newbie player

hi all,
i got a new guitar for xmas. i am trying to play it and i suck.
my fingers wont stretch to do the chords and interfere with other strings.
seems impossible to do.
my hand and wrist and fingers are sore, from three days of twanging on my new electric guitar.
is there any tricks to make my fingers work? they feel like clubs on the strings.
i really want to learn to play my guitar......and i refuse to give up.
recovering from shoulder surgery doesnt help any either. my whole arm,hand, and shoulder is killing me.
HELP!

Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.

I think you get the picture... haha. That's about all you can do. You're not going to instantly be able to do a lot of things. It's just about practicing and perfecting it. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Pick up a couple beginner books that have the basic chords and scales in them... work on those and get to where you're comfortable with that stuff. It wouldn't hurt becoming a member on this site so you can take advantage of all the lessons on here. Make sure when you're trying to learn how to play things you're understanding why you're playing what you're playing... For instance: When you're learning a solo, pay attention to which notes the original artist chose to play over top the basic rhythm guitar section.... That will build a foundation of understanding of more complicated music theory when you get better..... Along with practice. practice. practice...

Don't give up.
Don't give up.
Don't give up.

It'll will be frustrating but keep working at it.

After a week or two of playing (depending on how much you play) the pain will go away and forming/switching chords will get easier. Just as Aschelman said, practice!

You can check out GT's guide as well. www.guitartricks.com/guide.php

It's all par for the course man...
Keep working at it and eventually the pain starts to fade away.
You start building caluses on you fingers and your muscles start to feel good.

Of course we're talking months here...not just days.

You gotta keep at it.

i like to strech my hands out or lets say if u have nothing to do you just take ur fretting fingers and press them up onto something and just like push and release.....it realy helps cuz ur fingers get stronger...u cna also hold them into a certain chord shape and then push and rleease..its pretty cool..i did that for about a month and that soreness went away.......its going to hurt if u just started no matter what cuz ur fingers arent accustomed to the pressure and movement....

welcome aboard! and i concur with what the rest said..

Welcome. You'll find plenty of terrific information here. The best resource, as you might expect, are the people. If you have any questions, just ask. You'll get plenty of help.

And don't worry about asking what you may think are stupid questions. No such thing. Besides, I think I may have asked most of them already! :)

Enjoy and as the other say; practice, practice, practice.

Did I mention practice?

Good luck and have fun! Like they said in Animal House "Don't think of it as work. The whole idea is simply to enjoy yourself...."