by Sarah Sally Hamer

The word “sovereignty” has been floating around a lot lately, even in a writer’s symposium I attended recently. Why? Doesn’t it mean something about governments and borders? Why does it have anything to do with writing?

What Is it anyway?

Sovereignty is absolutely a legal term about political boundaries and who has control over areas of property. But it has a definition that is much more personal to each of us: We each have ultimate authority and power over our voice, our stories, our process, and how we choose to share them with the world.

Sovereignty is about calling the creative shots and making the decisions. YOU make the choice about what you write, when you write it, what it says, who it’s for, where it goes from there, and a myriad of other decisions, all of which you’re in charge of.

So, let’s talk about some of them:

1. What do you want to write? A 100,000-word novel? A memoir of an ancestor who fought in the American Revolution, an article for your favorite magazine, a journal entry? You get to decide. Of course, you’ll have specific reasons, no matter what the choice, but no one else has the power to make that choice for you.
2. When do you want to write? This one may have more factors involved, since you probably have other holds on your time, but you still can decide the day and time. And, you can even rearrange your schedule if you want to.
3. What words will you put on the paper? Happy ones? Sad ones? Big ones? Little ones? Part of the answer to this question will link with the next one…
4. Who are you writing for?

A good friend of mine is writing two different books for his eight-year-old granddaughter, one a cute talking-animal story, and the other a deeply-felt memoir she’ll probably not read until she is much older. So, of course, he will pick his words to be in line with her age and understanding for each of them. Recognizing and targeting your audience is a huge – and very necessary -- decision to make.

So, why is this important?

It’s really pretty simple. We live in a world where other people are willing to take our sovereignty away from us. Writing, and then publishing, a book fits right into that dynamic.

There are so many rules!

To fit into today’s paradigm (not that there hasn’t always been some sort of paradigm), a story has to be X-number of words long, with everything spelled right. We have to follow certain structures and plots. We even are required to fit into a box of what other people think is what we should be reading.

Is that why we’re actually writing? To fit into that box? I do realize that I’m lucky in that I have an income outside of writing, so I’m not living on what I can make. But that is still a choice.

I believe that writers are magic.

We each write for our own reasons. We tell stories about characters that don’t exist, creating situations that dance in our heads, finding great joy in the words that flow through our fingers onto a page. We can see the story unfolding in front of us with brilliant clarity and cathartic tears. We LOVE the magic.

Then, we show it to someone else and the reality of reviews and rejections and remorse fall on our heads. And we think something is wrong with us.

So. Why does sovereignty matter? It comes back to choices.

There are parts of the writing experience we have control over, and parts we don’t.

Things we do not have control over are what a publisher thinks, or a reader who had a bad hair day and gave you a one-star review. You don’t have control over Amazon or any of the other conglomerates who are the giant book-killers. Oh, I mean book-sellers.

You simply can’t change them.

But you also don’t have to give them your sovereignty. So, what do you have control over?

We have control over what we write.

We have control over what we don’t write.

We have control over what we do with our words.

We have control over how many words we write a day or a week or a month.

We have control over who we show our words to.

We have control over how we learn our craft.

We have control over classes we take, craft books we read, critique groups we’re in.

And, we have control over how we feel about writing. We’re not forced to write, unless we’ve made a decision to be.

How do you feel about writing?

Does it make you happy? Or do you write a book wondering if it will sell and you’ll make money?

I believe that a reader can tell the difference.

So. I suggest you sit down with yourself and answer the biggest, most important question of all: “Why do you write?”

Once you have that firmly in your mind, you’ll find that your decisions will change. Maybe you’ll stop forcing yourself to try to be creative. I can almost guarantee you that your writer’s block will disappear. Maybe you’ll stop trying to write to whatever the “plot of the day” is. I think you’ll find your voice and write something that may even change the writing industry. Maybe you’ll even sit down in front of your computer and find joy in your words. I think you might even find exactly what’s important in your life.

