Heading for the ending.

I have three basic storylines in The Darkness You Fear. The day before yesterday, I finished up the second storyline. This storyline is sort off to one side of the other two storylines.

Yesterday, I wrapped the third storyline into the main storyline.

In one hand, I am proud of myself because I took a fairly complicated, dare I say sophisticated, plotline and managed to pull it together. It takes a certain amount of confidence -- or hubris -- to try that many narrative devices.

On the other hand, I'm a little worried that it is little too tidy and static. Basically, one character telling another character a story that ties all the parts together.

As I wrote it, I realized that the story the narrator was telling in a conversation could actually be several fully fleshed out scenes, but that would require several more narrators, and I already have, like, 3 or 4, and I don't won't to confuse people too much. I've got the main narrator, Virginia Reed, in 3rd person. Everyone else is telling their stories 1st person in journals and diaries and letters, so that is already stretching it.

Anyway, it is now a straight shot to the ending. Until yesterday, I had a structure in mind and it was simply a matter of writing those chapters.

Now I just have the more vague goal of "ending."

I pretty much know what I want to do, but don't have a clue about how.

Still, I think that's all right. I've been writing made to order for quite a bit of the book, so in some ways it is liberating to just be making it up again. I'm feeling strong. The feeling is there, so I'm pretty sure the story will emerge.

I'm at 55K words, so my guess is that I'll end up at 65K or so. A quick rewrite will get me to 70K. Then and only then will I do the research. The details I add from the research are what are going to "make" this book. Picking the right telling details to add flavor and historical truth.

I know I do this backward, but to me, the characters and the plot are internal, and the research is external. The research is like clothing, not the body.