The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant

Some writers like to dive right in with an inciting incident. The first pages establish your voice, a glimpse into hook, the time and place, the protagonist…and maybe your character’s dreams and desires. I need my first chapter, my first pages, and my first lines to be perfect in my own eyes before I continue on with the story–albeit memoir, women’s fiction, or even middle grade. Some writerly advice tells us to keep writing, keep going-to get the first draft written even if it’s crappy.

How do you approach your first pages? Just start typing and revise later? I ended up writing my memoirs because the story was happening to me. Yes, I’m a bit of a renaissance woman, but after dabbling with young adult and middle-grade concepts, I finally found my voice within the words of women-centric books. I posted my query letters on public sites for critiques. I had beta readers comb through my novels, some of the more established writers brutal with their thoughts, which I will always be appreciative of. I pushed myself to learn everything about the publishing business, namely how to polish up my manuscript and, at the very least, get my foot into the door. What genre was my voice suited for? What did I want to write? How did I connect with other authors? Grow? I started out writing middle-grade novels and young adult and connected with other writers on /forums. When I first started writing in 1997, I wasn’t sure of the path I wanted to take. You’ve written both fiction and creative nonfiction. FPP: Hi Samantha, thanks for sharing your #firstpagestips. Samantha Vérant is the author of two bestselling memoirs, SEVEN LETTERS FROM PARIS (Sourcebooks 2014), HOW TO MAKE A FRENCH FAMILY (Sourcebooks 2016), a middle-grade novel, KING OF THE MUTANTS (Month9Books, 2014), and, more recently, women’s fiction/contemporary romance with THE SECRET FRENCH RECIPES OF SOPHIE VALROUX (Penguin Random House–Berkley, September 2020) and the sequel, SOPHIE VALROUX’S PARIS STARS (October 2021).

The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux by Samantha Verant