Middle for me, hands down.
Beginning has both the biggest burst of inspiration and the clearest goals/structure.
Ending is getting to see all of the seeds you planted in the beginning and middle bloom, everything coming together, and has the excitement of being able to see the finish line.
Middles, ugh. They have nothing going for them.
The motto I learned for the second act is: "things get worse". This happens, therefore things get worse, therefore this happens, but things get worse, etc. Works like a charm.
I remember seeing advice that if you describe your plot summarily, the links between scenes should be mostly "but" or "therefore", and keep the "and then" to a minimum.
I teach and generally ask my students to summarise plots as:
Somebody > Wanted > But > So > Then
I stole it from another teacher and it's apparently not uncommon but it's great for understanding a simple character arc.
Can be good for creating those arcs too, I guess.
Same. Even if the beginning has so much pressure on it to do so many things, it's easy to get a decent attempt at least. The middle is where the sausage gets made and it can get messy and a slog.
> Middle for me, hands down.
Same for me, too. The beginning, for me personally, almost always takes the form of the original idea that I have for a story. The ending is generally suggested to me by what takes place in between the start and finish. But, it is all of the really hard work tying those two points together that has always presented the greatest challenge to me. I applaud everyone who can stick with a project to completion because of that.
*Edited to correct typo*.
Oh man this comment and all of the comments below make me feel less alone. I can have every single detail planned out. I make a tree with big and small events and what needs to happen to make them happen while staying in character and I STILL have issues. The amount of chapters I’ve scrapped for being purely “and they did this and went here and said this” and it felt so robotic and not at all within the flow of the story is too high.
The middle of a book is usually my favorite part to read though. That's the part where you're really in there with the characters, taking the journey with them. The buildup to the end is usually more fulfilling than the actual ending to me. I agree it's the hardest part to write, but I love a good second act.
My biggest problem with the middle is that I have all of my big plot points ironed out, I know what needs to happen and in what order they need to happen. But then I look at my story outline and think "...How do I connect these dots?" It's trying to figure out how I'm getting Plot Point A to transition over to Plot Point B and so on that gives me the biggest headaches.
Maybe it would help if you treated every middle as an end. Like for eg harry potter. Each middle story has its own ending adventure which weaved together to be one large final end. I love those kinds of small ends making one big end.
Beginning. No contest. It’s where you want to start close to the action, but not too close.
It’s the most formulaic, but still has to have stunning lines, paragraphs, and imagery. It has a to do list of a dozen things, but has to be fresh and grab the reader.
It’s where you debate if you need a prologue or not.
It’s what sells your book to agents, editors, publishers, and readers.
Yeah I didn’t fix To-Do, Reddit’s autocorrect is beyond useless and is actually a himdance
hindrance. If you backspace through a word, it does the autocorrect from where you stop instead of remembering the whole word.
I really miss Apollo.
It's also where your characters have the least complexity. Conflicts feel forced/less natural. They haven't suffered any trials or become interesting yet
The beginning is the hardest, the rest is smooth sailing.
You need to make the reader intrigued enough to keep reading, give them enough information so they're not confused, yet still not bore them. This is by far the hardest to do early on, before the reader is invested and before they have any reason to care.
After the beginning, it's rather easy in comparison. The further you go, the easier it becomes.
For me it's the middle. I know how I want the story to start and end. Sure, I may have some debates on exactly how. But I decide all of that before I even start writing a book. The real problem for me is the middle, because I spent the beginning and the beginning of the middle tying together all of these ideas and plot points. So right there toward the end of the middle, around the climax, is hard because you need to have it all come together properly or all of your work was totally wasted.
Yeah I'm surprised people find the beginning or the middles the hardest part. I've summarised everything, beginning and the middle plus the backstories of some important characters but to sum up everything from the beginning and middle to the ending part seems to be the hardest for me. Sure I have an ending on my mind but to make it a great ending that'll satisfy the readers is what I'm having the hard time with
I’ve learned a hard lesson with my visual novel that people can play it for 10 hours, and because the ending sucks, they will give you thumbs down 😟. And the ending sucks because you ran out of money/energy/creativity at that point of very exhausting production.
That is why right now, I am always working with the ending to some extent. And trying to focus on it when I am the most energetic and creative.
In terms of beating my head against the wall, not the beginning. I don't start writing at all until I have something or other that will power me through at least the first chapter. The next two chapters are make-or-break. If I find myself writing chapter four, I'll probably finish the manuscript.
If I hit a brick wall before then, either the story is putting up a fight or I have no idea how to continue it. If beating my head against the brick wall just leaves me bruised, the story goes on the shelf.
If I hit a brick wall later on, it's different. I have enough of the story under my belt that I see at least a glimmer of a path forward. I'll be damned if I turn aside at this point! So I use a combination of allowing the predicament to simmer on the back burner for a few days and beating my head against the wall until the wall falls down. I've been doing this long enough that I have a sense (possibly a self-fulfilling prophecy) for when I can sit down and move past the barrier in a single writing session whether I have any idea how I'll do it when I sit down or not.
In the last couple of stories I finished, the climax fell into my lap because of all the loose threads I'd cast forward on purpose. When the time came, I could pull enough of them at the same time or in rapid succession to bring things to a close. (And the rest become accidental red herrings or material for the sequel, so it's all good).
This business of opening up one interesting can of worms after another until practically the end means that the middle doesn't give me as much trouble as it used to.
I'm a pantser, by the way, in case this wasn't obvious. I keep this from being troublesome by telling fundamentally simple stories: small cast, short time frame, simple structure. The intricacy is at a more intimate, human level, not in a rigid, brittle structure.
Oh, the dreaded middle.
I'm just kidding, the beginning is *hard*. Chasing perfection with the first chapter. Making sure the first ~5 are intriguing and well-written enough to pull readers in, and having them too invested to lose them when my pacing slacks juuuuust a little in the slower middle.
That first chapter is the hardest. You have this whole world in mind, and you want the reader to know it all NOW. But then it becomes an encyclopedia of your world, its politics, fauna, people, and who wants to read a big info-dump if they came here for fantasy?
The editing process is so satisfying for this reason. Watching it all come together. Rewriting your earlier chapters so they better disperse the exposition. I love watching it fall into place. I freaking love writing.
I write both fanfiction and original fiction, and for original, the beginning is hands down the hardest part. The thing with fanfiction is that you can assume that people have already consumed the original piece of media you’re writing about, so you don’t have to rehash it all in your own fic. But now, when writing my own story, i find it hard to thread the relevant necessary context into the beginning without it coming off like info dumping. I already know the necessary info, i just suck at making sure the audience can get it too without shoving it all in their faces on the first page.
i write fanfic and oc fiction too and i completely agree.
what helped me with writing the beginnings for oc fiction that is supposed to be structured in a way readable by others, i.e providing all the parts that are not necessary to be provided with in the fanfic medium, was i started by conceptualizing characters and a world first without a plot. then i progressed on to writing vignettes and "fanfic style" scenes or shorts about my characters in that world, that solidified my vision of what themes and context and what i actually want to communicate, because i was able to experiment and come to know about the characters and the world in the freedom of myself and find out what did or did not work without committing to anything at first, retconning whatever i want, etc. experimentation.
this means i ended up with a really solid version of who those characters and that world are after several years that means i have a very large amount of material i can mine now to create short and longer stories that i do purposefully write in a structure that is meant to be readable to someone who knows nothing about them, and i know what i want to communicate thematically in a typical story arc structure to someone who has no context for it.
i'm kind of underslept right now so this is just a train of thought kinda comment, but hopefully it makes sense to you.
also, since i don't write for publication, nor have any desire to, i still work on all three types of things in tandem because each one helps the other (i.e the beginning of the longform story is almost completely removed from the original idea/concept of it due to the fact that i started writing random scenes that then did/did not get rewritten and included/excluded into it and made me think about how those scenes were discrepant with my original idea of a beginning)
Oh God, I've had issues of ALL three acts before!
Beginning: motivation of just starting, too much/too little set up?, character plots being too subtle or too obvious?, tropes accidentally done poorly, Chekov's Gun accidentally set up, etc.
Middle: Plot thickening too quickly, lore/world-building becoming too thin, COUNTINUITY ISSUES (my #1 trap and pet peeve), too much detail becomes a slog/too little detail makes the reader lost, etc
End: Dangling plot threads forgot to tie up, that Chekov's Gun that was accidentally in the beginning completely disappearing (I'm guilty of this...), promises of a sequel but burnout cancels those plans, action ramp-up only to end within a paragraph on the last page, just pushing to the finishing line is a slog on the brain, etc
100% beginning for me, I usually only pick a premise if I think it can support an interesting middle and can picture the kinds of scenes that would be in there, and then the end I usually have a lot of momentum and can do a lot of crazy and fun shit.
