Photos!

Photos up from Saturday!

www.facebook.com/angelawrites

let me know what you think!

Beneath the Surface…

In this two-part series, I’m going to give away my “secrets” of creating the characters identities and their essence. Again, when writing and building characters, I follow the teachings of Michael Hague.  

Your characters identity is how the world sees them. I’ll take Madison from COLLIDE for example. Everyone sees her as the drama club president, lead in every play, responsible teenager. But what does she desire? What’s in her heart, beyond what the world sees? She desires love, someone who will sweep her off her feet. She even desires to shed her innocent persona.  

I believe everyone lives in their identity. Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut, where we let the world brand us as something different from we want to be. I work at as full-time recruiter at a healthcare staffing agency. That’s my identity.  What’s my desire? To be a published author, successful singer and actress. The journey of a good character transformation is to see your hero going from who they are, living fully in their identity to living fully in their essence.  

There are two journeys—the outer, and the inner journey. Tomorrow we will talk out that in detail.  

Writing Tip #2, Handling Rejection: 

 

When you receive a rejection dust your feet off, and send out five more queries. If you don’t, it will crawl under your skin and devour you. I keep a spreadsheet of every agency and agent I query, the date, and the status. When they reply back with a rejection, instead of putting that in the box, I put “Their Loss”. One day I’ll be published, and book after book that comes out, they will regret not choosing me. Keep that mindset and you’ll be fine. Swing the bat, and move on to the next base. 

 Have a great night!  

Ciao~
Angela

Open Auditions for Book Trailer

We are seeking male and female performers for the written words of an up and coming author. Roles include, but are not limited to the following characters:
 
Female, “Madison”, capable of playing a 17 year old. Drama Club President, actress, lead of every play. A leader, but vulnerable.
Must have blonde hair or willing to color hair. Musical talents a plus.

Male, “Lucas”, capable of playing a 17 year old. High school super star, popular, dark and mysterious. Very brooding.
Capable of looking Italian, muscular. Dark hair, or willing to color hair.
 
Male, “Drew”, capable of playing a 17 year old. Outgoing, talented, theatre, popular—“ladies man”.
Light hair, tan skin, capable of playing guitar or looking as if you can play. Musical talents preferred.

Female, “Jill”, capable of playing a 17 year old. Outgoing, vivacious, cheerleader.
 
Female, “Bailey”, capable of playing a 17 year old. Rough around the edges.
 
Other roles for males and females capable of playing high school students.
 
Requirements:
Please come prepared with a serious two minute monologue, and be prepared to read from a side.
If you are a singer, Prepare 16 bars of a contemporary musical theatre selection showing great personality.
Bring a current headshot and resume.
 
For more information on scheduling an audition, please contact Angela at angelhett@gmail.com.

Fragments of Character

Today’s Playlist:
Give You Hell – All-American Rejects
Son’s Gonna Rise – Citizen Cope
Fully Alive – Flyleaf
Nobody Knows – Keaton Simons
Solar Midnight – Lupe Fiasco 

I feel as if one of my gifts as a writer is creating vivid, strong characters. Maybe it’s a talent from acting. As an actress, when you take on a new role, you must create a background for the character. Sometimes/most of the time, you aren’t given the background, just the basics, and from the words in the script, you must create the entire character. 

Creating realistic characters begins with the basics, who are they now and how did they get that way? What events happened at a younger age that caused them to react the way they do?

I like to create a list of traits the character has, as it helps develop their personality. I ask myself the following questions: 

1. Who is you hero, the one the audience is rooting for through the entire story? And what is his/her role (student, cop, teacher, etc)
2. Why will the reader empathize with your character?
   1. You must make the reader feel for the character, make them likeable—if the reader doesn’t like your character, they wont continue reading the story.
   2. Put them in jeopardy.
   3. Create sympathy. Was he/she picked on, did her parent recently pass away, is she always the friend, never the girlfriend, is she constantly picked on? Etc, there are many ways to do this.
   4. Make her/him funny or powerful. Make them good at whatever they do. The reader likes to see the hero succeed even if the rest of their world is falling apart, they must have something they are good at.
3. What does you hero like to do? What music does she/he listen to? What TV shows would she/he watch?
4. Think of physical traits she has as well. When she walks does she stand up straight, hunch over, slouch? If she is very proper, was she brought up in a strict household, or were her parents, if any, very leant? Think of ever detail, because each detail of her/his life will help mold the character. If she/he was raised by one parent, that will put a new spin on her/his outcome in life.
5. What is the SETUP of the story? Where is your hero when she/he’s introduced, before the forward movement of the story begins?
   1. It’s very important to show your hero in their normal life, before everything begins to unravel, but don’t give too much away. Make sure to leave room for their past to creep in, if that fits into the plot of course.
6. What OPPORTUNITY is presented to your hero?
   1. What series of events happens that brings her/him to the opportunity that arises? Think it through, and make sure you know, that way it stays constant throughout the story, and it is clear to reader—“that’s when everything changed”.   
7. What is your hero’s OUTER MOTIVATION?
   1. What’s you hero’s reasoning for doing what she is doing? What happened that brought your hero there, and what is keeping her/him doing forward on this path?  
8. What are we rooting for?
   1. Is it for two people to fall in love? Win the big game? Win a case? Get the kids, divorce, battle? It follows in congruence with the outer motivation sometimes.
9. What’s the CONFLICT?
10. What is your hero’s ARC?
    1. This is a long one, and I will touch on this in another blog. characters’’ begin the story with a certain viewpoint and, through events in the story, that viewpoint changes
11. What deeper ISSUES does the story explore?
    1. Was the hero abandoned, abused, ignored at a young age? What happened in their life that created who they are now? Are they recovering from a death, depression, etc?
12. What is your PASSION for this story?
    1. Think about this. Why do you love your hero, and the surrounding characters and storyline? If you don’t have a passion for what you are writing, you will not be able to write it well. Make sure you love it, and you aren’t writing just to write. 

