I note, within struggling writer's make-up, apart from mandatory pet-ownership, is the ability to discuss matters of no consequence to the nth degree.
Opening lines, do they really matter? I think not. - In all the books I've read, I cannot remember a single opening line. In the twenty- two stories I keep in the folder named 'Authonomy' I cannot remember word-for-word any of the opening lines - and I wrote them.
I can remember the opening line of chapter 2 of Fib's Kid; "George chased Karen all through the curriculum." - I can only remember that because a reviewer claimed it made no sense. And on checking through the books to hand. I find that the opening lines are random, and instantly forgettable. There is no pattern, rhyme, nor reason.
When it comes to the opening of the book, rather than listen to contrived, convoluted, contrite nonsense. I prefer to look at things like age-old proverbs and stereotypes. Proverbs survive because within them there exists a knowledge and truth.
"Are you sitting comfortably? - Then we'll begin."
This statement for me contains the essence of a good opening, for I can think of two professions it applies to, and their mission is one and the same. - Fiction writer, hypnotist. Both attempt to take a person to another place. Would a hypnotist start with "You are feeling sleepy?" - I think not.
First the reader needs to be relaxed before you can work your magic on him.
To paint a 17th century battlefield from a standing start is a task too mighty for I, or indeed, most. It is difficult to relax in a strange environment. It is far easier to put your reader in familiar surroundings or mental state. It can be a simple as looking at his wife's shoes and wondering why she had so many, and he could not recall her at any time during the last year ever wearing more than three of the many pairs she has so neatly lined up.
Can you remember the point at which you ceased reading and were captured into the fictional world? No, because it happens with a single thought generating a single image. It is in this stage you describe items the reader has already seen, being careful not be specific. "Her brightly painted nails caressed the glass." The art is to get the reader to generate the image from his own memories rather than build the picture from your description. If your reader has had that same thought, he will see his own wife's shoes, or his secretary's hand on a wine glass at the office party. He has generated an image, he is now tuned into your channel, - you may begin.
Why paint images when you can get the reader to do the painting?