For me, it’s usually the middle. It’s hard to keep the suspense going through that long stretch between the beginning and the end.

I loathe beginnings. It’s hard getting to know the characters until each one appears on stage for the first time. Only through their interactions and reactions can I get a feel for them. The middle shouldn’t sag unless the foundation isn’t solid or threads get dropped along the way. For me, this is where the story can take off in unexpected directions.

For me, it is the ending. I need to make sure everything is tied up and that in doing so I’ve been fair to the reader in terms of the twist and the clues that I left throughout the book in plain sight.

Oh, the dreaded “middle muddle” is my nightmare! That’s where my plot threads tangle like a ball of yarn a cat’s been playing with. But once I find the right strand to pull, the story flows toward a satisfying ending.

Beginnings are harder than ends or middles. That’s because the beginnings need to be something in progress, and that something should involve the main character, the villain, or the setting. I prefer to drop the reader into a story world not yet fully envisioned when I begin crafting the story. For my genre fiction, there needs to be at least medium pacing and have at least one point of conflict. Oh, and with all of this smoothly woven together. I know what the ending is already, and the middle is the getting there.

The beginning of a book always is easiest for me, and I usually have an idea of whodunnit and how the book will end. Getting from once-upon-a-time to the-end is where the real work of crafting a novel lies.