Beginning or end? Which is more difficult?

I think the beginning.

I find that in writing novels, once you get towards the end the story has begun to write itself and the ending just comes naturally. Just IMO

I think the end, 'cause I never seem to get there!

WackAMole said:

I think the beginning.

I find that in writing novels, once you get towards the end the story has begun to write itself and the ending just comes naturally. Just IMO

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I will agree with this whole-heartedly. Once the end was in sight, the book was like a runaway train. Shoveling the coal to get it going was the worst part.

The middle is the hardest for me. Beginnings come fairly easily to me, and endings, once you've written the beginning and the middle, grow fairly naturally out of what's come before it.

Good point. The mid-book slump is probably what I meant by 'never getting to the end'. In that case, I'd like to change my answer to the middle.

I've started so many stories; beginnings aren't a problem. And once I get past the mid-book slump things seem to fall into place, so yeah...middle for me.

I think the end is easier to write. I always have an end in mind. I have trouble with beginings. I wonder if that says something about me.

Beginning.

caw

Definitely the beginning. I've gotten 20 pages into something so many times only to go back and rewrite it because I just didn't feel like I started off on the right foot. I know that many people say you should just keep going and rewrite the beginning later-- which I do sometimes. But most of the time I will get a little ways in and realize I am writing in the wrong POV, or the wrong time frame (ie sometimes my contemporary fiction realizes it's historical, or sci fi, or whatever). So I can't just go back later-- the whole thing has to change

Endings are lovely. I loooove stringing it all together into those last few paragraphs at the end. Like putting the cherry on top of your ice cream sunday. And then eating it. Mmm.

Beginning. I hate the beginning to my novel but I love the end. D'oh.

The beginning is much harder for me than the ending. To me, the greatest joy of writing a novel is writing the ending. It seems to flow out, and I always cry. Of course, I also cried one time at an episode of Andy Griffith.

deathwizard said:

Of course, I also cried one time at an episode of Andy Griffith.

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Let me guess: when Opie killed the mama bird?

Beginnings and endings are easy. It's everything in between that's tough.

For me the beginning is the hardest because you're faced with all that emptiness and the daunting task of having to fill it all up with 70000 words or more of... what? I don't know! That's the problem!

The ending is simple in comparison. Two words, The End, then you're done.

Beginning, definitely. You have to hook the reader, make it interesting, watch the info dump...there's so much pressure! By the time you get to the end, the reader's already (hopefully) invested. I loved writing my ending.

Beginnings. By the time you're done you'll most likely have to go back and change the first part. Then you'll be working on the hook again.

option C

Can I choose 'C': neither?

For me the middle is always the hardest. I can come up with a good 'hook' and a nice ending, but the middle is all muddled because I know point A and point B, but not the exact path I'll take to get there.
Here's hoping draft 2 will help.

For me, they're two sides of the same metaphor. I can't really start without knowing where I'm going. All the stuff between "Once upon a time" and "The T-Rex ate the Unicorn, The End" is relatively easy.

Can I pick C- the middle?
I know how it begins and ends, but it's getting from A to B that I have trouble with.
Oops- sorry Jordy, I wrote nearly exactly what you did.

The middle is always hardest for me too. I always know how I want the book to start, and once I'm past that I generally have a pretty clear idea how I want it to end as well, but the middle's where the pace tends to drop for me.

The Miserable Middle is the hardest for me.

scarletpeaches said:

I think the end, 'cause I never seem to get there!

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Lol, same. I thought I'd finally finished one (at 113 pages), and a year and a half later it's now 268...I think I'm done, I think I'm done, I think I'm done! Oh, and I also rewrote the "last paragraph" about eight times.

The middle, the 60k mark, is by for the hardest; however, I stress more over the opening than any other part. Everyone from a New York publisher to homeless person seeking shelter at the Barnes and Noble will have a taste and shot at the first paragraph, if they close the book without reading further, then all is in vain.

I'm nowhere near the end, but at the moment it seems like it'll be much harder. But, that could be because I haven't yet got all of the little details on how the characters are going to get there - I really don't know how hard it'll be at the time.

Generally, though, I don't think I have a very good feel for ends - the ends of novels I read rarely feel like ends to me. It just suddenly stops, and I'm left thinking "What, that's it?" - so, based on this, I might have a tendency to labor the end too much.