The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #286 -- Story Openings and Rewrites

Do you go back and rewrite your opening many times or are you the type who can't move on until it's nearly perfect?

Typically I have to get my opening just right before I'm able to move on. I sometimes spend hours on the first sentence or first paragraph alone. There's so much riding on that bit for my story. It sets the tone and the feel and the whole "attitude" for each word to follow, so without it right or at least close to right, nothing else I follow it with will feel right either -- but that's probably just me. Other writers will tell you differently, to knock it out now and go fix it later, but I just can't work that way for my openings. It's like they lock me up until they get all the attention they need from me.