A Little Chaos

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“A light honest scent, natural and unforced, some of the roses here seem faded and overgrown.

That fate awaits all roses Sire.  All roses are open to the elements your majesty they bud, bloom and fade. The rose grows entirely unaware changing naturally from one state to another and although the elements may treat her cruelly she knows nothing of it and continues to her end without judgement on her beauty. Alas it is not the same for us.

If such a rose could speak what would she say?

Yes I am here and gave service under natures eye and after me my children will be. Is there any greater contribution or more graceful end?

A wise rose. And what protection can a gardner afford this rose from the harsh elements of change?

Patience, care and a little warmth from the sun are our best hope your majesty.”

Kate Winslet and Alan Rickmans exchange at court in A Little Chaos. A beautifully written film.

An Inspiration 

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His arms were huge, his hair was blonde and his smile shone brightly as he welcomed the passengers aboard the ferry to Manly.

The heat was heroic at Circular Quay but the rain came down as we gazed towards the sea.

The Manly man will arrive one day in fiction or fact but that for now is a different act. 

Selling smiles and strength to the passengers of harbour life is where he can be found today. 

Say hello and let him know what a wonderful job he is doing. An inspiration taken for granted by many.

Exercise Your Demons

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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

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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

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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

Drafts of Gold

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I have just re-edited and re-published my e-book, it was a decision made in response to feedback.  Although I am happy with the new edition with many minor changes to grammar and punctuation I still believe that one day my first ever draft will be published so that the bare bones are visible. I won’t substantially edit that because it would lose its honesty. For now however I will conform.

Having just started writing the ‘treatment’ for adaption into screenplay, I am combining book one and two. This process has so far minimised the story from around 150,000 words down to 30,000. These are the main scenes that carry the story and characters forward, almost the best bits which is very gratifying. Obviously I am now looking at both novels completely differently, it’s a confusing, interesting and enlightening process, suffice to say I am learning and growing.

The treatment is in effect just another draft, of hundreds. I thought once my book was published the endless drafts would stop but I was wrong. Every process needs a draft so the adapting, editing and reworking will continue.  Those first drafts are worth their weight in gold, I now realise.  Like most things in life you need time away from something to really appreciate it.

Next on the list is the S.E.L.F book project which explores how writing can be used as therapy this is my Sexpo project and is very much in draft form, another draft!

My book Sharks and Lovers is available to download here

 

One and Only

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No one person will ever be your everything, no one person can possibly give you all that you need. 

This is the advice I want my kids to have, don’t give that power to anyone and don’t put that amount of pressure on yourself. You are the only person in charge of your happiness.

You can give people your gift and they will give you theirs if you are lucky but it can’t possibly feed all of your hopes and dreams, aspirations, needs and wants.

Everyone needs input,  we can all realise where we want to be in life but we can’t possess every attribute we need to get there. We need help from others and they need help from us.

Everyone has something to teach us. Everyone.

The Alchemist and The Secret

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We moved house recently so I got to revisit a lot of memories unpacking. These two books appeared from a box and immediately I remembered the lessons they taught me.

After travelling around Australia in 2002 my mum decided to come and visit me in Perth and fly back to the U.K with me. We stopped off in Thailand on the way home and in Bangkok on the Khao San Road. The Alchemist grabbed my attention inside a tarpaulin book stall. I had heard about it for years and finally I could lay my hands on it! As soon as I finished it (about three days) I gave it to my mum to read and then every friend that I trusted to return it!

So what did The Alchemist give me? It gave me peace, a sense that everything will work out and courage to relax and trust my instincts. Having just travelled around Australia it served as a full stop to a year of searching and also a bridge to the next chapter of my life.

The Secret arrived in my life after this I’m not sure when but obviously I asked for it! It told me what I already knew, what we all know but sometimes don’t practise enough. If you want something all you have to do is ask for it.

It gave me focus, focus on what I wanted and sure enough a lot of things came my way.

As I write my treatment for a screenplay I can’t help thinking how much these two books have helped me get to this stage. Then of course there is my third lesson, always say your Thank you’s!

Buy The Alchemist here
And Buy The Secret here
Thank you Paulo Coelho & Rhonda Byrne