Writers in the Storm

Kerry Schafer

Why is it so damned difficult to believe that we are really writers?

I was discussing imposter syndrome recently with a highly successful author who has two bestselling non-fiction books out and is in the middle of an extensive, publisher supported tour. She confessed that she doesn’t really feel like she’s a writer.

Sound familiar? I hear this from my clients and writer friends. I see the phrase “aspiring writer” all over the internet. I often feel like a fraud myself, despite eight published novels and more under contract.

Part of the problem is that we keep adding silent tags onto the word writer, associating it with qualifiers like:

Successful (whatever the heck that means).

Published.

Bestselling.

Award winning.

Acclaimed.

The truth is, if you show up to the page in any form with any level of consistency at all—you are a writer. This holds true no matter where you are on the journey. It doesn’t matter whether you have an agent or not, are indie or traditionally published, or are just beginning to explore yourself on paper and nowhere near the point of publication—you are still a writer.

You are a writer while you’re cleaning cat boxes, changing diapers, making dinner, or slogging away at the day job to pay the bills.

When we don’t believe this—when we buy into doubt’s whispers and think of ourselves as wannabe writers, or aspiring writers, or even newbie writers—we enable all of our excuses and stunt our potential. If you’re not really a writer, then why should you work to learn the craft and skill that will make your words sparkle on the page and keep readers glued to your plot? Why should you sacrifice other parts of your life to make time for writing? Why should you risk the fallout of bringing the deepest part of yourself to the page?

One of the most essential steps you can take toward deepening your writing life, pursuing your writing dreams, and getting closer to your personal definition of success is to embrace and internalize the belief that you really, truly, unequivocally are a writer.

No qualifiers. No tags. No unspoken “buts.”

Here are five steps to get you started growing into your writer identity.

1. Claim the Writer Title.

Say to yourself, right now as you’re reading this, “I am a writer.” In fact, get up from your chair, go find the nearest mirror, look at yourself and say, “This is what a writer looks like.” Practice telling other people that you are a writer. If you’re tempted to add a qualifier or a but to the statement, explaining that you’re not published or nobody’s heard of you--resist the temptation. Stand fast. Practice saying, “Hey, I’m Kerry and I’m a writer.” If this feels wrong and strange, if you feel like a fraud, that just means you need more practice.

2. Find a community of other writers.

If you hang out with writers, you’re going to find it easier to assimilate the belief that you too are a writer. Whether you join a local writing group, hang out in an online forum, or join an online critique group, you’ll discover that you’ll feel more like a writer if you belong to a companionship of writers. This is your tribe.

3. Write anyway.

On the days when everything is totally dark and you’re convinced that every word you’ve written is horrible and that you were really born to be a ditch digger—write anyway. Write for five minutes. Give yourself permission to write horrible, sloppy, godawful prose that you would never show to another living soul. Just showing up as a writer, even for just a few words, helps dispel those paralyzing doubts.

4. Love your writing.

Passionately. As if it’s a secret paramour you can’t get enough of. It’s so easy to get swept up in lofty, down the road goals of agents, publishing contracts, record breaking sales, and the elusive rainbow gold of fame and fortune. This focus can feed the doubt and keep us from the page. Whatever success we’re aiming for is always a gazillion miles away, and it’s hard enough to keep believing that we’ll ever get to the end of a draft. Bring yourself back, over and over again, to what you love about the process of writing. What drew it to you in the first place? What do you love about your current work in progress?

5. Practice believing.

If it’s hard to believe in yourself as a real writer, see if you can believe it just a little bit, or for a minute at a time. Employ your imagination. Ask yourself this question: “How would it feel to believe I am a real writer?”  And this one: “How would a successful writer approach this situation?” Act as if, while the belief catches up with you.

And while you’re growing into your writer identity—keep writing. Thank all of the writing gods for this one thing: doubts are just doubts, and we are not defined by them.

About Kerry

Kerry Schafer, also writing as Kerry Anne King, is the author of nine novels, including the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling novel Whisper Me This. She is also a writer mindset coach and speaker, helping writers ditch their doubts, dance with their demons, and delve into creative delight so they can get their words out of their heads and onto the page where they belong.

