What would I do without Suzie?

I can’t even begin to describe how awesome my agent, Suzie Townsend, is. As I mentioned in a post last week, I was struggling to write a synopsis for the sequels to Personal Demons. Finally, I slapped the basic story arc for the rest of the series down and, in a bit of a frustrated tantrum, emailed it to her, imploring her to do something with it.

She turned it into something beautiful.

I read the “series concept statement” she put together, and now I’m absolutely dying to read my books!

Suzie made the point that when a writer is so involved with the work, it’s hard to be clear and succinct in a synopsis.

So, what tricks to you use to write a good synopsis?

Outline or no outline?

I finished my revisions of Personal Demons for my awesome agent last week and sent my manuscript off to her. I'm a compulsive tinkerer, so It's been really hard to keep out of the manuscript while she copy edits. To that end, I've tried staying busy by submersing myself in book two. After all, if I have to write a synopsis for that book before submitting to editors, I better know what it’s about, right? But it’s turning out to be a bit of a trick since I don’t write with an outline. As a matter of fact, I have no idea where a book is going until it’s there. My characters (and my rock star Muse) are in charge. I don’t always like their choices but, as I've said before, I’m just the poorly paid help with the laptop. And, in the end, their choices always seem to produce an interesting outcome. So I always defer—just get out of the way and let it happen.

That’s a really long way of saying putting together a synopsis for a book I haven’t written yet is turning out to be a challenge.

So I’m curious. Do you know where your book is going before you start writing? Or are you like me, writing by the seat of your pants?