Have a Destination in Mind

The longest journey begins with the first step, but it helps to know where your journey will take you. This doesn’t mean you will know every step of the way, because writing is always full of surprises – twists and turns that the author doesn’t expect. That’s the fun part of writing. But most writers I know have a destination in mind. They know where they want to head even if they can’t tell you exactly how they intended to get there . . . Even when you get to the end of the work, this compass will guide you through the rewriting, that stage of work that really makes what you’ve written. By having a clear understanding of what your plot is and how the force works in your fiction, you’ll have a reliable compass to guide you through the work.

What explorer ever struck out without a direction in mind?

Ronald B. Tobias, 20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them), p. 7