Writer coaching:
www.writeattheedge.com
www.facebook.com/writeattheedge

Julie Glover

While every great novel I've read hasn't had a memorable first line, fabulous first lines tend to stick with me. And more than once, I've purchased a book based on a reel-me-in first line or paragraph.

Here are just a few favorite openings:

“As an interactive horror experience, with beasts from Hell, mayhem, gore, and dismemberment, it was an impressive event. As a high school prom, however, the evening was marginally less successful.” – Prom Dates from Hell, Rosemary Clement-Moore

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

“I am old now and have not much to fear from the anger of gods.” – Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis

“Digging graves is hell on a manicure, but I was taught good vampires clean up after every meal.” – Red-Headed Stepchild, Jaye Wells

"Trevor Dunham talked quite a bit about his man part just before he drowned." – The Lifeboat Clique, Kathy Parks

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." – Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

If you want some great advice on writing a winning first line, check out Laura Drake's wonderful posts on that topic here and here.

But today, we invite you to share the opening lines of your current WIP (work-in-progress) or recently finished novel in the comments! Or share a favorite from someone else. Give us the title and genre, then your opening lines. Feel free to comment on others' as well!

We'll get you started.

Jenny

The Six-Percent Baby, a memoir

My dreams died on a sunny April afternoon. There would be no baby for me. Not from this body.

Book 2 in the Rx for Love series (Thea's story)

If she didn’t have sex this year, her girly bits were gonna stage a revolt. Thea Armstrong stared at the magazine in her hands, contemplating her love life.

When did I last have sex? Oh hell. When did I last go on a date?

Definitely not this year. Her BFF almost died this year. Last year, she’d raced to finish her degree. The year before was speed dating. What a bleeding disaster.

She did a frantic mental count.

Six years? Six years since she’d kicked Mr. Oh-so-wrong Keith out of her life. Almost seven years since she’d been with a man.

Holy smokes, I’m practically re-virginized.

Fae

Fire on Roof, a speculative fiction book

What had seemed like an exceptional decision a year ago, now reeked like month-old garbage in the settlement’s incinerator hole.

Compromising Harmony, a Keep sphere book

“Behold—the unwilling virgin.” The sputtered words escaped from between Harmony MEcar’s clenched teeth. Flipping up the farview lens of her tactical helmet, she watched her laughing target emerge from the pool.

Untitled contemporary romance

The universe could not have found a worse match for her.

Julie

Prepare to Meet Your Undertaker, cozy mystery

When someone asks me to arrange a Viking funeral for them, I deliver.

You can’t just toss a corpse in a boat and light it on fire anywhere. It takes event planning, coordination with legal authorities, and knowledge of the proper disposal of dead bodies.

Thankfully, I’m an expert at making dream funerals come true.

Laura

My fave of my own work will always be The Sweet Spot:

The grief counselor told the group to be grateful for what they had left. After lots of considering, Charla Rae decided she was grateful for the bull semen.

The Road to Me, women's fiction

I was born to be a hippie. I resisted. - Jacqueline Oliver

As-yet untitled western romance

“Hon, we’ve talked about this. I can’t ride bulls forever. Why not go out on top?”

When Lacey’s brow furrows, I know the jig is up. She doesn’t expend a wrinkle for minor irritations.

Share your opening lines—or a favorite from another author below!

Julie Glover

I'm a fan of fairy tales. Not so much the Disney re-tellings—though some are good—but rather the rich lore of the originals.

But what if your writing career was a fairy tale? Which one would it be?

Cinderella

Cinderella was a hard-working young woman cursed by a stepmother who didn't care one bit about her dreams. But Cindy was special, so when a fairy godmother showed up and offered her a pretty dress, slippers, and a carriage to the prince's ball, she headed out the door. Even better, she came upon Prince Charming, who fell in love with her at first sight and made all of her dreams come true.

I used to believe this was the writing fairy tale! I'd get my fairy godmother agent who'd set up my meeting with a publisher who'd fall in love with my writing...and together they'd make all my dreams come true. Yeah, I was a little naive and starry-eyed back then.

