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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40454
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

_Disclaimer: this answer relies on my own experience and may not fit your needs._

## If you story starts with someone running, then there must be a lot of action later.

Even if it's wrong, this will be the first assumption of the reader while reading it. I will not go in detail about this because Matt Hollands' answer is already covering it pretty well.

The same way, if you begin a book setting a date, let's say "2014", you unconsciously know the story will stretch on months or even years. But if you start with "monday", your whole story won't probably last more than a few days, which set different expectations to the reader.

## If you begin _In Medias Res_, start answering question early instead of piling them.

Years ago I wrote a series of short stories that somehow get published in a small magazine, and the first one literally started with "He ran" ("He" being the name of the protagonist).

At the time, my litterature teacher told me it worked because within the next sentences, I was **explaining the threat** from who he was running from (who was after him and why), **and the setting** which was important for the rest of the story (empty streets after a curfew, troops of Guards looking for offenders, wanted posters with his face on it, etc.).

**The important thing here is: your "this and that" must not be a filler. If your character is running, there is a _reason_ for it and your firsts paragraphs must expand on that reason.** If it is unrelated to what follows in the story, then your MC running may not be the good approach.

Then, when the threat is gone temporarily, the protagonist may rest and have a flashback about how he got there (probably not the best follow-up, but that's what I did at the time).

Now the whole "You probably wonder how I got there"-flashback thing may sound silly, but it is exactly what you see or read in most of action movies nowadays. It is the stinger, or the hook of the story. A little digest of what could happen later: action and mystery. Your "hook" reflects what the reader will find later in the book; if the reader adhere with your first chapter, you already know he will read the rest.

Original score: 4