Forget the headlines which state how many actions you must do before actual writing. You can start writing at this very moment. Without plot structure, character’s development, culmination setting etc. Just follow these steps to explore yourself.

How would you de­scribe your au­thor-​pub­lish­er re­la­tion­ship? You may pick up on con­ver­sa­tion­al nu­ances, for ex­am­ple, or miss them. Even bet­ter, you may be an au­thor who re­al­ly lis­tens. Like me, you may try to help your pub­lish­er as much as pos­si­ble. Pro­fes­sion­al­ism usu­al­ly gets good re­sults, but not al­ways.