucial to the story.

Once I have had some feedback I will be sure to post an excerpt!

My first novel is available below

Sharks & Lovers available at Amazon
Kobo  And  iTunes

S.E.L.F

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com


Just like most writers I have many projects on the go and sometimes find my head spinning with which one to concentrate on. 

I thought I would take a little time to talk about my S.E.L.F book project as this has been left on the shelf for far too long.

When I started writing my novels I used Jung’s Individuation process to breakdown situations from the perspective of Self, Ego, Shadow, Persona and Animas. Then the characters grew and their opinions became stronger. I didn’t realise at the time of writing that even the sub characters fell into these five categories, (they were probably the parts of my self that I didn’t much like!).

Jung has always been my hero and teacher. His philosophies are always where I turn when I feel I am lost and don’t understand. Knowledge surely has to start with your self.

So my theory is that writing using Jung’s process can help gain many perspectives on situations, people and problems. It breaks things down into manageable bite size pieces and gives insights into many views. It really has been therapy for me and if it can help me I’m pretty sure it can help other people too. That is why I have written my S.E.L.F Writing Solution.

Having spoken to my wonderful therapist friend Renate she has given me lots of suggested reading which I cannot wait to start. She always manages to make you look at things differently which is sometimes a welcome relief. So I will be swotting up on Salvador Minuchin, Virginia Satir, Erik Erikson and Irvin Yalom and many more.

Watch this space for a very different book from Frankie, hmmmm now which one is she!?

Renate Hoffmann can also be found on LinkedIn. Thank you Renate

Sexpo and the Writer

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I have this gig in November to talk about my writing and how it has empowered me.  As my novels contain rather a lot of sex I suppose it is appropriate for me to do this at the Sexpo S.H.A.R.E seminars but somehow I feel like I will disappoint the audience. I’m just a normal housewife who has found a passion in writing. I don’t have huge breasts or a fabulous figure. I haven’t even had my eyelashes extended (like so many of the mums in the playground).

I hope I can concoct a talk that entices people into writing and empowers people to embrace their so-called ‘dark side’. I wonder if anyone will listen or even show up, I hope I can deliver. I have three months to come up with an engaging, interactive talk, an outfit I feel comfortable in and most importantly a bloody big helping of courage!

I will keep you posted and if you have any advice I’d be really grateful….

Editing

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com


Finally, after a year and a half of grappling with editing, I think I just about have it sussed!  I have to share with you my findings because I am sure a lot of other writers struggle with this too.  Obviously, once you have a manuscript you know it will need editing so you start with the content, changing the odd grammatical error here and there as you go. However if like me you needed to edit your entire manuscript six times for content before you felt you had a finished product by the end of that process you have had enough of your baby crying. When someone says they will copy-edit for you, you almost bite their hand off.  Please take this screaming baby away for a while and give me a break!

There are three types of editing light, medium and heavy and within those contexts, there is also substantive and mechanical.  Substantive refers to the order of content and could be construed as heavy editing as it will also edit out content that is not relevant.  Mechanical editing is relating to grammar, punctuation, spelling and footnotes.  When using a publisher they may well have an in-house editor that will mechanically edit your manuscript to fit their style of print and product.

There are many programmes that you can run on your computer to edit your grammar and punctuation but they might not all understand your content.  For example, my novel starts out in Southend on Sea in Essex, England.  I’m afraid there ain’t a product out there that’s gonna give me the license I need to mess ’bout with words and get really lairy with my content.  So using a person surely makes sense?  Maybe if you live in exactly the place you want the manuscript read or based.  Otherwise, you have to make do with a few proofreaders and hope they understand your spoken language vs readability vs message.

My problem with clients is that I am in love with language and people’s nuances I love an accent and even better I love broken words and out-of-place context.  Perhaps I am destined to always be a light editor!  I am just not critical enough I love everyone’s speech.  Although I have today for the first time gone through my manuscript and seen the errors, every single one of them!  Is it because I have a printer ready to go?  Or is it because I have relaxed and realised everything will come in time and I’m allowed to make mistakes?  I guess the test will be when I next look at my client’s work, will I see the errors or only hear the voice?

The most fantastic thing is that my printed copy will be the best I can possibly produce and I now know exactly the process I need to go through with book two.  I will edit content first, a heavy substantive edit followed by a light substantive edit and then two or three mechanical edits.  Nothing is ever perfect and when I found an error in Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s I have to admit to a tiny feeling of elation.  However as I tell my children we can only do our best and then we can learn, improve and do even better!

My book can be downloaded at these websites

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GD8OG98

Kobo

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/sharks-lovers

iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/isbn9781925457209

 

Nailing Yourself to the Cross

/ frankiebanks27@gmail.com

Publication

front cover proof one

My book is to be released into the world imminently for anyone to read and so it is not surprising that I feel slightly vulnerable.   My teacher told me; ‘it’s good because it’s authentic’. I hope people don’t nail me to a cross for what I have written because yep it’s pretty authentic!  When I sent my ‘Meta Data’ sheet off to the publisher this week I don’t mind admitting I felt just a little bit sick with nerves.  That just about to get up and talk to an audience sick, quite appropriate that next week I will be attending a ‘speaking’ course then. I may as well get all this nervousness out-of-the-way.

Continue reading →

Cover to Cover

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The Front Cover

I’m sure I could do hours of research and spend lots of money and time on finding the best colours, fonts and design.  That is a designers job, however I am a writer and writers have to go with their instinct, rightly or wrongly.  So here is my first proof of a front cover, when I saw it something said yes to me.  I’m sure it will change slightly but right now I’m happy.  For anyone wanting to have a go at a front cover or even just customising photo’s I used picmonkey.com and it was very easy!

front cover proof one

My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here:

Amazon       Kobo       iTunes

Ready to Roll

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My Book is Ready

Finally after a year of Synchronicity, Submission and Skinny Dipping I am ready for my book to be published.  It is quite a strange feeling I don’t mind admitting.  I have had some very good advice from people that have already had a sneak peak and I thank them all enormously.  I have edited the content so many times but last weekend I picked up my working copy and realised I was trying to improve a sentence that was actually ok to begin with.  I am not Jane Austen however romantic my notions and my book is not a  masterpiece. However if it makes anyone smile, smirk, laugh, cry or even just wiggle with the uncomfortable truth I know I did my job well.

My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here:

Amazon       Kobo       iTunes