Chuck Wendig offers ten little writing tricks, including an old standby he calls The Tiniest Outline Of Them All:
The last 50-100 words you write at the end of your day should be a note to yourself detailing just what the fuck you should write tomorrow. (“HORACE MURDERS LORD THORNJIZZ AND THE LITHUANIAN DETECTIVE CIRCUS IS ASSIGNED TO THE CASE”). In other news, now I want to write a book about a “Lithuanian detective circus,” whatever that is. I call dibs. You can’t have it. I’ll get stabby.
And yes, OF COURSE you should use Google Street View to see the places you’re writing about. But I feel dumb for not doing it more often. Super helpful.