With Good Housekeeping in mind

I've managed to get a little bit of writing done so far this week, during my oh-so-precious half-term holiday.  How lovely it is working for a college!  It's given me some much needed time to focus, and the opportunity to try and figure out what exactly I need to do with the opening chapters of Hide and See.

I wrote chapter two on Monday and half of chapter three yesterday.  I'm quite happy with Monday's work, though a little less contented with yesterday's.  Again, it started feeling a bit directionless.  And a bit too angsty.

Having been reminded, however, that the Good Housekeeping competition only requires the first chapter of up to 5k, I'm feeling slightly less panicky about getting all of the first-third chapters written to perfection (like they ever could be).  I still think I should try and get them mostly written before, or not long after, the GH deadline but at least they don't have to be polished.

Given that my chapters are now only about 2k in length (because I was told 5k was too long) I think I might combine the first two for my submission.  Is that allowed?  Or would that get my name blacklisted forevermore and unable to find an agent no matter how much I beg and plead and weep on their doorsteps?  Because the thing is, I just don't think I could really make as good an impression with only my 2k-Chapter-One as I could with double that amount.  2k is barely anything.

I've not done any writing today because I've had my first day of volunteering with the National Trust at Mottisfont, working on their archives.  My poor little brain is quite frazzled so I don't think I'll be getting much done tonight either.  Here's hoping for tomorrow!

And I also hope that this new story which has started bubbling away in my head leaves me alone for a bit.  It really is most inconvenient.  Completely new and out of the blue, and just begging to be written.