The impression you create is the one they're going to have

Before you pick up that pen or, more likely, create a new document, keep in mind that setting out to write something—anything—is just like any other task on your To Do list. The only way you’ll know that you’ve done what you set out to do is if you have a goal.

Let me say that again: Good writing requires having an objective, and your objective should be clear and specific, just as it would be with any other goal. This is an important step, and one that’s easy to skip. You can just start putting down words, in a reasonably organized manner, and once you’ve mentioned all the pertinent points, you stop. The end.

But that’s not the same thing.

No matter what audience you’re writing for, when they’re finished reading, you want them to…

do something,

know something,

feel something,

think something,

want something,

understand something or

remember something.

You want to leave them somehow changed, albeit microscopically, for having read it. To do that, you need to keep the objective in mind as you’re writing. So you need to have it in mind before you start.

My late mother as a young woman.
Wasn't she beautiful?

Yet another thing in life where preparation, even a little, is way more valuable than it should reasonably be. Your mother always told you that, right? Well begun is half done. And in this case, "well begun" is just a little bit of thought.

Oh, hey! Look at that segue, talking about mothers. Instead putting a pretty picture that has absolutely nothing to do with anything, since tomorrow is Mother's Day, and since I just asked about what your mother always told you, today we'll have a very pretty picture, indeed!