These past few days, I’ve been struggling with a rewrite ever since and, man oh man, has it been rough.
In honor of my impossible rewrite, I present to you the three toughest parts of that piece you’re writing:
The Beginning:
You open up a new word document, adjusting the formatting and typing in the title with a flourish. Your name comes next. You press enter. You stretch your fingers and return them to that poised position, hovering just above your keyboard.
You stare at the cursor.
What follows is a frustrating period in which you type out differing versions of the same opening sentence about 3.5 billion times, pausing after each go-round to delete and begin again. Delete and begin again. Delete and begin again.
To be honest, the intro to an article or essay has always been my favorite part to write. Setting the stage…introducing myself to the reader…I can get sort of carried away.
But getting started can certainly be a bitch.
Get over that hump, and suddenly you’re off and running, home free.
Except for when you’re not. Because the second toughest part of that piece you’re writing is:
The Middle:
In this particular instance, my problem is distance. Or rather, the lack thereof.
Back in college, in my very first personal essay-writing workshop, the prof told us that we had to have distance from our subject matter in order to do it justice in writing. Almost 10 years have passed, and I still feel too close. Oh the dangers of mining your own life for inspiration…
When it comes to “the middle,” any number of other things can go wrong. The piece can take a turn you didn’t expect. Story sources can wink out of existence. Things can fail to lay themselves out seamlessly. Etc.
It can be a relief to make it through, but you’re not done yet. Because there’s still…
The End:
My endings always feel too abrupt. And not nearly revelatory enough. It’s because life doesn’t tie itself up nice and neat, so you need to wrestle with your story in order to make it do the unnatural. Without feeling forced. Contrived. Jesus, how do you guys end things?
Such ruminations make me miss my old writing group even more…
How do you guys handle the beginning, the middle, and the end?
To be honest, when I write, I usually just sit down and start pouring my head onto the page. After I word vommit, I go back with a mop and clean it up a bit, then figure out if it needs a beginning and an end. The middle is usually the easiest part for me because it is the meat of what I am talking about. The salad and desert have to play off of the main course.
Does that make any sense? Basically, ask any chef to come up with a menu and the first thing they do is figure out what protein they are cooking with for the main course, then from there they plan the rest of the meal. I write the same way. Middle, then fill in the rest. Besides, it is easier for me to know where I am going if I have already been there (intro) and to put my pants on after my underwear (conclusion). Ok, bad anologies, but you get the picture…sorta.