Even one line in a rejection can be useful.

I hate being rejected. Everyone does. Well, there are those that get their kicks that way. However, it's made me uncomfortable ever since I first asked a girl to dance at the teen center. But as a writer I've grown to expect rejection. You submit and submit and you get rejected and rejected. At first it's painful, then it hurts, and then it's just annoying. Occasionally it's helpful.

I'm currently submitting queries to agents for my first book. I've gotten tons of "no thanks" rejections. But three of them were different from the rest. One of them said that they thought my protagonist was a strong character. That's good to know, I read that as me being on the right track. The other two weren't drawn in from the first chapter. I read that as saying my first chapter isn't strong enough. There's something wrong with it, go fix it. Helpful comments that give me something to work with. Just a line here and a line there and I have some idea how my manuscript is being perceived.

So, yes, I did rewrite the first chapter. Now it's time to send it out again and see if other agents have something to say. Hopefully one of them will say, "We'll take it!"