I've been working on Book 3 of my Fast Track Thriller series for so long, and I have come back to the beginning more times than I can count. Now that I'm starting to write again, I needed to return to it one final time to polish it up and slim down the wordcount as much as possible to leave only those words which are absolutely needed
It can be very easy to spin your wheels like you're on a hamster wheel when it comes to writing the first chapter, especially the first several paragraphs. After all, they're some of the most important pieces of the book, right? So it makes sense to get it right before moving on or to keep coming back to it every time you have a thought for a slight adjustment, right?
Actually, no. The most important thing is to get the book written. And that means giving yourself permission to make mistakes, because your first draft is guaranteed not to be perfect. To put it in mild terms, first drafts are crap--that's just the way it is.
So you need to be able to let things go--including when it comes to the first chapter and the first few paragraphs. The best time to finish the very first part of the story is actually after finishing the very end of the story. Once you see where the story has ended, it can be much easier to see where the it needs to begin.
And don't worry that you're not being a "real author" by leaving such an important part of the story for last. The beginning of the story is probably the most difficult part of writing the story...even for "real authors" who have multitudes of published books.
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