I read an article where an author said they he recommends knowing the last line of your book before knowing the first line.

Well, I couldn’t disagree more.

I’m not saying his way doesn’t work. It did for him. But it could never work for me. As I mentioned before, I write to discover, not to tell a pre-ordained story.

That’s just the way I work. My process is all about the creativity and discovering where it will take me.

Tonight, I started my next novel. I didn’t know what was going to happen in my first chapter, but as line after line was laid down, it began to take shape. What’s interesting is that as I wrote, I began planting seeds which will one day be realized in subsequent chapters. I wrote about an item. I don’t yet know its complete importance to the story, but it will flesh itself out as the story unfolds. It will add layer and depth as I go along.

This doesn’t mean that I am completely directionless. Not at all. I have a general direction of how I want the story to go, but I also know that as I create, my ideas will improve and that will change the directions that the characters take. It’s a guided discovery process.

It would be foolish for me to try to figure out what the last sentence of my novel will be. Because even if I did, it wouldn’t stay that way.

So how should you write? Only you know. Whatever works for you, do it! But remember, the most important part of writing is putting down the words. Just get them down, even if you don’t necessarily love them at this point. Get them down and let the process take care of the rest.