I loved this simple advice read on a blog recently – here I’ve summarised the key points:
Start with ACTION eg dialogue or something happening.
Put the action into some sort of CONTEXT, eg a brief description of where the dialogue is taking place.
Introduce CONFLICT (low or high level, but something for the reader to worry about/take an interest in).
RESOLVE the conflict – not necessarily completely but enough to move on.
End with a QUESTION – leave the reader wondering.
I looked at each of my chapters in my trilogy I’m (still) revising and with some very minor changes I could see the improvements. Mostly it was about swapping the scene setting and the dialogue. Many, am pleased to say, worked this way in any case. Phew. And of course not EVERY scene needs to go like this. Sometimes it’s just not appropriate and I suspect your reader would get pretty exhausted if the whole book was like it.