More Author Insight: Beginning, Middle, End

What's more challenging -- the beginning, the middle or the end?
(NOTE: Sorry this is so late guys and gals! I've had a lot going on lately and couldn't get the post up before now. Thanks for understanding. Enjoy.)

"The end is almost always the most difficult part for me. Tying together all of those loose ends and finding the perfect note on which to end the last chapter is tough. Then again, the middle is always made of quicksand, and sometimes finding the perfect beginning is like finding Waldo in one of those impossible-to-find scenes where everyone's dressed like him, and he's handing out near the corner behind the wizard. Each story has its own specific challenges, but the end is usually the part I have the most trouble with." - Aimee Carter, author of The Goddess Test. 

"The between. I write in a non-linear order so it's putting all the connective tissue in that's the most difficult." - Leanna Renee Hieber, author of Darker Still and  The Perilous Prophecy of Guard and Goddess.

"The end is the hardest for me. The beginning is the honeymoon period. The middle definitely can be a challenge because we're all trying to avoid the inevitable sag, but wrapping things up in a beautiful and compelling way -- that's a terrifying task!" - Sonia Gensler, author of The Revenant. 

 

"It’s the wanting to write a book that I find challenging.  And then there’s the part about being good at it.  That part takes years.  For me, however, the challenge is what makes me want to do it.  Were any of it -- the beginning, middle, or end -- to cease being harrowing, that’s when I would divorce the project." - Randy Russell, author of Dead Rules. 

"Argh! The middle!! I sometimes write out of sequence, but the part I almost always fill in last, or struggle with the most, is the middle. It’s really important to me to keep up pacing, and the middle parts of a book are a big challenge." - Suzanne Young, author of A Need So Beautiful.

"The beginning.  You have to show the character before any real change ever starts, and it’s hard to do that if you don’t know where they’re going to end up." - Miranda Kenneally, author of Score.

"Yes." - Lesley Livingston, author of Tempestuous. 

"The end. Tying all of the loose strings together without making one huge knot." - Amy Plum, author of Die for Me. 

"If what I wrote touches someone. No one book is ever going to appeal to everyone, but nothing makes me happier than the review that shows it was clear to that reader what I was trying to do." - Lisa Desrochers, author of Original Sin. 

"I'd say about the second chapter. I can start with the first chapter just fine, but then writing the second and making it follow smoothly, is pretty challenging for me. But, like any hurdle, I have to keep pushing. The rest usually goes well for me. Maybe a hitch here and there in the middle, but otherwise, it becomes fun until the end."   - Jennifer Murgia, author of Lemniscate.

"It’s not so much the beginning, middle or end as it is that part between the middle and the end—what I like to call the mend, or the endle. Hard to say why. Hard even to pinpoint exactly where that is. You’ve built up your suspense, everything hangs in the balance, worlds have collided, the future’s in doubt, you’ve just about crested Freytag’s Pyramid, and, and, and… And you aren’t quite ready to let it all go to heaven or hell or wherever. So yeah, that’s the endle, or the mend." - Steve Watkins, author of What Comes After. 

"Every book tends to come out a little differently for me. In general I don’t have a problem with the beginning of a book. The exact openings may change in revisions, but actually starting the book and getting going isn’t difficult. Earlier in my career I found the middle tough, because I was just filling space sometimes,   and even now I think I struggle more in the middle. The end is something I usually have in my head and it by the time it starts to come together I’m rushing to get out of my brain once I reach that point." - Janet Gurtler, author of I'm Not Her. 

Come back Tuesday to find out how important names are to the authors!
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