fighting with plot

I've been working on an outline of my current work in progress. I have a draft but it is very rough and I've already identified a bunch of things that need to be cut. Every day I update the outline, print, scribble all over my pages with notes, update, repeat. I noticed a couple days ago that, though I've got a (theoretical) first and second act set up, the third act remained an entire blank. The outline ended abruptly: Chapter 25 Final Confrontation. Yes, I know that a confrontation needs to take place, but how, and with whom, and to what effect? I couldn't figure it out.

Here's WHY I couldn't figure it out: because there was something not quite right about the preceding acts. The lead up to the final act is forced in some way; something is in there that shouldn't be, and I haven't developed the part of the plot that could contain a stronger, more compelling conflict.

This makes me think back to previous projects I've attempted over the past few years. Many a time I have created an outline – but, no, only PART of an outline. I frequently stop short at Act Three. In my eagerness to sit down and write, I told myself "I can't figure it all out in an outline. I'll write what I've got and I'll probably figure out how it ends when I get to that point."

Or not. Many of those projects still live in my files: a promising premise, but something isn't quite right with the structure and I don't know where it's heading and then – nothing. Act Three, if it exists at all, topples in on itself, exposing it's flaws and all the flaws of the preceding acts.

So now it's back to the drawing board, white board, bulletin board, pages of notes. There has to be something here that I'm not mining properly, some stone left unturned, some subplot undeveloped. I want to figure it out – as much as I can – before I start again on page one. I feel eager to write this book, which is a great feeling. But I don't want to write only to hit Act Three and drop off the edge of my manuscript, not knowing what comes next.