1 Down, 99 to Go

This is the roof that I slept on in Haiti  and that inspired the roof
 from which Elynna watches the stars. 

Well folks, we have survived the first melee. It's possible that choosing to write page 1 of the first chapter during my very first writing session was a bad idea.
     The first part of your book is just so dang important. It's where you introduce your character, the world they live in, the people they live with, what makes them special, what their deepest desires are, and what needs to change. That's quite a shopping list.
     As a reader, it's all about writing style and story style. The way an author starts their book is very, very important to me. If the they introduce me to their story in a way that's overly dramatic and/or too on the nose, I'm out. "Rebekah Alvarez didn't know she was a spy. Didn't know that is, until this afternoon when her life, and maybe the entire world, would change forever!" No thank you.
     I have such high standards for the opening chapter and such high respect for authors who do them well, that it was rather nerve wracking to write my own. Also, there's a lot to do. All of the things I listed up there have to be communicated because the first chapter is your spring board from which every other thing springs. With out a properly constructed spring board, your story is just gonna flop.

Elynna lives in Southern Settlement, a city I imagine looks something like
a dry, desert version of Carrefour, Haiti.

Nevertheless, that's where I started. I edited as I went and spent a little less than four hours and 1200 words introducing my girl, giving a taste of her personality, background, and current status quo(Frodo in the Shire) and finally, setting up her emotional and physical goals(i.e. Will Frodo destroy the ring?).  It all happens very quickly, and I'm certain I'll go back and add a whole slew of interactions to communicate what the country is like, but for now it works alright. I'd like to get her to the inciting incident(Frodo is given the ring which sets him on his quest) at the end of chapter 1, so I think I'm on track.

Yesterday I wrote my first thousand words! Here's the first bit:
    Elynna wouldn’t say that she was owned by Joss, she was just severely and irrevocably indebted to him. On really rough nights she would remind herself of her at least technical freedom to keep from sinking into a black hole of bitterness. Bitterness would only make her angrier at an unchanging truth: She was trapped. There was no getting away from it. How, you may ask, does a 17-year-old girl rack up an insurmountable amount of debt? By making it to year 9.

If she hadn’t, she’d be debt free. Dead, yes, but free. If she’d only stopped while she was ahead, she’d have no soul crushing reality that her life would never be more than Indentured Tavern Girl. But she had been younger then and overcoming the natural instinct to cling to life is difficult at any age; at nine it’s almost impossible. She hadn’t know what future awaited her and was still naive enough to think that it would be good and fair and livable. “Silly girl.”

So, what does this make you think about our leading lady? What do you think about her past? Her point of view? Her demeanor?