I've let this forum go on a little i'm afraid so sorry about the delay in the reply. Within Genesis there appears to be two creation stories. The first is detailed largely in chapter 1 and the second in chapter 2. Neither one should be regarded as a "retelling" of the other but both inherently are about the creation account and its details they just have different focuses.
Genesis 1:1–2:3 is the first creation account and it clearly stands on its own because of the style of writing as Hebrew poetry. The most common form of Hebrew poetry is when the writer says one thing in two different way called parallelism. We see this all over the first creation story.
Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." is a sort of a thesis statement that wraps up all of creation in one line. Genesis 1:1 is not the creation in the first day it is the sum of all days of creation.
In Hebrew the word for create is also better translated with the concept of "fattening up". Consider 1 Samuel 2:29 which says "Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?" the word "fattening" is the same Hebrew word in Genesis 1:1 translated as create. This verse is not showing the creation of the heaven and earth, but rather the fattening or filling up of it.
This immediately assumes something existed before Genesis 1:1 and God simply filled it up and gave it nourishment and life. As an abstract western culture we demand this question to be answered but to the concrete Hebrew mind of whom this was written for these question were not so important and saying that God nourished the heavens and the earth made sense as it was a very concrete minded thing to do as opposed to creating something from nothing which is extremely abstract easy for the greek/roman (and american) minds but difficult for the ancient Hebrew mind to grasp.
This isn't to say that God didn't created the void heavens and earth that he fattened up it simply is how creation is reveled in the poetry of Genesis 1 and we see that poetry more apparent in Hebrew parallelism in verse 2. In verse 2 it is retelling verse 1 in a different way. Don't be led astray by the word "and" as in Hebrew poetry this is standard to combine two statements as talking about the same subject. We see in verse 1 that God "filled up" the heavens and the earth and in verse two it explains that the earth was formless and void (un-fattened, un-shaped, un-filled) and then a wind of God moves over the surface, filling up, shapping, fattening and give it nourishment to allow creation. We know this because we see the direct result of this action in verse 3 which is the first display of creation.
The creation continues in verse 3-5 where God "separates the lightness from the darkness" then it goes on saying this is day one it however does not say it is the "first" day. In the days that follow each closes saying the "second" day or the "third", "forth" and so on days. However in day one the word used is not the word for "first" it is the word for "one". Other uses of this word show a strong sense of unity in its use for example 1:9 "...be gathered into one place..." 2:24 "...and they shall become one flesh..." 11:6 "...behold, they are one people..." This day one can be even seen as a type of parallelism itself with all of creation in one event.
In day 1 God separates the lightness and the darkness, day 2 God separates the waters and in day 3 God separates the land from the waters. Now compare that with the days 4-6. On Day 4 God fills the heavens with celestial objects for both the light and the darkness, on day 5 he fills the waters and the sky with creatures and in day 6 he fills the land with animals. Notices how verse 1 and 2 are talking about how God gives nourishment to the formless voids filling them up and then in day 1,2 and 3 he begins to "separate" them and on day 4,5, and 6 he fills these separations with life; these are parallelisms. Also this isn't forgetting about the strong contrasts presented as well such as heavens/earth, light/dark, water/sky, land/plants. These are very clear and strong parallelisms very evident in Hebrew poetry
We modern western thinkers are very linear in thinking. If we would describe an event we would say each event in chronological order. We love to think this way and this is how our mind operates. So naturally when we read Genesis 1 we see an order of chronological events in day 1, day 2, day 3 and so on. However to the ancient Hebrew mind chronological order in this sort of step logic fashion was not important but instead the whole event in one lump grouping together similar ideas in one block statement. This is the creation story in Genesis 1.
In light of how Genesis 1 is written and presented it stands as its own account. When Genesis 2:4 starts it is disconnected with Genesis 1 in terms of its style and flow from one to the other. The creation story in Genesis 2 has different focuses but it is clear it is different and separate from Genesis 1. First the pointed out style of writing as Genesis 2 does not take on the same poetry style of writing.
The clear differences in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, if they are talking about the exact same event or even if it is only talking about day 6, have some inconsistencies. For starters it appears there is no vegetation on the earth before man was created. When man is created God then plants vegetation. Perhaps this is only talking about the Garden of Eden in terms of what God is planting. It however clearly states in verse 5 "no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprouted" and although the Garden is the only vegetation mention being planted it is the first and only mentioned vegetation being planted. I don't know what else God planted as the text does not revel this, however in comparison to Genesis 1 this was done on day 3 before man was created.
As the text goes on we see Man is created, the garden is planted and then animals are created saying "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky" in direct reason for the previous mentioned "It is not good for the man to be alone..." Now in Genesis 1 birds are created on day 5 and land animals are created on day 6 but in Genesis 2 they all created after man was created. In Genesis 1 man and woman are the last things created and Genesis 2 man is created before all the animals and woman is created after all the animals.
There are too many questions that come up if you assume Genesis two is only talking about day 6. It just does not make sense in the order and reasoning behind the events compared with Genesis 1. These 2 passages should not be regarded as just a continuation of the other but instead Genesis 1 is an isolated poetry of creation and Genesis 2 is a more formal account of creation of man with glossed over or left out details of elements simply because its focus is on the creation of man not the other things. It light of this to strictly take each day of creation in Genesis 1 as a literal event and days seem inconsistent to how the story is presented. Genesis 1 is poetry where the style of the poetry shapes the information.
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