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Author Topic: Easiest and hardest part of the writing process?
JohnColgrove
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So what is it? What is the easiest and hardest part of the writing process and why (you don't have to include why if you don't want to)? Note, this includes everything from the first stages of planning all the way to querying agents/editors and even working with them after acceptance. Here are mine.

Easiest: Worldbuilding by far. I've been worldbuilding for so long that it comes naturally. I strongly believe I'm a natural worldbuilder. I'm not an expert by any means, but I do consider myself knowledgeable enough to teach people. Heck, a lot of people even come to me for worldbuilding advice and not just for creative writing. I'm going to write articles on worldbuilding after I get my website transferred to a different hosting company so I'll let more experienced writers be the judge on my teaching skills.

Hardest: It's a tossup between beginnings, revising, and editing. In my opinion I have the hardest time with revising and editing more than beginnings. I just draw a blank when it comes time to doing either. I usually have to rely on critiques to decide what to edit and revise.

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babooher
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I have always found that working through the non-perfect parts to be the hardest part. That moment where I realize that the nebulous "perfect" story I had first imagined isn't turning out to be so perfect.

After that I'd say the first page is harder than the rest. Starting the story means limiting it, making it concrete. Again, the nebulous perfect falls.

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MartinV
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World-building is something which is hardest for me. I demand perfection from myself and creating the perfect world, one that can work on its own without my interfering, takes huge amounts of time and effort. Not that I don't enjoy it.

This also brings out the best of the writing process. That feeling when you know you've put something to life.

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Owasm
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The easiest part for me is developing the main character and worldbuilding. I consider myself an adept at putting someone in a setting.

The hardest part is ramping up the action. I get to the a point in the book, following my scene outline and I sort of run out of conflict. What to do? I sit on it for a week or more and eventually something comes to me, but that is the hardest.

The part that I like the least? Editing, the proofreading kind. My drafting skills do not include writing clean prose. I have to go through my stories many times and most times that isn't enough.

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Robert Nowall
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Well, sitting down and writing seems to be hardest.

Coming up with the ideas usually happens unexpectedly. I (usually) have a pretty good grip on my characters, even if their names don't appear until I actually start writing about 'em. I don't actually hear what they're saying until I start writing it down. I seem to know where things are coming from and where they're going from there, so plot isn't a problem. The background---I don't know if I'd call it "worldbuilding"---often falls into place as I come up with the plot.

It's just the physical act of sitting and typing it out that seems a big drag. I'd like to work more, and just keep at it, hour after hour, but, usually, five hundred words at a time, for twenty to thirty minutes of key punching, seems about all I can do. Once in awhile I can double it, or get back to things for another five hundred later in the day, but not often.

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MattLeo
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Easy: banging out scenes.

Harder: revising those scenes to they're good.

Hardest: revising those scenes so the whole story moves at a good pace and makes sense.

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enigmaticuser
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Easy: Outlining --> making the arc.

Hard: Making the arc personal.

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