#summarizing basic themes because it’s the easiest way for me to express my love for this series 😁🫶

[sukialone]

very interesting how in ATLA despite being scared of destiny & the responsibility it brings, discovering & acting out their destinies is shown to be an incredibly uplifting thing for most of the characters—and even for people like yue, where their destiny is tragic, she also seems to have found peace by accepting it—whereas in the kyoshi novels every character either has a very faulty idea of what their destiny is, or is absolutely disgusted by it. sometimes both, like in the cases of kyoshi & yun who both believe themselves to be something they aren’t (kyoshi wants to go unnoticed & be happy with her loved ones the way they already are. she doesn’t expect or want things to ever change because she believes herself to be unimportant. yun thinks he’s the avatar, who is called “the most important person in the world” multiple times throughout the books. he gave up what little he had to become the avatar & everything he does is to work towards his destiny of living up to yangchen’s legacy.) and then they find out their real destinies (kyoshi is the avatar. yun is no one special.) and are absolutely destroyed by it—especially yun, who had no stable sense of identity outside of a destiny that never existed. after they figure it out kyoshi runs away from jianzhu, who’s telling her she’s the avatar (despite your every attempt to stop me, i will dedicate my life to you, kyoshi.) & yun defeats father glowworm, who’s telling him he’s nothing (you’re more trouble then you’re worth. there are better meals to be had.) but they both take their opponents words to heart. kyoshi first accepts her destiny as a means of getting back at jianzhu, and eventually comes to accept it as a part of who she is, while yun retains his anger about being denied a destiny (and the humanity people treated him with when he had it) that he thought he’d earned. the only major character in the kyoshi books who breaks this pattern is rangi, who understands & feels pride in her destiny, which never wavers over the course of the story: defend the avatar, and do it well. her consistency in conviction plays well off the constant chaos of everyone around her & means she’s able to ground kyoshi to her destiny in a way no one else can.

[distressindisguise]

Writing Opening Scenes

I’m going to be real honest with you, this really depends on circumstance for me and even then, stylistically, I usually steer toward a certain pattern. And disclaimer, it’s a little hard for me to express exactly how I do what I do in terms of writing, but I promise I know what I’m doing (sometimes). Nevertheless, I hope this helps as a general overview!

1. Setting

Let’s start here, the basics. It’s always important to establish the setting, and the easiest way to do this is right off the bat in the beginning. I think this works especially well when special attention is shown to your description. Using those five senses immerses your reader right away, and helps shape the story/scene. It’s a good go-to, especially when you don’t even know what you’re going to write yet. Diving right into the setting has a way of sparking tons of ideas you wouldn’t have even thought of.

2. Dialogue

I have such a bias toward starting with dialogue. I love dialogue. It’s perfect clickbait. I’ve said this before, but my writing style isn’t very heavy on narration and I tend to skip all of the fluffy descriptions in my first drafts, so spending time cultivating a setting isn’t really my first priority when I sit down to write. My ideas usually come from random lines, jokes, or aspects of my characters’ personalities. This is why dialogue openers work really well for me. If your scene involves a conversation you know you want to write, try starting with it! See where it takes you. Jumping right into the action has a pleasing affect on the page.

3. Action

Speaking of action... movement is a great way to suck a reader into a scene as well. I love opening a new page to see something like “my feet hit the ground running...” it creates intrigue right away. Put the reader directly into whatever is going on. Of course, your scene doesn’t have to be action or adventure heavy to start with an action. Something as simple as “my hands shook with anxiety” is another action that creates interest. It’s a simple start, but helpful to build off of.

4. Background

Be a little wary of this. There’s a difference between adding background and straight up info dumping. Using background to start a scene seems like something that would be more helpful at the beginning of piece rather than a chapter. If you have to start a chapter with a lot of background information, it’s a sign that this information could’ve been given to the reader earlier on. Generally “showing instead of telling” is the golden rule, so if you find yourself writing words upon words of something that happened, you’re probably info dumping. Try writing the scene yourself and see if it makes a difference.

When I suggest starting a scene with background, I mean something more along the lines of “the old country picnic, the town’s one and only annual affair was, as usual, a breeding ground for chaos.” You want to go for light foreshadowing, not intense evidence that shows you’ve done some extensive world building. If you can summarize something in a paragraph that can set up the scene you’re trying to create, then I’d say you’re doing it right.

5. Inner Monologue/Thoughts/Emotion

I’m grouping these together because I want to say it’s the same depending on which POV you write in. I usually write in third person, so the narrator describes thoughts and emotions whereas, if it were first person, the mc’s inner voice would describe these things. I’ve read so many writing tips that strictly advise against saying things like “she was sad,” or “he was anxious” because it’s “telling instead of showing” but I’m going to be honest with you...

She was sad. But sad couldn’t quiet describe it. Sad was surface level, a quick attempt at trying to characterize the pit growing at the bottom of her stomach and the hole digging itself into her broken heart.

So I don’t know “writing tips,” you try to tell me that’s a bad way to start a scene.

My point is, establishing strong emotion in the beginning is another great way to carry the rest of the piece together. It’s a grounding theme that starts momentum.

You can easily do this with thoughts too. Inner monologue is also fun. I don’t write much first person, but if your character is particularly interesting, their thoughts alone are enough to set off a great scene.

There are so many different ways to start a scene, this post could go on and on. Find what compliments you, or try them all out as a writing exercise. See what you can create.

I hope this was at least good advice, per request. As always, writing tips are subjective and not so black and white. If you’re struggling with an opening scene, skip it and come back to it at the end. Don’t let it stop you from writing at all. It’ll come to you eventually :)