2/3rds of the way through Zombielander and I reached an impasse. The same impasse I'd hit before.

How to integrate the last third of the book.

It doesn't seem an insurmountable problem, certainly I'm in a better place than when Faerylander and Zombielander were one book. But the chapter I have in place just doesn't feel right.

I decided to take a day or two before proceeding and try to come up with a solution.

So I think I have, in theory at least. I have a path forward, which is what I needed.

First, the crucial chapter feels like it would work better told from another character's perspective.

Secondly, I need to consolidate the timeframe so that the responses by the characters make sense. Or alternatively, expand the timeframe.

I either need to remove or move another chapter.

This is all work. It is all in my head, which is not the way I prefer to tell my stories. But I have a feeling this is probably how most other writers go about things. Much more thought rather than just instinct.

I prefer stories that come together on their own without any interference from me, so to speak.  But I also assume that the original story is still there, and all I'm doing is crafting a better plot to fit the story into.

At least I hope so. I long ago passed over from "feeling" this story to "puzzling out" this story. I've noticed in the past, the readers don't really see this. If the story works, it works, and it doesn't matter how I arrived there.

It's just more fun for me not to have to constantly rewrite trying to get it right.

Really, this is a matter of "sunk costs" and I'm going to try very hard to avoid this situation in the future.

I've worked so hard and so long on this book(s) that I don't want to give up now. In fact, when I'm done with this rewrite, I'll probably set them aside and come back one more time next year before publishing and give them one more go-around.

Starting today, I have 10 days to get this right.

Then I really, really want to get on to something new.