Will you make a lot of money? Maybe. Maybe not. But, unless money is the main reason you’re writing (and part of that soul-sucking publishing business), you may find that listening to your inner self, that creative, magical, imaginative human, is worth more than gold.

Why do YOU write?

About Sarah

Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and for the No Stress Writing Academy at https://nostresswriting.com.  Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors.

You can find her at info@mindpotential.org

Top photo created

by Jenn Windrow

The last thing any writer wants their book to be is forgettable. And that starts with an attention-grabbing, first line.

There’s a lot riding on your novel’s first line. It’s not just the opening act — it’s the handshake, the hook, and the dare. Your first line tells your reader: this is the kind of story you’re in for, and you’re going to want to sit down for it.

When I am editing, whether it be for myself, a client, or my critique partners, I am probably the toughest on the first line. I will work for hours crafting the most perfect first line for all my stories, it might be my very favorite thing about writing! And I know I’ve annoyed more than one client and critique partner by hyper focusing on theirs.

For example, this one might be my favorite that I've written right now.

"Leave it to a fanghole to interrupt a perfectly good retirement." - Evil’s Lethal Addiction

My urban fantasy series was supposed to be complete after book 4, but thanks to a simple question asked, I was prompted to write another book in the series. At the end of book four, my heroine decided to retire from her vampire hunting night job, so I needed something fun, full of my voice, that matched the rest of the series, but also explained why I decided to add more to my series. It's a few simple words, but it does the job I need it to do.

So how do you write a first line that grabs your reader by the collar and whispers, you’re not going anywhere?

Let’s break it down.

What Makes a First Line Work

The best first lines do one or more of the following:

• Introduce tension or mystery
• Deliver a distinct voice
• Establish a mood or tone
• Drop us into motion
• Offer a surprise, a promise, or a provocation

Forget weather reports. Forget waking up from dreams. You want your reader to feel off-balance in the best way — intrigued, unsettled, curious. You want them asking a question you’re not going to answer just yet.

First Line Archetypes That Slap

Here are five approaches that never go out of style with some examples and a prompt.

1. The Startling Truth

Drop a bomb. Then let your reader scramble to understand what just happened.

Here's an example...

“All this happened, more or less.” — Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

Try: I buried the wrong body.

2. The Irresistible Voice

Hit the page with so much personality the reader can’t look away.

Here's an example...

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born…” — The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Try: I never meant to set the nun on fire.

3. The Mystery in Motion

Something’s already happening — and we want to catch up.

Here's an example...

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” — 1984, George Orwell

Try: By the time I reached the hill, the house was already burning.

4. The Shocking Contradiction

Use irony, contradiction, or dark humor to knock the reader sideways.

Here's an example...

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.” — The Crow Road, Iain Banks

Try: He was the nicest serial killer I’d ever met.

5. The Weight of a Voice Untold

Sometimes quiet tension speaks loudest.

Here's an example...

“They shoot the white girl first.” — Paradise, Toni Morrison

Try: No one noticed she was missing until dinner was served.

There is a reason the books listed above are considered classics and have stood the test of time.

First Lines to Avoid Like a Cliché Storm

• “It was a dark and stormy night…”
• “My name is X, and I’m just a normal [insert trope]…”
• “Everything changed the day…”
• “If you’re reading this, I’m probably dead.”

You can twist these into something fresh — but if you don’t, they’ll send your reader straight to the next book in their TBR pile.

Writing Tips for Line One

• Write it last: Your best opening line might not show up until draft three. (This one doens't work for me, but I know several writers who need to write it last to make it perfect.)
•  Test it out loud: It should sound good in your mouth. Rhythm matters.
•  Be bold, not confusing: Intrigue is good. Bewilderment? Not so much.
•  Don’t overwrite: Punch hits harder than prose that’s trying too hard to be profound.

Final Thought: Give Them No Choice but to Read On

An unforgettable first line is a promise. It says, I know exactly what I’m doing, and you’re going to love where I take you. So don’t be afraid to lead with your sharpest blade.

