After I signed with my brilliant agent, I sent him a long letter (yeah, it could probably have been cut by 30%) telling him all the things I would do as a writer to make his job easier and to help sell books – like publicity stuff, and meeting deadlines, and blah, blah, blah.

I ended the letter with this:

I have never been able to write an outline and three chapters. I write whole books. If you tell me you need an outline and three chapters, I will try. I will do my best to say yes when you need me to do something, even if it’s out of my comfort zone. Or maybe, especially if it’s out of my comfort zone. After all, a stretch is good for everyone.

You really shouldn’t say something like this if you don’t mean it, because yeah…I’m now writing three chapters (well, 50 pages) and an outline/synopsis, per my agent’s suggestion. And guess what, I can actually do it! And I am LOVING this approach. Seriously.

I had one totally false start a few months ago, and have scrapped that idea, which is this huge relief because I put a couple of weeks into it, not months or years. Now I am onto something that is really working out and I am sooooo excited.

This approach has forced me to design a story and not to wing it. I think that there will be a lot less revision. Heck, there probably won’t even be any more pages unless my agent and editor likes what I’ve got. There’s something very freeing about starting a book knowing that it’s an experiment and not a commitment for the next year. It allows you to play. Of course, I am happy because I’ve got the 50 pages mostly done, but ask me next week! The synopsis is still in my head…wish me luck extracting that!

Do you outline? Do you write synopses and do character work (I did this time and it’s already paid off)? Or do you dive in?