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

DannySherbet · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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.

Mr Flibble · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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.

entropic island · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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

Ken · Nov 26, 2009

... 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 · Nov 26, 2009

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

DannySherbet said:
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 · Nov 26, 2009

Samantha's_Song said:
It's telling, instead of showing, for one thing.

Which is fine for an opening line.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

Samantha's_Song · Nov 26, 2009

If you're around 7 yrs old, yes.

cwfgal said:
Which is fine for an opening line.

Beth (aka Annelise Ryan)

*RomanceWriter* · Nov 26, 2009

Samantha's_Song said:
It's telling, instead of showing, for one thing.

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

Brindle MacWuff · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

"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 · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

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

Izz · Nov 26, 2009

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

Samantha's_Song · Nov 26, 2009

I do beg your pardon.

blacbird · Nov 26, 2009

bethany said:
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 · Nov 26, 2009

Maxinquaye said:
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 · Nov 26, 2009

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

Kweei · Nov 26, 2009

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 · Nov 26, 2009

blacbird said:
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.

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

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