Get your umbrella, it's a brainstorm

After an initial bout of despair that I could ever hope to pick up all the threads, I've come to the conclusion that yes, I actually can do this. Here's how it's been working:

For three chapters now, I've gone through and make notes of every outstanding question I've introduced. Then, I write down the answers, and make note of where and how I plan to reveal it.'

I've been surprised at how often I had a general answer to the question, but nothing really specific. As a result, I've done a lot more writing that I anticipated, just in providing answers to these questions. But the real exercise is pinning down the reveal--it makes me figure out story beats, which in turn drives the scenes I write.

This makes me think that from now on as I write, I should maintain this sort of list. Early on in the story, I'm making it bigger and bigger, then later on I start checking more and more off. By the end of the story, everything should get tied off. That doesn't mean there will be no loose ends at all, but the loose ends will be left loose because I choose to, not because I forgot them.

This may be a long process, but it's one where I know what the next step is, and that's important in a project this big.