If it excites you, if it makes you smirk, if it makes you proud — that’s the one.

Next month, I will be discussing how to craft a hooky chapter ending.

Let's make today an interactive day. Drop your favorite first line in the comment section! If you want help shaping them into something that will hook your reader, let me know and I will be happy to help you play!

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About Jenn Windrow

Jenn Windrow once attempted to write a “normal” book—and promptly bored herself into a coma. So now she sticks to what she does best: writing snarky, kickass heroines, broody supernatural men, and more sexual tension than a vampire in a blood bank.

She’s the award-winning author of the Alexis Black novels and the Redeeming Cupid series, where the undead never sparkle and the drama is always delicious. Jenn moonlights as a developmental editor, helping other writers wrangle their wild plots and tangle-free prose.

When not arguing with her characters or muttering about Oxford commas, she can be found binge-watching trash TV, wrangling the slew of animals that live in her house (husband and teenagers included), or telling herself she’ll only have one more cookie.

You can find her at jennwindrow.com or lurking on social media where she pretends to be an extrovert.

Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

by Miffie Seideman

Ready to try an approach to writing that can help avoid burn-out and stress? I may have just the thing. On my long bike ride last weekend, I had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of time to ruminate about complaints bandied about at my monthly writing critique group. Manuscript writing, I was informed, is very stressful and grueling. It was so sad to hear. Because, while the pathway to a finished manuscript can be challenging, both physically and mentally, it should be a place of creation, adventure, and excitement.

I’ve previously shared how my involvement in the world of endurance triathlon has helped inform my writing. But on that recent bike ride, I had an epiphany, of sorts. I realized the process of manuscript writing could be made more enjoyable if it was approached the way athletes train for an endurance race.

Why?

Because these athletes have figured out how to manage adding a potentially exhaustive, time-consuming project into overscheduled lives to achieve a big goal. Doesn’t that sound familiar? A proper approach to endurance training leaves athletes more refreshed, mentally and physically—another benefit for writers trying to remain creative.

3 Main Concepts to Embrace

While entire books have been devoted to endurance training theories, these three core approaches are the most relevant for writers:

The Big Picture 

Most writers I’ve met jump into a new manuscript idea and start typing madly toward the finish line. Some plot, some don’t. Either way, they’re faced with months (and sometimes years) of efforts to reach that goal. Similarly, endurance triathletes must train for many months to get to a single race. Yet few of them would consider just swimming, running, and cycling as much as possible until race day.

Successful athletes (and by that I mean not burned-out, not injured, and still loving their sport!) know there is a lot of planning that goes into reaching their goal without wreaking havoc on their lives. Without proper planning, those hours of training squeezed into a full life eventually lead to burn-out, injury, exhaustion (mental and physical), and a surprisingly high divorce rate. Exhausted writers can face writer’s block, imposter syndrome, and depression. Some even quit writing.

So, how can you wrestle a big project into your life in a way that’s positive? By considering these big picture variables:   

How Much, How Often

The most popular question at my writing group revolves around the number of words that should be written daily. The consensus? There isn’t one. At least not a number that can be generalized to everyone. One person may be able to write thousands of words a day. Another only 500.

When I wrote The Grim Reader, I was a full-time pharmacist with a full family life of obligations. On most days, I was exhausted. Still, my passion to develop a drug guide for writers drove me to begin the project. As a relatively new writer, I tried to sustain writing every day, as recommended by various writers. I failed. Then, falling behind in my word count became an additional stressor. Sound familiar?

What I should have done from the beginning was step back and look at my big picture. If I really wanted to add that project into my life, I should have made a game plan for success. When I did, I realized that focusing on a daily word count wasn’t possible for me. Many days I was too busy. And word count targets stressed me. Ultimately, I identified several days a week I could realistically write and switched my goal to working on a single scene each session. I changed my metric from word count to consistent progress toward a finished manuscript. The process became much more manageable and enjoyable.

