What's so bad about the opening line "It was a dark and stormy night"?

[DannySherbet]

Just for fun, I thought I'd ask the question: what's so bad about the following opening line to a novel?

"It was a dark and stormy night."

Everyone seems to mock it, but is it such a bad starting sentence?

Would anyone use this line? Has any recent novel started with these seven words? What would an agent or publisher do if an MS landed on his or her desk that started with that infamous line?

"It was a dark and stormy night. Rain lashed down onto the ground. The middle-aged hero - who, despite his paunch and lack of hair, teenage girls still found highly attractive - looked out of the window. There was a figure in the darkness; a sillhouette, like something out of a Dan Brown novel. Etc, etc."

Any good?

[Freelancer]

What is bad in it? If we don't count it's an overused cliche, it's dry as hell and it's presenting the poor imagination of the writer, who can't start the very first sentence of a novel without using atmospheric weather elements... well, there is no problem with it at all. :) But it can be used very well, if you're writing a book about weather conditions.

[IdiotsRUs]

Because the actual line is:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

[Sevvy]

Because it's too well known. Snoopy wrote it to death. Maybe if you were writing comedy, you could use it, but I imagine most agents wouldn't read past that first line. It's cliche now.

[Jamesaritchie]

I don't think anything was wrong with the opening when first written. Readers certainly loved it then. But now it's the oldest cliche in the books.

Nor is starting with the weather always a bad thing. . .or certainly wasn't then. Or now, if done well enough.

Writers pay waaayyy too much attention to "rules" that aren't rules at all.

[Maxinquaye]

Well. Duh. Nights tend to be dark, to begin with.

It was a night and it was daylight would be more interesting. :)

[The Lonely One]

It does seem immediately comedic, but not even original in its comedy. The writer isn't doing any work s/he is just using someone else's line for their own effect.

The "dark and stormy night" bit lacks the ability to provide an identity for your writing, and thus there's nothing for a reader to latch to. You can reinvent the line, if you're clever enough (It was a dark and stormy afternoon, and it would be for a while here in Alaska), but using it verbatim as such will leave readers empty no matter the genre. If you must start with weather, realize what a lame and non-descriptive line that is, how useless, and take a look at the first line you ACTUALLY wrote.

Rain lashed down onto the ground.

This is 100 billion times more interesting as a sentence. There's action, it's a bit metaphorical (rain lashing) but it sets a scene. It's original and we immediately get the chance as readers to settle into your voice. With a dark and stormy night it's a song and dance and rather useless, because we have to wait for you to say...."Get it?" as if you just told a shitty joke.

Well, that's my two-cents. But there's a reason I think that most often this line falls flat and is cliched both seriously and comedically.

[Aidan Watson-Morris]

In my opinion, getting rid of the cliche factor, it's flat. I like Douglas Adams, but I also like things that go into more detail about weather in stuff. "It was a dark and stormy night." is flat. It's like saying "He jumped off a cliff". If that were dialogue or a flashback, it would work, but if that was the climax? "Rag'tron turned, setting his furious gaze at Bob Joe. Then, after a heated battle, Bob Joe defeated him and peace was restored to valley." That's my opinion on the matter.

[bethany]

It was the first line of A Wrinkle in Time, which was a Newberry award winner.

[Ken]

... I believe Snoopy used "It was a dark and stormy..." when he began writing a novel, atop his doghouse. Shultz was of course having fun :-D

[Samantha's_Song]

It's telling, instead of showing, for one thing. :D
Just for fun, I thought I'd ask the question: what's so bad about the following opening line to a novel?

"It was a dark and stormy night."

[cwfgal]

It's telling, instead of showing, for one thing. :D

Which is fine for an opening line.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

[Samantha's_Song]

If you're around 7 yrs old, yes.
Which is fine for an opening line.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

[*RomanceWriter*]

It's telling, instead of showing, for one thing. :D

True. My editor would string me up if I used that line because of the telling.

[Brindle MacWuff]

It's a great line, but what came after it was crap.

but, it's also the biggest sin of show not tell. Still, I love it!

