1. Titles: I have a hard time with titles. Now I have two titles warring with each other for book one. The loser will be for book two(no offense, book two, but you're not even started yet).
2. Beginning: the opening sentence of a story often gives me grief and requires several rewrites. This time around my opening line is set. It was the first line I wrote of this story and it's exactly what I want for the opening.
3. Endings: endings are hard for me because I need closure for my characters, but I love them too much to say goodbye. For book one, at least, I have the ending in mind. Knowing exactly where the story is going is new and exciting.
So now I have the fun of figuring out how to get from set beginning to known ending, and remembering to tie in the title. New territory, new obstacles.
Knowing the ending to the first book does not at all hamper the discovery writing process. My characters are still revealing themselves a little at a time, and they are in no hurry to get to that ending, which is ok by me because I'm having a blast writing them into existence.
Now, to keep the secondary characters from overtaking the book by being more completely formed than the hero....