The Spindle's End

So, I haven't really added to my word count since my last post.  Instead, I've been pondering the question 'where do I go from here?'

While those who have known me for any length of time are very familiar with the act of me writing, I've never gotten farther on a book than I have thus far.  It's fair to say that this is the farthest I've ever come on a manuscript.  This is good, excellent progress.  I've also been doing a lot of research into the publishing industry, and figuring out just what I need to do to get a finished manuscript published.

But...that still doesn't help me get from the introduction to the wrap up section of the book.  I'm fairly solidly into the 'building up' area of the book, reaching for the climax.  But I still only had vague ideas of how the next 60-70 thousand words were going to work themselves out.  Not good.  So I sat down and started thinking.  What happened before the book opened?  Where do I want to end up?

Now I need to figure out how I'm getting from here to the end.  Who knows, maybe I'll write the end first, and then connect the two.  I've never outlined a creative writing project before, mostly because this is just something I've done on my own and not something anyone's taught me to do.  I outline my non-fiction writing all the time, but those are a) shorter and b) follow a very standard, solid format.  Intro, thesis, arguments, conclusion.  Somewhere in there, there may be explanations and background information, but other than that it's very straight forward and driven.  Fiction is rarely like this, and I'm still learning what questions I need to ask myself that my brain will go 'oh!  I know that answer!' instead of 'umm....?'

And on top of all of this, I have to keep editing and re-editing.