[Samantha's_Song]

"It's a dark and stormy night" always make me think of a kiddie joke story. It's about a dark old house in the 'dark and stormy night,' and at the end of the story it comes down to a man in a toilet who can't find the bog roll because he can't find light switch. I would just laugh if I saw that opening sentence, then I'd put the book down for something more grown up.

[cwfgal]

Many, I'd wager maybe even most first lines are telling rather than showing. Here are a few examples from some classics and some modern-day bestsellers and award-winning books:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ." from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

"I first met Dean not long after my wife and I split up." from On The Road by Jack Kerouac.

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since." from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

"When Sean Devine and Jimmy Marcus were kids, their fathers worked together at the Coleman Candy plant and carried the stench of warm chocolate back home with them." from Mystic River by Dennis Lehane.

"From two thousand feet, where Claudette Sanders was taking a flying lesson, the town of Chester's Mill gleamed in the morning light like something freshly made and just set down." from Under The Dome by Stephen King.

"I was thirteen when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy's Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night." from Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr, a National Book Award finalist.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

[Samantha's_Song]

But maybe some of the old classics wouldn't make the grade by today's standards.

[Izz]

Story of a Girl is not an 'old classic.' Neither is Mystic River.

[Samantha's_Song]

I do beg your pardon.

[blacbird]

It was the first line of A Wrinkle in Time, which was a Newberry award winner.

Earlier, and more infamously, it is the first line of a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, rightly considered one of the most turgid and vapid novelists of the Victorian era. The Bulwer-Lytton Awards every year are given for the best satirical parody of Lytton's overwrought style.

caw

[kuwisdelu]

Well. Duh. Nights tend to be dark, to begin with.

Not in my stories.


In other news, I think we ought to remember telling isn't necessarily always a bad thing.

[Shadow_Ferret]

Um. It's night. Of course its dark.

[K.L. Townsend]

I don't think there is anything wrong with the line for its time and for the story. But these days it's been mocked and become such a joke that we can't see it the same way it may have been seen when the first book came out.

[eqb]

Earlier, and more infamously, it is the first line of a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, rightly considered one of the most turgid and vapid novelists of the Victorian era. The Bulwer-Lytton Awards every year are given for the best satirical parody of Lytton's overwrought style.

Thank you. I was beginning to think no one else recognized this very famous opening.

Remember, too, that B-L was enormously popular in his time--on the order of Dan Brown. He could churn out great page-turners, but his style doesn't age well. So this particular first line has become a synonym for cliche.

[TrickyFiction]

I thought Good Omens played a fun game with that line.

[IdiotsRUs]

Thank you. I was beginning to think no one else recognized this very famous opening.



Um, it was quoted in full in post 3.

[The Lady]

Because the actual line is:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.


Is it totally trashy of me that although I can recognise the tortured English, I can still visualise the scene, (so very reminiscent of Irish stormy nights,) and am drawn in?

By the way, someone said, duh, it's night, of course it's dark. I beg to differ. ;) Some nights are very, very, bright indeed, lit by moon and stars, and some nights, especially when it's raining and overcast, are oppressively light less and defy dark adaptation.

[James D. Macdonald]

See the discussion of the Dark And Stormy Night in Learn Writing with Uncle Jim (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=887860#post887860).

[MAP]

Is it totally trashy of me that although I can recognise the tortured English, I can still visualise the scene, (so very reminiscent of Irish stormy nights,) and am drawn in?

By the way, someone said, duh, it's night, of course it's dark. I beg to differ. ;) Some nights are very, very, bright indeed, lit by moon and stars, and some nights, especially when it's raining and overcast, are oppressively light less and defy dark adaptation.

Agreed.
On a cloudless night with snow covering the ground, night is almost as bright as day.

[eqb]

Um, it was quoted in full in post 3.

My apologies for missing your post about Bulwer-Lytton. I can only ask you to bear with me, as I have borne with others who have missed my own posts at times.

