So, I fixed the opening chapter of my WIP without having to toss the chapter out the window. I found a way to open the same scene about a half an hour before it currently opened. This allowed me to make the opening much more personal and more tightly focused upon the viewpoint character. I simply wrote about 3000 words of the new beginning of this scene until it caught up to the original opening sentence. So, the first chapter has grown from 2000 words to just over 5000 words.

Also, I wrote most of Chapter Seventeen.

So, I might as well throw up another word count meter:

34,429 / 100,000 (34.4%)

I feel much better now. I know I still have to add a sentence or two more to the end of Chapter One, but I really feel good about the addition. I think it makes for a much stronger opening.

At the least I can keep moving forward through this draft without Chapter One constantly going "Hey, you, writer, stop wasting your time on those other chapters. You don' fix me, no one's going to bother reading any further. Hey, you listening?" while I'm writing.

Ah, blessed silence.