Even after writing over twenty books, I still face each new project with trepidation.
“What if this is the book where it all falls apart? What if this is the one I can’t write?”
I expressed these fears to my husband one evening and he answered with: “Trust your process.” The next day, I sat at my desk, opened a new document and started planning the book. Four days later, I had an outline for the first twelve chapters and was ready to start.
How you get from “this is going to be the book that ends me, even before I begin” to excitedly banging out the first chapter differs for every writer, but over the course of my twenty or so books, I’ve developed a process that almost always works. I can sit down and just start writing, and sometimes I do exactly that. But I’ve found that if I do a little prep work first, I can keep writing.
If you struggle with plotting and outlining, check out the article I wrote for Rainbow Romance Writers. Hopefully, some of my tips will work for you!
Read: How To: Outlining at Pot of Gold, the blog of the Rainbow Romance Writers.
Kelly Jensen 