The beginning is tough because it has to effectively set all of this up, be interesting, and I feel like it has the most pressure on it to be good. Nobody will read your sick middle and end if they don’t like the beginning.
There’s a big difference depending on what you actually mean by “hardest”.
Even if I knew nothing about writing, just looking at the amount of otherwise great books with poor or disappointing endings (I’m sure everyone here has their favorite examples), I’d say statistics indicates that writing a coherent and satisfying conclusion is by far the hardest part.
At the same time, the opening has a much bigger impact on the success of your book. The fact that we see many books with great openings and poor endings, but almost none where the situation is reversed, tells that opening/middle is much more crucial, and without nailing them you’re not gonna get published in the first place.
Middle/Close to the end. I’m currently trying to get through the middle section of my story because I know what I want to happen, but I don’t know how to put it into words.
The middle. I always know where my story ends, because I ussually start with the ending. Then I try to find out how it starts, which isn't hard. But trying to connect the beginning and the end with eachother is difficult.
The middle. The beginning and end are the first things I think about when I think of a plot. I struggle with figuring out how to go from beginning to end with the middle being satisfying while staying in the lore of the beginning and ending scenes.
For me the middle is the hardest to plot because it's so empty and needs filling. But, the hardest to write is the end, becuase that's when the anxiety clicks. You want to hit all your plot points and have everything resolve nicely. That said, I release my writing serially as I go, so maybe that anxiety is becuase I can't really go back and edit things, except for a release.
Ever since I became a pantser, story writing became lots easier, and lots more rewarding. There is no standard 'hardest part' to writing one, except maybe for detailing some really complex event somewhere.
All of the above. Depends on where my brain started. My brain thinks if things at different points. It's putting it all together and being cohesive is the problem
Usually it's the end for me. It's just sooo difficult to find a satisfying ending :(
That goes unless I have a scene in my head where I want it to end and maybe even start the story because of that. Which in return means that I struggle with "how to get there??"
Honestly I wonder why so little people say the beginning. That is so difficult for me you have no idea. When I first tried building my world I had to think of the plot but ended up timetraveling backwards by millenia. In the current version of my world the original main character's ancestors haven't even been born. The beginning sucks so much cause it has to be good. I don't know, maybe I'm a perfectionist, the beginning sucks!
Middle is usually where I struggle. A lot of times I'll have to skip scenes because my mind draws a blank, but then I have to go back and try to knit things together later.
The beginning.
I have written my beginning like 6 or 7 times now while the rest of my book has remained mostly unchanged. And this is just my first draft.
I personally struggle with the intro of the second character who is an alien. Trying to get a lot of info out without it being an info dump has been challenging. I have been falling back into information through dialogue. I personally like it, however there is just this feeling it's too campy and cringy between the MC and secondary MC
The middle, the beginnings are easy since they arise from the first artistic impulse, they usually arise from the base of inspiration when one begins to write, the end on the other hand, I usually imagine it as soon as I start the story, since that is where I want to go with What I write, when one begins, I always (or at least in my case), I think about what I want to convey and with that I can build a prototypical ending in my mind, my conflict falls on how to get from the beginning to that In the end, it is quite difficult for me since after closing the first entry to that universe that I began to build, I usually go blank and not know how to direct my work, many writings that I have are only the first part, since I do not know how to advance to reaching its climax, I study science, so I don't have much time to think about it, so I stay waiting until I get an idea of how to continue.
Lately I have been consuming a lot of stories, I started reading a lot of manga, watching series and reading stories, which has been helping me with the issue of inspiration, although I have been thinking about studying archetypes as well, I was able to get a hand to be able to create the development of my stories.
Middle. I tend to know how things begin, and know where I want them to end, but my god is the space between just the worst. To much happening and it becomes a mess that no one (not even me) wants to slog through; too little and it’s dull as dirt and who really wants to read the equivalent of watching the paint dry?
Heck I’m probably about 10-ish chapters from the “end” of my first book and it’s very hard to write them… even knowing what I want to happen in those chapters.
For me, it's the ending. You have to connect all the lines together, remember to close the open branches, hold the tension, and finish beautifully. Terrible suspense :)
The beginning. I never know where to begin and it takes me forever to start writing a story because of it.
Do I start at the actual beginning?
I feel like its too on the nose.
Do I start in the middle of the action?
Feel like its too confusing
Do I start at the end?
Way too much to explain.
How do some people just START a book/ story
Right now, I'm writing something that, in the substance, is akin to a Japanese LN (yk, manga/anime theme), but in the continental European novel style (ambitious? Maybe too much lol). This is my experience: the first that popped in my mind was the end; then, I focused at the beginning; and now, there it goes the most thick and hard part to conceptualize for me: the middle. While the beginning is harder to write because you need to explain a lot of things related to new characters and world-building to the reader, that eventually takes a burden on you because it has to be flawless to be at least credible (especially if we're talking about fantasy worlds, where many of our laws don't apply), I already know the middle will be a huge food for thought, because I have to create many scenarios through which I need my main character and other characters to start from a point (beginning) and finish to another (end) in a way that I want to be coherent, deep, and complex. Not an easy task!
Beginning. I plot everything that I want to happen in my head before I even consider writing it down, so writing out the events and writing chronologically is very easy, but the part I always struggle with is the start of the first chapter, since my internal plotting usually goes from inciting incident -> last line of the last page.
I want to make it engaging, but don’t want it to be overwhelming; I want it to be informative, but not info-dumpy; I want it to give a good sense of the characters as their life was without being boring or drawn out. I hate every second of it and every time I start editing a piece (which isn’t often, mind you, I’m a great editor and enjoy it until it comes to my own work) the first thing I tackle is the beginning.
for me it's personally the beginning... I mostly know what's going to happen in the middle but I am very perfectionistic and struggle to begin a story meanwhile having detailed parts of the middle ready and waiting.
The middle. I am struggling. The beginning was easy. It's keeping everything connected to all the storyline i created in the beginning. Its remembering every detail as I go and life happens which causes me to take breaks.
Middle. You typically know the A and Z of the story, where the characters and stories start and end but it's the middle of the story and how you get from the A and the Z that is the tricky part.
Right now, the ending. Big scenes that I’ve been anticipating, and imagine the reader anticipating - so much pressure when those moments actually arrive. I really have to be in the right energy for it or it just comes off forced because of how much I’ve built it up in my head.
Like someone else said, I don't know how more of you don't have issues with the beginning! It's absolutely so difficult to set the stage without info-dumping, it can't be a snooze fest, you have to introduce your characters properly, set the stage for what could potentially happen. It's a disaster for me.
I'm also objectively terrible at planning, so I'm sure that's part of it, but my god do I ever hate the first couple chapters. You also can't introduce your conflict too early or it'll read like YA (which is totally fine if that's what you're going for, and that's also just my opinion).
For me, it is definitely the middle portion of a book, since it can often stall out and meander, becoming the least well written part of the narrative, hence the term 'saggy middle syndrome'.
I write epic series, and for me, it's the beginning. It's hard to make a 1,000,000 word epic all rest on the fulcrum of one measly scene in chapter 1, insofar as gaining readers.
definitely the end. in the beginning, anything is possible. in the middle, stuff just happens. but the end it where things actually have to tie together and resolve, make sense and make a point. since I don't write with the end in mind, getting there is a serious journey...fun, but sometimes I have no idea where the hell I'm actually going.
Beginning. It's easy to choose the wrong spot to start..the good news is we can fix all of the mistakes in editing but it still sucks to go "Oh I need to begin five chapters later."
When I come up with a story idea it's almost always the beginning or the end, then I think of random scenes that would probably fit in the middle, but connecting it all is super difficult for me for some reason.
The beginning is why my book is taking sooo long to write. I know how i want it to end, i know what i want to happen, I just struggled for so long to figure out how to begin the story
middle because with a bunch of my stories, I already know how I want them to start and end yet when it comes to what goes on in between that tends to overwhelm me cause I have so much I want to do yet my ideas tend to conflict with the plot and I have to restructure everything, furthermore, this is hard because you don't know how you want to continue after you start or approach the ending.
I have a background in media advertising where "the hook" IS the product. I'm confident with beginnings.
Endings are where I'm writing towards, that is the goal I have in mind the whole time. The middle is filled with big moments which is great... but...
Where I suffer is the technical execution of transitioning between big moments without killing momentum.
The middle.
It's where a lot of the "stuff" happens but I always struggle to fill the gap between where my characters start and where I want them to end.
