One suggestion on “getting to the meat" is to not worry about that when you’re writing. Just tell the story as feels natural to you. Bit also, be more than willing to chop the whole thing to hell later on. In one of my novels I cut over 5,000 words from the beginning once I found where the story really began.

And on a related note, try to avoid the temptation to take all that stuff you cut from the beginning and throw it in later as “flashbacks" etc. While backstoey can be important in your understanding of the characters and story, you do not have to explain it all for the reader. Focus on the parts that actually matter and, of removed, would BREAK the story.

Writing is more than just telling a story, it’s also curating that story to include or exclude the portions that need to be there. As we all know, sometimes more is less … and sometimes less is more.