This big picture approach is exactly how I learned to train for Ironman triathlons. It simply wasn’t possible to just add hours of training into my daily obligations. Instead, I had to find what was possible. For me, it became high-value, shorter workouts on specific days, leaving me time for family and those pesky chores.

Rest Days

Believe it or not, when training for an endurance race, such as an Ironman triathlon, it’s crucial to schedule rest days. In fact, rest days are now considered an integral part of training. On these days, there is no training. None. In addition, every few weeks of hard training, a full “recovery week” is scheduled, with drastically reduced training volume.

Without these rest periods, endurance athletes not only risk physical injury and mental burn-out, but also a syndrome called overtraining. Overtraining causes a decrease in performance, an increased heart rate even during sleep, physical exhaustion, mental fatigue, depression, and insomnia.

Even so, taking rest days is a very hard concept for many. Resting is often categorized as lazy, leaving us feeling guilty. I see this with athletes and writers alike.

The really bad thing about overtraining syndrome is that it can take much longer than a single rest day to recover. For athletes, it can take a week or more. Even then the mental burn-out can remain. For writers, this can impact imagination, the desire to write, create writer’s block, and bolster self-doubt.

Connections

As you can imagine, cycling 60-80 miles every Saturday, in addition to hours (and hours) of running and swimming each week can become very lonely. Yet many triathletes choose to train alone, since coordinating schedules with others can be so challenging. And group workouts sometimes include more chatting than training, setting the time-starved athlete’s efforts back further. Group write-ins can be like this, as well. I’ve ended up leaving some write-ins with little writing done.

But isolation isn’t the answer. Cultivating relationships with like-minded people will make your journey much better. Not only can you learn valuable insight to help you write (or train) better, but you’ll also know people that understand your language and interests. People whose eyes won’t gloss over when you discuss methods for penning a good synopsis. People that can actively contribute to a conversation about the merits of various POVs (or the newest aerodynamic racing wheels!). These are the people that can cheer as you begin to query and comfort your heart if your inbox fills with rejections.

The Grace to Fail

I know writers that have quit after a few rejections, certain they are terrible story tellers. And one professional triathlete became unfortunately famous for throwing his very expensive bike across the road when his race didn’t go as planned.

We are all too hard on ourselves. The least we can do is give ourselves just a bit of kindness along these challenging roads we’ve chosen to follow. But it can be very hard when those tough days hit. The day I got a rejection from a dream agent on my very first manuscript was one of those hard days. The excitement of having a full manuscript requested plummeted into despair when I read the rejection. Evidently, I made her cry in one scene and my voice was great, but the cavernous plot hole…not so much.

I easily could have thrown in the towel, blaming myself for not understanding story structure better. As much as that day stung, once my writing group helped scoop my heart back into place (and I took a few rest days), I rolled up my sleeves and dove into learning more about the craft of writing.

Putting It All Together-

Planning ahead is not a new concept. But if you’re a writer diving into the excitement of a new story idea amidst a very full life, this approach may help you more realistically reach your goal.  I hope this glimpse into the world of endurance training has helped offer some tips for making writing a more manageable part of your life.

Do you already plan your big picture? I’d love to hear about your process in the comments.

About Miffie

Miffie Seideman has been a pharmacist for over 30 years, with a passion for helping others. Her research articles have appeared in professional pharmacy journals. Miffie blended her passion for pharmacy and her love of writing into THE GRIM READER: Putting Your Characters in Peril (A Pharmacist’s Guide For Authors),(Red Lightening Books, Indiana University Press). She’s represented by Amy Collins with Talcott Notch Literary Services.  

An avid triathlete, Miffie spends countless hours training in the arid deserts of Arizona, devising new plots for her upcoming fantasy love story. She can be found hanging around her website https://GrimReaders.com offering tips to writers and on X @MiffieSeideman. Contact her at info@grimreaders.com/

Featured image by hbieser, via Pixabay.