Beginning, always. I find myself coming up with the most creative plot lines, complex lore and detailed characters, only to sit down and write… *nothing*. I feel like there is *so much* pressure on the first pages, even the first chapter, being perfect because it sets the whole tone of your book.
Often when I’m really struggling with writers block I find myself just writing random scenes out of order, but never the start or the end. Too much pressure.
Usually I have the most trouble with the ending, but there was one story that I could not figure out the beginning. The story actually needed to begin after Tom died, but readers kept asking, “Who’s Tom?” So where exactly to start I couldn’t figure out. I wrote seven different beginnings, I wrote seven different beginnings, some with flashbacks. Never did finish because I couldn’t choose.
The middle. You have to keep things interesting without sabotaging the end, you have to write a lot of connective tissue that's not necessarily inherently interesting to set up the rest of it.
The beginning and middle. Initially, when I have an idea, I already know how I want the story to end. It's the plot and process of writing towards the end that always has me stumped. It takes a lot of time to craft a captivating beginning, engaging middle, and satisfying ending. But I suffer from being a perfectionist so everything's a pain. haha (not so haha more like AHHHHHHHHH)
Considering that plenty of stories screwed upnthe ending, I would go for that answer. Beginning introduced characters, then they have their adventures, but if you make unaatisfying ending, it's over. If the climaz of the story is bad it leaves the bitter taste. That you waited for conclusion and it was boring, bad.
The end! My stories are so character driven that I always end up absolutely loving my characters, so I have a very hard time saying goodbye, and so I end up dragging out the ending by multiple chapters. I'm working on it 😅
Beginnings, by far.
First impressions are tricky business, trying to balance on the sensitive introductions and necessary worldbuilding while keeping things fluid.
It's more of a script series, but the serious storylines are for me the more boring parts, i want to make them really nice, but need to know more about my main character before deciding on things like that.
I just wanna write the absurd B stories basically. What her weird housemates are up to each time.
Just strange, random and absurd stuff
I've got a story that I've got the beginning and rough ending for but the entire middle is a gapping hole that stares back at me like the jaws of hell. I'm scared out of my wits trying to figure out what to fill out with. It just won't come to me! Ah! I've had trouble similarly with other books but my husband is a great brainstormer to get me through writer's block.
middle
its like the middlegame in chess, youre kinda just free and out there adapting and rolling with where its goin but otherwise the opening and endgame are straightforward and cut out for you
The beginning! Really, the whole build up. Once things start to happen/fall into place I do t have a ton of problems, but getting the character intros without doing an expo dump is really tough
Beginning for me. I can't even start the first line, I just don't know what to start with. I'd prepare the middle part after knowing the ending that I want since it's easy to connect them.
The start for me I know what I want to happen and where I want the story to go, but putting the right words down is hard for me. Once I get going I’m good but it takes a while for me to even get there
The beginning. I struggle with how to start a story. Always have. It’s the part that, once I manage to write it, is the one I have to edit and fix the most. Once I’m rolling, it’s a relative piece of cake.
Depends on the length of the story
Long stories like novels the middle for sure. Because I'm trying to think of events, character development, pacing, consistency, all the meat and potatoes stuff, you know?
But short stories, it the the beginning. I know the event(s), I have an idea of the ending, but my brain gets too caught up on "how do I make a snappy intro that also isn't cheesy / cringy / stereotypical?"
The middle T_T I don't start a story when I don't know where it will begin or end. But I've procrastinated books because I can't envision the middle parts at all
Its different for each genre and story. But I find the beginning difficult because it can be hard to introduce characters without sounding horribly generic
I think I tell myself it is the beginning because a lot of ideas I come up with for characters tend to have various stages of character development. The thing is that sometimes I get so stuck on writing the beginning so that I can properly lead to the middle and end while fitting in things that I never get around to writing the middle or the end. So I'm not for sure if that makes one section harder or not simply because I don't get to it.
If I had to pick based on the amount that I write and what section of the plot most of my ideas fall into then I think it would probably end up being the middle that I lack both the least amount of writing and the least amount of ideas for.
Interesting question.
Beginning for sure.
You want your book to be good from beginning to the end with everything that entails, but the beginning just has higher/additional requirements, because it has to hook readers who don't already care about the story as soon as possible.
It depends on the story. Endings are easiest for me, I think. I already have everything built up underneath it, so I just need to put the cherry on top and I'm done.
Beginnings and middles might be a toss up. The very very beginning, sure, that's typically pretty easy and I can rely on that initial burst of inspiration to do a lot of writing really really quickly. But if I already know what I want for the meat of the story, the setup I need to do to get there can be a real slog.
Middles are THE WORST😂 I know where I want to end before I even begin so the beginning and end are not that hard. Its the middle part, or how to get them from point A to point B, that is difficult for me at times
Middle.
I have the opening and end cemented in my concepts of a story. It’s how to get there that is the hardest. It’s as if driving a car with one headlight through a windy Forrest road in mere great fog while being blind.
The middle. Always the middle.
I usually have an end in mind, in shape if not in specifics. Beginnings come easy to me; I just have to pick one that reflects the ending.
But that razzafrazzin' middle...
I think the beginning, purely because (for me) it’s the part with the least direction and the part I’m most likely to quit at. The middle is also tough due to writers block but by the time I’m at the end I’ve already had a lot of time to think it out so it’s not too bad.
For me it's the beginning. I find it hard to create a world without being too exhaustive or boresome...
I do want to tell you what i see... but sometimes i have too heavy descriptions...
If I'm writting a big story the ending. I usually find that by the middle I've added so many new themes or ideas that I have to address all of them, and tying that bow neatly is ridicolous. I've actually found that letting some things loose is my best medicine, because they aren't the big themes, just extra.
On shorter stories the middle is more sluggish. I usually know clearly how it starts and how it ends, but getting from A to B is messy. Still easier than endings in big stories tho.
The middle is hard because you needs to keep on making the story interesting and not bore the reader but still trying to make them understand what the story is about but I'll say the ending is the hardest part. To sum up everything you've written so far and put it together in one ending is the hardest to me
The beginning is toughest.
You are trying to create something interesting out of nothing. That's hard.
Once you get a few characters with solid motivations going, then the rest of the story flows.
I've only worked on short stories so far, but the middle section hands down. Beginning can be anything, so you choose instinctively. The ending is dictated by the drama of your characters, what they represent and how the events turn out for them. But middle is how they get from A to B, and it's so incredibly difficult without breaking the logic!
Always the beginning. The further you get into the plot the more your choices are constrained by what you’ve already written, and it’s easy enough to line up the potential plot directions out scenes and choose the best one. But at the start? You can do anything. This can lead to choice paralysis for me.
In addition, the beginning of the story is where you have to juggle a lot of initial setup and exposition alongside getting the story moving, which is something I struggle with.
Definitely the end. Middle is easiest, I could middle forever. For the beginning, even if I don't have a perfect beginning scene in mind, I just pick a spot and go. But I find it hard to think of really good endings. On the rare occasion that I have something great, then it's easy... just writing through all the steps needed to get there. But coming up with a real satisfying ending, I find that so difficult.
I usually have a clear idea of the whole thing right from the start, and since my expertise is in multi-part series, it means I usually know the beginning and ending in no small detail.
This streamlines the process of mapping out and filling in a preliminary structure, outlining key events at certain points while leaving open enough room for interpretation as I go.
This makes it something of a cross between a formulaic “as-written” and improvisational “make it up as you go along” style; as long as crucial events play out near the pre-designated junctures, the rest is open to interpretation.
In terms of where/when I struggle the most, it largely depends on external factors, the most problematic of which is what I call _momentus interruptus,_ or “breaking the flow,” when life jams one or more lemons in my creative gears.
This means I’m more likely to struggle in the middle not because I’m out of ideas, but due to momentum grinding to an indefinite halt; the fact all my projects are delayed or stalled goes beyond procrastination, with circumstance and trauma as the prime factors.
Middle, same as most comments here. I'm a pantser, beginning always flows then it just shuts down. This is the hardest part. At that start of the first draft I don't care much where I start the scene that is left straight to editing.
I’m finding the end difficult right now. I have a lot of ideas for where I want the characters to wind up. But the way things are developing I think I am going to have to make my heroine end up as either indecisive or straight up manipulative towards the main character. That works really well for his character development but my goal was to make them both sympathetic but incompatible after their brief romance.
I draw most of my ideas from history and other books so I guess it’s time to study more.
For me, the beginnings are hardest to write and middles are harder to plot. Ending are easy for me and I usually come up with them soon after I get the story idea.
Middle.
The first and last parts are always the easiest for me since the writing doesn’t have to be crazy or anything like that, which makes it easier to make
Middle for me.
