All new writers are taught that stories should have a beginning, middle and end. This seems so straight forward and obvious that it’s almost silly, but still, many people go on to complain about the sagging middle of their stories. My problem lies with the other two parts.

It usually takes me four or five tries (if not more) to get the beginning of a book right, and too often I have been accused of rushing the end. The middle I don’t have a problem with. There, my characters are already well established and simply dig themselves into a large hole going deeper and deeper until they figure out how to get out of it (which is usually pretty painful).  But it’s the establishment of who they are and getting the shovel into their hands and then dwelling on their success on getting out at the end where I run into problems.

Finding just the right moment to start the story can be tricky. It’s not always obvious when a story begins. You want to show the protagonist in their ordinary world, but not too far before the inciting event. You want some action—something needs to be happening the draw your reader right into the story and the world. You need to immediately establish empathy between your character and your reader so that the reader cares about what’s happening to the protagonist and doesn’t just shrug and close the book after the first few pages. And then you’ve got to get that shovel into your character’s hands—establish their goal and have them start digging that hole.

When I start a new book I do extensive analysis of who my characters are, what they want and what’s stopping them from getting it. I plot and plan out my whole story from start to finish, essentially writing out the first draft in outline form so that all I need to do is go from point to point filling in the details. I add and remove scenes from my outline as necessary—it’s not set in stone—as I’m writing the book. But rarely do I ever get the beginning right. Where I start the book the first time, isn’t necessary the beginning because I start with the inciting event. Once that is written is and my characters have moved on to determining what they need (if they didn’t already know it at the beginning of the story) I’ll usually pause to make sure that I’ve shown enough of their life before all hell broke loose because it’s essential that the reader get a good idea of how that inciting even just screwed up the protagonist’s entire life.

Sometimes I’ve started in the right place, just not as interestingly as I possibly could. I didn’t entice my reader in well enough so that upon reading the first few paragraphs, they find they just can’t put the book down. Sometimes I realize that I need to back things up and start the story earlier.

As I said, it takes me four or five tries to get this right because it is so essential.

Once that’s done and I make my way through the story, making things worse, having the protagonist dig that hole in which they are standing, I have to pause to make sure things get as bad as they possibly can, and then, as we are told again and again, I have to make things even worse. That black moment really has to be awful. It has to be so bad that I sometimes wonder how I’m going to get my characters out of this situation. That’s when I know it’s good enough.

But once they’ve figured out how to climb out of the hole, that’s it. I’m done… only I’m not. And that’s where I fall into my second trap—rushing the end.

The problem is that I’m done. My character has been through the worst and figured out how to get out of it. Usually the hero has proposed to the heroine and all is happiness and joy. But that’s where a romance reader would like to dwell for a little bit. There has to be that feel-good part and that’s where I fail.  I don’t dwell. I don’t expand on how wonderful everything is or show how happy everyone is now that all their problems have been solved. I’m usually pretty tired by this point and looking forward to getting to work on my next project or get started on the editing process instead of taking the time to round things out completely. It’s a failing that I’m working at.

So, how do you do with beginnings, middles and ends? Where are your weak points?