If I can just... get... the opening scene...

I have a story idea. I think it'll be fun. There are pieces of it in my head that I'm already looking forward to writing.

I can't quite seem to start it.

For a while, I just didn't like my opening scene -- either of them, actually, since I'd come up with two alternatives. (One of them started with my main character reanimating dead mice, which the the cats would then hunt and tear apart for the amusement of the younger acolytes; the other involved my main character and another acolyte witnessing strange events at the yearly harvest festival in a town not far from their monastery.) Neither of them were bad, exactly, they just didn't quite do it for me.

Now, I know there are people out there who could (and would) simply skip ahead to the parts that they're looking forward to writing, and then go back and fill in the blanks. I'm pretty sure I would tangle myself up if I tried that. I have a tendency to over-explain (even in the best of circumstances), and I'm pretty sure it would be much worse if I didn't know what information I'd already supplied earlier in the story. No, I'm vastly more comfortable starting at the beginning and working my way to the end.

On the good side, I have a third opening scene in my mind, and I like it. On the bad side, the last two times I've tried to write it, it bogged down -- not with my visual, but just in trying to get it all down on paper without burying the reader in a Wall O' Description. That is, it isn't a problem with the plotting or the characterization; it's a technical difficulty with pacing and rhythm. (Did I mention my tendency to over-explain? 'Cause I do that. A lot.)

Sooooo... My plan is not to work on it tonight. Instead, I'll go to bed as early as I can manage, let my brain relax a bit, and take another run at it when I'm fresh.

Flying ships, dark magics, dead bodies, chases, escapes, and desperate struggles for survival. Should be fun, if I can just get it going.