I haz coffee...

Much needed coffee. Ugh. There has been so much going on around here that I haven't been sleeping well. Our dogs have decided they need middle of the night breaks and have been waking me up every morning before 3am for the last week. Which really sucks because about the time I get comfortable and start falling back to sleep...my husbands stupid crowing rooster alarm goes off at 4am. So of course, little man wakes up and wants to climb into the big bed with me. *sigh*

But we've had two horrific car accidents locally and teenagers have been killed, which has my mind focused on my man/child. My heart is breaking for the families, I just can't imagine losing a child. School starts in a couple of weeks (YAY!) which means I'll be watching the clock and worried about my man/child driving to and from school. We've also had several good family friends running in local political races and dealing with campaigns. Cool news is that Oklahoma will have it's first female governor this year. Mary Fallin is a home-girl and a Republican...which is two strong positives for me. But her Democratic opponent has a great voting record as Lt. Governor. So I'll be digging and looking at both women to check out what they've actually done in their careers that I think will benefit our state and my family. One of my beliefs is to not listen to campaign ads. I don't care what you TELL me you think you can do...prove it. Actions and experience speak so much louder than words.

And...*deep breath*....lots of other fun issues. So no sleepy for me. And definitely more coffee. I'm wide awake and ready to work on critiques. I'm stuck on how to end my current revised chapter and will send it to a friend to see if my sketched out thoughts will work before I finish off the last 3-4 chapters.

Hope you guys are having a great and productive week so far!

Doubt demons be gone!!!

It's just too easy to be our own worst enemy. I finally finished revising my chapter and sent it off to my crit partners. And cringed the minute I hit the send button. I've received two crits back and hesitated to open it both times. Most of the chapter has been revised multiple times, but the new beginning was a struggle for me and I was expecting the worst. I even caught myself holding my breath as I scrolled down looking for comments. So far, so good. I'm actually excited about working on the next chapter today. Woohoo!!

Keeping it short and sweet. Little man is still asleep and I'm hoping to get the next chapter revised and sent off today. I've got to get this request sent out as soon as possible.

Hope you guys have a productive day!!

First Chapters

I am struggling right now with mine. I've had several crit partners remark about my heroine which made me wonder if I should maybe begin the story in the hero POV. So I spent yesterday tearing apart my chapter to see if I could make it stronger. And AHHHHHHHHH! I want to just tear my hair out today. Good thing I saved the original. But I wrote 4 new pages to begin in the hero POV. I think I'll add a couple more and play with the ending again including the heroine material I had in previously. It has been easy to take the kiddo out of it as requested, but the hero didn't make an appearance until the last part of chapter one. From the books in the line that I've read...the hero usually makes his debut up front and BOLD.

Do you struggle with your beginnings? When you read--what catches your eye? Dialogue or action?