For the last few months I've been thinking in terms of selling a book on proposal: three chapters and a synopsis. The idea worries me because I am a pantser. I start with an idea, some characters, and let the rest just unfold. Cool stuff comes out of nowhere and amazes me. The characters say things that takes the book in a little different direction. Reading the first draft through, you can see how the plot and the characters evolve.At the beginning of this book, to determine if I could, I banged out a synopsis. A rough one to be sure, but it outlines the book start to finish.
I got to work on the first draft of my current WIP, grappled with keeping the characters on task and stewing about how to end the story. Today I had a brainstorm about a direction for the last third of the book and worried that it differed from how I'd written the synopsis. But today, when I reread where I originally intended the story to go, it ends up being much closer to the actual end than what I figured.
This makes me realize that even though I don't think I can plot and I like my characters and stories to unfold organically, I'm doing better in the planning stages.
That gives me hope. When that day comes for me to sell on proposal, I might just be able to do it.
