By yesterday afteroon, I reached 8,500 words in my story. I had wanted to hit that ten thousand mark just for the psychological significance, but I had to stop.

I need to go back and re-read chapter one to make sure that I haven't completely missed the point of a novel, which is to be entertaining. So far, the two characters that I've introduced have had some nifty discussions about life, the universe, and everything, but very little has actually happened. Isn't the first chapter supposed to be so riveting that the reader can't put the book down? I hope the reader likes conversation.

Also, someone pointed out a huge flaw in the basic premise of the story, so I may have to put this aside and think about it for a week or two (or three or four).