Most writers seem to be able to come up with a beginning to their books easily enough and can muddle through the middles with some sloshing around but come up short at the end. Here are my comments on these three essentials of the book.
Beginnings: Once you have the type of story, mystery, YA, romance, fantasy, etc., you want to write and have dreamed, or daydreamed, your protagonist and the type of person you want him to be (I hold to the old school English standard that says to use the masculine pronoun when talking in general about people,) the general storyline you want to follow (don’t be too specific here because a good story will go where it needs to no matter how much time you have wasted plotting.)
The most important thing about the beginning of your book is the ‘hook’ you use to grab and hold the reader’s…
Momentary Lapse Of Sanity 