I'm at the end of a 3rd draft (rapidly becoming a 4th) of a middle grade adventure novel. My 13 year protagonist/hacker moves into his late grandfathers house and finds secret inventions and hidden codes. He's joined by a plucky 13 year old girl that acts as a foil and confidant of my boy hero. He's got problems to solve and conflicts to win with the help of his friend.
My first draft was done with the help of nanowrimo and the seat of my pants. I'd pulled together a one page outline before I sat down and dug out a pivotal scene I wrote a few years ago - but only one scene.
After nano, I spent time to clean up the first draft as good as I could get it to the point I could call it a 2nd. THEN I did something that seemed at the time revolutionary.
I wrote the synopsis. A detailed one - with all the plots, subplots, characters, actions and settings. A reverse outline someone called it.
Some writers are pantsers - never seeing the end until they write it. Others outline every page until they write a single (narrative) word. Both have merits and problems.
But after a lot of trial and error, this process works for me and might for you as well:
Step 1) Write the first draft during Nano to set your hair on fire. You end up typing so fast, your inner critic can't keep up. And don't underestimate the power of a 30 day deadline warming your chair.
Because of day jobs/family/life, I managed to squeeze about 90 minutes of writing per day. That meant that I wrote and plotted at the same time. Introduced new characters, came up with fun plot points and swore repeatedly at what a dumb idea I just spent 30 minutes writing about. But every word counted towards my daily goal of 1667 words (50,000/30 days)
Step 2) Clean up the first draft - fix obvious spelling mistakes, character name changes and remove any notes you've made in the text to boost your word count.
Step 3) Write the synopsis of what you've built so far. Include everything.
Step 4) Send the synopsis/outline to someone (a writer or editor please, NOT a family member if you can help it) that you trust to get an independent review.
This step is crucial. Forest and trees crucial. Your writing buddy can make notes and pose questions and send it back. Writing the synopsis from your first or 2nd draft does a couple of things. You are forced to hone the story line so that it's comprehensible (let us hope) and your writer friend should be happy to read and provide feedback for just a few pages, instead of your 200 page draft.
For my MG book, doing a synopsis at draft 2 pointed out some critical errors on my part. Like how I introduced a great female character in the 3rd chapter. She's cute, intelligent and would have been a great foil for the main character - if I'd remembered to use her past that initial chapter. Way easy to fix a building at the blueprint stage than after it's built.
For me, working the synopsis back and forth with a friend was a great way to drive my productivity as a writer. Get the bones right and the rest of the story will fall into place.
But remember, for most of us, just getting to that first draft is a critical part. If you have had problems with getting to the "the end" in your writing, consider signing up for Nanowrimo here http://nanowrimo.org
You can thank me later.