I’ve been fighting with my opening scene for quite some time now.
First is the opening sentence… how to come up with those clever words to convey not only the necessary hook, but have the thought connect indelibly to the plot?
And then there are those opening paragraphs and the scene itself. An agent recently told me that beginning with a phone call was not interesting enough, so I’ve moved it to my character’s arrival at the music shop, where the inciting incident happens. But in those first few pages, I also need to introduce my protagonist, set the scene, and connect what’s happening to her story-worthy problem, even if she doesn’t know what it is yet. And all without a lot of back story… my personal downfall.
A tall order? You bet! I’ve managed to arrive at the inciting incident by the end of page 6, but I’m thinking that’s still not soon enough.
And so, I will continue to massage the words on the page until it reads as succinctly as I can make it.
Will I ever have a manuscript worthy of submitting to an agent or publisher? Good question.
Debi Graham-Leard 
Debi–best of luck on your effort. Not too long ago I read The First Fifty Pages on that very topic. It’s an acrobatic feat–trying to pull together all the elements in just the right ratio. After reading it I concluded I must have done everything wrong and everything right. By now I’m so confused I’ve edited out all but the conclusion 😉 How does anyone manage?
Karen… Whenever I walk into Costco or Target, I wander over to the book section and read all the openings. Some of them don’t seem to have all the elements, but they got published in spite of it! Maybe there’s hope after all.