: Re: Starting Out a Novel Would it be more effective to the reader to start out a novel explaining the setting and scenery or, introducing the characters?

@Carla500

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This question is analogous to the painting artist asking, should I use light blue, medium blue or dark blue for the sky I am painting?
The answer is: use the color that the sky appears. You might say,

"Well, the painter just looks at the sky and paints it the color he
sees so that is a different thing."

But the best painters do not only paint what is there, but instead paint what they want you to see.
Paint What You Want the Reader to See
That should also be the way you, the writer, should paint your scenes. Paint what you want the reader to see.
If setting is extremely important as it is in, All Quiet On The Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque -- amazon link.
If that setting were changed, since the book is based upon World War I, the entire story would be changed.
Meanwhile, a book like, John Kennedy Toole's Confederacy of Dunces, (amazon link) is a character-driven novel with events occurring because of who the main character is and his outlook on life.
Read the beginning of each of those and you'll see how different they are and how fitting the beginnings are for each book.
In conclusion your answer can be obtained by asking yourself:

Am I writing a character-driven book?
Am I writing a book that comes from a story concept I have in mind?
Am I writing a book which richly describes some setting / historical period?

The one you seem to gravitate toward is the answer to your question.

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