[a_sharp]

Well, if you just got down from the ultimate high and you, like, sit on the can to straighten your head and there's this book on the floor and you pick it up and, wow, man, first line is this dark storm s**t and all! Dude, I am so into it, I gotta turn the page 'cause this is way deeper than Spidey and the Joker, man. Talk about a ride...

Think I'll switch my major to English Lit. This Comp Sci crap is so totally yesterday.

[kuwisdelu]

Well, if you just got down from the ultimate high and you, like, sit on the can to straighten your head and there's this book on the floor and you pick it up and, wow, man, first line is this dark storm s**t and all! Dude, I am so into it, I gotta turn the page 'cause this is way deeper than Spidey and the Joker, man. Talk about a ride...

Think I'll switch my major to English Lit. This Comp Sci crap is so totally yesterday.

I can relate.

[maddicharmed]

I don't mind the opening line, but I find that it isn't a creative choice of openings. That one has been used before, wouldn't you want to use something that you have written yourself and not copy something that has been done before? Well, that's my opinion.

[Gedaechtnis]

Snoopy used 'It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out. The door slammed. A maid screamed.'
Now that's bad.

[RJK]

For those of you who insist it's dark at night, I assume you've never been in an open field under a full moon, you could read a book under those conditions. Or, how about standing on the strip in Vegas at midnight? You're bombarded by lights of all colors, even when it is storming.

[Libbie]

It can be a very effective opening if you're going for something humorous. The only "problem" with it is that it's such a cliche that it's become funny in tone.

[Kristiina]

For those of you who insist it's dark at night, I assume you've never been in an open field under a full moon, you could read a book under those conditions. Or, how about standing on the strip in Vegas at midnight? You're bombarded by lights of all colors, even when it is storming.

And 'The Land of the Midnight Sun'. Yep, that's where I live (almost, you'd have to travel about a thousand kilometers further north than my home to actually see that, but it's still pretty damn light here during the midsummer). Except right now this is the land of the perpetual darkness. Often stormy too. Can you say seasonal affective disorder? I haven't written anything for nearly two months... unless you count posting here and several other places. :Headbang:

I sort of tried to dance around that sentence in the beginning of one short story, but since I seem to be totally unable to write even a halfway decent short story I have pretty much given up on them as a serious exercise. I just write them to amuse myself, which often means using a lot of famous cliches.

[Cyia]

It was a bright and cloudless day.

[James D. Macdonald]

For the time when it was first published that opening was just fine.

[Aidan Watson-Morris]

It was a bright and cloudless day.
Don't give me ideas.

[MrFrankenstein]

just a minor point: re "Rain lashed down onto the ground."

its still a very klunky and tedious opening.
-Rain always falls 'down' - so you don't need to use that word.
-Ditto 'onto' (I mean where else is the rain going to go, if the word 'ground' is its ultimate destination in the sentence?)
the reader understands the concept of what rain does with ground - and the word 'lashed' implies the 'onto' already, so you're saying
the rain met the ground twice in the same sentence. (Unless it was a deliberate choice :P )
The excess words are slowing the pace down.
The real fat-trimmed-off sentence is:

"Rain lashed the ground."

There, much tighter, you begin on a faster beat, and it frees you up to go wherever you want.
/2 cents mode off :)

[Albannach]

I suspect that using it as an opening line in Wrinkle in Time was a "grown up" joke in a kids book.

MrFrankenstein pointed out what I would say is wrong with the original sentence in being clunky and stating the obvious. To tell you the truth I think Mark Twain would have disagreed that it was fine for its time. Even then, over-writing was over-writing.

Mr. Twain's advice is still good in my opinion:

I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.
- Letter to D. W. Bowser, 3/20/1880

However, Bulwer-Lytton did coin a number of much used cliches. People did read him--I suppose the Dan Brown of his day or something of the sort.

[Me&BacchusGoIntoABar]

Snoopy used 'It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out. The door slammed. A maid screamed.'
Now that's bad.

*grumbles*

*scurries back to the drawing board*

[Me&BacchusGoIntoABar]

In other news, I think we ought to remember telling isn't necessarily always a bad thing.

Or even just: telling isn't a bad thing. It depends entirely on the situation.