When I wrote my novel, I thought of each chapter as a short story in a longer story. That made it more enjoyable to me.

Do yourself a favor and write down an outline. Even a basic one like the ending and key events along the way. And write down any plot ideas. Don’t rely on your memory.

My first outline was very basic. It included items like Adventures in Spain, Adventures in Venice, Adventures in France, etc. Then I filled out the outline as the story developed. A combination of outlining and winging it. It worked well for me.