I hope this helped. Tomorrow, we will touch on Identities and Desires!

Writing Tip #1:
For music motivated writers, creating a strong playlist will help put you in the mood for writing the difficult scenes. If you are having a hard time getting in a certain frame of mind, create a list of songs to list to that will bring you to that place, lie down, close your eyes and imagine the world coming to life. Let the words come to you.   

Ciao~
Angela Francis

Take Two!

Things are good in the neighborhood. The agent and I traded a few emails, i’m going to see what kind of cuts I can make, and hopefully bring it down to 80K.  Maybe my WONDERFUL editor Laura will help me. Of course, flattering could help. Laura, you’re amazing =)

haha.

Oh, yes, listen to “The Good Kind” by The Wreckers- A-Mazing.

Ciao
Angela Francis

Best I’ll Ever Be…

Playlist: Sister Hazel Live album all day.

It’s been an interesting 24 hours. I awoke to a full request for my manuscript waiting in my inbox. Of course, I was beyond thrilled. I hurried to prepare it and sent it off. Minutes later I received a confirmation email. Needless to say, I was pumped. 

Then, a few hours later another email came in, from another agent interested in seeing the manuscript, the kicker? She wants me to cut it from 90k to 50k, that’s almost half. She was really sweet, stating she enjoyed my writing, and the story, but would only be interested in reading it in its entirety if I made the cuts. I fumbled with the thought, and decided to jump on the water cooler and ask other writers what they thought. As I suspected, they thought it was strange. I could see if she read the entire manuscript and then asked me to cut, but she hasn’t. 

One writer suggested I ask her reasoning behind the cuts, which is valid. I guess she just may not be the right agent for this project. I’ll let you know what unfolds. Keep your fingers crossed either way! 

I’m skipping my COLLIDE quote of the day, and instead, I’m posting amazing lyrics by Sister Hazel.

 Best I’ll Ever Be, by Sister Hazel

Oh I miss you
I miss being overwhelmed by you
And I need rescue
I think I’m fading away 

But I keep thinking, that you’ll wake me up with a whisper in my ear
I keep hoping that you’ll sneak in my room 

So I wait, and I wait
And I run old scenes through my tired head
of the days that we laid by the school and said forever
Was that the best I’ll ever be? 

Oh I miss you, I miss talking all night long with you yeah
And I need this to find a way to your home
Oh, my love can you hear me?
Have I been hoping loud enough? Wishing hard enough?
Can you see me when I’m asleep all alone, alone? 

I can’t keep my hands from shaking
I’m stumbling through the wreckage again, but you’re gone 

So I wait, and I wait, and I run myself in the same old circles
I sit and I stare And I run old scenes through my tired head
of the days that we laid on our backs and said forever
Oh was that the best I’ll ever be?

 

Go listen to that song, it’s amazing. If you haven’t done so already, please follow me on twitter at angel_francis.

Ciao~
Angela Francis

Tied Down

Today’s playlist:

The Fray—How to Save a Life
Sister Hazel—Champagne High, live version
Muse—I Belong to You
Ok Go—Shooting the Moon
FOB—Where is Your Boy Tonight?
Demi Lovato—Catch Me
John Mayer—Not Myself

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve wrote. I had the flu all week, and I’m still recovering with a nasty cough.

In four days my cousin is getting married. That means nonstop parties Wednesday to Monday, when everyone leaves and the world kicks in again. For the most part, to my family weddings are excuses for my family to get completely wasted. Granted, this isn’t a “Hettinger” wedding, so it will be a lot calmer than some. I am excited to pick up a portion of my family in Orlando and spend a day there. It’s rare that they are all in Florida and I get to be alone with them, so I’m excited. Now, I just have to make it to Wednesday at 5pm, and I’m free till Monday.

In four days my cousin is getting married and I have nothing to wear. Josh and I are down to one car and a whole-lot of issues with our association so it isn’t like I can stop by the mall on my way home, especially when different people are taking me to and from work on a daily basis.

 Ciao~
Angela Francis

Music In Me

Today’s song of the day, “Never Alone” by Barlowgirl. Google it. They are amazing, and the song is phenomenal.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.

