Too much is made of the first paragraph or first scene: while it's difficult, sure, and is your (insert type of audience)'s entry point into the concoction they're going to spend the next 15 minutes to 15 weeks imbibing – no pressure, right – it rarely (once I get rolling) gives me any significant problems. Or, rather, it rarely gives me the same type of problems as the second bit, which is, itself, its own kind of entry point (and the point at which I’m presently slamming into a brick wall): if the first bit is the introduction to your story and character, the second – or, rather, the transition between the first and second bits – is the introduction to you and your voice as the writer, based solely on the choice you make here: is it dissonant? does it harmonize with what came before? continue? purposely throw the (insert type of audience) off?

Did you hear the one about the writer who thought they knew what they were doing? Ha / hilarity doth ensue.