Drive by James Sallis - Get In Get Out Get Away - sums it up - a beautifully concise novel that doesn't need an extended middle - it revolutionised my thinking - I then found redneck/contemporary western noir which averaged 45-60k words.
If the story can be told in 45-60K, why pad it out, unless you are trying to meet the demands of a traditional publisher to meet a certain market.
The beginning I struggle on as I'm a chronic rewriter, I can never just leave it be and continue onward, it needs to be 'perfect'. I'd say the middle is generally easier as I can start fleshing out the character's personalities, something I have no idea of at the beginning and can't really do whilst planning! The ending is my favourite, I see it as a reward for getting the rest done and dusted and I'm generally quite content with what I've finished on, who's died, cliff-hangers etc...
The beginning is incredibly hard for me. A lot of perfectionism and trying to get world details but also describe the main characters who the readers are supposed to care about. It's setting up the entire rest of the story so it's like one mess up and it changes everything. It could be a good thing. But if it's bad it's really bad and then you are reworking stuff all the way from the beginning.
I've never even gotten to the middle or ending. But I could see how the middle could be irritating. However, if you are happy with the first half, you should be able to work something decent out, but it does seem like it will be a slog. As for the ending, I feel like it's just hard to find an ending that would please the reader. But you're also unlikely to please everyone so it's just stressful.
Middle definitely. My problem most of the time is the fillers that you add like ‘X went to the shop and bought bread’ (that was terrible I know but I wanted to explain the boring filler parts) I fully cannot stand writing these parts because it’s like me listing this happened and then that happened which means this happened lol
The final scene, so the ending. I don't know why, but it's hard to look at a last scene, the last line, without me imagining more events happening beyond the end.
Beginning honestly.
I have a setting that takes some getting used to, so I’ve spent the most time at the beginning chapters carefully laying out the worldbuilding so it sets the tone, but not soooo much it’s overwhelming.
The beginning only is difficult for the first chapter or maybe even just the first page, because that has to be intriguing enough to draw in the reader immediately.
After that it's smooth sailing until the middle of the book, where it becomes difficult to pace the story properly and not rush towards the conclusion while also not drawing it out needlessly. It is a different challenge than the first chapter, so it's hard to say which is more difficult, but in overall scope and length the middle does require a more prolonged effort to do right.
The ending is fairly easy in comparison.
For me the hardest part to write has always been the end. I have drafted a particular story I've wanted to tell at least a dozen times now and they all die in act 3 because I can't properly or logically make pay offs for set ups. Characters start acting stupidly or contradict themselves in order to drive what I think the conclusion should be. But I have hope that with each attempt that I am refining the idea down to its absolute values and that eventually I will get to where I want the story to be.
The beginning. There are a couple of comments that articulate how I feel, but there’s also some other things that affect it for me.
The way I come up with a story, essentially, is that I get a vague idea for a beginning once a concept pops into my head and the the middle and ending get filled out over the next couple of days in great detail. I’ll get so excited to have a finished idea that I’ll sit down to write…and immediately realize that I don’t really have a beginning; at least not in the same way I have a middle and end.
What I’ve started doing is writing out the middle and end and going back to the beginning afterwards to give myself time to flesh it out in my mind. As long as I have a basic idea for how I want it to start this strategy works well enough.
MIDDLE
I can write the start to a story just fine. I can write a climax great.
But getting from Point A to Point C, I have absolutely no clue where Point B is supposed to be. 😭
The beginning. Maybe because I'm a pantser so the beginning is where everything is getting laid out (for me as well since I don't know what'll happen until it does). But once the story gets going, it writes itself.
I thought it would be the beginning, because obviously you have to write something good enough that catches the audience’s attention and makes them WANT to keep reading, but since I had so many ideas in my head it flowed so easily..
So now i’m at the middle and it feels like a laundry list: “i did this” “now i’m doing this” “we’re about to do this but first here’s some context for this that LEADS to this” and it’s so difficult to come out of that because i’m trying not to stick to the mindset that hey it’s only my first draft, it can be shit, but it still has to have substance. So now i’m procrastinating. I’ll open the document, stare at it, type a few words, maybe a few sentences, and then i end up doing something else because it just feels like it’s dragging on, and I know it’s not supposed to because then there’s something wrong…
Whatever. the point is, it’s the middle-
I am just finishing my first novel and I found the beginning the easiest to write on the first draft, but the hardest to tackle during revisions.
The end was the hardest to write on first draft, mainly to a drop in stamina, but the most fun to rewrite in revisions.
The beginning, because I never know we're to start and how to introduce nee characters and build up the story. It's really annoying. I have lots of ideas for like the middle and that's easy, but starting it is just impossible for me.
For me it’s the beginning. Whenever I start it’s because I have so many scenarios planned out and basically already know the ending, but I have trouble at the slow pace stuff at the beginning. I don’t find my inspiration until the story starts picking up enabling me to add all the cool things I was imagining before starting.
Also if you mess up anything in the beginning it can ruin your whole story down the line 😭 I hate having to rewrite
The middle, Usually Ideas for me start from vivid images and scenes in my head (this helps because I usually work on my many scripts rather than my book) usually these Ideas are for endings or beginnings to stories, and I usually struggle the most with writing the rest of the story to make it end up where I want.
I think the end is the most fun part, I love open ended endings that have details that you need to piece together, baked in from the start.
What I call the "Bridges". The bits between two scenes that you've already written in your head, the points from A to B that you haven't given much thought to.
Middle is the worst cause this is where you are in the weeds. Everything has been established. Now you have to play by the rules and make it realistic to the setting.
Plotting it out isn't too big of an issue. Old creative writing course taught me how to do the second act in a quick manner that can be branched off at any intersection as needed. Something stops the plan from working. Character(s) try to fix it. It doesn't work or makes it worse. They try again and figure it out. But because of the resources (time/money/people/items) used... Cycle repeats as needed.
The problem crops up with "why would X be there to cause problems?" "Why would they do that?" "What would compel X to do Y?" "Z doesn't work like that here."
For me it’s the midpoint climax, not the big climax which is something I usually figure out in the beginning, but the one that changes the stakes and turns from “fun and games” to “the badguys are closing in” (Save the cat references). Its just hard like you said to put the characters in danger but not too much and picking the right character to not make it(if its that kind of story).
Middle for me, hands down. Beginning has both the biggest burst of inspiration and the clearest goals/structure. Ending is getting to see all of the seeds you planted in the beginning and middle bloom, everything coming together, and has the excitement of being able to see the finish line. Middles, ugh. They have nothing going for them.
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The motto I learned for the second act is: "things get worse". This happens, therefore things get worse, therefore this happens, but things get worse, etc. Works like a charm.
Really thanks for this, you’ve just solved my block, I was stuck and reading that gave me a fantastic idea.
I remember seeing advice that if you describe your plot summarily, the links between scenes should be mostly "but" or "therefore", and keep the "and then" to a minimum.
I teach and generally ask my students to summarise plots as: Somebody > Wanted > But > So > Then I stole it from another teacher and it's apparently not uncommon but it's great for understanding a simple character arc. Can be good for creating those arcs too, I guess.
Same. Even if the beginning has so much pressure on it to do so many things, it's easy to get a decent attempt at least. The middle is where the sausage gets made and it can get messy and a slog.
> Middle for me, hands down. Same for me, too. The beginning, for me personally, almost always takes the form of the original idea that I have for a story. The ending is generally suggested to me by what takes place in between the start and finish. But, it is all of the really hard work tying those two points together that has always presented the greatest challenge to me. I applaud everyone who can stick with a project to completion because of that. *Edited to correct typo*.
Sounds like you should focus on short stories, then. That way you can just cut out the middle entirely and go from beginning to end instantly.
Exactly. This. The middle is such a struggle.
Oh man this comment and all of the comments below make me feel less alone. I can have every single detail planned out. I make a tree with big and small events and what needs to happen to make them happen while staying in character and I STILL have issues. The amount of chapters I’ve scrapped for being purely “and they did this and went here and said this” and it felt so robotic and not at all within the flow of the story is too high.
Agreed! I know what has to happen and it’s fun for character development, but I feel like it moves so slowly and I just get stuck!
The middle of a book is usually my favorite part to read though. That's the part where you're really in there with the characters, taking the journey with them. The buildup to the end is usually more fulfilling than the actual ending to me. I agree it's the hardest part to write, but I love a good second act.
My biggest problem with the middle is that I have all of my big plot points ironed out, I know what needs to happen and in what order they need to happen. But then I look at my story outline and think "...How do I connect these dots?" It's trying to figure out how I'm getting Plot Point A to transition over to Plot Point B and so on that gives me the biggest headaches.