Is your music still inside you? Are you living your life without fear? It seems too much of the time we are so afraid to live that we never do. We go through life being average. But no one’s really average, are they? If we were, there wouldn’t be so many strange people in the world. It’s funny how we judge those that are different, when in actuality, the different ones are the people who are living in their essence, not their identity.

I’ve studied a lot and I’ve listened to plenty lectures on writing and yet, I find myself listening to Michael Hague’s “From identify to essence” lecture over and over. Movies and books are built on emotion. We read and watch tv because we want to feel something. May we want to know that we aren’t alone, or maybe you want to escape your own world. Either way, the transformation that happens in a book is always the same. Your hero is living in her identify. She is who the world sees her as.

Let’s take Madison. Her identity is a teenager who does no wrong. She has okay grades, her life is predictable, and nothing too interesting ever really happens. Maddie meets Lucas and he brings out the wild side of her. For once, she isn’t over analyzing every detail. She thinks she’s free. But that’s the trouble sometimes. Maybe your essence is closer to your identity than you think. Sometimes you just have to look outside your self and let the music out. Just live.

Ciao~
Angela Francis

Never Alone…

I watched a video today of Randy Pausch on Oprah. Granted, I’m not a fan of Oprah, but it was something we had to watch at work. Nevertheless, I realized how long its been since I’ve thought about my father—like really thought about him. There were things about Randy and his story that really struck a chord in my heart. I wonder how people can deal with news like that. How can you be told you only have so much time to live and deal with it? How do you make that decision not to be pitied, but to live your life to the fullest. For those of you that are unaware, my father was diagnosed with liver cancer on Saint Patrick’s Day two years ago. There’s a bitterness inside of me every time this “holiday” comes around.

Last year, I went to my parents house, and sat beside my father and smiled wide, and said, “dad, it’s been a year, isn’t that great?”

Now, I didn’t say that sarcastically. When he was diagnosed, they didn’t think he’d make it to august, and it was already a year, and I was thrilled. I still had my dad. How wonderful was that? But he didn’t think so. He was angry that I brought it up. To him, it was a year since they told him his life would soon end. It was a date he didn’t want to celebrate, a day he didn’t care to remember, but I did. See, I always remember dates. They hold merit to me, whether or not I want to remember them. Like the day I learned his cancer spread into his lungs. It was my 21^st birthday. My grandmother’s funeral was on my 8^th birthday. My father was diagnosed with cancer on st. patty’s day, my papa died on the 4^th of July…see what I mean? I remember the bad. But how many times do we take into account the good in our lives?

   So, today isn’t about my book. It isn’t about what is going on in the publishing world, it’s beyond that. Maybe today we can all sit back and think of something great that happened to us, besides an anniversary, or birthday. Something beyond the obvious, and smile—if only for a moment. Because for that moment we can live beyond the destruction of this world and be at ease.

Today I’ll remember my father. The smile on his face, the way his eyes squinted when he laughed, and how even as he suffered, he didn’t skip a beat—not once. Maybe that should be our inspiration. I know he inspired me. When he was diagnosed, my aunt Lilla bought bracelets, like the livestrong ones, but they’re royal blue and they read, I DO NOT FIGHT ALONE. You don’t. None of us do. Remember that. I still wear mine in remembrance of my father, and to know that I am never alone, I’ll never fight alone. 

Have a great evening, and be strong. 

Ciao~
Angela Francis

Million Voices…

Today’s playlist: All things Barlow Girl

The last week or so has been a complete whirlwind. As most of you are aware, Saturday I will be having auditions for my book trailer. After weeks of dealing with cocky, arrogant directors and filmmakers, I finally found the perfect guy. Which beings me to one point, why are they all guys? What happened to women filmmakers? It makes me wonder…oh well. So, I’ve nailed in a guy to film, now time to audition actors. 

Saturday, 4/17, I’ll be holding auditions at CVF Productions in Clearwater. I have a nice list of people auditioning, so I am hoping to find the leading characters I need. 

I’ll be honest, I’m slightly worried about the guys. I need a strong Lucas. He is the rock of the story, the foundation of which it revolves, and since I am looking for someone so specific it’s hard. If I lived in upstate New York, where the Italian stallion population is abundant, it would be a different story. But, Florida isn’t exactly the headquarters for Italians. Despite my worries about guys, I am stoked. 

Erica, my best friend from high school, is working as my partner for this project. I’ve converted several scenes into scripts and tonight, we are going to figure out what sides to use for the audition. It’s unnerving, but I know this trailer will be a strong tool to help build my platform, not only as an author, but for my novel. I can’t wait to post more about the auditions. 

In an instant…in a single fleeting moment everything can change. You’re happy, joyful, even in love with life. And then you see someone, and that happiness is instantly washed away. My stomach was churning as the nausea of the situation twisted inside of me. It seemed the fear I felt in this moment was a fear I thought I washed away. I guess that’s the problem with suppressing your feelings. They’re never really gone. They hide in the deepest chamber of your soul, and with a single ‘hello’, they rise to the surface, like pieces of a shipwreck. I pressed down on the picture of us, running my thumb over the edges, staring deeply, wondering if those two people still existed. It seemed like we were light years away now.

Ciao~
Angela Francis