Frankie Rollins and the Fifth Brain Collective: A Testimonial from Mark Pettis
The “Fifth Brain Collective” sounds like a weird band from the 80s, but it is much more powerful than that.
I had these ideas for stories. So I tried to write them down. At the time, I’m a man in my fifties, a project manager for an integration company. And I had no belief that I could be creative, even a little bit. But this story stays with me. It keeps popping up in my mind and dreams. So, I try to write it down.
Trying to be a writer, with no background in writing anything since college that wasn’t work-related, was a tall task. The tools at my disposal varied widely, were confusing, and not very helpful. You have writing books, writing organizations, and videos on writing. There are companies that offer editorial services priced by the number of words, but they are solely a “send the pages, and we will send you back what they think is wrong with the work” kind of relationship. No discussion. No back and forth. Just, “this is what you need to fix.” The language they use, the verbiage, means nothing to me.
The writing classes were more like high school, where everyone is competing for the teacher’s approval or the instructor is pushing everyone towards their belief on how writing should be. I don’t know enough about the “rules of writing” to even know what the tips they were giving me meant. I just had a story I wanted to write.
I am lucky enough to have a few people in my life who have read what I have written and told me the story is good. So I pushed on, not knowing how to finish it or make it better. I feel the story needs to be told. Then one day I had a chance meeting in a bar with a member of the Fifth Brain Collective who saw me working on my manuscript on a laptop. She describes Frankie's philosophy on writing and loosely tells me about the collective, a group of creative people led by Frankie Rollins, who have weekly workshops to work on their respective creative crafts. It sounds so different from the rule-driven, unfriendly world of writing I had experienced up until then that I thought I should give it a try. So I emailed Frankie from the bar and arranged for my one-hour consultation.
From that first conversation, so different from any I had had before, I knew I had found the writing expert that could lead me from where I was to where I needed to go. The first thing she convinced me was that I was a writer, not someone trying to write. “If you write, you are a writer. There is no gate or hoop you have to pass through first. A writer is one who writes.” Belief in that one thing alone changed the way I approached my stories.
Between the one-on-one sessions, the prompts in the weekly group workshops, feedback from Collective members on my work, and Frankie’s online prompts, I have grown in my writing exponentially since joining the Collective less than a year ago. Every week I meet with a group of like-minded creatives who freely share their work, motivations, and give their opinions on my work and the work of others, all without a single ounce of judgment. Frankie has this Code of Values that we read at the beginning of each workshop. A code of values that was the polar opposite of what I encountered trying to get help from other sources.
I truly feel that I will be able to accomplish whatever I want out of my writing by working with Frankie and the Fifth Brain Collective, which is to get my stories published when they are finished. I write commercial contemporary fiction, but there are people in the Collective that write everything from poetry to creative nonfiction and anything in between. There are members who paint, sculpt, and do other forms of physical art.
I will list a few of Frankie’s superpowers below:
She believes, and makes you believe, that what you are working on is important, unique, and that you are the only one that can write it.
She is a rule slayer and an assassin of your own doubts. She leads you away from the cages, pitfalls, and restraints of the “tiny rules” we make for ourselves.
She loves writing and reading more than anyone, and uses all the things she has seen and learned in her professional writing life as an educator and an author to teach us how to listen to our Fifth Brains.
She gives specialized direction, prompts, and advice through her one-on-one appointments. The advice she gives me is specifically for me and based on the way I write. She reads what I have written and helps me tell my story better. Makes me examine my characters, their motivations and the messages I am trying to put forth. During the workshops, she keeps us all reattaching and reexamining how to access our Fifth Brain, our creative selves, in different ways. Doing it as a group is immensely powerful, liberating and enlightening.
She brings creative minds together who come from vastly different walks of life of all ages, ethnic groups, religions, and locations into a harmonious space over a Zoom link.
She convinces you, that right now, you can write if you want to. “Squiggly lines on a piece of paper, and you can share any idea you desire. Just a few squiggly lines.”
Frankie Rollins has had an epiphany in her life that led her to create the Fifth Brain Collective, a new way of helping people move forward with their creative endeavors. It is a completely different approach and I feel fortunate, very fortunate, that I was working on my manuscript in public and a member of the Collective saw me. Whether you are just beginning your writing journey, or have been writing for years, Frankie’s approach will be a benefit to you. I would highly recommend anyone trying to move their writing forward to utilize Frankie Rollins and The Fifth Brain Collective.
–Mark Pettis
