Story Salvation

Since I first began writing, and up until about...oh, 1 month ago, I had a terrifyingly bad habit of starting a story in the wrong place. I had this misguided idea that in order for an event to punch, I had to create backstory first. Exposition, baby, was my middle name. Rae Exposition Carson.

So, tonight I'm revising a novelette for submission to Realms. I'm happy with the premise, the character motivations, even (gasp) the prose. But I wrote the first part long ago, in the Exposition Phase, and the story begins with lots of Important Details. I'm reading it over again, realizing that were I an editor, I wouldn't get past page 3, in spite of the word prettiness.

Unfortunately, I AM a multitasking maniac. Which means that tiny plot threads, the most minute details, are carried through a story when I write. So my beginnings are important. And if my beginnings are stupidendous, and the resulting story directly follows, then changing my beginning requires a Massive Rewrite.

I'm just not sure what to do. Do I rewrite this story from the ground up? Or do I trunk it and brush it off as yet another painful lesson learned?

Vacillation sucks.

But learning from self's writing catastrophes is somehow--masochistically--inspiring.