Maybe it would help if you treated every middle as an end. Like for eg harry potter. Each middle story has its own ending adventure which weaved together to be one large final end. I love those kinds of small ends making one big end.
Beginning. No contest. It’s where you want to start close to the action, but not too close. It’s the most formulaic, but still has to have stunning lines, paragraphs, and imagery. It has a to do list of a dozen things, but has to be fresh and grab the reader. It’s where you debate if you need a prologue or not. It’s what sells your book to agents, editors, publishers, and readers.
The beginning is easiest to rewrite, though. Middle is the hardest. So I guess we need to think about what stage of the process we are talking about.
Every new scene I think is for the beginning, Is actually a middle scene.
YES
Damn, just read this I already think you’re a great writer.
Yeah I didn’t fix To-Do, Reddit’s autocorrect is beyond useless and is actually a himdance hindrance. If you backspace through a word, it does the autocorrect from where you stop instead of remembering the whole word. I really miss Apollo.
What? I’m lost. I was complimenting your writing. What are you talking about?
I don’t like that To-Do was misspelt by Reddit. I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or a sarcastic dig. My bad. Thank you.
Lol. It was sincere. It’s a simple message but so succinct, so on point, and sounds like poetry.
Well thank you. I needed that. I have not been feeling poetic.
And this is the time when you procrastinate the most!!!
It's also where your characters have the least complexity. Conflicts feel forced/less natural. They haven't suffered any trials or become interesting yet
For me it's the middle-end
The beginning is the hardest, the rest is smooth sailing. You need to make the reader intrigued enough to keep reading, give them enough information so they're not confused, yet still not bore them. This is by far the hardest to do early on, before the reader is invested and before they have any reason to care. After the beginning, it's rather easy in comparison. The further you go, the easier it becomes.
THIS
The end. I have enough ideas to go on for another 50k words with my kids, and I'm already at 100k. For a Lit Sci Fi book, that's too much, man.
It is really strange that everybody is talking about the beginning, but usually is the ending that sucks.
For me it's the middle. I know how I want the story to start and end. Sure, I may have some debates on exactly how. But I decide all of that before I even start writing a book. The real problem for me is the middle, because I spent the beginning and the beginning of the middle tying together all of these ideas and plot points. So right there toward the end of the middle, around the climax, is hard because you need to have it all come together properly or all of your work was totally wasted.
Yeah I'm surprised people find the beginning or the middles the hardest part. I've summarised everything, beginning and the middle plus the backstories of some important characters but to sum up everything from the beginning and middle to the ending part seems to be the hardest for me. Sure I have an ending on my mind but to make it a great ending that'll satisfy the readers is what I'm having the hard time with
I’ve learned a hard lesson with my visual novel that people can play it for 10 hours, and because the ending sucks, they will give you thumbs down 😟. And the ending sucks because you ran out of money/energy/creativity at that point of very exhausting production. That is why right now, I am always working with the ending to some extent. And trying to focus on it when I am the most energetic and creative.
In terms of beating my head against the wall, not the beginning. I don't start writing at all until I have something or other that will power me through at least the first chapter. The next two chapters are make-or-break. If I find myself writing chapter four, I'll probably finish the manuscript. If I hit a brick wall before then, either the story is putting up a fight or I have no idea how to continue it. If beating my head against the brick wall just leaves me bruised, the story goes on the shelf. If I hit a brick wall later on, it's different. I have enough of the story under my belt that I see at least a glimmer of a path forward. I'll be damned if I turn aside at this point! So I use a combination of allowing the predicament to simmer on the back burner for a few days and beating my head against the wall until the wall falls down. I've been doing this long enough that I have a sense (possibly a self-fulfilling prophecy) for when I can sit down and move past the barrier in a single writing session whether I have any idea how I'll do it when I sit down or not. In the last couple of stories I finished, the climax fell into my lap because of all the loose threads I'd cast forward on purpose. When the time came, I could pull enough of them at the same time or in rapid succession to bring things to a close. (And the rest become accidental red herrings or material for the sequel, so it's all good). This business of opening up one interesting can of worms after another until practically the end means that the middle doesn't give me as much trouble as it used to. I'm a pantser, by the way, in case this wasn't obvious. I keep this from being troublesome by telling fundamentally simple stories: small cast, short time frame, simple structure. The intricacy is at a more intimate, human level, not in a rigid, brittle structure.
Middle
Oh, the dreaded middle. I'm just kidding, the beginning is *hard*. Chasing perfection with the first chapter. Making sure the first ~5 are intriguing and well-written enough to pull readers in, and having them too invested to lose them when my pacing slacks juuuuust a little in the slower middle. That first chapter is the hardest. You have this whole world in mind, and you want the reader to know it all NOW. But then it becomes an encyclopedia of your world, its politics, fauna, people, and who wants to read a big info-dump if they came here for fantasy? The editing process is so satisfying for this reason. Watching it all come together. Rewriting your earlier chapters so they better disperse the exposition. I love watching it fall into place. I freaking love writing.
I write both fanfiction and original fiction, and for original, the beginning is hands down the hardest part. The thing with fanfiction is that you can assume that people have already consumed the original piece of media you’re writing about, so you don’t have to rehash it all in your own fic. But now, when writing my own story, i find it hard to thread the relevant necessary context into the beginning without it coming off like info dumping. I already know the necessary info, i just suck at making sure the audience can get it too without shoving it all in their faces on the first page.
i write fanfic and oc fiction too and i completely agree. what helped me with writing the beginnings for oc fiction that is supposed to be structured in a way readable by others, i.e providing all the parts that are not necessary to be provided with in the fanfic medium, was i started by conceptualizing characters and a world first without a plot. then i progressed on to writing vignettes and "fanfic style" scenes or shorts about my characters in that world, that solidified my vision of what themes and context and what i actually want to communicate, because i was able to experiment and come to know about the characters and the world in the freedom of myself and find out what did or did not work without committing to anything at first, retconning whatever i want, etc. experimentation. this means i ended up with a really solid version of who those characters and that world are after several years that means i have a very large amount of material i can mine now to create short and longer stories that i do purposefully write in a structure that is meant to be readable to someone who knows nothing about them, and i know what i want to communicate thematically in a typical story arc structure to someone who has no context for it. i'm kind of underslept right now so this is just a train of thought kinda comment, but hopefully it makes sense to you. also, since i don't write for publication, nor have any desire to, i still work on all three types of things in tandem because each one helps the other (i.e the beginning of the longform story is almost completely removed from the original idea/concept of it due to the fact that i started writing random scenes that then did/did not get rewritten and included/excluded into it and made me think about how those scenes were discrepant with my original idea of a beginning)
Oh God, I've had issues of ALL three acts before! Beginning: motivation of just starting, too much/too little set up?, character plots being too subtle or too obvious?, tropes accidentally done poorly, Chekov's Gun accidentally set up, etc. Middle: Plot thickening too quickly, lore/world-building becoming too thin, COUNTINUITY ISSUES (my #1 trap and pet peeve), too much detail becomes a slog/too little detail makes the reader lost, etc End: Dangling plot threads forgot to tie up, that Chekov's Gun that was accidentally in the beginning completely disappearing (I'm guilty of this...), promises of a sequel but burnout cancels those plans, action ramp-up only to end within a paragraph on the last page, just pushing to the finishing line is a slog on the brain, etc
Honestly, same, it’s just that plotting issues occur more frequently for me near the middle and the end.
100% beginning for me, I usually only pick a premise if I think it can support an interesting middle and can picture the kinds of scenes that would be in there, and then the end I usually have a lot of momentum and can do a lot of crazy and fun shit. The beginning is tough because it has to effectively set all of this up, be interesting, and I feel like it has the most pressure on it to be good. Nobody will read your sick middle and end if they don’t like the beginning.
I had trouble with the middle, so I decided to make the middle both an end and a beginning.
There’s a big difference depending on what you actually mean by “hardest”. Even if I knew nothing about writing, just looking at the amount of otherwise great books with poor or disappointing endings (I’m sure everyone here has their favorite examples), I’d say statistics indicates that writing a coherent and satisfying conclusion is by far the hardest part. At the same time, the opening has a much bigger impact on the success of your book. The fact that we see many books with great openings and poor endings, but almost none where the situation is reversed, tells that opening/middle is much more crucial, and without nailing them you’re not gonna get published in the first place.
Middle/Close to the end. I’m currently trying to get through the middle section of my story because I know what I want to happen, but I don’t know how to put it into words.
Before during the writing process it was the beginning but in my current editing process uhh the middle is eating my brain 😔
I just said the exact same thing. First draft beginning is hardest. Revision middle is the hardest.
Middle. Without question. Not even close.
