The opening

First, I'd like to say some bad things about HP and their useless bloody touchpad which lies right under my thumbs when I type.

Blame the tool ? Ah - and tool is the right word for the genius behind this design. I'm a trackball guy living among the legion of touchpad users. A Gulliver, as it were.

The open is crucial to me. I need an effortless flow to my opening paragraphs without excessively labored rework or contrived mechanisms to lay my story before the reader. I personally need the story to flow immediately from the start since I love plot-driven story-telling.  I'm working to get the characters in there but it is the opening that drives me.

I cannot write the start last (as one hapless writing instructor suggested years ago). I need the first to work so as to encourage me with its purity for the grind of the rest of the story choices.

I am working on an opening now that seems good one minute and poor the next. I have the germ of the thing. It will evolve soon. I've too much vested in the desire for this one to work. I cannot let it go.