Do I have the first chapter?
Every year several people email me and tell me that they think they have the first chapter. One of the implications of the ‘minimal information’ and ’only aware of what’s going on in your chapter’ principles is that you will only have received something in that section if you need to know it… either to avoid major continuity issues, or to prevent you repeating something from an earlier chapter.
As such, there will be several sections that have nothing in the “Things that have already happened” section. That doesn’t necessarily mean that yours is the first chapter, it just means that (other than what is mentioned in the “General Background” and other information) there is nothing that you necessarily need to be aware of to write your section.
In other words, plenty might have happened in the book, or nothing. You might be the first chapter, you might be the last… but there’s a 23 out of 25 chance you’re somewhere in the middle!