Too much focus on the first three chapters?

AI instruction: Woman with pixie-cut white hair and thick black glasses using a stenotype shorthand machine at a desk with a view across a valley with trees in winter (not snow) [how is the view "not snow"? And what on earth is that "stenotype shorthand machine"??!! It's certainly not what I used to write with today!]

14. Wednesday 14 January 2026

I didn’t rewrite as much as I hoped today, but I did work through some problem areas in the four chapters I wrote yesterday, so I feel kind of okay about today’s progress.

                Generally, when submitting to agents in the hope of securing representation, agents request the first three chapters. Increasingly, I get the sense that’s being extended to either the first three chapters or up to 10,000 words, but as most request three chapters, I realise that I’m concentrating more on those first three chapters and making them perhaps longer than I might otherwise, or by longer I mean six chapters with just three chapter headings! As a result, only being ready to start chapter 7 now, I have actually written considerably more than six-fiftieths of my novel.

                I am lacking enthusiasm for what I worked on today, in part because I’m worried it’s too slow and detailed. I feel like agents want to take on new writers whose story is exciting and full of drama. More established writers seem to be the authors able to write slower stories. I enjoy reading books about people and ponderings and observations. I have tried to write more drama and excitement, but it just doesn’t feel like me. I’m not very good at suspending belief in that sense, though I think I could do it if I chose to write fantasy. I love the idea of creating another world where there are no rules of reality. I get annoyed with books that I perceive not to be realistic (unless they’re fantasy or YA, for example).

                Tomorrow, it really would feel good to finish the next two chapters, which would take me to the end of class one of six. If I’m as in the mood as I was this morning, I would also like to go through what I wrote today.

In other news, I baked my third sourdough loaf this morning. Chris and I had half a slice of warm bread with butter and toast with butter and Marmite. It tasted good, but I think any sourdough expert would have been critical of this loaf. I don’t think it rose enough and it was more dense than it should have been. But it tasted good. I have another ball of dough rising in a tea towel-covered bowl next to me as I type, hopefully at a decent temperature as the fire is on in the distance. I had high hopes for this loaf because the starter rose well, but it's not puffed up in the way it usually does when left under a cloth all day. So much to learn!

                I didn’t take any photos worth posting today and I didn’t even go for a walk, though I did feed the birds and wander around the garden. It’s been grey and fairly mild but with a sub zero windchill. Bit of a meh day, although I did actually do quite a lot of writing and editing. And bread making.