So, the first page -- the first paragraph, the first sentence -- is arguably the most important part of your novel. It's the first thing a reader will see. It gives an impression if your work, your style, your tone. Everything. There's a judgement made within the first couple paragraphs on whether or not the reader likes your work.

You need to get it right. It needs to be perfect. This is important shit.

With that firmly in mind, I completely skipped over my beginning.

I sat in front of a blank screen for a good two months, trying to start from the beginning. I never got farther than about five thousand words in. (Also, the beginning scenes I had never left me with the right feeling to start off the book, and when the book starts off on the wrong foot ... meh.)

And then one day I decided -- screw it. There is absolutely no rule that says you have to start at the beginning. There's no rule that says you can't work from the end back. (Though I imagine that would be a difficult way to write.) So, I have no beginning, and a solid 10k words into the novel, I'm completely okay with that.

I do realize that I have to go put a beginning in later, and then I will resume staring a the page blankly, writing a few words, then erasing them, but at least I'll be doing it while sitting on an otherwise-completed manuscript.

If I tried to pass this off as anything other than complete laziness, I'd be a lying liar. Honestly, I didn't want to write the beginning, so I didn't. It'll come later. I'm not worried.

So, question for you readers: 

How important to you is the first page? First line? First chapter? How long do you give a book to catch your interest before you put it down?