Hi, I'm Christa, and I'm Also a Non-Outliner

I'd like to think that I'm always a spontaneous, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl.

But truth be told, most of the time I'd fall under the category of a "planner," which I guess makes sense when you're doing the freelance writing thing for a living. Basically, I'm managing a slew of writing deadlines with everyday life's responsibilities sandwiched in between, and that requires structure to make it all work.

But when it comes to writing my novels, I'm the veritable poster child for free spiritedness (like how I just made that word up...I'm guessing it's not in Webster's). In fact, I'm a lot like my fellow Scribble Chick, Erynn. I don't outline. For whatever reason, I simply don't have it in me. Sure, I have a basic idea of where my story is headed and a fairly firm grasp of who these characters are, but as far as the particulars, well, that comes to me as I type away.

And for me, I've found that this is the best way to create a compelling story. In the course of spending time with these fictional people that feel oh-so-real to me, scenarios naturally spring to mind that I probably wouldn't have thought of when outlining.

Now for some people, I totally get that outlines help provide a structure, a method to the forthcoming madness if you will. But for me, it's too tight of a box that prevents me from creating something probably far more promising than what I brainstormed for an outline.

Basically when crafting your proposal, your potential publishers wants to know that you have a strong story in mind—you know, something with a proper beginning, middle and resolution. But while a few details definitely will increase their faith in you, you don't have to feel like you must have every, teensy-weensy detail worked out to send something their way. I'm guessing they'd probably even prefer that you didn't tell them everything.

So why am I telling you this? Well, it's because I definitely remember the days of proposals feeling very daunting because I didn't have everything worked out yet. After a while, it almost becomes a procrastination tool—"Well, I don't know how the story is going to end, so I better not send that off just yet."

Or "I don't think I'm going to work on that today because I haven't decided how this conflict is going to resolve."

Yes, at some point, you'll have to address that in your manuscript. But don't let the details prevent you from moving ahead. There will always be a million reasons not to submit your ideas (fear of rejection, fear that it'll never get read, fear that your story isn't solidfied enough), but believe me, it's absolutely, positively worth the risk.