Number Five In the Home Stretch

I have been working on Book Five for about six months now. It was slow going not only because I was trying to deal with Dev's book and editing the other four of that series, but also because the main character and I kept running into snags.
First it was that I wasn't sure who the bad guy was. I had a few possibilities and then I realized that the one I was leaning towards would never do what I had him doing. I needed someone else. My next choice balked at being in this book or maybe the main character balked at having him. Or maybe it was because someone else has commandeered this bad guy for his book. Whatever the reason, none of the bad guys was working out until finally, the villain popped into my head quite naturally.
Secondly, I wasn't sure who the main character's love interest was...not just her name but who she was-physically, personally, emotionally. The main character and I went through several variations of the same woman, each one greeted with a lukewarm response by the main character. I was getting frustrated. When did fictional characters get so picky? Then, I saw her and the main character's approval was instantaneous. Good. We had our leading lady.
That led to a revamp of the main character and almost everyone associated with him- excluding the Deadlies of course. That was my next problem. This person's association with them also had a bearing on his character and so I had to go back and take that into account too.
The biggest snag of all was that neither of us seemed to know how this story was going to play out. We knew where we were going but weren't sure how to get there. I think we have it figured out now and as I am up to Chapter 22, I think another five or six chapters ought to wrap this sucker up. Of course, just because I finish the book, doesn't mean it's finished. The editing and re-editing comes next and we know that I just love editing.
But for now, I am going to forget that there is 5000 edits coming up before we are satisfied with our work. I am going to ignore the possibility that we are going to get pissed off and trash the whole thing and start over (like I did with Book Three- you want to talk about painful...) Instead, I am going to bask in the knowledge that I have a fifth book, nearly completed, and that, my friends, is a hell of an accomplishment.