Not since “It was a dark and stormy night,” has “It was…” been a recommended start to a sentence. And, really—if we’re getting down to it—the famous Edward Bulwer-Lytton quote could have been stepped up a notch.
Just think about the difference between “it was a dark and stormy night” and “the stormy night was dark.” The switch is a simple one, but suddenly, the line is more direct and a bit ominous.
A writer could (and should) take it further, practicing the old advice of show don’t tell. This exercise might lead to a more evocative sentence still: “The storm crashed through the night, blackening out the windows of the few night-owls that remained.” Do you see how this line doesn’t simply use the adjectives “dark” and “stormy”? It builds an image for the reader. And as I’ve said before, when it comes to building images, the more specific, the better.
Sure, I’m just fooling around with this line, but the take-away is all about starting a sentence with “it was.” What does this “it” even stand for? If you don’t know, you can do better.
Before you finalize any project—be it a manuscript, an essay, a business document, or dare I say a Facebook post—do a quick search for the phrase “it was.” Nine times out of ten, you can rewrite these weak lines with something more powerful.
Challenge accepted?