6. The only way to write fiction that will take someone else by surprise is to let your work take you by surprise too. Get lost. Be scared. Have no idea where you’re headed. All those wrong directions are really right directions because they get you where you want to go.

7. You’ll know you’re at the end when you write something utterly unexpected and surprising to you, and then, when you try to write past it, you can’t. You’ll realize that without saying what you thought you were going to say, you’ve said it.

—Marisa Silver