I used to assume that when writers sat down to work, they all knew what they were going to write about. They must have all outlined their ideas, characters and plot twists perfectly in their minds, and all that was left was to transcribe them onto paper.

When I began writing I was terribly annoyed to find out this wasn’t the case. From my own experience, and from reading other authors’ stories, this almost never happens. We might set out to write with a general destination in mind, perhaps a scene or an idea we hope to convey, but we are most of the time half-blind, flailing around, tripping over tree branches, scrambling for a reasonable point. We can only see as far as the next sentence, the next logical thought. There is no master plan.

Thankfully, like driving at night, we can reach our destinations by seeing only as far as our headlights allow. We may make a few wrong turns, swerve suddenly to avoid roadkill and feel quite lost, but with enough time, our headlights will guide us to our destination. Going on wild tangents, creating abysmal roadkills of ideas and feeling overwhelmed are all part of the process. No one has the whole journey mapped out. Besides, it’s more interesting if you figure it out as you go.

The point is to keep moving. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.