The Opening Chapter

Update:

It's snowing again! I'm watching it fall outside my office window. Nice thing is it'll be 75 by Saturday. So, I'll snuggle in today, and grab the fishing gear on Saturday. No, wait. That won't work. I'll be in the Bay Area for the weekend, 

Oh, well.

Have I told you about the fish in our lake? They are HUGE! Seriously, we caught one several years ago that weighed twelve pounds. It was so big, my brother could stick his entire hand in its mouth. He tried to cook it, but the fish tasted like rubber. Not that I like fish anyway. I'm a catch and releaser.

And the picture I posted above? That's not what fishing with grandkids looks like. Most of the time, I'm sitting on the dock, untangling line. I mean, sometimes it looks like that, but it's one in a hundred.

I just finished the dedication and acknowlegements on A Shadow of Time. We're nearly there, one more round of edits and the novel will be ready. That's a nice feelig. I like completion. One chapter ending, another beginning.

I digress.

Redemption is next. The novel is finished, I just need to throw in some commas. Sometimes, writing a book is like writing music. You have to capture the flow and rhythm.

Come visit the Cresent Moon authors today. Sasha has Jordan visiting at:

ttp://sashasummers.com/

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How many of you have agonized over your opening chapter?

The first page of your opening chapter?

The first sentence of your opening chapter?

I know I have. Yesterday, while working on A Shadow of Time, I spent two hours refining, polishing, re-refining then re-polishing, and I'm still hot sure I have it right.

I did, however, send my baby back to the editor around 3 in the afternoon.
 
But first: I opened a new e-mail, closed the new e-mail, then re-read the opening chapter again--driving myself nuts.

You have to wonder: Is a book really ever done?

You get to the point where you've read your manuscript enough times to quote dialoge in your sleep. Still, that doesn't mean you might have missed a word or two. Writers are notoriously bad editors. We read our stuff so often that our brains just give us the word we want, without double checking what is actually written.

Such is the life of a writer...