I do a great deal of "business" writing in my work, but as far as prose/fiction goes, I've always had problems with

1- Coming up with a decent plot (every time I see a movie I like, or read a book with a good plot, I say to myself "How come I couldn't come up with that?"), and

2- Writing dialogue, which is even more difficult, I think. That's probably why there's so little of it here so far.

As far as introducing the characters one by one goes, that, obviously, is a deliberate attaempt to emulate Puzo's style in writing a novel as well as the style in which he wrote.

Altho I respect the fact that Weingardner is a professional author with a style his own, I felt that one of the major weaknesses of TGFR was his failure to capture Puzo's style, which I always thought was very readable.