Tuesday's Inspiration based on a quote by E. L. Doctorow #MFRWauthor #inspiration

While reading Bird by Bird, I came across this quote by E. L. Doctorow that struck me as a great thought on the process of writing. "Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights but you can make the whole trip that way."

Often when I start a story, I have a good idea of how the story will begin and I know where I want to go. What I don't know is how I will get to that point. Sometimes the destination will change a bit but I will arrive where I'm going somehow. Just finished writing the last chapter of a fantasy novel I'm working on. The end bothered me for weeks and I had an end or two blocked out. Then it hit me. This is the third in a series of four stories. First there needs to be a vague threat at the endof this one. Not really a loose end but a hint that there will be more.

The second thing that struck me was the ending I'd written was to put it bluntly "blah." What it needed was some action and there were places for it. So as I wrote the final chapter I could see only paragraph by paragraph where the story had to go. My headlights were pretty dim but they brought me to the ending that made me smile.

How about you? When you're writing a story, do you see every scene as clear as day or do you move along slowly using those headlights to reach your destination?