I know exactly where I want to go, but not where I need to go. This is worse than total block. I've tried making plans, charts and lists but no dice. What do you do when you're having trouble finishing up a fic? What are your tricks?

I wish I could help, but I don't know. Have you tried just writing out a whole draft, no matter how much it sucks, and then working to improve this skeleton? Maybe having a concrete basis to work from might help, but I'm not sure.

That said, I really, really enjoyed your story. it's incredibly atmospheric and moving, it's visceral and moves along at a really intersting pace. I don't know if you're right about it being completely dependent on the first story for meaning, but I think you might be right in the sense of it not having a specific meaning/outcome without knowledge of the first story. Maybe it's because there's not the same sense of it building to a punchline, to a final shock - yours is much more about the journey and the impact than the revelation of the spell. But that also makes it more mysterious, makes the reader work a little more, so I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it could definitely be read alone.

-brodie