Id agree with the last reply. I figure it all depends what you want your style to sound like, although we cant really choose what style we want it sorta just comes. I mean my favourites were those of Guns n Roses, Bon Jovi and White snake. Sort of get an idea of what you want your guitar to say.
Mess about with chord progessions you like, find a way to record em and then solo and add riffs to em. As for starting up on your leads the old 12 bar goes along way. One of my favourite solo chord progessions are F# A B.