Close the gaps

Make the list

Search the draft for your brackets. Then add the gaps you know about without searching: the missing transitions, the arguments you never finished, the scenes that are only a line, the chapter that contradicts another.

Write them all in one list, with where they are.

Sort by what the ending needs

For each gap, ask: does the reader need this to arrive at the ending? Mark each one:

• Needed: without it, the ending does not make sense.
• Nice: it would be better with it.
• Later: a revision job.

Fill the needed ones this week. Only the needed ones. “Nice” and “later” go on the revision list.

Write forward, still

Filling gaps is still drafting, not revising. Write the missing parts at the same speed and with the same permission to be rough. Do not polish the paragraphs around them.

Keep your daily block

The habit carries you through the finish. If the gaps are filled early, start the ending.

Done when

The list of gaps exists, and every gap the ending needs is filled, roughly.