Look, I'm not knocking Cinderella's work ethic—the girl is forced into servitude and hangs out among the cinders to keep warm, for heaven's sake! But she's not the hero of her own story.

Likewise, imagining that someone else is going to deliver your writing happy-ever-after on a silver platter is a bit unrealistic these days. Be your own fairy tale hero. Get the manuscript finished, be smart about your choices, and take charge of your writing success.

Snow White

Snow White is a tale of jealousy, pure and simple. An evil queen approached her looking glass each day and asked how she measures up. But she didn't do it based on how looked the day before or how she'd look the day after. She compared herself to others. And what happened? Well, she got bested by a sweet young thing who hung out with seven dwarfs in the deep of the forest and a local prince who fell in love with that black-haired beauty. As Dr. Phil might say, "How'd that work out for you, Queenie?"

Yet, plenty of us fall for the same thing. We plug away at our writing, look over and realize that someone else is ahead of us, and become discouraged, frustrated, and jealous. Well, guess what? Someone will always be ahead of you. If you write 5,000 words this week, someone else will write 10,000. If you get a five-figure book advance, someone else will get a six-figure one. If you hit the New York Times bestseller list, someone will too—and stay on it longer.

What if the queen had just looked in the mirror and concluded, “So I’m not 20 anymore, but I look dang good. In fact, I'm one hot mama. I’m going to get on my exercise steed, use a beauty product or two, and look even better tomorrow”? Of course, there'd be no conflict and thus no story, but everyone would have gotten a happy ever after!

Forget how you measure up to others. Write the best story you can, so you can look in that mirror and say, "Heck yeah, I'm the fairest I can be!"

Rapunzel

Rapunzel was locked away in a tower at the age of 12 and didn’t cut her hair for years. Of course, it was the enchantress who shut her away in the story, but it's a story of isolation until some guy comes to rescue her. (And here's where the Disney version is better, because she totally rescues him back. So there.)

Do you, like Rapunzel, feel isolated and alone in this journey? We've all heard those stories of the writers who lock themselves away for the sake of finishing a manuscript. They ignore healthy eating, sleeping, and grooming and write so much that they're only a few hours away from naming their blinking cursor "Wilson."

But is the "always writing" approach a great idea? Actually, more and more research is showing we need playfulness and novelty and social interaction to keep our minds functioning at full capacity. It's okay to let down your hair now and then, take care of yourself, and enjoy time with others. Maybe hang out with some other writers. I hear they're a cool bunch.

Beauty and the Beast

A widower in need of sustenance came upon a palace and found food and water within. But the Beast who owned the palace would not let the man go unless his daughter took his place. Once the daughter arrived and swapped spots with Daddy, the Beast tried to woo her, but she would not return his affection. Finally, he let her leave to visit her family, but after a while, Beauty worried he was back at the palace dying without her. Upon her return, she found the Beast almost dead, realized she loved him, and brought him back to life—as a human prince.

Writing can be a beast, can't it? Maybe it's at the level of drafting the manuscript, when you can't seem to make it all work. Maybe it's just finding time to write among the pushes and pulls of life. Maybe it's marketing that makes you want to roar like a beast yourself.

And yet, stories keep wooing you, and deep down, you know you love writing. It's just a matter of bringing them all to life with all your Beauty-ness. Mind you, it will take time, and you wish the road was easier. But with some attention and nurturing, you may well turn your beasts into bestsellers!

Now that would be a happy ever after.

Can you compare your writing journey to any of these fairy tales? Or how about others?

About Julie

Julie Glover writes cozy mysteries and young adult fiction. Her YA contemporary novel, SHARING HUNTER, finaled in the 2015 RWA® Golden Heart®. She is also co-author of the Muse Island supernatural suspense series, which begins with Mark of the Gods, under the pen name Jules Lynn.

When not writing, she collects boots, practices rampant sarcasm, and advocates for good grammar and the addition of the interrobang as a much-needed punctuation mark.

Julie is represented by Louise Fury of The Bent Agency. You can visit Julie’s website hereand also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.