Considering that virtually all of the stories I have in mind are low-key character dramas driven mostly or entirely by nonviolent character conflict, the "beginner's dilemma" I deal with is less "partway through a fight scene or ease into the characters", and more "which event would be best to start with and what characterization should or does that scene emphasize".
This might just be me, but even taking my writing preferences into account, I think pitting characterization and "story action" against each other is a false juxtaposition, because if you're at a point where you're trying to weigh which one should get screentime (pagetime?), then you should ideally be furthering both of those things to some extent in the same scene(s). Depending on how much your story emphasizes character growth and interaction compared to "story action", you may get better results by thinking in terms of what pieces of information you want to emphasize at the start and which scenes you could use for that, rather than the binary "this specific flavor of information or that specific flavor of information".
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
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That's true. I am concerned about how effective I am at balancing the two and my main concern at the moment is that my MC is a bit... too developed? So the scope for him moving beyond being a competent young person and actually learning new things is something I need to look at.
It's more setting the right tone - my novel is a fantasy piece, with the humans being the outcasts and fringe species - the exotic unknowns, really; the other races are more established and advanced. The opening is the MC looking out over the sea, contemplative. It fits so far but wondering if it's enough to draw people in.
Fantasy seems to straddle a few - dynamic intros, flashback scenes, quiet dinner parties...
I'm about 20k into my current effort of a novel and looking at the beginning I'm not sure how much of a motivation I've really given my MC. I've got some minor flashbacks to set scenes. (and yes, I should finish before rewriting the whole thing already); however, I wanted to get a feel from fellow writers:
When writing, how far "into the action" is a good jumping off point? Do you throw your story from the middle of a bar brawl or do you prefer a gentle segue to show the temperament of your characters? Is there a "good" way to do this, consistently?