This Week's Topic: What is my greatest writing challenge and how do I manage it?
My greatest writing challenge, eh? {Ponders long list of difficulties and I-don't-wanna-have-to-do-its} Uhm. Hmm. For me, the hardest part of writing has to be...
Beginnings.
Yep, you read that right. The beginning of the story damn near defeats me every time. Ya know, that really necessary, can't possibly be skipped, gotta-hunker-down-write-it start of the tale? Yep. That's my biggest challenge. Occasionally, the torment only lasts through Chapter One; but, more often than not, the entire first arc is a cluster of TMI fuckery. I'm info dumping, introducing more characters than died at the Red Wedding, blathering backstory blargle, and extending a 3k-5k chapter into 10k+ diatribe. Phil Collins is screaming about the Land of Confusion as I manically repeat, "just get the words on the page, you can fix this disastrophy later."
Word vomit. That's how I manage to overcome my biggest challenge. Pretty image, innit? Alas, there is nothing pretty--much less redeemable--in the early attempts of any of my stories' beginnings. I keep writing and rewriting them until I've become familiar enough with my characters and their GMCs to concisely tell--make that show--the reader the bare minimum of what they need to know to advance to the next chapter. Okay, okay, okay. "Bare minimum" is subjective, and viewed through the lens of my now thoroughly immersed experience of the fantastical world I'm creating.
That's the catch. That's the root of the problem and the only way to address it. I have to become completely immersed in the world as seen through the POV character's mind in order to sift out the extraneous until I'm left with the salient. Only then am I certain of where, when, and how their journey starts.
My opening chapters are in a constant state of revision until I've finished drafting the book. Making it to The End is how I know the evolution of my characters as shaped by the world I've created. Once I've experienced the protagonist's full story, I'm finally capable of extending a hand to the reader and asking them to come along on our adventure.
For me, the first chapter written is the last chapter completed.
Beginnings are hard.
