First chapters and the Writing Show

Remember the Writing Show's first chapter makeover contest I wanted to enter? The contest is a great idea: the winners will get "professional help" to improve their first chapter, all done through podcasts and stuff online so that listeners and readers can follow and learn something out of it themselves.

You might recall I got my first chapter rewritten despite all the other parts of life happening around me, and sent it off just ahead of the final date. Yesterday I heard back from the Writing Show: my chapter's not bad enough to need a makeover! In fact, I got some positive feedback. That was pretty exciting, as you'll recall the only other person who's read this chapter is my non-literary-minded husband.

So the good news is, maybe I'm not a terrible fiction writer after all. The Writing Show has a really big First Chapter contest coming up - not for makeovers, but for the best that's out there - the first prize is $1,000. I've decided this is good motivation for me to start the second novel idea I have, the one I hope to write during this year's NaNoWriMo, so I've got between now and 20 May to get it done. I wonder if it'll be easier or harder than the first one?