Obviously we all say "start where the story begins, where the action starts" but I understand the urge to want to contextualize and world-build a little bit first and then build up to the initial conflict at the end of the first chapter or something. Sometimes it works (I can think of multiple authors who pull it off GLORIOUSLY [and some who attain enormous success despite not pulling it off at all/terrible openings like ahem a MC fussing with her hair in front of a mirror]), and sometimes it doesn't. What do you guys think? Can this work as long as it isn't boring?
Personally I find I tend to want to:
a) mention the intial conflict
b) 'backtrack' temporally to contextualize
c) build up to the initial conflict usually around the middle of the first chapter
Does that method offend anyone?
Nope.
Like, "Gerald didn't mean to set the school on fire. It was an honest-to-God accident--cross his heart and hope to die--and it wasn't even really his fault. It all started that morning when Arnold showed up at his house to play basketball like they did every Saturday" blah blah etc. Obviously very simplistic but just a bare bones MG example of the general concept
That's definitely an attention-grabber - in a good way.
Personally, I think it depends on the kind of story you're trying to tell as well as the execution. In some stories, starting immediately with the conflict can hook the reader, while in others, it can be too sudden of a start. A little bit of setup can either make readers empathize more with the main character, or it can slow things down.
Maybe it's just because I've read a lot of older works, but my stories tend to start gradually, building and gradually setting up the context for the conflict (parts of it, anyway - I have to leave some surprises).
I think about how Treasure Island, for instance, doesn't open with the Hispaniola sailing for the island. Instead, it opens with the mysterious Billy Bones arriving at an out-of-the-way inn, and it's several chapters before we even know there's a treasure to go after. Or The Three Musketeers, opening with d'Artagnan's arrival in Meung and his parents' farewell before a sword is even drawn.
The opening events of both of these books are important to the story and drive the plot forward, but they aren't the main conflict. For better or for worse, I tend to follow that example.