After a few weeks had passed my finger tips started to build up the begginings of callouses and the muscles in my hand had grown stronger but I couldn't figure out why I was still having to put a death-grip on the neck for chords like A and especially F.
After a lot of frustration and a bit of research I started to learn a bit about the action of a guitar (the height of the strings above the frets as determined by the nut and bridge). As it turns out my guitar's strings were anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch above the fret board! Much too high and very painfull after playing for just a few minutes.
No wonder my guitar practice was feeling more like instructions in the finer points of strangulation than musical appreciation. A bit frustrated that my guitar was so out of whack I went to a local music store to see what a proper guitar would set me back. With no such funds available, I threw a bit of caution to the wind unstrung my guitar, disassembled the bridge, planed it down, and filed down the grooves in the nut.
After a couple trips to the tablesaw and sander I was able to get the action down to about 3/16 of an inch...or a bit less.
True that new players certainly have some muscle and callous building to do, it seems to me that the first lesson should be a quick rundown on a good basic setup of your instrument...and I'm not talking about just tuning. Having the action set to the point where playing isn't excruciating has made all the difference in the world.