Writing Wednesday - Chapter 1

AI generated image by J. Hudgins 2025

So...

I was all set to start the Rough Draft Challenge on November 1. 

However...

Live happened. 

Foxy, who was living in Savannah, needed to come back home - quickly. 

Everyone is safe and fine, however, it was a frantic few days. Three round trips to Savannah in four days. Loading and unloading the car and a cargo van. 

But everything is safe and fine and I have pathways through my home now. For good or for bad, we are a family with 'interests' who also enjoy books. Which means lots of boxes of stuff.

Then over the weekend we had Lady K here. 

Therefore, my goal of 50,000 words is WAY behind. I barely have 4000 words. Plus I have a ton of resistance to writing on the novel. And I think I finally figured out what part of my problem is.

I KEEP REWRITING THE FIRST CHAPTER!

While I have a pretty good, fleshed out plan for the book and I can see scenes in my mind, I keep starting at the beginning and have rewritten chapter one several times. I am not satisfied with it. Don't think I have enough of a hook. Or I'm including too much information. Or...

Let's just say it's not PERFECT!

And it's finally dawning on me I am using this as an excuse to not write.

So...

I am skipping over chapter one. It is what it is at the present time. All versions of it. Chapter one is done in some form or fashion and I'll figure it out once I get a completed first rough draft. 

In fact, I am imposing a 'Just Write' rule for the rest of November. I will continue on with the story, inserting notes where I don't have something more concrete. I 'demand' of myself a completed rough draft to the novel. At this point I don't care how rough it is, I just want to have it done. Then I can go back and figure out Chapter One. 

Figuring in things I have planned and the Thanksgiving holiday (we are getting Lady K pre-Thanksgiving for our celebration), I have 17 days to get 46,000 words written. 'Math-ing' - I need to write approximately 2700 words a day. In a normal 25 minute sprint, I can get 500 words written. That means I need 5.5 sprints per day. I will aim for 6, which is about 3 hours a day for the next 17 days and I should hit my goal.

And that works out well. With fall weather, I can write in the morning and hit the yard in the afternoon. Then quilting at night.

Ok, I'm ready to go!