Usually, when I have trouble starting these chapters, I just chalk it up to a combination of my nerves and the realities of doing entire outlines in my head. This time, I think what’s keeping the words off the page is the actual order of events. Even though I would have preferred to have The Emancipating Blade chapter be the fourth or the fifth, it still functions well enough as the third. With the Class Array, I’m starting to think it’s coming too early. In fact, if Lydia’s Golden Treasury was going to be a longer series, say twelve chapters or so, the Class Array would probably be the tenth or the eleventh. After going over everything that chapter is about and what happens in it, it doesn’t fit well happening before the Golden Ticket.

So here’s the new plan. Considering what’s going on with Enya and Lydia at the end of The Chronicles of Proxima, I think the Golden Ticket makes more sense as the next chapter in the series. The Class Array will also benefit from coming after it, and then it should segue nicely into Eisenwolf, the final chapter. That’s the hope, anyway.

Since I’m making a last minute switch from one chapter to another, I’m thinking about giving myself a few extra days to finish the Golden Ticket. Say, around February 3rd for that deadline. I don’t know if I’ll need it (the Golden Ticket chapter was one of the first chapters I’d hashed out the events and the purpose of in this series), but starting with a little under five days for a chapter that will average 12,500 words is going to be rough. Whether I finish it in time or not, this is a big change to work with. There’s also the other goals to wrap up, though I’m getting close on all of them.

For now I’m going to keep chipping away and will post updates as they happen.