I’ve finished chapters 5 and 6, really coming together nicely. There were a few things I was having trouble working out, figuring out how to get a character to learn some new things and not have it be boring. I found a way to do it organically in the story and I’m really happy with it.
I got some feedback from some readers online about my first chapter. The prose is in really good shape, but I’m not hooking readers well, doing too much description and not enough action. I need to build up tension and get people interested before trying to tell them deeper things about the world. I’m also tending towards telling more than showing, so I’m going to need to rework the first couple chapters significantly.
I knew I was going to need to do that anyway, since you normally send your first few chapters to agents and editors to get them interested in the book. Those chapters need to be really solid.