Cover Options for The Gouge

I finished writing my crime/thriller novel, The Gouge, a few weeks ago.  The book has been sent off to the editor, and so now we wait.  I'm hoping to independently publish the book later this Spring.  But before I get to that point, I need to come up with a striking cover.  Admittedly, I am not the best at creating book covers.  However, I did come up with two different covers that I'm kind of excited about.  Have a look, and feel free to let me know what you think in the comment section, or just send me a message.  Thanks!  

Get Up!

Disclaimer first—I do not consider myself a professional anything, so my suggestions and tips should be taken as just one more person on the internet sharing his personal opinion based on his own experiences.  These tips and ideas may work for you too, but they may not.  Just saying.  

Writing Tip #015

Make sure you get up. 

Yeah, you might be on a roll.  Maybe you’re so close to finishing up that chapter and finally reaching a turning point in your protagonist’s journey.  But guess what, if you’ve been sitting for an hour or more in front of your computer screen, it’s probably time to take a break.  It doesn’t need to be a big break.  Just take a few minutes.  Stand up.  Do a few stretches.  Walk around the room.  Take some deep breaths.  Maybe even step outside (if you’re not outside already) and take a quick walk around the yard.  A quick google search will reveal several five-minute exercise routines for people that spend a lot of time at their desks.  Five minutes.  That’s all it takes to get your blood circulating.  I've found that taking these short breaks at least every hour has increased my productivity.  Yeah, I know, this isn’t newly discovered information—like, who would have thought exercise might be good for you?  The thing is, sometimes we just forget.  It’s easy to get wrapped up in your work and be so excited about what you’re accomplishing that the idea of taking care of yourself completely slips your mind.  So, get up.  Take care of yourself.  Then get back to writing!

Knowing When To Regroup

I need to re-think my system for story writing, I think.  Lately, I've been starting stories and getting about 15k - 25k words in before I realize that I need to stop, regroup, and start over.

I've been nursing this story idea for nearly 30k words now, and I think it's time to pull the plug.  Not scrap it all together--just give it a break.  This happens sometimes.  I believe that the overall concept, or idea, for the story is still good, but something is just a little off on this draft.  Maybe it's told from the wrong point of view, or maybe the main character just isn't too interesting--I'll figure it out.  But there's not sense in continuing to beat a dead horse.  

I'll toss this idea to the side for a few weeks and do something else.  Maybe I'll revisit, maybe I won't.  Time will tell.