Change; and my love, hate relationship with it!

I don’t like change. Never have, never will. 

,Now that that’s been said, I have to admit that I have changed the beginning of my book seven times. Yes, seven! 

Okay, I’m having trouble getting the hook right. I’m also struggling with balancing backstory and adding just the right hints of my story world to engage readers.

A couple of weeks ago, I paid a professional to critique the first 50 pages of my book. I understand and agree with some of what she said and I will fix them. Some things I don’t agree with, so I’ll ignore those. However, some parts confuse me.

As I said, I’ve changed the first scene of my book several times, each time because of a suggestion by a contest judge, an excellent writer, or the agreed consensus of my writers’ group.

Now, what do I do, make the changes suggested by the professional? But, they’re different from the other suggestions. Do I delete the first three chapters, as suggested and start again?

I’m confused. 


So yesterday, I pulled out my writing books and began rereading them. I'll continue researching before I do anything drastic. 


But where to start?

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all the different comments?

What did you do? How do you know whose advice you should follow?