However, I know that a large part of the story comes down to how the reader reacts to the very first part of it. To this end, I have two different beginnings, of which I am struggling to choose one. The two beginnings take place within hours of each other, and both refer to the same event. One is before, and one is after. I'm looking for tips, and also opinions as far as which one is more engaging. Or should I take a different tack altogether, and try something else? Thanks!

1:
There was a stab of panic when Rhedan saw the blood, then traced its path back up eight stone steps to the source. At the top of the stair lay one of the serving girls, her glazed eyes and parted lips locking her in that incomprehending gaze of the dead. For a moment, Rhedan was immobilized staring at that face. She was young and may have been pretty, but death had stolen all the color from her face, and her beauty dripped langorously down the staircase in thick, sticky globs. She looked like she might have been Isra. Ah damn it all, she wasn't Isra, but that was the only name he knew. Whoever she had been, she wasn't anymore, and that was all that mattered now.

Stylistically, I prefer the second one. I feel you captured the PoV of Vadim better. From his actions, i.e. opening and closing the spyglass, I can sense his impatience better than I can Rhedan's immobilizing panic.

In the first one, I feel like the reader is simply being told Rhedan cares, and yet I don't get the sense that he did if he doesn't even know her name. Also, just because she might have been pretty and now is dead doesn't necessarily make the crime any worse than if she had been homely. I think if you went deeper into Rhedan's PoV it would raise the reader's emotional involvement. In other words, make it more personal for Rhedan. Even though he might not remember her name, does he remember her doing something? Was there something in her manner that stuck in his mind - her shyness, innocence, or how unobtrusive she was, thus making her murder heinous for who would go out of their way to kill someone as harmless as she?

If a story has a passive start, I'd like it to set a mood or a theme or build character and intrigue me.

Too much instant action and it's jolting. Too passive and it stalls.

Opening can be tricky. I like the way OSC described (in his article on openings on his website) how trying out different openings can help take you to the right one. If you haven't read that, it's a great read -very informative.

• You change that first sentence to make it more active.
• You get a litte deeper into the character's POV.
  

That said, don't obsess over the opening at this point. Write somehting that gets you started and move on. It is quite possible that when you finish the book, you will discover that the story starts somewhere else all together. Trust me on that.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

I don't much like the idea of fussing so much over getting the start *just right* before you've got the whole story in roughly the shape you want. The opening doesn't merely have to trick the reader into continuing with your story. That's a necessary task of course, but even so that opening also must serve the rest of the story. If it doesn't, it's a bad opening, even if it hooks the reader for a few more pages. You can easily sweat blood over those 13 lines only to discover they don't fit the rest of the 99% of the manuscript you've written. Do you throw out the manuscript? Of course not. Out goes that opening.

Now let's suppose you intend to sit down at the opening scene and bang the novel out scene after scene in sequential order until done. If you have a choice of starting at point A which is earlier, or point B that is later, I'll give you five really good reasons right off the top of my head for starting with B.

(1) You'll get done sooner.
(2) You're going to have to write the scenes around B anyhow, even if you start with A.
(3) If your story is too long, it will be easier to trim if you start with B.
(4) If your story is too short, you can change your mind and pad it out with the events between A and B.
(5) One of the most common faults in manuscripts is taking too long to get the story into gear. If the story is dull at B, you're sunk before you start (better to find that out early). If it is exciting at B, you risk losing readers before they get to the good stuff if you start at A.

But of course, that all supposes you write the story beginning to end. Even if you're a seat of the pantser who has to start with the first scene, it's always a good idea to outline a story as soon as you can. Maybe you can't do that until you've done a number of scenes; still, no rule says you have to start with the opening scene. Personally, I'm a pantser who starts at the ending I want, then works back to discover the start I need. I'm not saying that's a better way of doing it, only pointing out there are more ways to do this than you've probably imagined, and they don't all start with banging out that first half page of the manuscript.

I think it is valuable to do scattered scenes all along an anticipated plot arc to see if it is as productive as I hope it to be, then go back and fill in the intermediate scenes.

It makes no sense to get blocked fussing too much over any one scene, even an opening. Make the story work, then go back and see which scenes need to be doctored. If you have to throw out a scene, even your opening, that's OK. There's plenty more where that came from. That's the writer's mantra. It doesn't matter how wonderful that scene is, I can write another one just as good, because there's plenty more where that came from. Then, when you've got a great story, and only then should you fuss about the opening.

Plan B struck me as Chapter Two of the same book, after we're already introduced to the venue. Definitely not a start point, and feels more remote.

However, as others said, don't agonize over it. Chances are it's gonna start somewhere else anyway! Just pick one and go from there and figure if you have to move the start point forward, at least now you know the backstory.