As I said in my last post, the end is the beginning. There is more to say about the end.

The end is your goal, your vision.

It’s OK not knowing yet how you’ll arrive at this goal, how your vision will be realized.

If you write by the seat of your pants, you may feel like you’re in a dark room searching for a prized possession (or the light switch). 

You may feel this way for a long time, or you may feel you’re in a cycle of fog one day, clarity the next.

If you are crystal clear about the message you want to convey, how the characters must play on your page, you know exactly the route to take. You’ve got your eyes on the road.

You may miss the signs for the scenic highway that your mind or your muse may suggest to you. It’s OK to go for a detour. When you see things from a different perspective, you may gain insight and a more powerful clarity about the direction you want to take for the rest of this journey—the way you want to write the book.

The end is the goal is the vision is the journey is the destination.

Knowing this path helps the fiction or memoir writer understand the arc of their characters.

Knowing this path helps the entrepreneurial author guide their readers—who are the main characters of their book—from their current state to the state of being they desire.

The path can take many shapes. A straight shot from Point A to Point B. A meandering, fun, blissful loop. A dive into the depths of despair before finding redemption. A cyclical path, forming a rut, going nowhere. A spiral path. A wave.

So much more on that in future posts.

For now, remember that “the end” doesn’t mean you need to know your last scene right away. The end is your goal, your North Star, whatever gives you direction, motivation, ambition, determination.