A lot of people feel like the outline is holding them back in a way, right? Like if you're a

pancer, you're like, oh, I feel like I'm chained. And to me, it's the opposite because it means I have

to keep all of the ideas that I get on the go in my head. That is stifling. That is so stifling to

me. Like that's the opposite. And so having that outline already done

meant like I could write, and it sounds crazy, but I really observed this as I was doing it.

I could write three sentences. And it made, I'm not kidding, it made jumping back into the paragraph

later once my kids had gone to bed, that much easier.

Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo, and I'm here to help

you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be

overwhelming. So each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable,

and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So whether you're

brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for

you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, we're going behind the scenes of one writer's journey

to hear how she finished her first draft and wrote the whole thing almost entirely in

stolen moments between school drop-offs, swim lessons, and drive-through lines. My guest's name is

Jackie Henninger, who publishes under the pen name J.J. Henley, and she's a mom of two, a former teacher, as well as a passionate reader who spent years

in the book community reviewing other people's stories before she finally decided to write

one of her own.

And in this episode, Jackie is going to share how being a beta reader for someone else's novel

was the moment that changed everything for her. And why getting an

inside look at another author's work in progress gave her the confidence to finally start her own.

She's also going to talk about what it was like going through my notes to novel course, what happened

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