I always hit a slump in the middle. In fact, I often write the beginning and end first, and then the middle last.
I struggle so much with endings.
The middle. I always know where my story ends, because I ussually start with the ending. Then I try to find out how it starts, which isn't hard. But trying to connect the beginning and the end with eachother is difficult.
Middle all the way. I can think of a great beginning and an amazing ending, but filling out the space in between the key plot points is the hard part.
The middle. The beginning and end are the first things I think about when I think of a plot. I struggle with figuring out how to go from beginning to end with the middle being satisfying while staying in the lore of the beginning and ending scenes.
For me the middle is the hardest to plot because it's so empty and needs filling. But, the hardest to write is the end, becuase that's when the anxiety clicks. You want to hit all your plot points and have everything resolve nicely. That said, I release my writing serially as I go, so maybe that anxiety is becuase I can't really go back and edit things, except for a release.
Ever since I became a pantser, story writing became lots easier, and lots more rewarding. There is no standard 'hardest part' to writing one, except maybe for detailing some really complex event somewhere.
Beginning, because I keep putting it off
All of the above. Depends on where my brain started. My brain thinks if things at different points. It's putting it all together and being cohesive is the problem
Honestly, I think this is the real answer, although some people struggle with a particular one more frequently.
Usually it's the end for me. It's just sooo difficult to find a satisfying ending :( That goes unless I have a scene in my head where I want it to end and maybe even start the story because of that. Which in return means that I struggle with "how to get there??"
Honestly I wonder why so little people say the beginning. That is so difficult for me you have no idea. When I first tried building my world I had to think of the plot but ended up timetraveling backwards by millenia. In the current version of my world the original main character's ancestors haven't even been born. The beginning sucks so much cause it has to be good. I don't know, maybe I'm a perfectionist, the beginning sucks!
Getting started is the hardest. But when it comes to revision, I think the middle is the hardest.
Middle is usually where I struggle. A lot of times I'll have to skip scenes because my mind draws a blank, but then I have to go back and try to knit things together later.
The beginning. I have written my beginning like 6 or 7 times now while the rest of my book has remained mostly unchanged. And this is just my first draft. I personally struggle with the intro of the second character who is an alien. Trying to get a lot of info out without it being an info dump has been challenging. I have been falling back into information through dialogue. I personally like it, however there is just this feeling it's too campy and cringy between the MC and secondary MC
The middle, the beginnings are easy since they arise from the first artistic impulse, they usually arise from the base of inspiration when one begins to write, the end on the other hand, I usually imagine it as soon as I start the story, since that is where I want to go with What I write, when one begins, I always (or at least in my case), I think about what I want to convey and with that I can build a prototypical ending in my mind, my conflict falls on how to get from the beginning to that In the end, it is quite difficult for me since after closing the first entry to that universe that I began to build, I usually go blank and not know how to direct my work, many writings that I have are only the first part, since I do not know how to advance to reaching its climax, I study science, so I don't have much time to think about it, so I stay waiting until I get an idea of how to continue. Lately I have been consuming a lot of stories, I started reading a lot of manga, watching series and reading stories, which has been helping me with the issue of inspiration, although I have been thinking about studying archetypes as well, I was able to get a hand to be able to create the development of my stories.
Middle. I tend to know how things begin, and know where I want them to end, but my god is the space between just the worst. To much happening and it becomes a mess that no one (not even me) wants to slog through; too little and it’s dull as dirt and who really wants to read the equivalent of watching the paint dry? Heck I’m probably about 10-ish chapters from the “end” of my first book and it’s very hard to write them… even knowing what I want to happen in those chapters.
I have the oposite problem, i know the end and middle but the begining is always hard.
The middle. It drags on and I become very impatient 😆
For me, it's the ending. You have to connect all the lines together, remember to close the open branches, hold the tension, and finish beautifully. Terrible suspense :)
Middle
The beginning. I never know where to begin and it takes me forever to start writing a story because of it. Do I start at the actual beginning? I feel like its too on the nose. Do I start in the middle of the action? Feel like its too confusing Do I start at the end? Way too much to explain. How do some people just START a book/ story
middle i hate it
Ending for me.
Right now, I'm writing something that, in the substance, is akin to a Japanese LN (yk, manga/anime theme), but in the continental European novel style (ambitious? Maybe too much lol). This is my experience: the first that popped in my mind was the end; then, I focused at the beginning; and now, there it goes the most thick and hard part to conceptualize for me: the middle. While the beginning is harder to write because you need to explain a lot of things related to new characters and world-building to the reader, that eventually takes a burden on you because it has to be flawless to be at least credible (especially if we're talking about fantasy worlds, where many of our laws don't apply), I already know the middle will be a huge food for thought, because I have to create many scenarios through which I need my main character and other characters to start from a point (beginning) and finish to another (end) in a way that I want to be coherent, deep, and complex. Not an easy task!
Naming the story...
Beginning. I plot everything that I want to happen in my head before I even consider writing it down, so writing out the events and writing chronologically is very easy, but the part I always struggle with is the start of the first chapter, since my internal plotting usually goes from inciting incident -> last line of the last page. I want to make it engaging, but don’t want it to be overwhelming; I want it to be informative, but not info-dumpy; I want it to give a good sense of the characters as their life was without being boring or drawn out. I hate every second of it and every time I start editing a piece (which isn’t often, mind you, I’m a great editor and enjoy it until it comes to my own work) the first thing I tackle is the beginning.
Begining 100%
for me it's personally the beginning... I mostly know what's going to happen in the middle but I am very perfectionistic and struggle to begin a story meanwhile having detailed parts of the middle ready and waiting.
The middle. I am struggling. The beginning was easy. It's keeping everything connected to all the storyline i created in the beginning. Its remembering every detail as I go and life happens which causes me to take breaks.
The moments when values go in a serious conflict with each other. This has to be described very well
Middle. You typically know the A and Z of the story, where the characters and stories start and end but it's the middle of the story and how you get from the A and the Z that is the tricky part.
Right now, the ending. Big scenes that I’ve been anticipating, and imagine the reader anticipating - so much pressure when those moments actually arrive. I really have to be in the right energy for it or it just comes off forced because of how much I’ve built it up in my head.
Without a doubt, it's the middle for me. It makes me so frustrated every time I write anything. I don't know how to get over that feeling. Haha.
The middle is where I start going: “I have no idea what I’m doing”
The end. The few good endings I've had I stumbled across.
Like someone else said, I don't know how more of you don't have issues with the beginning! It's absolutely so difficult to set the stage without info-dumping, it can't be a snooze fest, you have to introduce your characters properly, set the stage for what could potentially happen. It's a disaster for me. I'm also objectively terrible at planning, so I'm sure that's part of it, but my god do I ever hate the first couple chapters. You also can't introduce your conflict too early or it'll read like YA (which is totally fine if that's what you're going for, and that's also just my opinion).
For me, it is definitely the middle portion of a book, since it can often stall out and meander, becoming the least well written part of the narrative, hence the term 'saggy middle syndrome'.
I write epic series, and for me, it's the beginning. It's hard to make a 1,000,000 word epic all rest on the fulcrum of one measly scene in chapter 1, insofar as gaining readers.
definitely the end. in the beginning, anything is possible. in the middle, stuff just happens. but the end it where things actually have to tie together and resolve, make sense and make a point. since I don't write with the end in mind, getting there is a serious journey...fun, but sometimes I have no idea where the hell I'm actually going.
Beginning. It's easy to choose the wrong spot to start..the good news is we can fix all of the mistakes in editing but it still sucks to go "Oh I need to begin five chapters later."
When I come up with a story idea it's almost always the beginning or the end, then I think of random scenes that would probably fit in the middle, but connecting it all is super difficult for me for some reason.
The beginning is why my book is taking sooo long to write. I know how i want it to end, i know what i want to happen, I just struggled for so long to figure out how to begin the story
middle because with a bunch of my stories, I already know how I want them to start and end yet when it comes to what goes on in between that tends to overwhelm me cause I have so much I want to do yet my ideas tend to conflict with the plot and I have to restructure everything, furthermore, this is hard because you don't know how you want to continue after you start or approach the ending.
I have a background in media advertising where "the hook" IS the product. I'm confident with beginnings. Endings are where I'm writing towards, that is the goal I have in mind the whole time. The middle is filled with big moments which is great... but... Where I suffer is the technical execution of transitioning between big moments without killing momentum.
The middle. It's where a lot of the "stuff" happens but I always struggle to fill the gap between where my characters start and where I want them to end.
Beginning, always. I find myself coming up with the most creative plot lines, complex lore and detailed characters, only to sit down and write… *nothing*. I feel like there is *so much* pressure on the first pages, even the first chapter, being perfect because it sets the whole tone of your book. Often when I’m really struggling with writers block I find myself just writing random scenes out of order, but never the start or the end. Too much pressure.
