Important NaNoWriMo Decision: Where to Begin

     I know that I have not posted any new fictional material recently, but with the beginning of NaNoWriMo approaching I have had a bigger project on my mind.  The novel that I am going to be starting is something that I have had buried in my brain for sometime and have finally decided that it has aged enough to become a full length project.  The thing that I have been struggling the most with, however, is where to begin.  That, I have found, is one of the major differences between short fiction and novel length fiction, where you start is crucial to how successful you will be with the project. 
     In a short story, because you are dealing with a smaller piece, it is easier to overcome starting in the wrong place in your story.  As soon as you realize your error you can make the adjustments necessary, but with a novel you may not realize until much further down the road that you have misjudged the start point. That has probably been the undoing of many of my larger projects.  I begin writing and am highly motivated, but then I get to a point where I realize that I have used too much flashback or have had to skip too far ahead to progress the story and feel like maybe I will have lost my reader along the way.  So, for me, along with outlining my writing project I spend a lot of time determining the best place to begin my story.
     Which brings me to the reason for this entry.  After much deliberation and not a small amount of second guessing I have come to a decision as to where my novel will begin.  This is exciting for me because until I reach that crucial point I don't feel comfortable really sinking my teeth into the writing, but now, mere days before I am to begin, I have finally broken through my novel's defenses and am ready to make a full-on frontal assault.  I hope that now that I have peace of mind knowing where I want to begin and the direction that I expect the story to take me I will be able to put some time into rediscovering some old pieces that I have laying around in various notebooks, folders, and binders as well as putting pen to paper (so to speak) on some new pieces to share with all of you.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope it gives you some insight into not only myself as a writer, but also the struggles that I sometimes endure.