My Favorite Chapter from Fire & Flight

A Behind the Scenes Look at Fire & Flight

Oddly enough, my favorite chapter overall from my upcoming novel Fire & Flight is ‘A Much-Needed Break,’ or chapter 20. In this chapter, my characters have a rare moment of relaxation and the plot takes a back seat to character development. To be honest, that’s a lot of words to say: nothing intense happens in this chapter—but make no mistake! Chapter 20 is no less impactful than the surrounding chapters.

While it was challenging for me to write, this chapter is probably the most satisfying for me as a reader. ‘A Much-Needed Break’ provides a break in the narrative that at this point in Nyla’s, Xander’s, and Shamira’s journey is essential to their overall goal. It is in such a place in the narrative that it gives readers a breather from the overall intensity too. It’s cozy and adds a layer of definition that you may not appreciate at first because it doesn’t seem like what’s happening is important to the overall story of Fire & Flight. The challenge for me in this chapter was the sheer amount of physical movement and activity that my characters partake in. Trying to find the right visual descriptors to convey the epic battle amongst friends was difficult because the first few drafts were so stiff and they just didn’t work alongside the scene I had in my head while trying to pull this off. And to make matters worse, I kept comparing ‘A Much-Needed Break’ to those two episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender from season three (yes, the beach episode and yes, the other beach episode) because I wanted to do something like that in Fire & Flight. While these two episodes of A:TLA may not be everyone’s favorite or even the best episodes from the series, I’ve come to admire them for how they add dimension to characters we think we already know everything about.

That’s when I had my “eureka!” moment. Rather than detailing each and every move my characters made, and tracking their progress across the landscape, I adjusted my writing to reflect their feelings and hone their development. ‘A Much-Needed Break’ has come a long way since draft one, and it’s become my favorite because of how it isolates my characters and gives us a peek into their lives and personal history that we otherwise wouldn’t have until much later on in the narrative.