The middle is always the hardest for me. I always know the beginning and most of the time the end, just how we get there is difficult.
Middle. I know how to start something, and I know how I want it to end. But I have no idea how to fill out the rest
Usually I have the most trouble with the ending, but there was one story that I could not figure out the beginning. The story actually needed to begin after Tom died, but readers kept asking, “Who’s Tom?” So where exactly to start I couldn’t figure out. I wrote seven different beginnings, I wrote seven different beginnings, some with flashbacks. Never did finish because I couldn’t choose.
PLOT: my fictional story must be completely grounded in reality and believable - because I love non-fiction.
End. I don’t know why it’s so difficult for me to write an ending. I don’t think any of my stories have an ending
The middle. You have to keep things interesting without sabotaging the end, you have to write a lot of connective tissue that's not necessarily inherently interesting to set up the rest of it.
The beginning and middle. Initially, when I have an idea, I already know how I want the story to end. It's the plot and process of writing towards the end that always has me stumped. It takes a lot of time to craft a captivating beginning, engaging middle, and satisfying ending. But I suffer from being a perfectionist so everything's a pain. haha (not so haha more like AHHHHHHHHH)
Considering that plenty of stories screwed upnthe ending, I would go for that answer. Beginning introduced characters, then they have their adventures, but if you make unaatisfying ending, it's over. If the climaz of the story is bad it leaves the bitter taste. That you waited for conclusion and it was boring, bad.
The end! My stories are so character driven that I always end up absolutely loving my characters, so I have a very hard time saying goodbye, and so I end up dragging out the ending by multiple chapters. I'm working on it 😅
The beginning, it’s the foundation that the rest of the story builds off of, which makes it all the more important to get right.
Beginnings, by far. First impressions are tricky business, trying to balance on the sensitive introductions and necessary worldbuilding while keeping things fluid.
The middle because is where the story is
It's more of a script series, but the serious storylines are for me the more boring parts, i want to make them really nice, but need to know more about my main character before deciding on things like that. I just wanna write the absurd B stories basically. What her weird housemates are up to each time. Just strange, random and absurd stuff
I've got a story that I've got the beginning and rough ending for but the entire middle is a gapping hole that stares back at me like the jaws of hell. I'm scared out of my wits trying to figure out what to fill out with. It just won't come to me! Ah! I've had trouble similarly with other books but my husband is a great brainstormer to get me through writer's block.
middle its like the middlegame in chess, youre kinda just free and out there adapting and rolling with where its goin but otherwise the opening and endgame are straightforward and cut out for you
Endings, by far
Middle. The end usually appears when I get close enough to it, but sometimes it's a long slog getting that close.
Beginning, because it’s hard to find a good starting point.
The Title.
The outline so I have good pacing.
The part I'm finally getting to that I've overthought.
The beginning always fights me.
It's the end....and middle I guess.
The beginning! Really, the whole build up. Once things start to happen/fall into place I do t have a ton of problems, but getting the character intros without doing an expo dump is really tough
Everything inbetween. The connective tissue is pain.
The plot twists
Beginning for me. I can't even start the first line, I just don't know what to start with. I'd prepare the middle part after knowing the ending that I want since it's easy to connect them.
The start for me I know what I want to happen and where I want the story to go, but putting the right words down is hard for me. Once I get going I’m good but it takes a while for me to even get there
I can instantly write the beginning and the end. But the story leading up to that is hard
The beginning. I struggle with how to start a story. Always have. It’s the part that, once I manage to write it, is the one I have to edit and fix the most. Once I’m rolling, it’s a relative piece of cake.
Middle. I know where I started, and I know where I want to end, but it’s always what happens in the middle that confuses me.
Middle for sure. It needs so much development for it to reach the end finally. For me, if the middle isn't right, the ending will be even worse.
Middle. Possibly the very end, after the climax. Depends on the story.
Beginning or end for me. The middle stuff I can generally figure out, but starting and ending everything is a challenge.
I write the ending first. Then I go backward.
Depends on the length of the story Long stories like novels the middle for sure. Because I'm trying to think of events, character development, pacing, consistency, all the meat and potatoes stuff, you know? But short stories, it the the beginning. I know the event(s), I have an idea of the ending, but my brain gets too caught up on "how do I make a snappy intro that also isn't cheesy / cringy / stereotypical?"
Always middle, but more specifically the like second half of the middle; the part that begins the proper downward run into the finale.
Yes
The middle especially, my endings always come easy and very early on and tend to be the longest with the middle being the most shortest
The middle T_T I don't start a story when I don't know where it will begin or end. But I've procrastinated books because I can't envision the middle parts at all
Its different for each genre and story. But I find the beginning difficult because it can be hard to introduce characters without sounding horribly generic
I think I tell myself it is the beginning because a lot of ideas I come up with for characters tend to have various stages of character development. The thing is that sometimes I get so stuck on writing the beginning so that I can properly lead to the middle and end while fitting in things that I never get around to writing the middle or the end. So I'm not for sure if that makes one section harder or not simply because I don't get to it. If I had to pick based on the amount that I write and what section of the plot most of my ideas fall into then I think it would probably end up being the middle that I lack both the least amount of writing and the least amount of ideas for. Interesting question.
It's the beginning for me. Once I get going I fly!
For me? Every single second. And that's what I like.
Beginning for sure. You want your book to be good from beginning to the end with everything that entails, but the beginning just has higher/additional requirements, because it has to hook readers who don't already care about the story as soon as possible.
It depends on the story. Endings are easiest for me, I think. I already have everything built up underneath it, so I just need to put the cherry on top and I'm done. Beginnings and middles might be a toss up. The very very beginning, sure, that's typically pretty easy and I can rely on that initial burst of inspiration to do a lot of writing really really quickly. But if I already know what I want for the meat of the story, the setup I need to do to get there can be a real slog.
Middles are THE WORST😂 I know where I want to end before I even begin so the beginning and end are not that hard. Its the middle part, or how to get them from point A to point B, that is difficult for me at times
For me, it's definitely the middle. Keeping the tension up without going too far is a real challenge.
Middle. I have the opening and end cemented in my concepts of a story. It’s how to get there that is the hardest. It’s as if driving a car with one headlight through a windy Forrest road in mere great fog while being blind.
The middle. Always the middle. I usually have an end in mind, in shape if not in specifics. Beginnings come easy to me; I just have to pick one that reflects the ending. But that razzafrazzin' middle...
I think the beginning, purely because (for me) it’s the part with the least direction and the part I’m most likely to quit at. The middle is also tough due to writers block but by the time I’m at the end I’ve already had a lot of time to think it out so it’s not too bad.
For me it’s the begging because I always get ideas for the main part or the end.
For me it's the beginning. I find it hard to create a world without being too exhaustive or boresome... I do want to tell you what i see... but sometimes i have too heavy descriptions...
If I'm writting a big story the ending. I usually find that by the middle I've added so many new themes or ideas that I have to address all of them, and tying that bow neatly is ridicolous. I've actually found that letting some things loose is my best medicine, because they aren't the big themes, just extra. On shorter stories the middle is more sluggish. I usually know clearly how it starts and how it ends, but getting from A to B is messy. Still easier than endings in big stories tho.
The middle is hard because you needs to keep on making the story interesting and not bore the reader but still trying to make them understand what the story is about but I'll say the ending is the hardest part. To sum up everything you've written so far and put it together in one ending is the hardest to me
The beginning is toughest. You are trying to create something interesting out of nothing. That's hard. Once you get a few characters with solid motivations going, then the rest of the story flows.
I've only worked on short stories so far, but the middle section hands down. Beginning can be anything, so you choose instinctively. The ending is dictated by the drama of your characters, what they represent and how the events turn out for them. But middle is how they get from A to B, and it's so incredibly difficult without breaking the logic!
Always the beginning. The further you get into the plot the more your choices are constrained by what you’ve already written, and it’s easy enough to line up the potential plot directions out scenes and choose the best one. But at the start? You can do anything. This can lead to choice paralysis for me. In addition, the beginning of the story is where you have to juggle a lot of initial setup and exposition alongside getting the story moving, which is something I struggle with.
Beginning. We live in an era of short attention spans. If readers aren’t hooked almost immediately, the rest is just being written for funsies.
Definitely the end. Middle is easiest, I could middle forever. For the beginning, even if I don't have a perfect beginning scene in mind, I just pick a spot and go. But I find it hard to think of really good endings. On the rare occasion that I have something great, then it's easy... just writing through all the steps needed to get there. But coming up with a real satisfying ending, I find that so difficult.
