Hmm, I suppose my most difficult moments arise from times of emotional intensity in the story, when I find my emotions almost mirroring what's happening. It can take enormous effort to disentangle myself from the 'reality' of the fiction. Winding-down time can take forever if things are particularly hectic story-wise. Other than that, all's good.
In regards to part, I find the middle part, closer to the climax, the hardest part to write. That's the part I'm at right now and it's killing me. I've built up everything leading toward the climax, and am fairly certain how I want that part to go, but am worried about rushing it by jumping into it too fast--yet at the same time, what if I'm dragging my feet and going too slowly? I don't have this problem with beginnings, most of the middle, the climax, or the ending. Just the middle part near the climax. That rocky part right near the top of the mountain. Most of the mechanics of writing (characters, plot, theme, grammar, etc.) I find pretty easy, but that's not to say I write them well. Unless other people speak up I really can't tell for sure.
I makes so much sense for the middle-ish part to be the hardest. The beginning bothers me because that's where everything starts. You could choose a million different settings and times to start out with. Maybe I start with a flashback or a different POV. Maybe it's the weekend, or there is three minutes until third hour starts. Maybe everything starts out okay, but what if it starts out with some sort of conflict? There are tons of ways you could start out, I just haven't figured out which one yet.
But don't your characters ever suprise you even though you knew the ending? That is what keeps me going. Knowing they will suprise me, and my ending although imagined will not be exactly as I planned.
For me it is also the middle. For the first 30,000 words, I can bust out 3,000 words a day, then after that I slow down to about 3,000 words every three days. Sometime I hit a block in my day dreaming, and I end up not writing for a few days.
Sure, sometimes a story will take an unexpected twist (especially with as little planning as I manage to do) but by the time I'm halfway through, I know where it's going. You have to, if you're going to get anything coherent written. If I get to the end and it turns out the opposite of what I've planned, that means I'm a crap writer.
Maybe if you write the end first, you won't get bored because then you have to figure out everything that happened to your characters to have everything turn out the way it did. Like a backwards equation.
Mine are my actions scenes because get caught up in the action when writing and the adrenaline allows me to write too fast and i miss out. Now I try to stay as dispassionate as i can when writing.
The hardest part of MY novel to write has been the middle. I knew what I wanted the beginning to be like and I know what I want it to end like, but I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to string it all together. Right now, I've got a few ideas and I'm just building upon the original premise and the basic plot points as I go and its actually been turning it somewhat decent.
I also have that problem. I tried to map out my story to see which pieces I already had. Then I realized that not only can I not think of a beginning, but most of my middle isn't really there either. I seriously thought that I had everything, now I realize that I barely have anything.
Usualyl when i write i deliberately try to leave the middle as flexible as i can lol... the biggest danger for me is that while i am stuck on writing the beginning i will basically complete the story in my head, and will grow bored of it and move onto a new idea, which will tempt me to abandon my current work and start writing a new one. So i try to leave the middle unplanned so i dont lose interest in my own story
My story didn't even give me that choice. My MC is being annoying, she is determined to have me write her story before I can even think of another!
I'm going to say the END. There is just so much riding on it. You could have a stellar story and if the end falls flat that's what readers will remember. With so much riding on those few words/chapters I really struggle to get it right.
Yeah, the end does have to be pretty good. I know that that is how I will tell if I liked the book or not.
I struggle with characters. I know all my characters very well, but I'm always afraid that the first time I put them on paper, I'll blow it. Just like in real life, first impressions are important; I don't want to screw it up. I'm always afraid my smart characters will look dumb, my strong ones will look weak, the nice ones will seem mean, etc. One wrong step can ruin an otherwise good character and it takes a lot of pages to fix what that first paragraph did wrong. For that same reason, I also srtuggle with beginnings. Not only am I introducing new characters there, everything is new.
The writing task that I find the most difficult is composing a convincing email to my boss explaining why I didn't get any work done on a day I spent writing (when I should have been working). You know: The old "running out of plausible excuses" scenario. yours in Chaos, Scarlett
The first 1000 words are hard. The next 1000 words are also pretty bad. The 1000 words after that... idem dito. To be very honoust, I wouldn't know; I write short stories and poems. I personally don't like beginnings, and I often end up rewriting a lot. So my advice would be; just start. if you don't like it, rewrite it. Exercise can be a good thing.
I find describing places that exist the hardest parts to write. I don't know why but describing places that i've seen so hard because, well, because they exist. Places that i had imagined the easiest because it's all in my head and i had imagined it so many times. Maybe the reason i can't describe places is because i haven't seen it as many times as i had imagined places that were created in my head.
That's interesting because the places that exist are right there and you can just sit there and write down everything about it. But then again, if you created the place, you know it better than anyone, so that makes sense.
For me the hardest part is finishing period. If I finish I can rework the begining the middle or the end, but if I never finish then there is never anything to work on. As long as I can finish I am good.
I would say start with something small and just go from there. It can be as simple as "He opened the door." The opening line doesn't have to be monumental. It just has to start the story. As far as the opening paragraph -- or page, whatever -- the same holds true. Yes, it has to grab the attention of the reader, but you shouldn't start the story with an earthquake, an alien invasion and an overturned glass of milk all at once. Just my opinion...
I have the hardest time trying to write the beginning. After that everything seems to fall into place pretty easily.
That's how I think things would go. I would just start writing what would happen after the beginning, but I can't write the future when I don't know the past.
Just out of curiuosity, what part of writing do you guys have the most trouble with? For me it's always been "show vs tell". I usually end up doing a lot more telling and have to go back and edit to do the showing part. As for the other parts, my SPaG are good enough but far from great. I tell the setting well enough for the people reading to get images in their head. Dialogue and plot are by far the best parts of my writing.
