Diving right in

I was feeling pretty good about the opening of my MS. I thought it dove right in to the conflict and set up the heroine and her best friend nicely. The hero and heroine meet on page 17, not too bad I thought. But the little beeotch on my right shoulder said, "Lisa, don't you think you should dive right into meeting the hero at the beginning? You should really rewrite the beginning, for the eighty millionth time." Then, the lovely voice said from my left shoulder, "You need to mail that contest entry tomorrow. Kristin Nelson is judging your category! You need to get some feedback and hearing from Kristin would be great! Just send it in."
While debating, I peruse Romance Divas (kick ass site, visit the forums!) and find a link to Deborah Hale's site where she has tons of helpful articles. The "Plunging In: How and Where to Start Your Story" article made up my mind for me. Damn it! I liked where I started my story, but the nagging got worse. I kept thinking that I would probably get a lost of feedback saying, "you should start more with the conflict." The idea of entering a contest, paying the fee and waiting a year for the feedback just to see that made me sick. I would rather read things I didn't have an idea about.

Damn it! I don't want to rewrite! Now there's probably no way to enter that contest in time. Entry is due on Saturday. Unless I write like a fiend tonight... Nope, impossible. The contest gives the option of "submitting a one to five page synopsis." I probably couldn't just forgo that...my synopsis is still in progress. Phooey. I really wanted to get feedback from Kristin, an agent I have at the top of my list.