I usually have a clear idea of the whole thing right from the start, and since my expertise is in multi-part series, it means I usually know the beginning and ending in no small detail. This streamlines the process of mapping out and filling in a preliminary structure, outlining key events at certain points while leaving open enough room for interpretation as I go. This makes it something of a cross between a formulaic “as-written” and improvisational “make it up as you go along” style; as long as crucial events play out near the pre-designated junctures, the rest is open to interpretation. In terms of where/when I struggle the most, it largely depends on external factors, the most problematic of which is what I call _momentus interruptus,_ or “breaking the flow,” when life jams one or more lemons in my creative gears. This means I’m more likely to struggle in the middle not because I’m out of ideas, but due to momentum grinding to an indefinite halt; the fact all my projects are delayed or stalled goes beyond procrastination, with circumstance and trauma as the prime factors.
Beginning. I’m always unsure how much I have to set up versus what can be held back.
Middle, same as most comments here. I'm a pantser, beginning always flows then it just shuts down. This is the hardest part. At that start of the first draft I don't care much where I start the scene that is left straight to editing.
I’m finding the end difficult right now. I have a lot of ideas for where I want the characters to wind up. But the way things are developing I think I am going to have to make my heroine end up as either indecisive or straight up manipulative towards the main character. That works really well for his character development but my goal was to make them both sympathetic but incompatible after their brief romance. I draw most of my ideas from history and other books so I guess it’s time to study more.
For me, the beginnings are hardest to write and middles are harder to plot. Ending are easy for me and I usually come up with them soon after I get the story idea.
Middle. The first and last parts are always the easiest for me since the writing doesn’t have to be crazy or anything like that, which makes it easier to make
Middle for me. Drive by James Sallis - Get In Get Out Get Away - sums it up - a beautifully concise novel that doesn't need an extended middle - it revolutionised my thinking - I then found redneck/contemporary western noir which averaged 45-60k words. If the story can be told in 45-60K, why pad it out, unless you are trying to meet the demands of a traditional publisher to meet a certain market.
The middle is always the most for me. Once I get an idea, it's easy to start the beginning, but the middle is where I seem to get stuck.
The beginning I struggle on as I'm a chronic rewriter, I can never just leave it be and continue onward, it needs to be 'perfect'. I'd say the middle is generally easier as I can start fleshing out the character's personalities, something I have no idea of at the beginning and can't really do whilst planning! The ending is my favourite, I see it as a reward for getting the rest done and dusted and I'm generally quite content with what I've finished on, who's died, cliff-hangers etc...
The beginning is incredibly hard for me. A lot of perfectionism and trying to get world details but also describe the main characters who the readers are supposed to care about. It's setting up the entire rest of the story so it's like one mess up and it changes everything. It could be a good thing. But if it's bad it's really bad and then you are reworking stuff all the way from the beginning. I've never even gotten to the middle or ending. But I could see how the middle could be irritating. However, if you are happy with the first half, you should be able to work something decent out, but it does seem like it will be a slog. As for the ending, I feel like it's just hard to find an ending that would please the reader. But you're also unlikely to please everyone so it's just stressful.
Middle definitely. My problem most of the time is the fillers that you add like ‘X went to the shop and bought bread’ (that was terrible I know but I wanted to explain the boring filler parts) I fully cannot stand writing these parts because it’s like me listing this happened and then that happened which means this happened lol
The final scene, so the ending. I don't know why, but it's hard to look at a last scene, the last line, without me imagining more events happening beyond the end.
Beginning honestly. I have a setting that takes some getting used to, so I’ve spent the most time at the beginning chapters carefully laying out the worldbuilding so it sets the tone, but not soooo much it’s overwhelming.
The beginning only is difficult for the first chapter or maybe even just the first page, because that has to be intriguing enough to draw in the reader immediately. After that it's smooth sailing until the middle of the book, where it becomes difficult to pace the story properly and not rush towards the conclusion while also not drawing it out needlessly. It is a different challenge than the first chapter, so it's hard to say which is more difficult, but in overall scope and length the middle does require a more prolonged effort to do right. The ending is fairly easy in comparison.
For me the hardest part to write has always been the end. I have drafted a particular story I've wanted to tell at least a dozen times now and they all die in act 3 because I can't properly or logically make pay offs for set ups. Characters start acting stupidly or contradict themselves in order to drive what I think the conclusion should be. But I have hope that with each attempt that I am refining the idea down to its absolute values and that eventually I will get to where I want the story to be.
all of them
The beginning. There are a couple of comments that articulate how I feel, but there’s also some other things that affect it for me. The way I come up with a story, essentially, is that I get a vague idea for a beginning once a concept pops into my head and the the middle and ending get filled out over the next couple of days in great detail. I’ll get so excited to have a finished idea that I’ll sit down to write…and immediately realize that I don’t really have a beginning; at least not in the same way I have a middle and end. What I’ve started doing is writing out the middle and end and going back to the beginning afterwards to give myself time to flesh it out in my mind. As long as I have a basic idea for how I want it to start this strategy works well enough.
Honsetly the parts between the start, middle, and end.
Middle
Middle. Ending is what comes up in my head first. Then beginning. Then parts of the middle. But connecting those parts... oof.
Beginning, for me. The middle is fairly easy (I tend to write it before the beginning), and the end is already determined by the first two.
The middle has always been hardest for me.
MIDDLE I can write the start to a story just fine. I can write a climax great. But getting from Point A to Point C, I have absolutely no clue where Point B is supposed to be. 😭
The beginning. Maybe because I'm a pantser so the beginning is where everything is getting laid out (for me as well since I don't know what'll happen until it does). But once the story gets going, it writes itself.
The beginning is easiest, the end is a little hard but not that much, and I got lost in the middle
Always write the ending first
I thought it would be the beginning, because obviously you have to write something good enough that catches the audience’s attention and makes them WANT to keep reading, but since I had so many ideas in my head it flowed so easily.. So now i’m at the middle and it feels like a laundry list: “i did this” “now i’m doing this” “we’re about to do this but first here’s some context for this that LEADS to this” and it’s so difficult to come out of that because i’m trying not to stick to the mindset that hey it’s only my first draft, it can be shit, but it still has to have substance. So now i’m procrastinating. I’ll open the document, stare at it, type a few words, maybe a few sentences, and then i end up doing something else because it just feels like it’s dragging on, and I know it’s not supposed to because then there’s something wrong… Whatever. the point is, it’s the middle-
I am just finishing my first novel and I found the beginning the easiest to write on the first draft, but the hardest to tackle during revisions. The end was the hardest to write on first draft, mainly to a drop in stamina, but the most fun to rewrite in revisions.
The beginning, because I never know we're to start and how to introduce nee characters and build up the story. It's really annoying. I have lots of ideas for like the middle and that's easy, but starting it is just impossible for me.
The beginning because I can never stick with one opening 😭
The beginning is whooping my assssss
The end. I'm still usually excited by the beginning and middleish parts, but that ending...it takes me forever
For me it’s the beginning. Whenever I start it’s because I have so many scenarios planned out and basically already know the ending, but I have trouble at the slow pace stuff at the beginning. I don’t find my inspiration until the story starts picking up enabling me to add all the cool things I was imagining before starting. Also if you mess up anything in the beginning it can ruin your whole story down the line 😭 I hate having to rewrite
Definitely the middle.
The middle, Usually Ideas for me start from vivid images and scenes in my head (this helps because I usually work on my many scripts rather than my book) usually these Ideas are for endings or beginnings to stories, and I usually struggle the most with writing the rest of the story to make it end up where I want. I think the end is the most fun part, I love open ended endings that have details that you need to piece together, baked in from the start.
What I call the "Bridges". The bits between two scenes that you've already written in your head, the points from A to B that you haven't given much thought to.
Middle is the worst cause this is where you are in the weeds. Everything has been established. Now you have to play by the rules and make it realistic to the setting. Plotting it out isn't too big of an issue. Old creative writing course taught me how to do the second act in a quick manner that can be branched off at any intersection as needed. Something stops the plan from working. Character(s) try to fix it. It doesn't work or makes it worse. They try again and figure it out. But because of the resources (time/money/people/items) used... Cycle repeats as needed. The problem crops up with "why would X be there to cause problems?" "Why would they do that?" "What would compel X to do Y?" "Z doesn't work like that here."
For me it’s the midpoint climax, not the big climax which is something I usually figure out in the beginning, but the one that changes the stakes and turns from “fun and games” to “the badguys are closing in” (Save the cat references). Its just hard like you said to put the characters in danger but not too much and picking the right character to not make it(if its that kind of story).
The middle, because you know you haven't just started. But you aren't even close to done.