Plot Points (Chapter 53 of Long Haul is out!) · 6:43pm Feb 23rd, 2018
Howdy again everypony, and welcome to yet another update Friday! As you all expected, Chapter 53 is now up for you to read! Before I let you go read it, let me just start out by saying I understand how you all feel about last chapter. But you have to understand that for Night, the game was rigged from the start.
All New Vegas references aside, this is the core story of Long Haul. Plans I made two years ago finally being published for you all, and it's why I've grown to easily have a good backlog going. This is actually a topic I've gone over with countless other FoE authors, and that's what I wanted to bring up today. The idea of fixed plot points in stories isn't really negotiable if you want to write at all. You need, at the very least, a start, a middle catalyzing event, and then a solid ending to the story. Anything past this should be as flexible or planned out as you want!
For me, I've got probably the next ten chapters solidly planned out, and there's little wiggle room for what I want to get done. However, past that there's probably a few chapters where I can be flexible with what happens before I reach the next major plot point in the story. But the important thing is making chapters like the last one as solid and planned out as possible. As odd as it might seem, it's much easier to get your protagonist from the start of their journey, to a point like chapter 52, if you know what MUST happen in that chapter. Knowing exactly how events will go down allows you to emphasize things for maximum impact, and set up twists like I did in Merchants of Hope chapter 16. Anyway, that's just something I wanted to point out, as I was asked again recently how it is that I keep up writing at the pace I have. It's simple: just work towards getting from point A to point B in the story. Get your protagonist on the road to the next plot point, and you'll easily be able to set them on the right path for when they reach it. Then, just get them moving forward to the next plot point. It really is just that simple!
But, that's pretty much it for this week's blog post. Go ahead and give this week's chapter a shot, and be sure to leave your thoughts and comments in the comments section! Before I go though, let me remind you that while any given chapter may end in a bit surprising of a way, there's always the next chapter on the way to sort things out. 
Anyway as always, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all back here again in two weeks for another chapter and blog post!
It's usually been more useful to have a beginning and end and play connect the dots organically.