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Beginnings And Endings


TNTOS

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I often find that when I start a new story, I have a hard time writing the beginning. Everything seems to go by painstakingly slow, like rusted gears in an old clock. Nothing seems interesting or fun or entertaining or whatever until I get past the first few paragraphs.

 

Fortunately, I never give up, even if the beginning is boring, but I know that it will eventually pick up sometime and it always does. The beginning still isn't that good, but I can always edit or revise it later (which I do, of course).

 

Now the middle of the story, that's almost always the easist part for me to write. Sometimes I get stuck in the mud, but it always interests me. Possibly because in the middle of the story I now know my characters, the location, plot, etc better than when I started, making it much easier to drive conflict between the characters and the enviornment and such because I know it so well and am familiar with it.

 

I also tend to have an easier time writing a series with characters that I am familiar with, although even those can suffer from having hard to write beginnings as well.

 

And then there comes a time when I have to end the story, which can also be hard, but in a different way than beginnings. While my beginnings tend to start out slower, my endings tend to keep trying to go on because I start to unconsciously add more and more stuff to the ending that just seems plain unnecessary to me at the time but at the same time I realize if I delete it that it the ending will just feel rushed and badly written. This doesn't affect me as much with short stories, but with epics/novels this can annoy me.

 

Ironically, later on, when I am in the editing stage, the endings turn out much better than I thought at the time (although of course I still edit it because no ending is perfect the first time written).

 

However, I have discovered that when I go ahead and rewrite a story for its second draft, its beginning and endings tend to be much more natural and interesting for me, probably because I know where I want the story to go and so it gives me the will to continue writing and I know when to naturally end it.

 

I have been using this technique - writing the first draft from scratch, then deleting it and rewriting it in its second draft - for my yet-to-be-posted Glatorian Chronicles #4: The Fallen Warrior and An Unlikely Alliance, the latter of which I am still in the process of rewriting, and it has worked incredibly well. Methinks this will be my main technique when editing short stories and epics from now on, mostly because I enjoy rewriting my stories a lot.

 

So, to my fellow writers out there, I pose these questions to you:

 

1) What's easiest for you to write: Beginnings, middles, or endings?

 

1a) Why is the one you chose easiet to write?

 

2) What's the hardest part for you to write: Beginnings, middles, or endings?

 

2a) Why is the one you chose hardest to write?

 

Hopefully your answers will generate some interesting comments in the comments section below :) .

 

-TNTOS-

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2a. It's hardest for me to write because I tend to be filled with perfectionistic tendencies, and while I have managed to force myself to tone it down quite a bit, writing is one area where my desire for near-perfection is unmatched. If I do not have the beginning down exactly as I like it, I will immediately scrap it and start all over again.

 

2. Beginnings.

 

1a. I find them easiest to write because by the time I'm sitting down to write the character's, the story, the plot....everything has been so fleshed out in my mind that the story has basically written itself for me. Plus by this time I've gotten into the flow of it and so it really just comes naturally.

 

1. Endings.

 

I'll answer these in reverse numerical order. Why? Because I can!

 

-sunaJ

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1) What's easiest for you to write: Beginnings, middles, or endings?

 

1a) Why is the one you chose easiet to write?

 

2) What's the hardest part for you to write: Beginnings, middles, or endings?

 

2a) Why is the one you chose hardest to write?

1)Beginnings.

1a)I get a fresh, new idea, and I write it, however, I might get bored later on. Middles are also sort of easy for me.

2)Endings

2a)I get an idea in the beginning, I expand on it in the middle, but I have to tie things up in the ending. I just keep generating ideas and it's hard to stop.

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1 Beginnings

 

1a. Because then everything is completely fresh. You get to know your characters and locations and such, getting to mold them into any shape that fits your fancy. In the beginning you can do anything, whether that be changing a character's personality, or making a random plot twist that changes the story's course. If you have it posted for people to read, you have to stick to a certain "train of events" if you will.

 

2. Middle

 

2a. Because it's the meat of the tale. You gotta think and choose wisely, making sure people will still want to follow you in the future.

 

--Tahu

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1. Beginning/Ending (equally easy)

1a. Because the beginning is where you begin (duh) and I have this odd habit of planning the ending waaaaaaaaay ahead of time.

2. Middle.

2a. Because I never plan the middle. That's when writer's block strikes. :/

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