When you finish your writing and hit 'save', Marilyn, it automatically saves it and you'll see what you've written then, just as you would on a preview page. Then you can edit it, if you need to.
Only after you finish the whole thing and saved it, will you hit the publish button. It won't publish until you click on 'publish', even if it's next week or tomorrow or tonight.
Thought I'd see if this helps, especially since you want to start it tonight.
